Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier Allocates $240 Million for Atlantic Salmon Habitat Restoration
Fisheries and Oceans Minister Diane Lebouthillier and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau direct $240 million from the Oceans Protection Plan to construct automated fish passage ladders, restore spawning gravel beds, and remove migration barriers across 60 Atlantic salmon rivers in Atlantic Canada and Quebec.
Choseno Canadian Bureau August 25, 2026 1 min read CA, CA
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OTTAWA — Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Diane Lebouthillier and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday the deployment of $240 million in federal funding through Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the Oceans Protection Plan to execute comprehensive habitat restoration and automated fish passage engineering across sixty wild Atlantic salmon river systems in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec.
The investment targets critical historical choke points—including legacy municipal culverts, obsolete logging dams, and industrial run-of-the-river hydroelectric weirs—that have blocked wild Atlantic salmon and sea-run trout from reaching cold-water headwater spawning grounds for decades.
Restoring River Connectivity for Atlantic Salmon The $240 million federal initiative finances:
- 45 Automated Nature-Like Fish Bypass Channels: $125 million constructing rock-ramp fishways and bio-engineered side-channels allowing returning adult salmon and outgoing smolts to bypass dams safely.
- Riverbed Gravel Restoration & Thermal Pool Creation: $65 million restoring sediment balance, excavating deep thermal cold-water refuge pools, and stabilizing riverbank erosion along the Miramichi, Restigouche, and Margaree Rivers.
- Indigenous Co-Management & Environmental Monitoring: $50 million partnering with twenty-two First Nations to deploy acoustic telemetry arrays, automated sonar counters, and water temperature data loggers.
"Wild Atlantic salmon are an essential part of Canada's heritage, supporting our ecosystems, our coastal communities, and Indigenous cultural traditions for millennia," Minister Diane Lebouthillier said during an announcement in Gaspé. "By investing $240 million in river restoration and automated fish ladders, we are taking decisive action with our Indigenous and provincial partners to ensure wild salmon populations rebound for future generations."
Conservation groups including the Atlantic Salmon Federation, indigenous chiefs, and angling tourism associations welcomed the funding, pointing out that restoring wild fish stocks supports thousands of eco-tourism and guiding jobs in rural maritime communities.
