EBR Policy # 012-9791…

EBR Policy # 012-9791

Strategic Policy for Bait Management in Ontario

Resume of Responder: 32 years in the tourism business as owner/operator of Moose Haven Lodge.  

What is acceptable and possibly good about the proposal: The creation of the 6 new bait management zones and the proposed flow of bait.  

Feedback & Objections: banning use of bait fish & leeches in ALL Provincial Parks based on a landscape management strategy is NOT acceptable   

Immediate Area of Concern:

· Englehart River Fine Sand Plain and Waterway Provincial Park – P1614,  aka: Long Lake (Robillard, Kinogami and Kushog Lakes) · Ontario’s Living Legacy pge. 8: Land use needs of Resourced-based Tourism: ….. protection for segments of the tourism industry that depend on traditional resource-based activities such as hunting & fishing · Ontario’s Living Legacy, pge. 22 Permitted uses in Provincial Parks …………… bait fishing ……. Existing use permitted to continue indefinitely, except in wilderness & nature reserve zones & parks ……….  

Long Lake has 5 tourism lodging business as well as 100 to 150 permanent & seasonal residences along its shores.  

These properties had been established long before there was a proposal for Long Lake to be included in Ontario’s Living Legacy as a waterway provincial park. These properties (including and especially the tourism businesses) were purchased with an expectation as to the recreational activities and business generated from the use of the lake activities including the use of live bait for recreational fishing.  

There were long and hard negotiations to ensure that the recreational uses of Long Lake would not change when the waterway became a park.  

Live bait fishing is an integral part of our spring walleye fishing clientele’s activities & their preferred method of fishing.  

The Englehart River Fine Sand Plain and Waterway Provincial Park boundaries are from Highway # 66 in the north to McColl’s Bay in the south. Live bait under the proposed policy will be allowed to be used in the 6 to 8 km of river section from McColl’s Bay to the Town of Charlton and from Hwy # 66 along the upper Englehart River into & including Burt Lake. This makes absolutely no sense as these two  portions of the water system and the park portion are “flat water” with no obstruction to swimming bait. The Englehart River and the waterway park are protected from the southern Ottawa River & Lake Timiskaming by the impassable natural barrier of High Falls at Kap-Kig-Iwan and the hydro-electric power dam in Charlton.  

Since 1987 The Town of Charlton and subsequently The Royal Canadian Legion have hosted an annual “Live Release Fish Derby” on the 1st Sat. in June. This derby has generated many tourism dollars for the area & its sponsoring groups. The majority of the fish catching is done with the use of live bait with no ill effects to the lake & its fish populations. The bait is caught & bought locally. The derby will undoubtedly suffer from reduced participants and possibly a cancellation of the event. Moose Haven has been involved and sanctioned this derby & will be negatively affected business-wise if live bait is banned.  

Summary:

By proposing the ban on use of bait fish & leeches, you have changed the intent of the original agreement for the creation of the waterway park and what the stakeholders had agreed to.  

By banning the use of bait fish & leeches you have changed the recreational use of Long Lake and therefore potentially negatively impacted the property values.   

The business & livelihoods generated from tourism in this waterway provincial park will be negatively affected or eliminated.  

If this policy is enacted as proposed, Moose Haven Lodge stands to lose a substantial amount of business from its spring walleye fishing & bait sales eventually resulting in the loss of cottage & boat & motor rentals  (& property value).

Without the use of live bait, ice fishing & ice hut rentals will be eliminated …….. Please tell me how to cast & troll through 28” of ice?  

Public notice of this proposal was less than adequate as can be evidenced by the poor turnout at your public information sessions, particularly Sudbury.  

You state in your “purpose” of this proposal an increased certainty for the bait industry. You make no mention as to the negative effect this proposal will have on the lodging industry and tourism as a whole within parks.  

What is abundantly missing are the concerns of tourism & tourist operators and the effects on individual businesses existing in parks.  

Minnow Flow ………. If working as efficiently as proposed, no need to ban the use of stickleback (viable, useable & saleable spring walleye bait AND they work!)  

Minnow Flow ………… again, no need to go to the “over-kill” of additionally protecting provincial parks in the north since the bait is stopped from flowing from the high risk areas in the south.  

The 6 new bait management zones in addition to the existing 20 fish management zones will only create confusion for the angler.

[Original Comment ID: 209883]