I Hope I'm Not Around When Sockeye Disappear From The Nechako

By Ben Meisner

Permit me to say at the outset, I don’t like the,” I”, word when writing comments, it suggests the writer is the authority on a subject.  I don’t consider myself able to show that kind of intelligence.

However, I can  say that back in 1982, I predicted that the sockeye stocks on the Nechako River system would go the way of the DoDo bird if we allowed Alcan and the Federal government to continue down the path they had chosen. I was booed out of the hall in Vanderhoof that night, but I never strayed from my belief that we're not on a slippery slope, rather, we are on a death march when it came to Salmon on the system.

That path was cast in stone in 1987 when the settlement agreement was made between the province, the federal government (under the guidance of one Brian Mulroney) and Alcan. The man who signed on behalf of the province was then Environment Minister Bruce Strachan.

It was, plain and simple, a sell out of the sockeye along the Nechako River system.

A resource that had contributed up to $70 million a year without so much as a dime being spent to renew the resource other than leaving the poor fish alone.

I have never forgiven Strachan for that move, his family lived on the Nechako, they couldn’t help but see the sockeye passing by and yet the river was signed over to a company which said it was about to expand its aluminum smelting business. I argued at the time this was all about power being sold to the USA and for that, I was called a hypocrite. For making that comment, a by- law passed in both Kitimat and Terrace  saying Rafe Mair and I,  were not welcome in those towns.

28 years later there is no smelter and as a matter of fact, Rio Tinto, (Alcan) has increased its sales of hydro to BC and for export while reducing the number of people employed at the smelter.  

To add insult to injury the NDP who under the stewardship of NDP Premier Mike Harcourt held an inquiry to stop the death of the sockeye, only to be overruled by NDP premier Glen Clark who gave the farm away to Alcan by signing a new deal allowing Alcan to sell more power under the guise that, “they had to do it”.

That agreement was signed by Paul Ramsey who should have known better.  

I don’t want the reigning Liberals to be able to slip under the door.  It was under the stewardship of Gordon Campbell that Alcan rolled along receiving what I consider to be deals so good that even the BC Utilities Commission didn’t like them. Campbell wrote me a letter back in the early 90’s saying he would protect the sockeye. It was a hollow promise indeed.  The sockeye fishery lies in ruins.

So where are we today? Well we are blaming ocean currents, sea lice and every other item we can for the complete collapse of the sockeye run on the Nechako. Isn’t it rather strange that the demise of the fishery has come on the Nechako and there are two common denominators reduced flows and increased water temperatures?  

The money the fishery once produced is long gone, instead we have a mega company selling power on the backs of the fish and we continue to sit around and watch the death throes of the resource. I have not given up the fight, but I fear that the fish, unable to cope with ever increasing temperatures as a result of water being diverted away from their river, face certain death.

When that comes, will the government of the day, simply say, well global warming or some other culprit was the cause of their demise?  Or will they say Oh! Well !, now that we don’t have any salmon in the Nechako it seems to make good sense to divert more water and make more money from hydro electric power, after all the river doesn’t support a salmon fishery?

I do hope that I’m not around when that happens  for while my fight has been long and unending I have been labelled as  a malcontent  and the only friends that I have are the fish,  who have no voice in the matter.

I'm Meisner, and that's one man's opinion.

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