Teachers and environmental advocates are crediting a public outcry for saving educational and technical supports for salmon programs in local schools and hatcheries that were nearly scuttled in a revamp of federal fisheries and coast guard services.
Less than two weeks after cuts to the Salmonid Enhancement Program were announced, Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam MP Ron McKinnon revealed they have been reversed.
The Liberal MP told The Tri-City News Thursday that there will be no changes or reductions to the program, which provides salmon education to classrooms and technical supports to hatcheries.
The programs will continue as the government continues with a $3-billion investment into Fisheries and Oceans Canada operations across the country, including a $75-million, five-year Coastal Restoration Fund to identify and prioritize threats to marine species.
"We want to see our salmon survive and thrive, and it's really important these programs continue," McKinnon said.
He said he and other Pacific Liberal caucus members expressed concerns to federal Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc and received a positive response to their pleas.
"The minister was very receptive and he was able to restore it back to where it was," McKinnon said.
But local salmon advocates say it was the public response — including an outpouring of anger in letters and petitions — that got the minister to do an about-face.
Ruth Foster, co-founder of the Mossom Creek Hatchery and a retired teacher, said much of the credit should go to Kerry Lockwood, a Pinetree secondary school teacher who is a volunteer co-ordinator with the Salmonid Enhancement Program. She worked tirelessly so it wouldn't end up on the chopping block, Foster said.
"Outrage led to immediate letter-writing action by teachers and others all over the province," Foster added.
Lockwood told The Tri-City News that she almost cried after learning the program — where teachers are encouraged to raise salmon from eggs to fry in their classroom — would be saved.
"I have just a huge relief," she said, "The teachers were so upset, the teachers and kids wrote letters… It matters so much.
"If you had cut that out, if you can't teach kids about it [the salmon life cycle] and kids can't live and learn about it, it will affect generations. There won't be the same passions about it," Lockwood said.
Meanwhile, Port Moody-Coquitlam NDP MP Fin Donnelly said in a press release he, too, is relieved the cuts won't be made, arguing they were shortsighted and ending the program would have stopped kids' hands-on learning about salmon.
“I’m grateful to those British Columbians who raised their voices against these shortsighted cuts,” said Donnelly, the NDP critic for Fisheries and Oceans. “With this tremendous outpouring of support, we were able to get the government to back down.”
Also saved by the reversal is a dive team at the Sea Island base and there will be be no changes to the coast guard presence in inland waterways.
