Very interesting

[bigfish1965]

I was recently at a St Catharines Game and Fish Association meeting where the Hon. Vince Kerrio, former Minister of Natural Resources was a guest speaker. After his oration, he took questions from the floor.

Here's what I queried him with..

Given todays current state of affairs in Ontario and other provinces with respect to natural resources, and given that Ontario now uses the SPF as the lion's share of revenue rather than as a supplement as it was under your leadership, would you support a new National Natural Resource Strategy and support natural resources being a federal responsibility?

I expected him to reject this and stae that the provinces know best how to handle their regions, but surprisingly he said ..

 

'Yes absolutely. It should have happened a long time ago. We are trying to handle it piece-meal across the country and it isn't working.'

I certainly am not one for a stronger central government, but given the huge stakes each province has in it's neighbours ability to manage the resources, maybe it is time.

 

Discuss...

[holdfast]

Would that include licensing. If so, hopefully its the same price across the board. Also if the government then allocates monies across the board, does that mean Quebec can use that mony for other things instead of the fisherie resources. Humm, It might be a beneifit to Ontario since they share water with the USA, or depending how weak the government is, maybe not such a good thing. So who has control, it could depend on the flavor of the day.

[bigfish1965]

Hard to say, but I imagine if it was Federal, licenses would be good across the country and each province would either get funding based on population or based on resource inventory.

[Fisherman]

I don't know if that would be such as wise idea. For instance, we all know about sharing the benefits of taxes, the have not's are always screaming for more. My idea, if you have not, then you get not, work harder! I want my money to stay in this province, not next door.

[Dutch]

I assume we are talking more than recreational fishing (i.e all natural resources) here. What impacts commercial fishermen in NF and BC is much different than would impact Ontario recreational and commercial fishermen.

 

I can see the Fed's running things and the mandate going regional. If it's in the best interests of each regional area, I would like to see how the Fed's would improve/change things for the better.

[TJQ]

I would ask.. why they just cant do a decent job in the first place....

[tonyb]

Yeah I'm with TJ on this one, I can't see an improvement by increasing the scope of the task to country wide instead of province wide.

 

Make the ministry more accountable, switch C.O.'s to a commission based program ($$$ incentive to bust people), establish 'best practices' for things like fish stocking (eg. Stocking sites that are far upriver for salmonids, so imprinting occurs, instead of dumping fish at boat ramps during the day for the birds to gorge)

 

I'd also like to see more interaction with the angling community and volunteer organizations, let's work together towards common goals instead of the MNR coming out with wacky decisions that have gross negative impacts (eg. halting fishway operations on Lake Ontario tributaries because of VHS)

Newsflash -- VHS has been in Lake O. since 2003, why the sudden panic now?

 

I could go on and on, but what's the point really...

 

VOTE NDP! (I voted liberal - got screwed, voted conservative - got screwed, why not give NDP a try?)

 

Tony

[Headhunter]

My faith in governments and their willingness and or desire to do the right thing, ecconomically and for the future of the resource is very very limited. Considering that is my initial point of reference, I'd suggest that this is a really bad idea that will only serve to reduce the bulge in our wallets!

Can you say gun registry? When it comes to government involvement, less is always best!

Fund what we have in place now and then we will see what the future brings.

HH

[outdoorguy61]

Interesting to see this thread. I am all for any means that increase accountability and overall resource effectiveness. The speaker sounded like he was passing the buck to me.

 

I work far away from home and believe fully in provincial and federal responsibility. Provincially, it has failed on multiple accounts primarily due to poor direction, lack of staff ownership (in achieving results). It is compounded by weak politicians be it a conservative handling the MNR portfolio or his handlers providing outside budget driven interference. This is further compunded by weak policy makers, senior leadership that do not have good relations let alone a decent handle on how to operate an effective business model. And yes, it should be run more like a business in my opinion, with more rewards and equally more firing of ineffective staff.

 

Federally, it is an equally if not more disastorous scenario. They simply are too distanced from the resources that they supposedly serve on both coasts and inland waters.

 

It sickens me to no end that the tax payers and licence payers get such poor service.

 

outdoorguy61

Edited May 1, 2007 by outdoorguy61