Solid Proof: Ontario MNR is Useless
Aylmer District Stakeholders Committee is fuming after finding out how money from licensing fees was spent
http://www.lfpress.com/2017/05/28/a-...y-was-misspent
Stove oil, tuition fees and “non-hospitality” meetings — but nothing about fish and wildlife.
The latest spending information gleaned from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry by a group of farmers, anglers and hunters has done nothing but stoke the fires of frustration surrounding the use of licensing fees.
Last fall, the Aylmer District Stakeholders Committee, representing about 1,400 landowners, hunters and farmers, was fit to be tied when it looked over the 2011-12 expenditures showing how money collected from licences and fines wasn’t going back to hunting and angling projects.
They recently received 15 more pages of expenditures for 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 — and they’re apoplectic.
Some of the spending items included:
- $189,800 for stove oil.
- $1.7 million for motor vehicle and non-heating oils.
- $29,420 for tuition fees and textbooks for ministry employees.
- $517,900 for “non-hospitality” meetings and $19,930 for “hospitality meetings.”
- $268,890 for repairs or maintenance of leased engineering structures.
- $330,000 for building and office space leases and rent.
- $71,680 for repairs of those rented or leased buildings.
“Why are we paying for repairs to leased or rented office space?” asked Ken Currah, a spokesperson for the committee.
“I think we can assume that the employees of the MNRF are not rowdy college students renting a place and then got dinged for a bill to fix the drywall.”
The revelations found through freedom-of-information requests have been described by the committee to be “bizarre.”
The group formed in 1999 at the request of the ministry and became suspicious of where the money was after it was unable to get $10,000 from a Special Purpose Account.
The SPA was set aside by the ministry for hunting and fishing licences, fines and fees.
The account was supposed to be re-invested annually to improve hunting and angling in Ontario.
Since the account’s inception in 1996, the committee estimates revenues to have totalled a whopping $1.12 billion.
The annual revenue examined by the committee come in at roughly $70 million.
Currah said also to be considered is a recent report that the ministry had $3.5 million in unpaid fines that would have gone into the special purpose account.
And yet, Currah said, “here’s no mention of a single expenditure that improves angling and hunting in Ontario as per the wording in the regulations.”
With the help of Elgin-Middlesex-London Progressive Conservative MPP Jeff Yurek, the committee has launched a petition demanding the legislature direct the auditor-general to conduct an audit of the account.
Currah said he hopes the petition will help rally support and put pressure on the government to do something.
The ministry has one of the smaller operating budgets which should be coming out of the government’s general account. The expenditure breakdown, he said, shows that the special fund is being used for operating expenses and that “certainly violates the spirit of the law.”
Meanwhile, committee chairperson Dave Snook said there are certain species and areas “in real trouble” that need direct help from the ministry.
“The moose population is in a great decline up north and nothing’s been done about it,” he said. “It’s the same with deer up in that area. And as a result a lot of hunters from the north come here to hunt.” Equally frustrating, Snook said, is that though local ministry officials are helpful, decisions for southern Ontario are being made in Peterborough “by people who don’t know what’s going on here,” he said.
“It’s been difficult to get anybody to really come down and tell us exactly what is going on,” Snook said. “It’s just like you’re speaking to a blank wall. Nobody will tell you the truth.”
Currah said all species would benefit from the proper administration of the fund if it was being used “toward the learning and research and management of those species.
“Every species is being sold short here.”
The anglers and hunters are being short-changed too, Currah said, along with anyone who enjoys the natural resources throughout the province.
Ministry spokesperson Emily Kirk said the ministry does use the SPA on fish and wildlife programs including stocking, population studies, surveys, research and hunting draws.
" Each year activities and priorities are identified and money from the account is set aside to help pay for them. And each year the ministry reports publicly on the money spent and the programs delivered because of the account," she said.
"This is an open and transparent process and the ministry has long acknowledged staff who work for and deliver fish and wildlife services receive pay and benefits when required".
Kirk said it costs $100-million annually to pay for the programs and the SPA pays for 70 per cent of the costs.
