The spring bear hunt begins in Ontario this weekend.
Restored in 2014 after being outlawed in the 1990s, the province brought back the hunt, in part because of an increase in human-bear encounters in cities since it was banned.
But some outfitters say some of the rules the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry have imposed around the hunt make no sense, and make it harder for them to benefit.
Heidi MacDonald, who along with husband Tex run the Texas and Sons Guides and Outfitters in McKerrow, says a rule limiting the number of non-Ontario residents who can participate is frustrating.
"It's just been a real headache for us,” MacDonald said. “They were talking about a quota system."
And the MNR wanted to limit the number of forms customers could receive for the hunt. The forms – Form 33s – spell out which Bear Management Area (BMA) they can hunt in.
"It didn't make sense to him to restrict the number of Form 33s because it doesn't have anything to do with the amount of bears taken," she said.
That's because each hunter can only take one bear on a hunt. And her husband switches between four BMAs, to give the group he is leading the best chance. Each BMA requires a different form, MacDonald said, but it doesn't mean someone with four forms can harvest four bears.
"If Tex sees one area isn't working, he'll take them to another one, so he gives each hunter four forms," she said. "I guess (the MNR) was thinking they would take more bears that way -- well you don't. You only get one bear per hunter.
"But we kind of straightened that out. They said you can write down all your BMAs on one form."
But even getting that far took more than 200 calls to the MNR, she said – a frustrating process that has been going on for months.
"You can try and call them 40 times, and maybe one of those times you'll get hold of somebody there," she said. "It's just been a whole confusing mess with the MNR."
But MacDonald said they have seven Ontario hunters lined up, and three from the U.S. for their first hunt, which begins May 14. They're waiting longer because of the chilly spring weather.
"It's still been pretty cold out," she said, adding there was still too much snow in recent weeks to get out to the hunting areas.
The province announced in February plans to expand the spring bear hunting pilot “to gather further information to assess concerns voiced by northern communities about human-bear conflicts, and to support economic growth and tourism in the north,” the MNR said in a news release.
The spring bear hunt pilot expansion extends the hunt by five years, through 2020, for all 88 wildlife management units that currently have a fall bear hunt. Under the expanded pilot, it will still be illegal to hunt bear cubs and females with cubs.
“While science shows one of the biggest influences on the number of human-bear encounters is the availability of natural food sources, we also understand that bear-related public concerns are very real for people living in northern and central Ontario and we are committed to assisting those communities to deal with this problem,” Bill Mauro, the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, said in the release.
Quick Facts
Ontario is home to a about 105,000 black bears.
The spring bear hunt pilot will take place from May 1 through June 15, starting in 2016 and ending in 2020.
Currently across Canada, each province and territory with black bears has a spring and fall bear hunt except Nova Scotia, which only has a fall hunt.
For 2014 and 2015, Ontario held a two-year bear management pilot program in eight wildlife management units, all of which reported high levels of human-bear conflict. The hunt was open to Ontario residents from May 1 to June 15. Communities in and around these units include Timmins, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay.
