September 17, 2009
Video: Call for an Emergency Summit on the Sockeye Collapse
Mr. Nathan Cullen (Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP):
“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call the government’s attention to the disastrous sockeye salmon collapse in this year’s fishery on the west coast, with 60% lost on the Skeena River and 90% lost on the Fraser.
All the while, the minister was off in Europe with 50 of her fish farm friends, all on the taxpayer’s dime, rather than doing her job for Canada’s west coast.
This was a disaster economically for a region already hard hit.
This was a disaster culturally for the first nations that have depended on this fish for feasts and cultural events since time immemorial.
This was a disaster environmentally for the grizzly in the great forests of British Columbia who also rely upon this fish.
New Democrats join with coastal communities in calling for an emergency summit to find out what happened to the sockeye, and most importantly, create an emergency plan for next year’s fishery to make sure that the fishermen survive until next season.
We simply ask the government to do its job.”
