Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's good to hear the words from Fin today.

Thank you for the opportunity to be a witness from the traditional territory of the Syilx first nations.

I'm the director of fish and wildlife restoration with the B.C. Wildlife Federation. The B.C. Wildlife Federation is the largest and oldest conservation organization in British Columbia, with approximately 43,000 members.

As you're all aware, salmon are in critical care. The first thing we need to do is stop the bleeding. That means we stop killing endangered fish before they reach their spawning grounds. In 2019 the minister committed to protect endangered spring and summer Fraser chinook runs, which are 42 and 52, by limiting mortality in Canadian fisheries to 5%. This limit was exceeded by over 100% the very first year. In 2020, fisheries in the Fraser River alone exceeded this limit by over 300% for 42 fish. The minister has set a limit and DFO has shown it is unable to meet it. This scenario has been repeated for interior Fraser steelhead and Fraser River sockeye.

Scientists should identify if there's a harvestable surplus of fish and how many can be harvested by fishers. Management's job is to figure out how to keep that harvest within the limits identified by scientists. It seems DFO management needs an intervention, as it consistently demonstrates it is incapable of sustainably managing fishing.

After we stop killing endangered fish, the committee should recognize there is likely no silver bullet to salmon recovery. As a result, there is no silver bullet in terms of how to spend the money. Both the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia have separate yet overlapping responsibilities and legislation in terms of managing salmon and salmon habitat. The relationship between DFO and the province can be described as poor. Political will is the only tool we have to improve that.

In the context of stabilization and restoration of salmon, inventory, monitoring and science are the critical pieces. You have to measure it to manage it, and DFO lacks the baseline budget and capacity to adequately monitor key metrics for salmon populations. Critical information that we need includes both marine and freshwater survival rates to understand where the bottlenecks and changes are in terms of life history. From there we can identify and deal with the barriers.

In freshwater habitat, the legislative and regulatory regime needs implementation of existing tools and overhaul of others. While the relevant legislation often has tools that could help salmon, those tools are rarely used. Enforcement of legislation is low due to funding, capacity and a lack of political will to do the right thing for salmon.

With a federal goal to increase land conservation in Canada, you should be aware that nearly every piece of land set aside will come heavily impacted by resource extraction. Funding habitat restoration must be part of the budget for any new protected areas. Both the provincial and federal governments have a history of walking away from conservation areas once land has been set aside. This is the equivalent of picking a tomato, putting it in your cupboard and expecting it to grow.

In terms of freshwater habitat restoration, DFO's restoration unit has 16 positions for the entire province of British Columbia, and half of those are currently vacant. The projects it deals with are often proponent-driven and at a scale that is not meaningful for salmon. The restoration unit has no base budget. The restoration unit needs to be adequately staffed and funded and given the ability to plan at a watershed scale that is meaningful for salmon.

Ocean survival is the other piece of the equation, which is still largely an unknown. Peer-reviewed science that deals with manageable issues often points at fish farms, ocean ranching and pinniped predation. The minister's decision to deal with fish farms is sound and supported by the B.C. Wildlife Federation. The Pacific can hold only so much biomass. We and our neighbouring countries dump millions of hatchery pink and chum salmon, and to a lesser extent chinook and coho, into the Pacific. This is likely contributing to limiting wild salmon populations.

In terms of pinniped predation, investing in independent science through post-secondary institutions will give elected officials the best sense of what can be done to improve ocean survival. I ask that DFO be left out of the process other than to fund it, as the department has a habit of hiding science from the public and elected officials. The B.C. Wildlife Federation would be supportive of an adaptive management experiment with regard to pinniped predation.

In conclusion, there is no silver bullet. We're in crisis and we need to start working on solutions. What follows are the things can be done right away with immediate benefits: stop killing endangered fish; enforce current laws and update others; transfer net pens to land; add capacity for enforcement, inventory, monitoring, science and restoration; and separate DFO science and species at risk from DFO management.

Thank you for your time.

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