Local streamkeeper Paul Cipywnyk is raising concerns about fisheries management and habitat protection, following a multi-million dollar cut to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) in the federal budget.
The March budget announcement included a cut to DFO of $108 million by 2017/18 through finding "internal departmental efficiencies," something that worries Cipywnyk.
"My main concern is DFO has already undergone serious cuts - loss of funding, loss of staff particularly - when it comes to habitat protection," he told the NOW. "Habitat offices have been closed in B.C., habitat officers have lost their jobs, and I notice it's a huge concern in the community across the province."
Cipywnyk, a longtime volunteer with the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers, also sits on the salmon enhancement habitat advisory board, a group of volunteers from across the province that provide advice to the provincial and federal government on protecting fish habitat and salmon stocks.
"That's a common thing we are hearing from stewardship groups everywhere: There's no more habitat officers. If you have a problem, there's no one to even talk to anymore," he said. "If a company bulldozes a stream, there are no officers to come out to look at it much less impose a fine or regulation or anything."
The federal budget also included a plan to provide funding for fisheries conservation projects: $10 million for local groups, $4 million to Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment Canada for marine projects, and an increase (from roughly $300,000 per year to $1 F million) for the Pacific Salmon Foundation. Cipywnyk lauded the financial boost for the foundation but raised concerns that the government is downloading work onto volunteers.
"Even if that's accompanied with funding, the other issue is as stewards, as volunteers, we have no enforcement powers. We have no authority. So if the government thinks it can cut fisheries officers, habitat officers, and have volunteers replace that and throw them a little funding now and then, I don't think that's going to work because we are not the guys who carry guns, and arrest people and fine them," he said. "I think the government is really abdicating its responsibilities in that sense."
According to the two main unions that represent DFO workers, roughly 1,134 of their members who work in fisheries have received layoff notices, but it's not clear how many have been and will actually be laid off.
Instead, Cipywnyk would like funding for habitat protection restored.
"There's a lot of talk about sustainability and preserving things for future generations, and on and on, but if there's no habitat, there's going to be no fish," he said. [email protected]
