BRANDON – Sheldon Willey went to a public meeting last week to share his thoughts on regulating hunt farms in Manitoba.
He expected to talk about bush densities and the minimum number of acres he should have when hosting wild boar hunts on his farm near Rossburn, Man.
Instead, he learned the province plans to prohibit hunt farms in Manitoba. Such enterprises could be banned as early as next spring.
Willey was shocked.
He attended another public meeting the following night, Nov. 22 at Brandon to voice his dismay and frustration with the province’s actions.
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“I thought it was a chance to regulate the industry we’re in,” said Willey, an outfitter whose main enterprise is wild boar hunting. “But basically my head’s on the chopping block and I get to decide how it’s sliced.”
The province this summer passed the Wildlife Amendment Act, enabling legislation that gives the government authority to regulate the hunting of captive native and exotic wildlife in Manitoba.
The province issued a news release Nov. 8 stating input would be gathered through public meetings in November and early December to help draft regulations.
There was no mention in the news release of prohibiting hunt farms.
“It really feels like a knife in the back,” said Willey during the Brandon meeting. “How do you just pull a business out from under someone who is doing it legally?”
Jack Dubois, who is chairing the six public meetings, was clear about the intention of Manitoba’s conservation minister Oscar Lathlin.
That intention, Dubois said, is to prohibit the hunting of native and exotic wildlife species held in captivity. That will include species such as elk, white-tailed deer, bison, wild boar and fallow deer.
“The government recognizes there are existing operations and they will have to be dealt with in a fair way,” Dubois said.
When asked whether the termination of existing hunt farms might be one of those ways, he replied: “Yes, or grandfathered, or expropriated or phased out over time. All those are possible options.”
Ed Harms, president of the Manitoba Elk Growers Association, said the province’s actions clash with the advice of agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk and her predecessor, Harry Enns, who advocate diversification and value-adding processing.
By prohibiting hunt farms, the province is killing an opportunity for producers to diversify, said Harms.
Game ranches in Saskatchewan generate about $14 million annually for that province’s economy. Producers gross more than $4 million a year from those ranches, he said.
Randy Walker, president of the Manitoba Wildlife Federation, was the only person at the Brandon meeting to speak in favor of a ban on hunt farms. He said the majority of the federation’s 14,000 members oppose so-called penned hunting.
“Just the idea of it … turns me off,” Walker said, while acknowledging that he has never visited a hunt farm.
Manitoba’s NDP and Conservative parties both promised to ban penned hunting during last fall’s provincial election. The New Democrats won the election and set the wheels in motion to follow through on their promise.
There were questions last week about whether the province might be setting a double standard. Harms said the province’s planned ban on hunt farms will not stop First Nations people from developing those enterprises.
“Now we’re going to have a two-tier system where there are people who can and people who can’t.”
By the close of the Brandon meeting, Willey was still clinging to a hope that the province won’t move forward with the ban.
“To really think that it’s over, I just can’t grasp that.”
