Spring bear hunt advocates want Ontario to accept non-resident hunters

Superior Morning7:02Spring Bear Hunt numbers reaction

The Ontario government has released the numbers for the first year of the spring bear hunt pilot project. CBC Thunder Bay spoke to several people for their reaction.The second year of Ontario's spring bear hunt pilot project is just months away.

After fewer than 200 black bears were taken in the residents-only hunt in the pilot project’s first year, there is disagreement among some stakeholders over what the project is achieving.

The head of Ontario's Sunset Country Travel Association said the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry missed the mark when it brought the hunt back last spring and made it residents-only.

Gerry Cariou said he recalls the estimated economic impact of Ontario's spring bear hunt before it was cancelled in 1999 to have been roughly $50 million.

"It's really a missed opportunity. There are a lot of problems with finding jobs and economic development opportunities in northern Ontario. A spring bear hunt [that includes non-resident hunters] would inject, almost overnight, [millions] into the northern Ontario economy. " 

He added the low number of bears taken last year had no impact on the nuisance bear problem — and doesn't think the government will ever allow non-resident hunters to take part          

“The Liberal government in power is not really a friend of the tourism industry, certainly on the management side of the wildlife side,” Cariou said.

“They have a very large constituency of voters in the city of Toronto, and areas where the bear hunt is perceived as a terrible thing.”

Interference from Mother Nature

The head of the Northwestern Ontario Sportsman's Alliance has a different view. John Kaplanis said the low success rate last year was just due to a late spring.

Kaplanis said he believes the government is just doing due diligence and will ultimately bring outfitters back into the hunt. 

“It's very clear that if we want to put any significant impact on bear populations, at the early part of the year, you need to do it with the inclusion of the non-resident tourism element,” he said.

Kaplanis thinks a more normal spring in the northwest will increase the success rate of resident hunters.

“If you look at last spring, and the characteristics surrounding the late thaw, there were a lot of bear hunters out there that wanted to hunt bears, but Mother Nature just got in the way of that, as she sometimes does,” he said.

“I went to the bush several times and tried to get into the bush to access my hunting stands and I just couldn't. There was too much snow.”

Mother Nature aside, Kaplanis said his group's expectations for the potential bear harvest were low.

"I think we said right at the beginning of the pilot project — when Minister Orazietti rolled it out — that we felt resident bear hunters of Ontario probably would not come anywhere close to harvesting enough bears to make a dent in the population,” Kaplanis continued.

“Particularly with the fact there are only eight wildlife management units that host the pilot project for bear hunting in the spring.”

The next spring bear hunt starts May 1.