Federal government puts out $412.9 million to renew the Pacific Salmon Initiative

The federal government is spending $412.9 million over five years to renew the Pacific Salmon Strategy in a plan to protect and rebuild wild populations.

Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson made the announcement in North Vancouver Tuesday, saying in a statement that the first five years of the initiative has shown what is possible when partners work together to restore habitat, expand hatchery programs, improve management and find new ways to protect vulnerable stocks.

“But the challenges facing wild Pacific salmon are far from over,” Thompson said in the statement. “Through the renewed (salmon strategy), our government is committing to the next chapter of this work — one grounded in science, guided by Indigenous leadership, and driven by the shared responsibility to protect salmon for generations to come.”

British Columbia’s conservation groups say the funding announcement is welcome, but the money must be spent properly for “boots on the ground” to assess risks, especially those associated with potentially high-polluting major projects.

Watershed Watch Salmon Society executive director Aaron Hill said there is concern about a number of resource projects that could be highly polluting, and their presence could “do a lot of damage” to wild salmon if left unchecked.

Hill said he is also worried about the federal government reducing operating budgets at the Fisheries Department at a time when potential polluters could be on the rise.

“It’s really important that they maintain their core programs like stock assessment that allows us to know how many fish we have and how those populations are doing, and continuing to advance selective fishing programs so that we can have the most sustainable fisheries possible,” Hill said in an interview.

“We’re facing record lows with a lot of our salmon populations, and so we’re at a point now where we have to do everything we can to rebuild those populations so that we can have some abundance.”

The federal department said two dozen wild Pacific salmon populations have been assessed as endangered, 10 as threatened and nine are listed as being of special concern.

Misty MacDuffee with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s wild salmon program said Tuesday that she is hoping that the funding can go toward advancing selective fisheries, which would avoid the mixing of wild and hatchery stocks that exposes wild salmon to risks associated with certain types of fishing.

“We’re increasingly understanding that there is a mortality, and it depends upon the size of the fish, the type of the fish, all these kinds of factors,” MacDuffee said. “So, there’s a cost in the way that we’ve been trying to manage over the last decade or two, couple of decades really.

“I think that where many people, scientists, conservationists and nations are getting to is that it’s just not the way to fish.”

The salmon initiative was first launched in 2021, allowing collaboration with the B.C. and Yukon governments, Indigenous Peoples, harvesters, scientists, environmental and stewardship groups and communities along the West Coast.

The department’s statement said those partnerships have been central in restoring salmon habitat, fighting illegal fisheries and modernizing or building more than 70 hatcheries.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2026.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press