A town hall meeting is being planned for Rosa Thursday evening to discuss threats to licensed hunters and anglers.
Rob Olson is the Senior Science Advisor to the Manitoba Wildlife Federation. He notes the meeting in Rosa is another stop in their efforts to meet with hunters and anglers across our province and to hold respectful dialogue on the threats of shrinking access for all users of crown lands in Manitoba.
"It's a meeting primarily to organize hunters and anglers, to get folks in a room in that region down there, to talk about some of the things that we see happening in the province here, that we feel are threatening people's potential access to land to be able to hunt and fish," explains Olson. "The scope has gotten a little bit bigger, where we think the threats that are coming could potentially have implications for really all users of crown land in Manitoba."
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Olson says the Manitoba Wildlife Federation fears that the province may be removing non-First Nations people from accessing crown lands for hunting and fishing.
"We have that fear," he says. "And we think it's a valid one."
Olson says this fear stems from a movement right now around a vision called 30 by 30, where the federal government wants to protect 30 per cent of Canada's lands and waters by 2030. Olson says this might sound like a pretty good goal, and though hunters and anglers support protection and environmental sustainability, the problem is that the tool being used is to try and set up new protected areas and parks. He notes that one of the tools is called Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA).
"And we're concerned that the way the process is unfolding, being led by the federal government, being led by Parks Canada, being led by organizations like Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, they are not engaging all Manitobans enough," adds Olson.
He notes there has been a lot of engagement with Indigenous communities, which Olson says is terrific. However, he says what is being lost is the engagement with licensed hunters and anglers and others who use those lands, including cottage owners and those who work in industries like forestry and mining.
Thursday's meeting is being hosted by Manitoba Wildlife Federation. Olson says they have been holding similar meetings across Manitoba, noting Thursday's will be approximately the 20th to be held. He says everyone is welcome to attend, whether they are members or not.
The town hall meeting will take place at the Rosa Community Hall beginning at 7 pm. Olson says there will be a presentation that runs approximately 45 minutes. Following that, there will be open discussion, including a question-and-answer period, that runs another one or two hours. He notes these meetings typically wrap up between 9 and 9:30 pm but says the public tends to stick around for a while after to chat.
"You can count on a couple of hours of informative session and probably something that will want to motivate you to know more," he suggests.
Olson says so far, they have yet to see representation from either the provincial or federal governments at these meetings, though he says they are certainly welcome to attend.
"We do hope that this will raise awareness and raise this issue in the minds of governments where they will have open meetings and will answer questions," he says.
Olson describes the atmosphere at previous town hall meetings across the province, as "incredible." He says rooms have been packed, noting they will set up for 100 people, but often get 200.
"There is concern for sure," he says. "But good intentions and a good tone and a respectful tone. People are unhappy, they want change. They want transparency and they want things to be done differently by government and that's come out loud and clear."