© Flickr/newfoundlander61The news department of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) recently reported that unpaid fines for violations of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act and the Ontario Fishery Regulations (legislation that governs hunting and fishing) now total $3.5 million (Canadian).[teaserbreak]
It’s a huge amount relative to government budgets that have seen severe limits to the enforcement capabilities of the Ministry’s Conservation Officers (COs). Tales abound of COs far too underfunded to effectively protect Ontario wildlife, including non-game species of animals and plants lucratively attractive to collectors. It’s not the COs’ fault; I’ve been told that, at times, they don’t even have money to pay for gas to drive to investigations.
At the time of writing this blog, Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, Kathryn McGarry, had refused to be interviewed by CBC.
As new legislation kicks in, the province will have to be able to refuse to issue license renewals to those who have not paid their fines. Remember: these are not simply people who have been accused, but who have also been convicted in court or pled guilty to poaching, over-fishing, or unsafe hunting practices.
It’s unclear what percentage of these unpaid fines are owed by non-Ontarians who have simply fled the province, making collection difficult to impossible. But, surely, if fines are unpaid—some dating back 20 years—the people who owe them should not be allowed to obtain a new license to kill our wildlife.
There is a privately-owned toll highway behind my home that links me to Toronto and points beyond. For years, I (and all who use it) have had to pay our fees—or else we couldn’t renew our drivers’ licenses. The government does have options.
Wildlife is under unprecedented pressure. Rarity of an animal increases the value to hunters, and the honest majority are, themselves, deprived of animals to kill by the actions of the poachers. There is no real way to determine how many animals poachers kill. Criminals don’t report such information. That unknown number is augmented by an often equally unknown number killed by First Nations hunters exercising venerable treaty rights. Add to that the dramatic changes caused by climate change and rapid encroachment on habitat, plus the seemingly endless addition of toxic substances to the environment, and it is increasingly difficult to regulate numbers of animals that can be killed legally, without endangering the species.
The system used by Ontario’s adjoining neighbor, Minnesota, tracks licensing via a computerized system and prevents those who owe fines from renewing hunting or fishing licenses. Ontario easily could—and should—do the same.
Keep wildlife in the wild,
Barry