At the start of the fishing season, juxtaposed with the pre-election period, the Coalition for the maintenance of fish farming Lac-des-Écorces is once again calling on the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks (MFFP) with the same most disturbing observation: the underfunding of the facilities of the fish farming station threatens sport fishing in Quebec.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
While one might think that fishing is a most natural activity and in line with the usual course of things, it is in fact made possible by the result of several coordinated and deliberate actions of several authorities, including feeding the plans of water from fish farms. However, this state of affairs seems completely neglected by the Ministry, which has so far refused to sit down with the main alarm bells to discuss adequate funding, which only stems from simple reason.
In operation since 1972, the Lac-des-Écorces government fish hatchery is located about 10 kilometers south of Mont-Laurier, at the outlet of Lac des Écorces.
A true jewel of the municipality of Lac-des-Écorces, the government fish farming station is also a significant vector of economic and regional development.
Its main function is to produce native salmonids for the stocking of public lakes throughout Quebec, whether in Abitibi, Gaspésie, Outaouais, or the Laurentians, thus meeting certain conservation needs or supporting fisheries targeted by the MFFP – the very one that refuses to address the problem with the players in the community gathered within our coalition.
Economic and tourist benefits
Due to its large annual production – approximately 40 metric tonnes of fish (40,000 kg) – the imminent risk of closure of the Lac-des-Écorces fish farm, due to a lack of public funding, would threaten stocking in public bodies of water in Quebec and, ultimately, the practice of sport fishing. It goes without saying that this would have direct economic and tourism consequences for many towns and villages in Quebec. The economic benefits of fishing in Quebec would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, according to a study1 commissioned by the MFFP no later than 2020.
However, the Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, Pierre Dufour, solemnly affirmed during a visit to the fish farm that Quebec needed its three public fish farming stations.
In the same vein, Chantale Jeannotte, MNA for Labelle, publicly pledged to support the maintenance of activities at the public fish farm in Lac-des-Écorces. However, it must be admitted that in these two cases, the actions did not follow the words, and four years of neglect have passed since then.
One thing is clear: the MFFP must intervene. His inexplicable refusal to invest in his own natural wealth – Quebec being landscaped with an almost unparalleled amount of rivers and lakes in the world – makes us fear the worst, especially since his mandate explicitly states that he has “the obligation to return them [les territoires du Québec] accessible to the public for educational purposes and for the practice of discovery and outdoor activities compatible with their protection mission”. The Fishing Festival for the next generation is a good example.
The Coalition is also asking the five major candidate parties in the next election to commit to doing everything they can to ensure that the next government takes concrete and significant action in terms of regional development, the renewal of sport fishing and the maintenance of quality of fishing in Québec, in particular by allocating adequate funds to the Lac-des-Écorces fish farm.
In Quebec, one of the components of nationalism is the relationship of Quebecers with their territory. Our request for preservation and support for fish farming stations is exactly consistent with this reality.