On behalf of the…

On behalf of the Northwestern Ontario Sportsmen's Alliance(NOSA), a 5000 plus member hunting, fishing, trapping and conservation advocacy group; I wish to extend our organization's full support for the measures recommended in this proposal.

Since the initial cancellation of the spring bear hunt in 1999, NOSA has been vocal in our support of spring bear hunting as a sound management tool for maintaining healthy numbers of black bears on the Ontario landscape. Ontario's bear population is healthy, it is growing and it deserves to be treated with value, as all other large game species in the province are. When bears are not hunted, they are no longer regarded with value, they are less protected and treated as vermin. This scenario contributes to wasteful shooting of bears during the three seasons that they are out of the den. Statistics have demonstrated unequivocally that orphaning rates are in fact measurable and real, when bears are not hunted but have to be shot by enforcement agencies or MNR technicians to protect human lives and property. This wasteful and unfortunate trend is reduced significantly when bears are hunted in the spring, under strict regulations and with mandatory reporting rules to track harvest much more effectively.

The Ontario spring bear hunt is widely recognized as a successful management tool, to keep bear numbers from becoming too high. NOSA has argued that the spring bear hunt acted to target larger male bears, thus controlling their numbers, concentrating them near bait locations and minimizing dangerous nuisance encounters in communities closest to geographic regions of the highest bear densities. Certainly this is perhaps the most significant reason that many northern and rural Ontario communities and municipalities repeatedly lobbied the Ontario Government, to return the spring bear hunt.

The socio-economic benefits of a well managed and highly regulated conservation tool such as the spring bear hunt, also cannot be ignored. NOSA estimates the spring bear hunt contributes over 35-40 million dollars to the Ontario economy, and it contributes significantly important revenue to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry's Special Purpose Account(SPA). For this reason, NOSA also supports the proposal and we encourage OMNRF to work with the provincial Big Game Management Advisory Committee (BGMAC) to continue to examine ways to offer more opportunity for the non-resident bear hunting tourism industry (TI) to sustainably maximize and expand bear hunting opportunity where feasible in Ontario to do so.

As for the pieces of the proposal related to reducing hunting season length in the WMU's of the Bruce Peninsula, NOSA is in support of such measures provided there is continued monitoring and an adaptive management approach taken, to allow for expanding bear hunting opportunities in the Bruce Peninsula region, if necessary in future to regulate bear population growth.

In reference to the proposal for provisions for those offering bear hunting/guiding services, to be licensed in some manner, NOSA supports this proposed regulation and management of would be tourism guides, where necessary to do so. It is acknowledged that in parts of the NER and SER there is significant overlap and conflict between some licensed service providers and non-licensed service providers and this is causing a negative impact to some well established and authorized bear hunt operators(BMA holders). Appropriate measures should be taken to regulate this to minimize or eliminate conflict.

NOSA would add to this proposal statement that we also support a complete review of the allocation of bear harvest to BMA holders across Ontario, so that this allocation is done according to a standard method of determining how many bear harvest certificates/Form 33's may be allocated to BMA operators from Region to region. Currently the allocation of Form 33's is a very inconsistently managed process, and there is extreme variation of how Form 33's are allocated from one BMA to the next. NOSA would encourage OMNRF to continue to work with BGMAC to find ways to administer Form 33's fairly, consistently and transparently across the province.

Lastly, NOSA wishes to thank Hon. Minister John Yakabuski for allowing this proposal to go forth to the public for comment and consideration. Clearly the Minister has listened to various stakeholder groups who have asked for this to take place, since 1999. We will continue to support the Minister on this proposal as it continues to move forward.