The Saskatchewan government announced Friday it will move to shorter-term licenses for non-resident game bird hunters, describing the change as a way to make illegal outfitting easier to detect while also helping protect access for resident hunters.
The announcement was made at a media event at the LF Macintosh Building Boardroom in Prince Albert by Environment Minister Darlene Rowden, joined by representatives from the Saskatchewan Commission of Professional Outfitters and the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation.
Under the new approach, non-resident hunters will be limited to three five-day term licenses, with one available in the spring and two in the fall. The province said more details on the updated licensing system will be released in the coming months.
Rowden said the change follows concerns raised by outfitters, wildlife groups, and others in the hunting community about unauthorized outfitting activity involving non-residents who purchase full-season licenses and then operate outside the regulated system.
“This activity undermines licensed Saskatchewan outfitters and challenges the principle that wildlife in this province is a shared public resource,” Rowden said during the announcement.
She said the government believes reducing the total number of hunting days available under one license will make it harder for illegal operators to stay in the field for long stretches while still allowing lawful hunters to come to Saskatchewan.
At the same time, Rowden acknowledged the province does not have firm numbers showing the full scope of the problem.
“Well, I don’t have hard data, but there is a lot of talk out there in the province, among anyone in the hunting community that’s going on. I get letters to my minister’s office on it quite regularly. So yeah, I believe it is a thing,” she said in a scrum with reporters afterward.
Jordan Rowswell, board chair of the Saskatchewan Commission of Professional Outfitters, said the shorter license periods are expected to narrow the window in which illegal outfitters can operate.
“This will close up the length of time an illegal outfitter would typically operate,” Rowswell said. “But this is sort of step one.”
Rowswell said illegal outfitting has been a long-running issue in the game bird sector and creates unfair competition for licensed businesses while also affecting resident hunters. He said rogue operators can set up clients before the season, use property or hotels to house them, and then run them much like a licensed outfitting business without operating legally.
“I would say the business model for a rogue outfitter or illegal outfitter would be to have your clientele set up before the hunting season, maybe using a property or hotel to house them in and then run them as a typical outfit, or would,” Rowswell said. “It’s just the only difference is they’re not licensed, and the revenue doesn’t stay here.”
He also said the issue is not limited to Americans.
“The only correction I would make there would be, it wouldn’t necessarily be Americans either. It could be a Saskatchewan resident doing the same thing,” Rowswell said.
Todd Smith, executive director of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, also described the change as a first step and tied the issue directly to growing pressure on resident access to land.
“If we want Saskatchewan residents to continue to have a hunting heritage in the province, this is definitely a first step that is in the right direction,” Smith said.
Smith said one way to judge whether the policy is working will be whether residents find it easier to get permission to hunt. He gave a personal example, saying hunters in his area knocked on about 50 doors last year for permission to hunt and received only two yeses, compared to a much higher success rate in the past.
He said that kind of change affects more than convenience.
“If you don’t have, can’t get permission to hunt on land, then essentially our hunting culture dies within the province,” Smith said.
Rowden made a similar point when asked what resident hunters would gain from the change.
“What would they gain? A better likelihood of access to land for hunting, because land shouldn’t be tied up by illegal outfitters as prevalently. That’s the hope for this,” she said.
Smith also said enforcement capacity will still matter going forward, adding he would like to see more conservation officers on the landscape.
Officials said the change is intended to maintain Saskatchewan’s reputation as a destination for game bird hunting while addressing concerns around illegal outfitting. Some details, including how the rules will affect non-residents who own property in the province, are still expected to be clarified.
arjun.pillai@paherald.sk.ca
