Environment committee  Thank you. My name is Ward Samson. I'm past president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Wildlife Federation, which was formed in 1962. We're affiliated with the Canadian Wildlife Federation. For a number of years we have been asking for equal and unimpeded access to our outdoo

Environment committee  Mark, the question seemed to be leaning towards how we manage for people. We forget that we have to manage for species. People are people. The gentleman here said that the population increases exponentially, and we still haven't been able to manage for the species. We're doing

Environment committee  Yes, I agree with you, but you can't manage the species either. We're basically in a finite system. You have to manage for the whole species. You can't manage polar bears if you're just going to manage for bears. You have to manage seals, ring seals--not harp seals, because you d

Environment committee  Well, it's not a yes or no answer. Trawlers tear up the ground. Yes, they do. Bottom trawlers tear the ground to pieces. Whatever is in their trawl is caught, and basically the market dictates what you take out. What you throw away or discard is what the market says too. With a

Environment committee  Yes, I would.

Environment committee  In your question you asked me to give you three top priorities?

Environment committee  At the same time, when we're dealing with—

Environment committee  Okay. Basically, what I'm trying to say is we can't compartmentalize things, put them in different compartments. We have to manage for the whole system, and it isn't going to be easy. If you start listing top priorities, that's what gets managed, and then something else gets lef

Environment committee  Thank you.

Environment committee  I'm just thinking about this forum. Most of what you're dealing with is federal jurisdiction. Most of the concerns, not all of the concerns but a lot of the concerns, we have in Newfoundland are under provincial jurisdiction. I'm not sure if this forum is the actual place to disc

Environment committee  Habitat, I think, is extremely important. In Newfoundland, what we've had on the island specifically is that we've been having habitat destruction for a number of years specifically in our forest industry. We've been replanting with Japanese larch. The department of forestry trie

Environment committee  My connection got denied. I didn't hear the question.

Environment committee  Yes. The government seems to be doing okay. It may not be so provincially, but federally I think it is okay. The Conibear trap, as Tony mentioned, is working fine. I think you can do some more experimentation there. With respect to hunting and trapping in Newfoundland, jurisdi

Environment committee  Could you ask the question again? I didn't understand your question. I didn't read you.

Environment committee  Thank you. What I was saying is that the people we represent.... I've eaten muskrat and I've eaten beaver. A lot of people do that. With respect to trapping, we don't eat mink. It's not very agreeable to the palate. To the majority of the people in the province, if you kill a