First Nations call for Columbia River salmon program extension

Indigenous First Nations in B.C. are calling on the provincial and federal governments to continue funding for a program that aims to bring salmon populations back to the Columbia River. 

The Syilx Okanagan, Secwépemc, and Ktunaxa Nations have been working for decades to try to restore salmon populations that were wiped out more than 80 years ago when dams were built along the Columbia River.

The Columbia River is a transboundary water body, 2,000 kilometres long, that starts in B.C., flows through multiple U.S. states and empties into the Pacific Ocean. 

The three Indigenous governments signed an agreement with Canada and B.C. in 2019 that was intended to look at the feasibility of salmon in the Columbia River to find out whether or not it was possible to bring the fish back.

The funding provided in the agreement is set to run out in March of 2025.

Mark Thomas, a member of the Shuswap Band and a spokesperson for the Columbia River Salmon Recovery Initiative, which is heading up the work, says the U.S. recently committed $1.2 billion over 20 years to help salmon on that side of the border. 

Thomas says the Columbia River Salmon Recovery Initiative wants a clear commitment to long-term funding from Canada and B.C. for the same amount of time. 

"We're looking for long-term, sustained core funding that is required to support the Indigenous-led reintroduction work that ensures adequate salmon stocks return to the Canadian portion of the Columbia River," Thomas told CBC's Daybreak South. 

"One of the things with the U.S. is that they have the ability to spend money on something that exists. We, unfortunately, do not have salmon in our Canadian waters [in] sustaining numbers."

Thomas says some salmon have made it into Canada through the work of his group, as well as the efforts of U.S. Tribes, and for the first time in 80 years, salmon are spawning on the Canadian side of the Columbia River. 

Chief Keith Crow with the Syilx Okanagan Nation says it is possible for salmon to return. 

"We have the track record and the technology is available to deliver fish passage both down and upriver. Through our combined efforts, salmon are swimming today in the upper Columbia system in B.C. But it will take more than project funding that lasts just the single life cycle of a salmon," Crow said in a news release. 

Salmon important to First Nations, residents

Thomas says the absence of the culturally significant fish has weighed heavily on his people for decades.

"It's been very difficult to understand as an Indigenous person what your place is in the world when the basis of your culture has been stripped from you," he said. 

He adds that the Columbia River was once the source of the greatest salmon runs in the world. 

"Millions of life-giving sockeye and giant chinook swam upriver to spawn each year," Thomas explained. 

He says the return of salmon would also benefit residents of the Columbia Basin by improving the ecology of the river and bringing economic benefits. 

Government responds

Katrine Conroy, B.C.'s minister responsible for the Columbia River Treaty, says the province has committed $1.5 million to the Columbia River Salmon Reintroduction Initiative, to the end of March 2025.

In addition, the federally and provincially co-funded British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund has contributed $5.3 million to the Columbia River Salmon Reintroduction Initiative to the end of March 2026.

"We remain committed to the work, and we are evaluating how to best support the initiative after the current Letter of Agreement ends in March 2025," Conroy said in an email to CBC News.

Columbia River Treaty plays role in salmon return 

In July, Canada and the U.S. announced that an agreement in principle was reached after decades of negotiations to modernize the transboundary Columbia River Treaty. 

And while work is being done to finalize the treaty, Thomas says salmon reintroduction commitments need to be included. 

"The Columbia River Treaty was initially intended for flood control and power generation only… what [has been] neglected  is the environment, the ecology, the salmon, and also the basin people that relied upon a lot of those resources."

Conroy says that there are several initiatives to support salmon through the new agreement in principle.

Canada will provide one million acre-feet of water flows in all years and an additional 0.5 MAF in dry years to support downstream salmon survival and migration. 

"This will assist efforts in both countries to maintain and enhance salmon populations in the mid and lower Columbia, including the Okanagan salmon stocks," wrote B.C.'s minister for the Columbia River Treaty. 

First Nations and Tribes on each side of the border will also co-ordinate their respective salmon reintroduction studies to prevent duplication of effort and to facilitate information sharing. 

The ministry says Canada and the U.S. will form an Indigenous-led advisory body that will provide recommendations on how the treaty and other hydro-system operations can better support ecosystems along the entire Columbia River.