Editor,
Communities with urban wildlife problems didn’t much go to the locals before running to BC’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources to ask them what to do. After all, what do the locals know about wildlife? This is a job for city slickers in suits. Wrong move.
Under this ministry, wildlife management is in shambles. In just 10 years, B.C. lost half its elk population. A mountain caribou herd teeters on extinction down to three animals. Habitat loss is a prime suspect: they starved to death. As for urban wildlife, after a decade of communities taking bad advice from this ministry, we’re no further ahead. They’re not even looking for a solution but grasping for an excuse to amend the Wildlife Act – before getting arrested for animal cruelty. They want the act to read like the Fisheries Act that Harper previously gutted. It says, “Got no commercial value, you got no rights, buddy. Starve if we care.” International trade deals don’t allow for pesky flora, fauna, fish or foul – or citizens – to impede the profits of international investors as they gut Canada’s resources.
We are told a “resounding majority” of the mayors and directors of the UBCM groupthink puppet society have already pledged to do whatever the ministry tells them, ignoring local concerns. What kind of democracy is that?
Bryan Stawychny
Edgewater, B.C.
