House of Commons Committee Report on Hunting and Trapping

[rf2]

Here is a report from a House of Commons Committee on the status of hunting and trapping in Canada. I have not read it yet, but I thought some people here might be interested in knowing what the government is being told about our favorite pasttimes. Enjoy:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublicati...&Parl=41&Ses=2

[trimmer21]

Thank you for posting,rf2. I've read most of it and I'm very pleased thaty sections of the report dump responsibilty for the decline of anglers,hunters and trappers squarely on the shoulders of past adverse government legislation which the report deemed to be very detrimental in the form of useless regulation and especially,the implementation of The Long Gun Registry.

[kickingfrog]

Not a lot in there that most of us wouldn't be aware of since we are on the inside so to speak, and for the most part sportive of hunting and trapping.

It does list recommendations at the end:

LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS
The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada:

1. Continue to work collaboratively with provinces and territories topromote and advocate for hunting and trapping.
2. Explore options to conduct a comprehensive analysis of theeconomic value of hunting and trapping in Canada.
3. Ensure that habitat conservation programs also includeconservation of populations of hunted and trapped species.
4. Communicate the benefits of hunting and trappingacross Canada.
5. Educate Canadians on programs in Environment Canada thatsupport hunting and trapping.
6. Support initiatives and programs that help to recruit new huntersand trappers.
7. Minimize red tape to make it easier for people to take up hunting.
8. Implement incentive-based programs to conserve habitat on theworking landscape.
9. Investigate the use of best practices amongst other levels ofgovernment that manage nuisance wildlife.

10.Implement programs that enhance the populations of wildlifespecies that are hunted and/or trapped, where appropriate toensure sustainable use.


11.Continue to support the Hunting and Angling AdvisoryPanel (HAAP).


12.Support holding a National Conference on Wildlife to helpcelebrate the 150th Anniversary of Canada.


13.Continue to provide funding that supports humane trap researchand testing in Canada.

[MikePal]

and especially,the implementation of The Long Gun Registry.

"Chief among legislation that witnesses raised as having unintended consequences on the hunting and trapping community was the long-gun registry, which Parliament enacted in 1995. A witness testified that “when that came in, it just turned sour. A lot of men and women just gave up the sport . They got rid of their guns and we lost them forever".

That's a hard one to decipher...was the decline in number of people owning guns due to those who gave them away because they didn't want to get a PAL/POL in order to keep them......or ....was it that the stringent interview/application process to get a PAL/POL made it impossible for some people be allowed to own a gun.

I would suspect the PAL/POL requirements were more a factor than the 'Long Gun' registry in itself.

[DGearyFTE]

Rob - Great post!

Interesting that this report included a reference to the Canadian Tourism Commission 2012 report. I had read the 2012 report previously and I was not surprised to see the potential numbers ($dollars) that are as yet untapped. You would think that this would occur to the politicians as win-win scenario.

The report begins with an expansive intro to hunting and trapping in Canada as part of our heritage, then goes not to talk about declining numbers. Then in the recommendations there is weak wording and a complete miss on what should be the targets for future efforts. Where is the clearly stated recommendation for government sponsored policies to promote growth in youth participation? There is a direct statement that there are too many in front of video games in a current Canadian society that is suffering the growing threat of obesity.

"Get the kids out from in front of the TV and get them into the woods!" All the learned people in a room and the couldn't come up with this obvious output?

$500? $500? to get a wolf pelt out of Canada! Here we are listening to the continous cry about a dwindling economy as we sit on the second largest territory in the world that is rife with a sustainable wildlife population and the current net result from government is a beaucracy laden industry that makes hunting in Canada harder than Chinese Algebra.

[trimmer21]

"Chief among legislation that witnesses raised as having unintended consequences on the hunting and trapping community was the long-gun registry, which Parliament enacted in 1995. A witness testified that “when that came in, it just turned sour. A lot of men and women just gave up the sport . They got rid of their guns and we lost them forever".

That's a hard one to decipher...was the decline in number of people owning guns due to those who gave them away because they didn't want to get a PAL/POL in order to keep them......or ....was it that the stringent interview/application process to get a PAL/POL made it impossible for some people be allowed to own a gun.

I would suspect the PAL/POL requirements were more a factor than the 'Long Gun' registry in itself.

From a former law enforcement perspective,I have no doubt that our POL/PAL requirements may have led some people to simply turn in unwanted firearms that they probably weren't using,anyway. I also have no doubt that some people knew,from the get-go,that for one reason or another,they'd never pass a personal investigation to qualify,but,I really believe that many people took one look at the hoopps they needed to jump through and simply said "Screw it,I'll go golfing,instead."

[welsh]

It is true that regulation and red tape deters participation, and it may be true that the lack of a right to hunt and fish threatens hunting and fishing in the long term. It is certainly true that habitat loss is a major threat.

But the major cause of declining numbers of hunters and anglers is urbanization, urban sprawl, and a lack of access to land and water for hunting and fishing. That's well documented, and true across jurisdictions (including in the US, where there has been no LGR to blame). The biggest hoop for people to jump through is finding places to hunt & fish.

Strangely, it's not in the report.

Well, not so strangely, really ... a committee calls as witnesses a bunch of people with axes to grind, and then reports what they said. This is not a comprehensive analysis of anything except what various activists want.