Editor: B.C. resident hunters are now well aware of the government鈥檚 decision to reallocate the number of authorizations we receive. As an avid hunter, this is of great concern to me, my fellow hunters and the future hunters from hunting families across B.C. The decision to decrease the number of authorizations allotted to resident hunters is not only a poor decision, but it clearly shows the government has little interest in preserving the rights of the majority of hunters.
Our family depends on hunting to help sustain healthier eating habits throughout the year. Decreasing the opportunity for resident hunters to harvest big game species so that more foreigners can take advantage of harvesting B.C. big game is absurd. Many of us live in this province because we love the outdoors. Fishing, hunting and camping is what we do.
Now let鈥檚 take this one step further. If this happens to be about the mighty dollar, I can assure you people in Victoria that Lower Mainlanders are not running up the Coquihalla every other weekend in our F350 crew cabs. We are filling up our gas-guzzling, diesel smoking, camper packing, trailer towing pickups on the coast and then usually topping them up in Cache Creek or Merritt, dumping a heck of a lot more money in the system than 鈥渙ne man and his wife guiding鈥� out of small town B.C.
I鈥檓 sure I am speaking for hunters across B.C. when I say that what the government has decided to implement as far as larger numbers allotted for non-resident hunters has put a horrible taste in all our mouths. If the people running this province in Victoria think we are going to let off the gas on this issue, they are clearly looking through blurred sights.
Darryl Friesen,
Aldergrove
