The federal government has reversed course and reinstated funding for education, technical support and the Resource Restoration Unit under the Salmonid Enhancement Program (SEP).
A decision to end the funding was announced in late May, prompting calls to rethink the move from various conservation groups, teachers, and opposition MPs.
Last week, the government heeded those calls and said that there will be no change or reductions to the Salmonid Enhancement Program and that all elements will continue.
“This is very good news for us,” said West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones in a release confirming the reinstatement.
“I am grateful to the hundreds of community volunteers whose passion and deep knowledge of wild salmon and wild salmon habitat helped me and my colleagues to portray the importance of the restoration work supported by the Salmonid Enhancement Program.
“Minister LeBlanc fought for B.C., and for the critical role the DFO staff play in the classroom and in the restoration units, to attract millions of dollars in funding from numerous community partners, and to encourage and support thousands of volunteers who do the actual work of salmon habitat restoration.”
Dianne Sanford, coordinator of the SEP’s Salmon in the Classroom program for the Sunshine Coast and Powell River school districts, said she was shocked when she first heard the funding was being cut.
Sanford works under a contract with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans worth about $15,000 per year.
She said over the years Salmon in the Classroom has reached a lot of students. She spends three or four months a year helping students hatch and rear salmon in special tanks, teaching them about salmon biology and conservation, and leading field trips to local hatcheries to release fish.
“It’s been a real community program. It’s been about partnerships,” Sanford said, but she also noted that she, and others who work in salmonid enhancement, are still worried about the long term.
“It’s reinstated [now], and hopefully for a good long time, but who knows?”
