I am an avid moose hunter in…

I am an avid moose hunter in Northern Ontario. I have greatly supported the moose points based allocation system and for the most part support the proposed changes.

1.Any hunter awarded a tag based on their first choice in the ‘second chance allocation’ will forfeit their points, whether or not they decide to claim the tag.

I do not support this proposed change for several reasons. I believe this punishes hunters for trying to apply for tags with the unknown of the points required for tags. This system forces group to manage tags for future years and manage the point totals that each member has. In a situation where 2 members of a group are at the projected cut off where a random draw will be required for allocation of a tag, a group would want to have as many members apply as possible to increase odds of receiving a tag for the group.

EG. last year all hunters with 6 points received a tag. That means some hunters with 5 points will have received tags based on a tie requiring random draw. If a group has multiple members with 5 points they would want to have more members apply to increase odds of the random draw, but if multiple members are successful it will ruin their ability to hunt in future years.

Advance the tag claim deadline of the second chance allocation to be prior to the opening of moose seasons.

Fully support this change. This allows for all tags to be claimed and paid for prior to the start of the season. This also allows for all unallocated tags to be reallocated to other hunters.

Create a new ‘last chance allocation’ step in the process, where any unclaimed and unawarded moose tags would be made available for purchase by resident hunters.
Numbers of available tags would be communicated ahead of time. Tags would be available from late August until mid-September, before the first moose seasons open. Tags purchased at this stage would not impact a hunter’s points. This process would utilize modern automated processes to avoid long waits on the phone to access a tag

I support this change, all tags at this point would be allocated and ultimately solve the problem of opportunity to hunt being maximized as well as maximum revenu for the ministry.

Ultimately I strongly support these changes with the exception of loosing points for unclaimed tags.