To the editor:
Re: Mal Haggard’s wildlife policy letter Jan. 16.
Mr. Haggard is right on with his facts in his letter to the Free Press on Jan. 15.
I was on the Advisory Committee in Williams Lake for Region 5 (Cariboo-Chilcotin). The present government is well aware of all the facts in his letter, but doesn’t seem to care.
They know resident hunters spend millions of dollars every year to buy vehicles, riverboats, licences, special clothes and boots, camping gear and other sporting goods.
In the end, we get lean organic meat at the local butcher shop which we value highly. Thousands of resident hunters travel from the Lower Mainland to the Interior spending money along the way. None of this seems to register with government.
Government “by the people for the people” has been missing in this province when it comes to allocating wildlife harvesting between resident hunters and commercial hunting for a long time.
It is hard to understand how they can give 20-40% of the allocation to less than 1% of the citizens (a few hundred outfitters) to sell while the other 99% (100,000 residents and growing) must share the remaining 60-80% (depending on species and region).
Resident hunters should be receiving at least 90% of the allocation, just as is done in most North American jurisdictions.
Could it be our government takes its residents for granted, and need little consideration, thus making it possible to bring in extra dollars by selling more wildlife to foreign trophy hunters, while they sell residents out for the opportunity to hunt in the their local area of their home province?
Maybe it has something to do with claims for economic hardship which outfitters have been known to file in the past. They are costly and time consuming for everyone concerned, but make good bargaining tools for a bigger share of the allocation. This strategy is not available to resident hunters.
Our provincial politicians might like to know what you think of this policy that appears to have been set to appease a special-interest group and its lobbyists at the expense of taxpaying residents.
It has been said that it conforms to the policy of resident priority, but the numbers indicate otherwise.
It appears that they just don’t care about “we the people.”
Garth Lee
108 Mile Ranch
