Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is reviewing Canada’s Salmon Allocation Policy (SAP), which is used to prioritize allocation of the Pacific salmon harvest among recreational fishers, commercial fishers, and First Nations.
The Sport Fishing Advisory Board (SFAB) has submitted its own analysis of the key principles and legal obligations likely to impact the modernized policy, including: Aboriginal Rights as defined in the Constitution and advanced in decisions of the courts, and; the Public Right to Fish as a Common Law principle in Canada and British Columbia.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation supports these principles for consideration by the federal government as it pursues a modernized Salmon Allocation Policy:
- No allocation for any group should put conservation objectives at risk.
- Salmon is a common property resource that is managed by the federal government on behalf of all Canadians, both present and future.
- We define priority for the purposes of fisheries allocation as “the priority of consideration,” meaning no group should be excluded from access to shared resources such as salmon.
- While Aboriginal and treaty rights take priority, the SFAB asserts that the Public Right to Fish should not be infringed or extinguished by Aboriginal rights.
- We support priority for First Nations Food, Social and Ceremonial fisheries and Indigenous rights-based commercial fisheries, consistent with the Constitution and relevant decisions by Canadian courts.
- A modernized SAP must recognize that access to most salmon stocks is constrained by by-catch and incidental mortality limits for stocks of conservation concern.
- Hook-and-line fishing by the public is highly selective and consistent with conservation objectives.
- Catch monitoring for all partners must be: 1) accountable; 2) science-based, including local and Indigenous knowledge; 3) transparent and trustworthy; 4) standardized across the coast; and 5) verifiable.
The BCWF is a key stakeholder on the Sport Fishing Advisory Board and helped support the legal costs associated with the SFAB analysis.
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