Dear Premier, Minister and…

Dear Premier, Minister and Public Input Coordinator,

The Spring Bear Hunt results in orphaned bear cubs. There is no denying this - wildlife rehabilitators can attest that some hunters make mistakes and kill mothers with cubs even though regulations were designed to prevent this from happening. Mother bears often leave their cubs in nearby trees while foraging, leaving the door wide open to this mistake consistently occurring. Furthermore, bears care for and protect their cubs into their second year of life, leaving even yearling cubs at risk due to orphaning.

In 1999, the Conservative government cancelled the spring bear hunt in recognition that we can't put a price on any number of cubs that starve or die of exposure after being orphaned due to government regulations. Protecting wildlife should be at the heart of any management plan or action.

Evidence as to the accomplishments and milestones of the pilot project introduced by your government and the extended pilot project (not the original strategy written before the hunts) need to be released to the public.

I oppose your proposal to reinstate the hunt permanently. However, I do agree that non-residents and their relatives should not be given special opportunities to hunt and I agree that the hunt should be restricted where bear populations are suffering, including in the Bruce Peninsula area.

I also encourage you to consider a ban of bear baiting, as this practice introduces bears to food that is unnatural to their foraging and encourages them to seek out "human" food, thereby undermining goals of reducing human-wildlife conflict. Short of this, baiting should be more strictly regulated and baits should be registered to ensure compliance with modern regulations.

It should also be taken into consideration that as bears wake up earlier in the Spring due to climate change, as already seen in B.C., they will have a difficult time finding food and will likely be only beginning to recover from malnourishment when a Spring bear hunt begins.

Bear hunters in the Spring make up a very small percentage of people enjoying the outdoors in Ontario, so the impact of a spring bear hunt on other recreationalists’ safety, freedom to explore and expectations of enjoying the outdoors in Ontario should be taken into consideration.

Black bear management needs to focus on reducing human-bear conflicts by investing in coexistence education. Ontarians and tourists can safely share the landscape with black bears and other carnivores; we only need to make sure we have the resources to teach them how. For example, education and enforcement of human behaviour, attractants and feeding will have the greatest impact on mitigating and preventing conflict.

A Conservative government saw the unnecessary cruelty of orphaned cubs dying of starvation and exposure due to the Spring bear hunt, and therefore brought it to an end in 1999. I hope your government will choose to do the same.