A Culturally Correct Proposal to Privatize the British Columbia Salmon Fishery

ABSTRACT:

Canada now faces two looming policy crises that have come to a head in British Columbia. The first is long-term depletion of the Pacific salmon fishery by mobile commercial ocean fishermen racing to intercept salmon under the rule of capture. The second results from Canadian Supreme Court case law recognizing and affirming 'the existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada' under Section 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982. This essays shows that the economics of property rights provides a joint solution to these crises that would promote the Canadian commonwealth by way of a privatization auction while respecting the tribes' distinctive aboriginal culture.