Endless cycle of Fraser salmon inquiries
Les Leyne
February 24, 2010
The Times Colonist
Justice Bruce Cohen is all lawyered up and ready to embark on his quest for millions of missing Fraser River sockeye salmon.
The story so far has the makings of an intriguing mystery. The experts estimated 10 million salmon would be heading for the river system last year, but only about a million showed up.
That prompted the fishery's closure for the third straight year.
For all the finger pointing and controversy over the collapse, nobody really knows exactly why it happened. Since most of the arguments centre around the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the federal government's response last November was to strike an inquiry commission to find out what happened to the salmon.
Cohen was named commissioner and given 18 months to solve the mystery. (He has to file an interim report by Aug. 1.) He has since retained four commission counsels, a policy counsel and four junior counsels. They'll be announcing a work plan shortly. (The commission was instructed not to hold hearings during the Olympic and Paralympic Games to avoid inconveniencing witnesses.)
So far the storyline is a familiar one for most Canadians. A problem emerges. Perplexed government orders inquiry. Wise men gather to ponder the issue. Citizens await their deliberations.
But what's striking is that this is the fifth time in 18 years some kind of urgent study has been commissioned by the government in response to a salmon emergency.
Read the full story in The Times Colonist
Posted February 24th, 2010
