The Telegraph-Journal published an opinion piece by Chief Ross Perley on April 18, 2026. You can read the full article by clicking here.

In Neqotkuk (Tobique), Elders in my community describe salmon runs so thick you could hear them before you could see them. They say that there were so many that you could walk on their backs.

That is a living memory, not ancient history.

My home river is the biggest producer of salmon on the entire river system, the most critical nursery habitat in the watershed. Today, three hydropower dams stand between our fish and the ocean. Salmon, Polamuwok as they are known to us, must travel past those dams, through warming and degraded water, and past invasive predators to reach the sea. Most don’t survive or come back.

The Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility is the one thing standing between Polaumwok survival and full extinction, and DFO is planning to close it.

The facility was built in 1968 as a legal commitment between DFO and NB Power to mitigate the Mactaquac dam’s impacts on salmon populations. Among other programs, it captures young salmon from the Tobique, raises them to adulthood, and returns them to spawn naturally, bypassing the dams entirely. According to my community’s fisheries team, smolt counts on the Tobique were finally moving in the right direction: 2,600 smolts captured last year, up from 600 just eight years ago.

The agreement Canada signed in 1968 said this facility would run for the life of the Mactaquac project. That dam’s life is now being extended to 2068. The contract still stands. So does Canada’s constitutional obligation to respect our rights. DFO intends to breach both.

While they are abandoning their obligations, they don’t seem to even understand the problem. When Brunswick News asked DFO to respond to our concerns this week, a department spokeswoman offered the following: ‘The department recognizes the cultural and spiritual importance of wild Atlantic salmon to the Mi’kmaq.’

Sorry DFO, Wolastoqiyik are not Mi’kmaq. The Mi’kmaq are our relatives and neighbours on the eastern coast of this province, and we respect them. Their interests are largely focused on the river system in their homeland, the Miramichi. The Wolastoq is a different river system.

DFO’s response cannot even acknowledge the Nation most directly affected by this decision, and that should tell you everything you need to know. There was no consultation, and they do not care about the impacts on our local species, river system, or people.

The department also pointed to an $81.7 million investment for wild salmon as proof of its commitment. What it did not say is that the Mactaquac facility would not see a single dollar of it. Moreover, this investment will be spread across more than 50 river systems over five years based on criteria that excludes the Mactaquac facility. The amount also pales in comparison to the hundreds of millions of investments toward other species, like Pacific salmon.

We need to be clear about what this means. This is a government that watched a species collapse for 60 years, made legal commitments to mitigate the damage, has legal obligations to continue to do so, but is now abandoning those commitments and responsibilities.

If DFO feels comfortable walking away from its obligations to the Wolastoq and our salmon, what is keeping it from abandoning other river systems and other species when things get tough? This is about integrity and should worry anyone who believes in protecting nature.

We demand that the facility remain open until proven, effective, and enhanced alternatives are in place. We demand the nation-to-nation consultation the Constitution requires. We demand that the fish currently housed in the facility be treated with the respect they deserve.

The salmon are running out of time, and we are running out of patience.

Everyone who has ever loved these rivers, fished these rivers, or simply believed that a government should keep its word, should sign our petition at www.wolastoqsalmon.ca. Write to the minister, your MP, your MLA demanding they reverse this decision.

All our grandchildren deserve to see Polamuwok in Neqotkuk and the Wolastoq.

Chief Ross Perley is Chief of Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation)