Fort Mac Road Raised At Fish Management Meetings

Fort Mac Road Raised At Fish Management Meetings

Tuesday, November 07, 2006 at 13:28

A Saskatchewan Environment fisheries specialist says commercial fishers on the West Side are definitely concerned about the impact of the impending road link to Fort McMurray.

Tanya Johnston and other department personnel have been holding public consultation meetings in the North over the last week.

The province is using the meetings to gather input from anglers, outfitters and commercial fishers for a new fish management plan it hopes to have in place by 2008.

Johnston says the Fort McMurray road came up repeatedly in meetings last week in Beauval, Buffalo Narrows and Ile-a-la-Crosse.

She says commercial fishers are worried what an influx of anglers from Alberta will do to fish populations.

Johnston says part of the reason the province is doing this exercise now is because it’s aware of the potential impact of the new road to northern Alberta.

Meanwhile, meetings were to be held in Black Lake and Wollaston Lake this week, but Johnston says the blizzard-like conditions have forced those sessions to be postponed to early January.