DFO quietly cuts funding to key Pacific salmon programs

Elizabeth May is alarmed at reports that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is cutting key programs that help protect Pacific salmon runs.

According to a leaked internal memo, three elements of the Salmonid Enhancement Program (SEP) are being cut without proper consultation, and include:

  • the education and community support programs;
  • the resource restoration components, and
  • Steelhead and Cutthroat trout production at hatcheries.

“If true, this decision is devastating to conservation organizations in BC like Peninsula Streams Society that have worked hard in partnership with DFO to save Pacific salmon runs and educate on salmon conservation,” said Ms. May. “I call on Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Dominic Leblanc to reverse these cuts and allow salmon conservation organizations on the Pacific coast to continue their excellent and critical work.”