Dear sir:
Tomorrow (June 18) will be the most important outdoor recreation and potential economic impact day ever. Why? This is the day you are given the chance to voice your concerns in regards to how we will manage our forests and lakes.
Environmentalists and the tourist industry are telling the government they want our forests and lakes for themselves. The environmentalists want more parks with no tree or mineral harvest. Do we need more parks like Quetico? I think not! Just ask around who uses Quetico and you will find out that Americans now fly there and hire aboriginal guides with boat and motors. So in reality, this is only a park for those who can afford to fly in.
Parks of this nature will put many of us out of work, besides setting us back a class of citizen. Europe is this way, where only the rich can hunt and fish. We, in effect, would be the same, with more “private use parks.”
Resentment would grow dramatically between the user groups–something we should be trying to decrease, not increase.
The tourist industry, more specific the outpost and private camp owners on the inland lakes, claim their annual $125 land use permit entitles them to exclusive rights to the lakes and forests. Really, that’s all they pay for a land use permit. If we examine who is employed by these outposts, we will begin to understand that the economic benefit, which is small, will not increase if we give the outfitters exclusive use.
If we examine the outposts in question, we will see they are doing fine as the old tent outposts have been replaced by luxurious cabins, complete with the latest fishing hardware. The line-ups are long to stay at these cabins. Just try and book one, you will be put on a long waiting list–if they will let you book at all.
If we examine the air bases, we will see they also are doing fine, with planes being added and major refurbishing happening at an outstanding rate. Nobody seems to be hurting cash-flow wise.
The outfitters sell fish and privacy (just read their brochures, they speak for themselves). If we give them exclusive rights, very few people will see the economic benefit as only a few will get rich off our resources (the rest of us can go on unemployment). Many of the outpost owners are Americans, who buy outposts and turn them into their private luxurious camps. There are way too many camps out there like this.
There also is an alarming rate of outposts that are second-leased from the outpost owner. Rich Americans do this, and only the owners of the outposts prosper at the expense of us and our resources. Those same American vehicles parked alongside the highway to Dryden in the winter give away these locations.
The MNR’s response was to not allow access to any non-native locals.
With the majority of the harvest of fish in our district by non-residents, getting a handle on this harvest should be the MNR’s main concern with the fisheries–not expanding it to make more room for the tourists. There is a difference between lakes sensitive to fishing pressure and lakes closed off for privatization.
This practise of closing off our land is not just, nor does it make sense economically.
Your voice is urgently needed tomorrow from 4-9 p.m. at the curling club, where the “Lands for Life” options and maps will be on display. An intensive questionnaire must be filled out as these are the only means of voicing our concerns. Let’s send a strong message that we cannot tolerate exclusive usage for the tourist industry–whether they are “waterway” or “tourist management parks.”
Tell the committee through the questionnaire how you feel about handing over your lands and water to the outpost owners.
Tell them things like policing these new parks would rob what resource we now have to police our current problems. Economically, it would be suicide for our community.
Tell them no more.
It is at the utmost importance that you find the time; every single person that completes the questionnaire counts. Never has it been more important to speak up. I like our community and I know you do, too, so stand up and be heard.
Thursday is your chance.
Signed,
Jeff Steinke