My Christmas Rant on the Gutting of the MNR

Since the MNR withdrew support for our Temagami Stewardship Council in 2006 I have used
every opportunity (and there have been many) to chew on the MNR’s ass. Unfortunately there comes a
point when it is like harassing Toronto Maple Leaf fans. Their situation is so pitiful that you have to feel
sorry for them. Unlike the Leafs it is going to take more than a 5-year plan to return the MNR to the
venerable standing that it once commanded.

Problems with the MNR are not all the fault of their incompetent and archaic management style
although Harold Ballard would be proud of them. With all the political hoop law in the past number of
decades over the cost of health care and education the politicians in Toronto found an area where they
could trim spending and no one would notice. That is because the real work of the MNR is not conducted
in Toronto. I don’t think we can blame Mike Harris for this one as the gutting of the MNR was underway
before he was elected. He just hurried the process.

When the McGinty Liberals were elected I naively thought the government might have taken steps
to rectify things. They began well by choosing a Minister who knew something about natural resources
and came from Northern Ontario. But then they saddled him with Native Affairs and with the Caledonia
crisis nothing was accomplished. With a new election came a new Minister of Natural Resources. By all
accounts an excellent politician, but in reality a figure head who knows nothing about hunting or fishing.
She is there to put a smiling face on a Ministry that continues to be gutted

As citizens of Ontario we have all accepted; Drastic reductions in the number of conservation
officers, Conservation officers told to stay at their desks and respond only to calls from tip lines,
Conservation officers not provided with gas to run their trucks holding bake sales to get money to buy
gas, MNR offices locked to the general public they are supposed to be serving, Drastic reductions in the
number of biologists in MNR area offices and the subsequent reductions in the quantity and quality of
scientific fisheries, forestry and wildlife studies conducted to aid in the proper management of our forests,
fish and wildlife. Ironically at the same time the liberal directed MNR destroyed two of the most viable
Stewardship Councils in Ontario on Lake Nipissing and Lake Temagami along with all the fisheries and
wildlife research they were conducting.

As hunters and fishermen we have accepted; A moose management policy based on a lack of
creditable scientific data which was already decided before public opinion was gathered (contempt for
public involvement) and Management decisions made contrary to their existing management policy, A
wasteful, knee jerk, issuing of “Kill” permits for valuable Elk without an elk management plan in place, A
bear hunt regulation based on political expediency rather than good science, The collapse of the sports
fishery in Georgian Bay, Lake Huron and Lake Ontario, Overly restrictive Walleye and Brook trout
regulations for Zone 11 not based on science or the MNR’s own tool kits.
To many of us feel that by buying a membership in OFAH that we are doing something to support
hunting and fishing in Ontario. Other than a few letters OFAH has done nothing to stand up against the
gutting of the MNR or the questionable MNR management practices. The Ontario Outdoor Recreational
Alliance or OntORA is an example of citizens in Northern Ontario who have had enough of questionable
land use management policy and have banded together to fight for credible public involvement in the
crown lands management.

It is time to hold the politicians accountable for their lack of support for our natural resources. It is
time to hold the MNR accountable for their poor management policies something that even Ontario’s
Ombudsman has been faint-hearted to tackle. It is time for all of us to be more politically active and
demand that our natural resources be preserved, protected, restored and improved so that they will still be
here for our grandchildren.

Gaye Smith
R.R.#3, Paisley, Ont.
519-353-7275