YUKON FISHERIES 249 



3. A representative of the Department of Fisheries and 

 Oceans should be appointed to the Yukon Territorj' 

 Water Board. 



Through direct participation in the board's delibera- 

 tions, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans should be 

 able to more effectively influence habitat mitigation 

 requirements in water licences. 



To engage eflectively in these processes, the Depart- 

 ment must cope with the urgent need for information 

 about fish resources and the impact of disturbances to 

 their habitats. I have already recommended a survey of 

 fish resources, which will throw light on the productivity 

 of lakes and streams. In Chapter 3 I proposed that the 

 Department carry out a comprehensive inventory of 

 aquatic habitats in cooperation with British Columbia. In 

 Yukon, where salmon are less prevalent and the pressures 

 more isolated, the effort should be more selective. I there- 

 fore recommend — 



4. Tlie Department should initiate a systematic program 

 of data collection on fish habitat in Yukon, giving pri- 

 ority to salmon streams and areas subject to existing 

 and expected pressures on liabitats. 



Some biophysical work of this kind has been under- 

 taken, but it has been very limited. Regardless of the 

 scale of this program, it is important to establish an 

 orderly system of compiling, processing and storing data 

 to enable progressive accumulation of information avail- 

 able for resource planning purposes. 



ADMINISTRATION 



Yukon fisheries are administered as part of the Depart- 

 ment of Fisheries and Oceans" Fraser River, Northern 

 British Columbia and Yukon Division of the Pacific 

 region. The Whitehorse office thus reports through the 

 division office in New Westminster, though the biological 

 staff" report directly to the regional headquarters in Van- 

 couver. No professional habitat management or engi- 

 neering staff" are currently based in Yukon. 



The Yukon district's allotted staff consists of six full- 

 time and six seasonal employees. They are expected to 

 administer the Department's programs, including 

 enforcement, from the Stikine River to the Arctic coast. 

 The district's budget has been constrained during the last 

 two years and recently the office has been instructed to 

 terminate three of its seasonal employees. Coupled with 

 staff turnover, which has resulted in lost experience in 

 dealing with Yukon problems, the district has been 

 unable to keep pace with its responsibilities. Meanwhile, 

 the pressures on fish stocks and fish habitats, and the 

 demands for fisheries information and enforcement, are 

 increasing rapidly. 



The Department's provisions for administering its 

 responsibilites in Yukon are seriously inadequate. To 

 properly manage the sensitive resources of the territory, 

 the available manpower and support must be increased. I 

 therefore recommend — 



5. The Department should substantially increase the 

 staff and related budgetary support for managing 

 Yukon fisheries. 



In addition to its strained resources, the Yukon district 

 is burdened by its responsibilities to both the regional 

 headquarters in Vancouver and the divisional headquar- 

 ters in New Westminster. Most of the other agencies with 

 which the Department must deal have more senior 

 officials in Whitehorse and so they have more local 

 authority. This asymmetry impedes cooperative manage- 

 ment arrangements. 



Moreover, Yukon is a minor appendage of the division 

 responsible for the crucial Fraser River system. Yet its 

 problems are quite diff"erent from those in the rest of the 

 region, and so it warrants a more distinct position in the 

 organizational framework. In view of these considera- 

 tions I propose — 



6. The Yukon District of the Department shoidd be ele- 

 vated to the statas of a Division. 



The eff"ect of this change will be to eliminate the 

 divided Ime of reporting to division and regional head- 

 quarters, to increase the authority of the Department's 

 officials in the territory' and to give a higher profile to 

 Yukon fisheries in the Department's administrative struc- 

 ture. 



I am concerned also about the larger organizational 

 question of the appropriate administrative region for the 

 Yukon territory. The Pacific region's concerns are domi- 

 nated by marine resources, ocean fisheries, the compli- 

 cated problems of regulating commercial ffeets and other 

 matters described in this report that have limited rele- 

 vance to Yukon. The substantive common interest is in 

 the management of salmon that migrate to some Yukon 

 rivers, but even in this respiect Yukon concerns diff'er 

 insofar as they centre on international questions and are 

 quite separate from the fisheries involved in the rest of 

 the region. 



It strikes me that the major Yukon concerns are more 

 similar to those of the Department's Western region, 

 which includes the prairie provinces and Northwest Ter- 

 ritories and is concerned mainly with freshwater fish and 

 fisheries. Yukon fisheries might better be served as part of 

 that regional organization. I offer no specific recommen- 

 dation on this matter, but in the preceding chapter I pro- 

 posed a general budget and administrative review of the 

 Department and in that context the Yukon's position 



