Outfitters bear market loss; Time for change: Loss of $20-million industry frustrates rates Northern outfitters.

Talk of reinstating the spring bear hunt has many Northern Ontario outfitters wondering if provincial politicians are again playing with their livelihood.

Outfitters have learned to question the words of politicians. A month prior to cancelling the spring bear hunt in 1999, John Snobelen, minister of natural resources was saying a spring ban was out of the question.

Ernie Eves, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, told an audience in Kenora that he was open to reinstating the hunt under certain conditions.

"If somebody could produce scientific evidence to me that cancelling the spring bear hunt has not accomplished (what we wanted) ...the government should admit its mistake and correct that mistake as soon as possible," Eves said.

The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) and Northern Ontario Tourist Outfitters (NOTO) has brought a case before the courts to fight for the right to hunt and fish.

Mark Holme, OFAH spokesman, says the main argument that will be made is that "hunting is a form of expression, and constitutional guarantees under administrative laws were breached by the provincial government when it made arbitrary decisions on the spring bear hunt."

Douglas Legg, a Ministry of Natural Resources social and economic researcher, has pegged the economic value of bear hunting in Ontario at more than $20 million in direct annual spending. Combined with indirect spending, total estimates have been as high as $40 million per year. Others have said the combined impact was closer to $50 million per year.

Chapleau conducted a study that showed the ban on spring bear hunting cost area outfitters and the community a total of $2 million. Lodge owner Betty McGie says Wawa lost $500,000 in indirect spending. There are scores of other small communities in the North that have also felt the harsh economic impact of the hunting ban.

Terry and Roxann Lynn, owners of Moose Horn Lodge in Chapleau, say they lost 90 per cent of their annual income as a result of the ban.

At the time the hunt was cancelled the Lynns were grossing $60,000 during the spring bear hunt.

"My husband took early retirement in 1998 with the view of expanding our spring bear hunt business," Lynn says.

She says there was no forewarning of the cancellation.

The Lynns were forced to dip into an education fund for their three daughters in order to pay bills, and they now have incurred $140,000 in debt, she says.

"The only thing that saved us was we didn't have a mortgage," Lynn says. Their livelihood was a family business that was handed down from her parents.

The cancellation cost the president of the Ontario Black Bear Association $107,000 the hour she and her husband heard the news.

"We were taking bookings for our two bow-hunting camps when we heard about it," Lorna Wood says.

Wood says the news was "absolutely devastating." She and her husband Terry operate Woods Bow Hunting with camps at Kapuskasing and Schreiber. The year before the ban, their spring bear hunt revenue was approximately $275,000.

There are other losses for outfitters, Wood says.

"When real estate agents value an outfitting business, they start the value at two times the annual revenue of the business," she says.

Wood says 180 outfitters who were offering spring bear hunt packages are now out of business and many more are on the verge of bankruptcy. In 1999 there were 840 outfitters registered with the province that were offering spring bear hunting.

The Ontario Black Bear Association represents 400 bear outfitters. The association was formed in 1999 after the spring bear hunt was cancelled.

NOTO was originally part of the OFAH lawsuit, but dropped out in an attempt to obtain compensation for its spring bear hunt members.

"You had to sign a waiver not to sue the government over the matter in the future," says McGie, president of NOTO.

More than half of NOTO's 500 members were offering spring bear hunt packages. McGie says the government offered $250 for each booking an outfitter had for the upcoming season. NOTO members rejected the offer, but outfitters who were not members were free to sign the waiver and many did out of financial desperation.

McGie says the MNR also rolled out a diversification program for outfitters that was to be delivered by Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.

"They suggested outfitters diversify into areas such as ecotourism," McGie says.

NOTO rejected the diversification program and McGie went directly to Snobelen's office to tell him in person. As a result of her visit, a consultant was hired to find out why the diversification program wasn't working. McGie scoffs at the MNR hiring a consultant to tell the minister something she already told him.

"You don't diversify a business in one year," McGie says.

McGie is the owner of Watson's Algoma Vacations that owns and operates two fly-in lodges 72 air miles north of Wawa and an air service.