Northern Ontario Environmental Issues
(The following letter and press release
was sent to the Minister of Natural Resources and all major media across
Canada.)
FROM: THE CANADIAN OUTDOOR HERITAGE
ALLIANCE
SUBJECT: OPEN LETTER TO DAVID RAMSAY, MINISTER OF NATURAL RESOURCES.
Hon David Ramsay
Minister of Natural Resources
Government of Ontario
Dear Minister Ramsay:
Re: Science and biology and northern Ontariošs bear problem
Recently you were sent a proposal from the Northwestern Ontario
Sportsmenšs Alliance suggesting that a program be instituted through the
MNR to reintroduce black bears into their traditional southern Ontario
range. You apparently have dismissed this proposal stating that "moving
the bears south would be allowing the bear problems from the north to be
repeated in the southern part of the province." You must then agree
there is a black bear problem in northern Ontario, which you do not wish
to see repeated in southern Ontario.
A university professor was cited as
saying "black bear reintroduction in southern Ontario would lead to
bears roaming into southern Ontario urban centers inevitably sentencing
them to death as a result of them being shot by authorities. Of course
this is exactly what has happened, and will be happening, in northern
Ontario centers.
A black bear study from Manitoba which
advocates a spring black bear hunt as a viable method of controlling
black bear problems, has been ignored by your ministry in your refusal
to reinstate Ontariošs spring black bear hunt. This study, by recognized
biologists and scientists, apparently cannot be applied to Ontario,
where the spring hunt was cancelled because of pressure from animal
rights groups on moral and ethical grounds.
NOSA has asked you if science and biology
are going to be cited as reasons to not permit reintroduction of black
bears in southern Ontario, while public opinion is the reason for not
solving the northern Ontario black bear problem with a scientifically
proven bear management program?
Are there separate standards for southern
Ontario and northern Ontario? COHA wonders why southern Ontario citizens
are held exempt from problems being experienced by northern Ontario
citizens, and for questionable reasons?
COHA asks you to publicly to explain why
a scientifically proven wildlife management technique, proven in
Manitoba, cannot be put into place in northern Ontario, one that was
recommended by your own Nuisance Bear Committee, to control the
ballooning black bear population? And why the concerns of northern
Ontario residents are being ignored, while acting on the
politically-motivated whims of special interest groups located far from
the problem centers.
It is COHA's worry, Minister, that unless firm steps are taken
immediately by your ministry, some northern Ontario citizen (or even a
southern Ontario tourist) will be killed or badly mauled by a black bear
this spring or summer.
Further it is COHA's concern that the MNR
is not being allowed to manage Ontariošs wildlife using traditional
science and biology and is is being directed to follow politically
oriented instructions that have nothing to do with managing wildlife and
everything to do with a political agenda.
Yours truly,
Bob McQuay
Chairman
CANADIAN OUTDOOR HERITAGE ALLIANCE
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
James W. (Jim) Lawrence
Lawrence Marketing & Communications
Canadian Outdoor Heritage Alliance
1650 Old Wooler Road
Wooler, Ontario, K0K 3M0
Phone 613-397-1157 FAX 613-397-1158
Cell 613-848-3790
lawrence@lawrencemarketing.ca
For more details visit
www.friends-of-fur.org
