Peace and Environment News* April 2000
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Peace and Environment News * April 2000 |
by Anita Krajnc and Tony Weis
The Harris Government Wants to Expand Sports Hunting In Ontario ParksAction Alert
The Harris government proposes to open four of Ontario's wilderness parks - Killamey, Quetico, Wabakimi and Woodland Caribou - to sports hunting. Wilderness parks are the most ecologically significant areas because they are large enough to allow the forces of nature to function freely with little human intervention. This is true of wildlife too. Wildlife populations can fluctuate based on the influences of natural forces such as predator-to-prey relationships. They do not need hunters to gun them down!
Please take a moment and write to John Snobelen and tell him you oppose the killing of wildlife through sports hunting in any of Ontario's provincial parks and protected areas. Hon. John Snobelen, Minister of Natural Resources Also, please carbon copy your letter to the managers of each park. They need your help and support or otherwise they are powerless to stop the new Harris policy. | ||
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Will Kershaw Ontario Parks NE Zone |
Julie Sullivan Ontario Parks NW Zone | |
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Sponsored by the Peaceful Parks Coalition, P.O. Box 326, Stn. B Toronto Ont. M5T 2W2 | ||
The Harris Government is contemplating opening up Ontario's existing Wilderness Parks to sport hunting and fishing to satisfy the demands of a small but influential special interest group—people who "enjoy" wildlife by killing it.
Already, sport hunting is allowed on the majority of crown lands and in a significant portion of provincial parks. Currently, 67 out of 270 existing provincial parks allow various forms of sport hunting, such as birds and mammals in parts of Algonquin, moose in Lake Superior, and ducks and geese in Presque'île and Long Point.
The number of parks open to sport hunting will increase substantially when new parks are created under the Harris Government's Living Legacy initiative. Although received with much fanfare, Ontario's Living Legacy (the product of the Lands for Life planning process) does not defend wildlife, and in fact does very little to protect the environment. The Harris Government allocated only 5 percent of the planning area to parks and protected areas, and a whopping 95 percent to industrial interests such as mining and logging. This area covers almost half the province. What's worse, practically all the new parks and protected areas will allow sport hunting and fishing, trapping, snowmobiling, and mining. As the Toronto Star stated, Ontario's Living Legacy "protects development from parks—not parks from development." (For more information, see <web.northcom.net/pronature/greenwash.html>)
No place free from bullets
Of the 378 new parks, park additions, and protected areas created under Living Legacy, only 13 are Nature Reserves, and none are Wilderness Parks, the two categories of parks in Ontario which currently prohibit sport hunting and motorized access. Only 48,711 hectares out of 42 million hectares in the Lands for Life area will be left for animals to live free from the threat of bullets.
Wilderness Parks are large, predominantly roadless, and represent the only areas in Ontario where we can hope to preserve natural ecosystems. Ontario's eight Wilderness Parks are: Killarney, Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater, Quetico, Wabakimi, Woodland Caribou, Kesagami, Opasquia, and Polar Bear.
Wilderness parks are a haven for canoeists, hikers and other eco-tourists, who are the fastest growing segment of nature users in Canada and in other places around the world. Unlike hunters and fishers, these people have minimal impact on wildlife and do not generally support recreational killing. However, this large and rapidly growing segment of society is rarely heard compared to the powerful, organized, and well-funded sport hunting lobby.
Hungry for more
Now, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH), combined with the active support of the Tories for the sport hunting agenda, has its eyes set on these parks as well.
The Toronto Star ran a story in February exposing the Harris Government's plan to open not only all new provincial parks to sport hunting, but existing wilderness parks as well, which up to now have been excluded from the "hook and bullet" crowd. As the article points out, the government's plan is contrary to the objectives of Ontario parks.
Killarney Wilderness Park on the north shore of Georgian Bay is likely to be opened for wildlife killing soon. Killarney is due for a new parks management plan, since the last one was completed in 1985.
In Ontario's Northwest, three Wilderness Parks are threatened. Two parks, Wabakimi and Woodland Caribou Wilderness Parks, do not yet have management plans, and could begin the management planning process within the next several months. Quetico's last park management planning process was completed in 1995, and is unlikely to undergo the costly process in the near term.
Public involvement needed
It is essential for the public to become involved in the public consultations surrounding the Park Management Planning process. If the status of existing Wilderness Parks is altered, then virtually the whole province is open to sport hunting.
But things are changing. The percentage of Ontarians who hunt has been in consistent decline for the past two decades, shrinking to only 3.5 percent of the province in 1996, according to an Environment Canada survey. Further, an Oracle poll in October 1999 found that 77 percent of the public oppose sport hunting in parks and protected areas. The Harris Government is opening up a potentially volatile can of worms, one which could cause a major backlash to sport hunting and, perhaps for the first time, provide the impetus for an organized opposition to the as-of-yet unchallenged Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters.
The Harris government needs to take a u-turn. Rather than riding roughshod over public sentiment and the objectives of parks in favour of a small but privileged minority of hunters, why not listen to the public for a change? Ban sport hunting in all Ontario parks and protected areas, including conservation, natural environment, and waterway parks. We have already appropriated and degraded an excessive amount of habitat, and it is time to give the other beings with whom we share this province some expanded areas of peaceful sanctuary. Give Ontario's wildlife a fighting chance.
What you can do
Talk to your friends and family about the Harris Government's attack on Ontario's park system, and ask them to do the same.
Call and meet with your local MPP. You can call Ontario Elections for the name and number of your local MPP at (416) 326-6300.
Write to Hon. John Snobelen, Minister of Natural Resources, Room 6301, Whitney Block, 99 Wellesley Street West, Toronto, Ontario M7A 1W3. Fax: (416) 314-2216. E-mail: john_snobelen@ontla.ola.org
Send a copy of your letter to the park managers below. They need your support to oppose the Harris policy. Please send us a copy of your correspondence as well.
For information, contact:
Anita Krajnc is a campaigner with the Peaceful Parks Coalition. Tony Weis is on the Executive Committee of the Eastern Canada chapter of the Sierra Club.
Converted May 29, 2000 - Lg
To follow up on this article, contact the author or the organizations/individuals mentioned; do not contact the Peace and Environment Resource Centre - we cannot provide follow up or contact information. This article is an archival copy of the printed one in the Peace and Environment News (PEN). Viewpoints expressed should not be taken to represent the opinions of the Peace and Environment Resource Centre, the PEN, or our supporters.
