Manitoba Lottery
Split Reed Editorial Team
As we deliver to our readers what we know about the current situation in MB, Split Reed feels the need to reiterate that our organization does not like to see waterfowl hunting opportunities being limited by any means, in any region, anywhere on the North American continent.
The government of Manitoba, Canada recently introduced a bill that would make waterfowl hunting in the province less accessible to non-resident freelancers, through a limited license lottery draw. The long and short of it: a hunter would need to be drawn in a lottery to be awarded the chance to freelance hunt for seven days of the season in Manitoba. The exception to this, as written now, is if you hunt with an already licensed Manitoba outfitter. The backlash to this news has created a volatile situation. For decades, hunters from the United States have been fortunate enough to freely enjoy the opportunity of dining at the table of the Maple Leaf. Now, the Maple Leaf is deciding if they should limit how many people they should allow to dinner. It’s rumored that only 1,300 permits will be awarded to those who apply and is anticipated that this will go into effect on 4/1/2023.
With over 30,000,000 acres of prairie and farmland in Manitoba and even larger numbers in other provinces, it leaves one to wonder why there might be a need to regulate those who wish to spend money traveling North of the border to hunt. In 2021, over 9,000 resident game bird licenses were sold, while only 1,451 were sold to US citizens. Historically, this region has sold licenses totaling many times these numbers to both residents and non-residents.
Manitoba residents have enjoyed American dollars used to help conserve wetlands and waterfowl habitat through organizations like DU and Delta Waterfowl to the tune of billions of dollars over the last few decades, but now Americans are being limited in opportunities to enjoy those resources (StarTribune 02/2023). Obviously, the country of Canada and the province of Manitoba still get the ultimate say over who can enter their lands and how those guests who do may enjoy their time there- but it’s going to sting for a lot of folks. And as much as it may hurt those who visit Manitoba for duck camps, we can’t stop providing for the resource we care about. That being said, we know that if it can happen in one province, it can happen in another.
According to those involved in the Waterfowl Hunting Modernization Project, the purpose behind this new bill is to ‘prioritize resident waterfowl hunter’s opportunities and support existing outfitters’. As the new legislation may do just that, it will also be taking away opportunities and accessibility to hunting for most regular folks who want to travel north and visit the PPR to experience DIY hunting at its finest without spending a few grand per hunter to have an outfitter run the show for them. The folks behind this legislation are referencing the goal to ‘sustain world-class hunting opportunities in the province’, and that the threat to this is ‘illegal guiding operations and significant land access competition (GF Herald, 10/2022) which the organization notes is a threat to Manitobans.
The Manitoba Regulatory Consultation Portal lists this underneath Waterfowl Hunting Modernization in Manitoba. The overview given reads as follows:
“Manitoba is located in the heart of the continental flyways, which funnel millions of migrating waterfowl through our province in the spring and fall. This has resulted in the development of a rich and diverse waterfowl hunting culture and tradition unique to Manitoba.
A sustainable, balanced approach to managing competition for land access to waterfowl hunting areas is needed to ensure the resident social capacity of Manitoba’s waterfowl hunting opportunities is not exceeded. The long-term management goals are to promote sustainable tourism in Manitoba, provide stability for the waterfowl outfitting industry and to ensure residents receive primary waterfowling priority as part of Manitoba’s hunting heritage.
The public policy objective is to create and implement a waterfowl hunting regulatory framework that:
• prioritizes resident hunting opportunities and access to the resource,
• prioritizes existing licensed outfitting businesses such that their services are highly sought after by clientele from across Canada, the U.S., and the world, and
• ensures that non-outfitted, foreign residents accessing Manitoba’s world-class waterfowling opportunities is sustainable and at numbers tolerable by Manitobans.”
[source: https://reg.gov.mb.ca/detail/7450729 ]
While freelancing has become popular among US waterfowl hunters, the amount of it done in Canada pales in comparison to the amount of hunting done in the US; even to the amount of hunting done in certain states. There were more junior hunting licenses sold in Pennsylvania in 2021 (72,000) than in all of Manitoba combined between adult residents and non-residents. Pennsylvania doesn’t have a tenth of the huntable land as Manitoba. The province lists the problem and reason for the policy as:
“Waterfowl hunting in Manitoba is a shared resource under mounting pressure from increasing competition for access to provincial Crown lands and privately owned agricultural lands. Visitors from outside Manitoba are passionate waterfowlers who bring a positive economic influence on the Province but are one of the main contributors to increased pressure on local hunting access.
The majority of prime waterfowl habitat can be found in southwestern and central areas of Manitoba, known as the Prairie Pothole Region, and is mostly privately owned lands. To hunt waterfowl on privately owned lands, landowner permission is required. Discouragingly, resident waterfowlers are finding it more and more difficult to obtain permission to hunt on private lands as many landowners are leasing hunting rights to others, such as foreign residents, outfitters, and in some cases, other resident waterfowl hunters.
Conflict and pressure on accessing limited suitable hunting sites have been steadily increasing over the past two decades. Stakeholder groups like the Manitoba Wildlife Federation (MWF) and the Manitoba Lodge and Outfitter's Association (MLOA) have indicated that increased competition for hunting areas is eroding the quality of the hunting experience for residents, and negatively affecting outfitting businesses and the hunting experience of their clients. The Province has also heard that access to prime waterfowl hunting areas for subsistence use is an issue for Indigenous subsistence hunters. While the proposed regulatory changes will not apply to Indigenous hunters exercising their aboriginal and treaty rights, it is expected that the benefits of increased access will be positive for subsistence waterfowl hunters as well.
It has become clear that in order to maintain and restore Manitoba’s world-class waterfowl hunting opportunities, a unique and important policy solution is required. The changes proposed to prioritize hunters residing in Manitoba and Manitoba licensed outfitting businesses, while at the same time, providing a shared, well-managed approach for foreign residents seeking migratory game bird hunting opportunities.” [source: https://reg.gov.mb.ca/detail/7450729 ]
While it is agreeable that preserving waterfowl and the ability to successfully hunt them is a noble act, what can be questioned are the sources doing the “damage”. This seems at face value, like a sad ploy to bring money into the pockets of the 60 outfitters working in Manitoba, masked by the ‘threat’ of nonresident competition to the millions of huntable acres in the province. If you aren’t drawn for one of the limited lottery slots to freelance, the only way to hunt the province then is with a guide (aside from those who own land in the province, along with four friends or family members, who will receive ‘legacy’ rights to hunt waterfowl for 21 days). Worthy of note; bird hunting is the only segment of hunting in Canada that can currently be done without a guide or outfitter by non-residents. Even certain states in the U.S. operate this way. Certain tags and animals can only be hunted with the assistance of a licensed guide. But to the average hunter, it takes away their chance to cross the border and enjoy the Land of Living Skies- which you already cannot enjoy without a guide when crossing the border for deer, elk, moose, bear, and other big game quarries.
It seems tough to imagine that the threat to resident waterfowl hunters in Manitoba is foreign non-resident hunters (or even Canadian non-resident hunters, for that matter) overcrowding or out-competing the resident hunters when the numbers for those groups have remained consistent over the past few decades, all the while resident Manitoban hunter numbers have declined by 75-80% over those same years.
With policies and bills like this, it’s easy to fall back on the old saying, “give an inch, they’ll take a mile”. While U.S. hunters can’t argue too much for the generosity of the Canadian government for allowing us to enjoy their hunting opportunities, we also can’t take lightly the fact that any freedom to hunt being taken away is something we need to stand up to. With rumors of Saskatchewan soon to follow suit, it leaves many U.S. hunters gnashing their teeth. It would do well to ask three main questions:
Why was this policy needed and brought forward in the first place? Are the residents of Manitoba and other provinces really as put out by freelancers as it’s being made to seem? How much money does Manitoba stand to gain or lose by implementing this policy?
By asking these and other questions, answers should come. Maybe not the answers hunters want, but they will come. There are tens of millions of square miles for hunters to share and more birds than hunters could possibly dream of. At this point in time, all we have is speculation and hearsay as to why someone felt the need to put a pen to paper to create this policy.
This is an ongoing story that will be reported on and updated as more information becomes available. Stay tuned to Split Reed and become involved with SCI, Ducks Unlimited, and Delta Waterfowl for more details.
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