The genesis of the allocation steal was a 2020 conference the commercial fleet used as a planning session to prepare a business plan to develop strategies to make the commercial fishery viable. They called it the Future of BC Commercial Salmon Fishing - a 40 page report that stated their fishery was no longer viable - It was clear to them in 2020 and even more so today that their current industrial fishing model was no longer viable nor sustainable given the status salmon and the government's reconciliation agenda. To make their failing fishery viable, they reckoned it would take even more subsidies than they already have today, increase their allocation of salmon at the expense of the recreational fishery. Remember the commercial allocation of Sockeye, Chum and Pink is already 95% - and their share of Chinook and Coho is already more than 50% of the recreational allocations.
So now to make their fishery economically viable, they now need to majority share of the recreational & commercial allocations after FN's allocations are met - regardless of the fact that the Recreational fishery requires no subsidies, and generates 25x more GDP and substantially more jobs - good paying jobs average household recreational income is $66k vs $8,976 average household income for only 881 commercial fishers. Hardly seems worth giving priority access and allocation to bail out a failing commercial fishery.
