Polamuwok Back
Save Wolastoq Salmon
What is happening?
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has announced they will close the Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility (MBF) by October of 2026. This decision was made without consultation with Wolastoqey communities, without warning to the public, and without any other plan for critical conservation programs hosted there.
From April 15 to May 15, 2026, WNNB launched a petition to the House of Commons calling for the protection of the Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility and Wolastoqey salmon. The petition received 1,084 signatures and was tabled in the House of Commons on June 15, 2026. The Government of Canada has since responded (Link to full response in the Latest Update section).
DFO has said it is working with external partners on the release or transfer of fish currently at the facility and is supporting a temporary extension of the Tobique River smolt-to-adult supplementation program while New Brunswick Power works toward assuming responsibility. The future of other critical conservation activities, including fish passage, offsetting requirements and salmon stock assessment, remains under discussion.
WNNB continues to work with DFO to advance Wolastoq salmon conservation and protection on the Wolastoq and at the Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility.but key questions about the future of the facility, the fish currently housed there, and the conservation programs it supports remain unresolved.
Why it matters
The Facility was established in 1968 through a legal agreement between the New Brunswick Electrical Power Commission and the federal Fisheries Minister to account for the impact the dam would have on salmon in the river.
The facility supports several programs that contribute to the conservation of Atlantic salmon on the Wolastoq (the Saint John River). The Tobique River captive rearing program collects wild, young salmon, raises them to maturity, and releases them back to the river to spawn. This boosts the number of spawning salmon in the Tobique River, which counters low returns of salmon to the Mactaquac Dam.
The facility also operates an in-river conservation loop upstream of the Mactaquac dam necessary for maintaining the genetic diversity of salmon.
The Wolastoqiyik are salmon people. Polamuwok play a central role in many of our stories and traditions. Sadly, the Wolastoqiyik have been unable to harvest salmon from our own river since 1998. The loss of Polamuwok from Wolastoq represents a loss of Wolastoqey cultural identity.
Canada has committed, through the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and through its own reconciliation agenda, to consult and cooperate with Indigenous peoples on decisions that significantly affect our rights. The decision to shut down the last facility standing between the Wolastoq salmon and extinction is exactly the kind of decision that demands that consultation and, in fact, that consultation is a legal requirement.
First Nations and stakeholders are ready to work with DFO to ensure the vital programs operating at the facility can continue to ensure the long-term conservation of this critical species.
Latest Updates
Last update: August 31, 2026
The Tobique SAS program will be temporarily extended.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans responded to our Petition. This included the following:
“Fisheries and Oceans Canada understands the significance of this decision on the Wolastoqey, and is committed to consultation pertaining to Outer Bay of Fundy salmon release plans, the future of the MBF facility MLAP fish passage and offsetting requirements, and the future of the salmon stock assessment program. Wolastoqey leadership has been engaged by DFO and discussions have taken place on the operationalization of the decision. Fisheries and Oceans Canada is working to support a temporary extension of the Tobique SAS program at MBF while New Brunswick Power accelerates their work to assume responsibility for this program. DFO will work with New Brunswick Power to support the transition of these activities and will continue to engage with Wolastoqey leadership directly to advance discussions on this topic.”
WNNB continues to work with DFO to advance Wolastoq salmon conservation and protection on the Wolastoq and at the Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility but key questions about the future of the facility, the fish currently housed there, and the conservation programs it supports remain unresolved.
Resources
Links, articles, and scientific papers on Wolastoq salmon
The Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility was built in 1968 following the construction of the Mactaquac dam. Originally built to compensate for the losses to Atlantic salmon because of the dam, studies determined that it would be impossible to maintain the historical salmon population downstream of the dam without a hatchery.
A formal legal agreement was made between DFO and the New Brunswick Electric Power Commission (NB Power) to build a hatchery to produce 500,000 young salmon per year and create systems to collect, sort, and move fish past the dam to support the river’s salmon population. Although the focus of the Facility’s activities shifted toward captive rearing in the early 2000s, DFO committed to operating the facility “during the life of the Mactaquac Project”. Through the Mactaquac Life Achievement Project (MLAP), the dam is set to undergo major repairs that will extend its lifespan to 2068, even as the key mitigation measure created to reduce its effects is being dismantled.
The work done at the Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility has been the life support system for Atlantic salmon in the Wolastoq. More needs to be done to fully restore the population.
As of now, the facility is planning to release all fish on-site by September 2026, but the earliest releases are scheduled to begin in April. The situation is urgent. For approximately 5,000 of those fish, this means getting released earlier than usual, anywhere from several months to up to 3 years ahead of the normal release time.
The Tobique River is one of the most important nursery habitats for Atlantic salmon and the biggest producer of salmon on the Wolastoq. Young salmon leaving the Tobique River must pass three hydropower dams and travel 300 km to reach the ocean, facing predators and delays from the dams along the way. Today, returns to the Wolastoq are at historic lows – in the 1980s over 30,000 salmon returned to the Mactaquac dam each year, now only a few hundred make the journey home. The Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility captures these young fish from the Tobique River, raises them to adulthood, and returns them to the Tobique to spawn naturally, helping them avoid the dangerous journey to the ocean and the poor survival that follows. Without that safeguard, their future is unclear, and the path ahead looks a lot like managed extinction.
• DFO operates 16 federal hatcheries in BC, many built on strong First Nation partnerships, yet they are shutting down the only federal Atlantic salmon hatchery in NB. For our communities, that contrast is impossible to ignore, and it raises a real question: how is this decision justified?
• The federal government has recently committed $81.7 million to stabilize and rebuild Atlantic Salmon populations through habitat restoration, monitoring, and partnerships with Indigenous communities and stewardship organizations. An investment of that scale should include salmon conservation on the Wolastoq.
Partners
