Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the federal government will order a judicial inquiry into the collapse of sockeye-salmon stocks in British Columbia.

According to news reports, Harper made the announcement in the House of Commons today (November 5).

Stockwell Day, the minister of international trade and the regional minister for B.C., will make the details public on Friday (November 6).

Deputy NDP fisheries critic Peter Julian had called for an inquiry into this year’s collapse of the Fraser River sockeye-salmon run.

The Burnaby-New Westminster MP told the Straight late last month that he had plans to table a petition in the House.

“We’ve lost 90 percent of the sockeye-salmon run, and it is very clear that we are at the tipping point, I think, similar to what we saw with the Atlantic cod,” Julian said at the time. “Now, with the Atlantic cod there was no action taken, and we know the end of that story. We can’t have the same thing happen to the Pacific sockeye salmon.”

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