Influence of non-governmental organizations on the 1999 Canada/United States Pacific Salmon Treaty: A Canadian perspective

This analysis of the opportunities that the NGOs had to participate in the various stakeholder processes shows that the NGOs may have had unrealistic expectations as to the inclusion of their needs in the PST. Commercial user NGOs had numerous opportunities, until the final months of negotiations, to bring forward their concerns directly to the DFO representatives at the negotiating table. First Nations and ENGOs did not have the same opportunity throughout the process. However, they became important contributing stakeholders during the last two years of the debate. The Canada/U.S. salmon debate embodied other factors which limited the effectiveness of NGOs attempts to influence the PST. Factors such as plummeting salmon populations, conflicting science, veto power of U.S. stakeholders, altercations between the B.C. and Canadian governments, Canada External Affairs pushing for a quick resolution of the issue and Federal constitutional jurisdiction to negotiate all international agreements excluded NGOs from direct input at the negotiating table.