

REPORT OF THE MANITOBA FISHERIES COMMISSION. 



[on. L. P. BRODEUR, 



Minister of Marine and Fisheries. 



I SIR, We have the honour to submit the complete and linal 

 port on the Fisheries of the province of Manitoba and part of the 

 waters to the north, in the district of Keewatin. These fisheries Appointment of the 

 we were authorized to investigate by order in council, dated March Comim ssu>n. 

 16, 1909, in which order in council we were constituted a commission 

 to inquire into and report on the conditions and requirements of the 

 fisheries in question, in view of the fact that the necessity appeared 

 for a complete revision of the fishery regulations, in order to meet 

 the changed conditions in this western portion of the Dominion of 

 Canada. 



From time to time regulations have been enacted, which as the 

 fisheries developed, it became necessary to amend or to entirely recast. 

 So long ago as 1865, the necessity was realized by the inhabitants of Early Fishery 

 the enforcement of legal restrictions respecting the fisheries, and the Re S ul on 1865 

 Governor and Council of Assiniboia received in the year named a 

 petition bearing 180 names, calling attention to the state of the 

 fisheries in the Red river and Assiiiiboine./ It was pointed out in the 

 petition that the fishery had been injured by the erection of barriers, 

 or weire, which, it was stated, had caused a great destruction of fish, 

 and had prevented a majority of the people from obtaining a fair 

 share of fish food, upon which so many were largely dependent. It 

 was decided as appears from the minutes of the Council of Assini- 

 boine, held May 30, 1865, that ' It shall be unlawful to erect any weirs 

 or barriers in any part of the Red river or Assiniboine, and on receiv- 

 ing information of the existence of any such weirs or barriers, any 

 magistrate shall be empowered after July 1, to order any constable to 

 remove the same.' This is apparently the first fishery regulation 

 enacted in respect to these western fisheries. 



In his report for 1873, the Commissioner of Fisheries pointed 

 out that, included amongst oth^r services assumed by the Dominion 

 of Canada in the Manitoba Act, was the protection of the fisheries, 

 and he called attention to the minute passed by the Northwest Coun- 

 cil in September, 1873, which invited action by the Federal Govern- 

 ment. In this minute the council stated that, ' They are of opinion 

 that the time has arrived when steps should be taken with a view to 

 preventing any serious diminution of the supply of whitefish. That 

 in view of the fact that in certain portions of the Northwest Territory, 

 and more especially in the vicinity of Norway House, the inhabitants! 

 are entirely dependent upon fish for food, the council suggests that 

 steps should be taken by the Dominion government to prevent persons 

 from setting nets or weirs in the main channels of rivers, or at any 

 points through which fish are in the habit of passing to their spawn- 

 ing grounds in such a manner as to prevent the ingress of the fisb, 

 luid to enforce such regulations 3s may, from time to time, appear 

 necessary for the preservation of the fish. The council also desire to 



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