Fishing Derby issue makes an appearance at City Council

Fishing Derby issue makes an appearance at City Council

Well everyone else in town is talking about the negatives and positives of the ongoing Great Northern Salmon Classic, so why not the folks down in the big house on Third Avenue West.

City Council sort of addressed the controversial fishing derby in its regular session on Monday night; then again perhaps they just brushed it aside. The issue came up for discussion, but not debate, with a number of councilors exchanging views on the merit of discussing the issue at this time.

In the end, bureaucracy won out. As the issue had not been properly added to the agenda, the discussion on the derby was brought to an end. Not before most councilors and the Mayor got to express their two cents worth on the process of discussion..

The Daily News covered the to and fro of the council chamber in its Tuesday edition. Grab a scarp of paper and see if you can draw a line between the alliances from Monday night.


COUNCILLORS LOCK HORNS OVER THE FISHING DERBY
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Page Three

The great fishing derby debate rages on, and that continued Monday night at Prince Rupert city council. Coun. Joy Thorkelson, who is also the northern representative for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union (UFAWU-CAW), voiced a concern that she says is currently shared by the majority of commercial fishermen on the North Coast – she questioned whether the current fishing derby, that runs until Sept. 15, will further impact future coho stocks.

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t well thought out,” she said. “The derby impacts the Upper Skeena (or summer) stock, but it’s also going to affect the fall (lower Skeena) stocks.

The department (of fisheries and oceans DFO) has said there’s not enough fish for us. The fall coho, we have not been able to access since 1997.”

Thorkelson went on to suggest that council should come up with a status report on whether or not he derby is currently affecting coho stocks, but the motion never made it off the floor.

That said, Coun. Tony Briglio agreed that council should monitor the situation, because depletion in future stocks would affect the community.

“While we’re still in the game, we should keep our eye on the ball,” he said. “I would make the motion that staff would come back with information.”

“I hate to see these things sit there on the burner.”

But Coun. Sheila Gordon-Payne didn’t agree. “I’m not sure what hard information they’d be able to give us at this time,” she said.

Gordon-Payne added that Tourism Prince Rupert had approached council earlier in the summer with the fishing derby proposal, and it had been approved.

Coun. Ken Cote suggested that the city invite DFO to an upcoming meeting, but Thorkelson said: ”The department can’t stop derbies. I want to know what the derby is doing for Prince Rupert, and what it will do to future stocks. This is a conservation issue.”

Briglio’s motion was defeated, but that still didn’t stop him from pointing out the obvious: ”It’s almost pushing us into a debate,’ he said. “Who can tell us what is going on?”

Mayor Herb Pond then recommended that such issues need to be put on the agenda ahead of time, so all councilors have ample time to collect proper information.

“We need to start respecting our agenda,” he said. “This is a time for information, but the agenda had no line for this item. I don’t thing we have to get bogged down with this.

”If there’s a request for fisheries, or tourism to attend, I can arrange for that. It’s good to debate, but prior to a good debate, is good information.”

Gordon-Payne ended the discussion by pointing out that with the derby already in full swing, council can only sit back and wait.

“There’s nothing we can do to change this, but there’s a lot we can do about this in the future,” she said.