Deadline looms for B.C. commission to file report into Sockeye collapse

VANCOUVER – A report that’s expected to have more answers about why and how millions of sockeye salmon vanished from B.C.’s Fraser River is expected to be handed into the federal government next week, but it’s still unclear when the public will see the report.

Just months after the fisheries collapse, the federal government asked B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen to lead a commission looking into the reason for the dramatic decline in the 2009 sockeye run.

About 10 million salmon were expected to return to B.C.’s rivers and streams but only between 10 and 15 per cent of the fish actually showed up.

Under the terms of reference, Cohen must deliver his report to the federal government by Monday.

Commission spokeswoman Carla Shore says the terms of reference only discuss the report’s submission and not if it will be made public, which is a government decision.

Earnie Crey, a member of the Sto:lo Nation First Nation, says the judicial inquiry was public and he’s troubled that there is no assurance the report will be given to inquiry participants or even made public.