Environment Committee on April 28th, 2015

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

I'd like to call meeting number 52 of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development to order.

We have appearing by video conference from the Yukon Fish and Game Association, Gordon Zealand, executive director; from Lethbridge, Alberta, Wayne Lowry, president of the Alberta Fish and Game Association; and from the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, Darrell Crabbe, executive director.

We're going to begin in the order that I introduced you, gentlemen, Mr. Gordon Zealand first for a 10-minute opening statement, then Mr. Lowry, and then Mr. Crabbe. Following that, our committee members will proceed with questions during a seven-minute question and answer period.

Mr. Zealand.

[Gordon Zealand, Executive Director, Yukon Fish and Game Association]

Good morning. I wasn't quite sure what was expected of us this morning.

The major point that I'd like to emphasize is the fact that I don't believe there's enough recognition of the value of what our outdoor resource contributes to the Canadian economy. Within Yukon, it's corroborated by the fact that we recently did an analysis on just what the bison hunting does for Yukon, which just in the last few years was open to general hunting. When I say general hunting, it used to be by permit only. That isn't the case anymore. This one individual hunt, within Yukon, is now in the order of millions of dollars within the Yukon economy.

From our point, it just further substantiates the fact that we take our outdoor resources so much for granted, including the fishing industry. When I say the fishing industry, I'm talking about the sport fishing industry and what exactly that contributes in terms of dollars to the economy.

There is so much that kids are missing out on today because of the fact that we're just not getting them out and involved in the outdoor resources. When I mention the outdoor resources, I'm not just talking about hunting and fishing, whether it's canoeing, whether it's hiking. I am talking about just enjoying the outdoors. When you have kids participating in the various activities and you're trying to find out why there is a lack, the major issue seems to be that parents or other related family members just don't seem to be taking the time to get the kids out and be involved.

Our association is one that wants to try and emphasize at least the opportunity to have these things there for kids who perhaps don't have any other way of getting out and getting involved. We're not just talking about kids. There could be families that have not had opportunities previously. We see this as an opportunity. We're not just talking about a particular group. Whether you're talking first nations, whether you're talking non-first nations, it's the same.

There seems to be a general lack where kids aren't getting the opportunity to be out and be involved. At least from conversations with counterparts across Canada, it's not dissimilar anywhere else. We certainly have noticed that here, and that is one of our pushes in the future in terms of getting people out, getting them involved, making sure the opportunity is there for them to at least experience some parts of the outdoors that may attract them.

Down the road, it doesn't seem to matter what level of government we're referring to. All levels seem to take for granted the amount of money that is contributed to the economy from these types of activities and I just can't emphasize that enough.

At least to my eyes, it's a pretty simple picture that we just take for granted. From our point of view, this was the one major emphasis that our association would like to leave with you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you, Mr. Zealand.

You may have an opportunity to give direct input in terms of recommendations to the committee as to how various levels of government can address that. We'll come back to you with our questions and answers in a few moments.

We'll proceed now to Mr. Wayne Lowry from the Alberta Fish and Game Association.

[Wayne Lowry, President, Alberta Fish and Game Association]

Thank you.

Based on the study criteria that were presented, I decided to focus my comments primarily on the contributions of hunters and trappers to wildlife management and conservation.

First, I just wanted to share a bit of data on our organization, the Alberta Fish and Game Association. Here and after I will refer to it just as AFGA. We are a not-for-profit, volunteer organization, proud to serve Albertans in the promotion of the wise use of our fish and wildlife resources, and the conservation of their habitats. The AFGA has been active in Alberta since 1908 in working toward these goals. It has a province-wide membership of over 24,000 individuals spread among more than 100 clubs throughout the province.

As president of AFGA, I take great pride in the contributions that our membership makes and continues to make toward the betterment of Alberta's precious fish and wildlife resources and the habitat they depend on for their existence and survival. We are, first and foremost, conservationists who have a significant connection to the outdoors through a number of activities and projects. I would like to share just a few details about some of the more significant projects that we have undertaken in the province. These projects have been initiated and funded through AFGA, and they continue to be funded and operated by AFGA.

The first project I would like to talk about is our wildlife trust fund. Our wildlife trust fund was established back in 1986, when the association saw that the habitat was quickly being reallocated toward industrial, commercial, and even private interests, as well as agriculture. We saw a need to help preserve some of the more pristine habitats for wildlife. It was the first land trust fund that was set up in Alberta. It currently holds over 100 properties throughout the province, containing over 40,000 acres that we have obtained for conservation purposes. These properties are available to anyone, at any time of the year, for any type of activities, whether it be hiking, photography, hunting, fishing, or just enjoying the outdoors.

Last year alone, we added over 2,000 acres to this trust fund and continue to have a great deal of support from our members and the province as a whole. We run this program in conjunction with some of the other programs available, such as eco-gifting, and some properties end up in the trust fund from that. We also partner with other organizations in acquiring these properties. All the properties are sought for their ecological and habitat significance, so they are assessed prior to obtaining them for that purpose.

The second program is our operation grassland community program. In this program, we work with landowners in the mixed-grass prairie area of southeastern Alberta. The mixed-grass prairie region still comprises a large component of the Province of Alberta, and it is very sensitive to activities on those types of habitats. It cannot handle a whole lot of disturbance without having long-term effects on those habitats. We work with the landowners to help educate them on ways to manage the property, with the ecological value of the property in mind. We have over 300 agreements with landowners who have plans in place to help preserve the ecological value of these lands.

Also, given that the native prairie is very sensitive, many of the species at risk exist in this area. We also help lead landowners on how to assist in maintaining habitat that is suitable for these species at risk.

The third program, I'll just quickly mention, is the Antelope Creek Ranch. This is a partnership program we operate with Ducks Unlimited, Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, and Wildlife Habitat Canada.

The Antelope Creek Ranch is a 5,500-acre ranch that we manage strictly as a demonstration ranch to help demonstrate how competing interests on the land, such as livestock, recreation, oil and gas activity and development, marshlands, and of course the wildlife that exists on those habitats can work together. We also use that ranch for educational purposes, and we have many individuals doing their theses on the ranch through the University of Regina, the University of Alberta, and the University of Calgary.

The fourth program is an antelope corridor enhancement project whereby our members fund and provide the labour to amend fencing in areas where antelope migrate. Antelope can't or won't jump fences, so they are forced to go under fences. Many of these fences restrict their natural movements, so we assist in replacing a lot of these fences with wildlife-friendly fences and provide the material and the labour to change these fences. To date we've replaced over 900 kilometres of fencing, and we continue to run three or four projects every year to change that.

We operate our conservation camps for youth and women. It has been shown that youth and women are the fastest growing demographic in outdoor sports in the province of Alberta, and we run camps to help them develop and introduce them to different activities that can be completed in the outdoors.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that on behalf of the Alberta government, we operate the minister's special licence auction and raffle, where funds are raised that go directly back into research and habitat development for specific wildlife species. These funds are then granted to different organizations or universities that are taking on projects that will enhance knowledge of wildlife species, their habits, how they interact with the habitats they live in, and ways they can be bettered.

That will complete my opening statement. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lowry.

You did present the committee with a written statement in English only, but it is much more in-depth. I'm going to ask that each committee member receives this by translation in the future, just so that you know the extra material you wouldn't have had time to cover in your opening statement is available to our committee members.

We'll proceed to Mr. Darrell Crabbe, executive director of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation.

Mr. Crabbe.

[Darrell Crabbe, Executive Director, Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation]

Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the significance of licensed hunting and trapping in Canada. Many have already provided a great deal of information to you on this subject in greater depth and much more eloquently than I can, particularly the OFAH. I was able to read their presentation, and it was very much on a national-stage level. I hope only to add to their presentation, perhaps more on a provincial stage, as my two counterparts have done.

The Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation was established in 1929 and probably represents more than 33,000 members in 121 branches across our province. We're considered to be per capita the largest conservation organization of this kind in the world.

In opening, I'd like to address the benefits from an economic, conservation, and quality-of-life basis.

First from the economic standpoint, the economic impact of the heritage activities—hunting, angling, and trapping—is placed at approximately $15 billion annually across Canada. In Saskatchewan, a 2006 provincial government study with the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation confirmed that more than $500 million in economic activity was generated in Saskatchewan annually through those activities. This did not include first nation activities.

A 2016 update on that information suggested that the number is closer to $600 million today. In Saskatchewan, more than 25% of our provincial population, which is 1.1 million people, participate in hunting, trapping, or angling ever year.

Saskatchewan presently trains more than 5,000 new hunters and trappers annually. Interestingly, as Mr. Lowry pointed out, that increase is being led by the female demographic, and we're very happy. In 2000, I believe about 10% of our new recruits were female, and now they're approaching one-third or about 35%, which is very exciting and very gratifying.

Again, hunting and trapping provides more than 1,000 full-time equivalents in employment in Saskatchewan every year, interestingly mostly rural. This was prior to Cabela's opening of two stores in our province over the past three years and aggressive expansion into hunting and angling retailing by a number of other retailers, such as Canadian Tire and cooperatives.

As a footnote to that comment, this does not include non-government organizations, such as the SWF, NCC, DU, or government positions, such as DFO, Canadian Wildlife Service, or the Ministry of Environment's biologists and conservation officers, which would number somewhere in the range of 400 to 500 additional FTEs every year.

In most jurisdictions the millions of dollars generated by licence and permit sales support conservation programs and projects.

In 1980, the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation convinced the provincial government to increase licence costs to create our fish and wildlife development fund. It was suggested that this was the first time that a group asked government to levy a surcharge to promote conservation. I don't think that across the board in North America that happens very often.

Today, 30% of all licensed sales are dedicated to the fish and wildlife development fund and used to provide habitat and fisheries enhancement and securement. We also use those funds to operate our provincial hatchery and provide funding for education, research, and program development in our province. Most of the $4.5 million generated annually is matched by NGOs.

The conservation benefits provided by hunting and trapping are numerous and multi-faceted. We only have to consider the negative effects that overpopulation of any species has on agriculture, vehicle collision numbers, and habitat degradation. Hunting and trapping are the only effective tool utilized under responsible game management to maintain healthy species population levels.

In addition, millions of dollars are raised each year by wildlife federations to protect and enhance wildlife and fisheries habitat, research, outdoor education, and responsible conservation management. We also actively finance and provide thousands of volunteer man-hours towards invasive species programs and species at risk research and initiatives. The SWF presently holds title to more than 60,000 acres of wildlife habitat in our province and manages an additional 100,000 acres.

It's very fair to say that wildlife organizations across North America and the world are the backbone of today's modern conservation movement.

From a quality of life standpoint, the quality of life benefits provided by these heritage activities are difficult to quantify. In a recent survey, over 50% of Saskatchewan residents stated their proximity and available access to nature was paramount in their decision of where they decided to live.

I grew up in a family whose social and family lives revolved around these activities and time spent in the outdoors. Over the years I have come to realize that we share this way of life with millions of others in Canada from all walks of life. Its pervasive influence in our lives would escape most to describe. I can only suggest that participating in heritage activities with family, friends, and individually is the essential component of the quality of life fabric that makes the hunting, angling, and trapping community who we are, why we are, and what we are.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you very much for your opening statements.

I'm going to proceed to a seven-minute opening round of questions by our members.

Prior to that, Mr. Lowry, in your opening statement in the first page you mentioned the wildlife trust fund. In your verbal comments you said it was established in 1986, but your written says 1983. It's not a big deal, but if our analysts are looking for the number it might be helpful for you to clarify that.

[Wayne Lowry]

Yes, my apologies. It is 1983.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Okay, we're going to proceed to the first round of questions.

Mr. Sopuck, please.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB]

Thank you very much. All of your testimonies were very compelling.

I agree with Mr. Zealand when he made the point that there's not enough recognition of the outdoor activities that are so important in Canada. I was impressed by the conservation record of your three organizations in terms of what you do. In fact I came across a definition of a hunter. It's that a hunter is somebody who pays for all conservation, but gets no credit for it. I think that this study is an attempt to remedy that.

I'll ask Mr. Crabbe directly, why is this study important? It's the first of its kind by the environment committee. Why is it important for our committee to look at this topic?

[Darrell Crabbe]

Thanks, Mr. Sopuck.

I would think we all somewhat work on the premise that 10% of the population completely support hunting, 10% are adamantly opposed to it, and the 80% in the middle are the group that we all try to attain support from. If we have very definitive research on hunting and the benefits of hunting that we can provide to that 80%, they'll recognize the great values that those activities provide for society as a whole.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB]

I came across a study by Cornell University that looked at the role of hunters in conservation. The study labelled the hunters as conservation superstars. With the metrics that you presented both from Alberta and Saskatchewan in terms of the acreage that you have secured for conservation, it's very clear that's true.

Again for Mr. Crabbe, you talk about 60,000 acres that the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation owns plus you manage another 100,000 acres for conservation. Can you elaborate on the public benefits that accrue from those landscape conservation programs of yours?

[Darrell Crabbe]

If I could I'd break it down to quality of life opportunities, which I think Mr. Lowry also mentioned. Our lands that we manage and the ones that we own—we have about 67,000 acres right now—are open to the public for access for berry picking, hiking, photography, and all of what we would classify maybe as non-consumptive outdoor activities. They are certainly open to hunting, angling, and other activities.

The other benefits are agricultural. In Saskatchewan most of our lands are hayed or grazed. The only difference is rather than having an agricultural perspective when grazing rates are determined, ours are determined by benefits to the habitat there. Grazing is incorporated as a tool to do that.

There is also an economic benefit to our lands outside of the activities that go on through hunting, and angling, and others. Most of our lands we manage were purchased through the fish and wildlife development fund, which we all contribute to with 30% of all license fees. Those were purchased and we have just taken over management of those because they were not being actively managed, which does not do the properties.... It doesn't help the wildlife values on those properties, but it increases the agricultural opportunities within those properties.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB]

Again, Mr. Crabbe, I know that when the long-gun registry was brought in years ago, the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, the SWF, was a visceral opponent of the registry, as were many of us. Apart from the failings of the registry itself, it seemed to me that by discouraging people from owning firearms, it discouraged people from going hunting, and in my view, had some significant effects on the conservation activities that hunters undertook, because they were simply discouraged from hunting because of the registry.

Thankfully it's gone, but is my conclusion correct that any loss of hunters and hunting opportunities will have or could have a major effect on conservation programming?

[Darrell Crabbe]

Yes, absolutely. We know that we lost several thousand hunters with the long-gun registry. They decided to hang up their guns or sell off their guns rather than continue to hunt.

That was unfortunate, because just in their licence sales alone, that 30%, is a major contributing factor to our ability to continue to have quality of habitat, programming, research, and whatever we do in Saskatchewan. Also, because most of those moneys were leveraged against other NGO dollars, for every dollar they put in, we actually might generate another $1 to $2 over and above that. The other part we found is that those individuals, once they got out of hunting, no longer supported our federations at fundraising events and in volunteer hours, etc.

It had somewhat of a snowball effect on the whole process.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB]

Mr. Zealand, you talk about the bison in the Yukon. That's an introduced species, but from what I gather in speaking with Mr. Leef, your MP, it seems that the bison have settled happily into the Yukon and have become an important game species there. Can you talk about the history of the bison introduction in the Yukon and elaborate on what that introduced species has done for Yukon hunters?

[Gordon Zealand]

Yes, by all means.

I'm guessing now at the number of years, but approximately 10 years ago the herd was at a number of around 500. Currently, the herd is approximately 1,500 and growing.

As for what it has changed for the economy, for a lot of hunters—and I'm including first nation peoples in this—participation in the bison hunt has taken away or lessened efforts in terms of moose, caribou, and other native species. The introduction of the bison has created an additional poundage of meat that's available. You take a bison and you're dressing it out at over 1,000 pounds of meat. It doesn't take many to add to the dinner tables throughout the Yukon. We started out with a limited entry, and currently we're having issues in actually trying to attain the number that biologists would like to keep things at.

In simple terms, I guess, the herd is growing and continues to grow. They don't have a lot of natural enemies. The wolves have started to move in now and have taken some of the young and what have you, and maybe over time there will be a slight decrease from natural predation, but currently the herd is not only healthy but growing and adding in huge amounts.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you, Mr. Sopuck and Mr. Zealand.

We'll move now to Mr. Bevington for seven minutes.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Northwest Territories, NT]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the witnesses for joining us here on teleconference. It's great to see you saving the government some taxpayers' dollars by doing this, and it's a perfectly acceptable way of achieving the results we're looking for, so I salute you on that. That's part of where we have to go.

First, for the Yukon, I'm from the Northwest Territories where we have had a lot of experience with bison. I live next to Wood Buffalo National Park. I'm pretty sure that the bison went from the Northwest Territories into the Yukon. Is that correct?

[Gordon Zealand]

Yes, that's correct.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Northwest Territories, NT]

I'd just put one proviso around that. We resettled a herd north of Great Slave Lake, and it was a very successful effort for quite a while, but there are things that happen. We had an outbreak of anthrax in that herd and spent millions of dollars cleaning that up north of the lake two summers ago. Sometimes you do have to be careful with what you do when you're dealing with moving species from one area to another. That is one of the results we had from that endeavour with bison in the Northwest Territories.

It's a great animal. It's not a sport-hunting animal. I think you'd agree with that, Mr. Zealand.

[Gordon Zealand]

Well, I would disagree with you now, because maybe initially the hunt was a little different, but now the animals are almost as smart as the sheep. They're up there with the sheep currently, so you have to be a very astute and good hunter to get at them these days.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Northwest Territories, NT]

Okay.

Moving on to Alberta with the wildlife management issues, you still allow bear-baiting in Alberta. Do you consider that to be the kind of practice you want to encourage through your organization?

[Wayne Lowry]

Yes, we still support the bear-baiting program. The way it is managed is that the areas where the baiting is allowed are in very thickly forested areas far removed from the so-called white area of the province. It's very much backcountry.

In many respects, it is about the only way to effectively hunt and harvest black bears in those regions, so yes, we do continue to support that. There are areas that continue to get closed out each year as human activities encroach into those areas, so it is backing off somewhat.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Northwest Territories, NT]

That's basically a trophy hunt. People are not eating that meat, are they?