VANCOUVER – Federal Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc was expected to take action Tuesday on recommendations from the Cohen Commission report on the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery.
The 75 findings in the three-year, $26-million report languished with little if any attention from the former Conservative government.
That changed last year when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for action in his mandate letter to the fisheries ministry.
The study did not identify a single reason why a mere 1.4 million fish returned in the 2009 Fraser River sockeye run, when 10-million fish were expected.
But the three-volume report sought full funding for a wild salmon policy and questioned fishery management statistics.
It also called for an in-depth study of the effects of salmon farming on wild salmon stocks.