|
December 14, 2006
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Click here to see origional write-up
Mr. Norm Miller (Parry Sound-Muskoka): I
have a question for the Minister of Natural Resources. Minister, I'd like to ask
you about an article in today's North Bay Nugget. I'll quote from the article:
"The Ontario Public Service Employees Union will hold
bake sales today in North Bay, Timmins and Hearst, to help raise money for the
cash-strapped Ministry of Natural Resources....
"MNR employees care about quality wildlife management
and are at their wits' end after years of cuts that have left absolutely no room
to trim any further."
In another article today, John Kerr tells us that as a
result of your cuts in 2005, charges against violators dropped and fines fell by
a whopping $479,240, and worse is expected for 2006-07.
I've heard from people in northeastern Ontario who tell
me that MNR vehicles have been parked since mid-October. I've also heard from
MNR staff who are despondent.
Minister, do you think it's reasonable for employees to
have bake sales to put gas in their cars? What's next: car washes and candy bar
sales?
Hon. David Ramsay (Minister of Natural Resources,
minister responsible for aboriginal affairs): Well, we did a job there. I
appreciate the member for Parry Sound-Muskoka's interest in the ministry,
because I know he lives in an area where people love to hunt and fish, as I do,
and have a special interest and pride in the ministry, basically taking care of
our wildlife across the province, and we take that pride as it extends to our
compliance and enforcement also.
The member used a statistic that compared the amount of
the fines one year over another. That's a very difficult and imprecise
comparator, as you should be looking at the number of convictions year to year.
The fines can vary, depending on the crime, the severity of the crime and maybe
the number of occurrences, but I think convictions would be a stronger
comparator. Convictions are more or less the same, because basically we've spent
more or less the same on that service.
Mr. Miller: In June, in response to my question
about your broken promise to fully fund the fish and wildlife programs, you said
that hunting licence fees were forecast to be declining. You said, "...we feel
that with some of the decline in the purchases of hunting licences ... those
revenues are projected to decline." You also said you were going to have to sit
down with stakeholders and negotiate how to build up revenues in the
special-purpose account.
Well, the actual figures for hunting licences
contradict your June statement. Between 2003 and 2005, there have been
significant increases in licences in almost every category: small game licences
up 5%, deer up 14.9%, moose up 4.5%, bear up 13.6%, wild turkey up 47%,
non-resident moose up 4.5%, non-resident deer up 69%. Licence sales are up, and
that means more dollars for the special-purpose account, so where is this extra
money being spent? Because it's not going into the fish and wildlife program.
Hon. Mr. Ramsay: Obviously I'm doing a far
better job than I predicted I could do in June, and I'm pleased with that.
Really what it is is opening up more hunting opportunities, because we saw those
projections, that with an aging population we needed to look at more hunting
opportunities. That's what we've done, as the member knows, by extending the
opening of Sunday hunting in southern Ontario. We've also been looking at more
precise deer management, which means more opportunities. So we have been able to
increase that funding. I work with my heritage hunting commission to see how
else we can do this. They've come up with some good recommendations. As you
know, we're going to have a Heritage Day next year. We're also looking at ways
that we can increase the amount of money in the special-purpose account. As you
know, all money that goes into that special-purpose account is dedicated to the
management of wildlife.
|
