SARM applauds the Federal Government for the changes to the Fisheries Act that were announced today by Federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Keith Ashfield.
SARM has been advocating for years for these changes. They will provide the long-awaited distinction between vital Canadian waterways that support fish populations and smaller bodies of water that don’t harbour fish. The new Fisheries Act will focus its protection rules on significant threats to fish and will set clear standards for routine projects concerning smaller fish-free water bodies.
“Prior to these updates the Act added unnecessary costs and extended timelines to municipal road construction projects that were routine in nature,” says SARM President David Marit. In recent years municipalities have been required to install larger culverts to accommodate the passage of fish when constructing roads around all bodies of water; regardless of whether fish were present or not.
Marit says, “Saskatchewan rural municipalities have been paying inflated costs to accommodate the provisions of this Act for over 10 years. SARM thanks the federal government for these changes as they should allow routine municipal road construction projects to proceed without unnecessary costs and delays in the future.”
For more information contact:
David Marit Dale Harvey
President Executive Director
(306) 476-7754 (306) 535-7343
“SARM, the Voice of Rural Saskatchewan”
