WEST KELOWNA – Premier Christy Clark will need to set aside some time for reading after her constituency office received hundreds of letters from angry hunters Thursday.
The resident hunters are upset about recent changes to harvest allocation policy that hunters say will favour hunting guides. They held a rally last weekend in West Kelowna, drawing more than a thousand supporters.
The hunters say they’re surprised that Forests Minister Steve Thomson is siding with the hunting guides and suggest that someone higher-up in government is calling the shots.
“That’s partly why we’re bringing letters to Christy Clark. We tend to think that decisions are coming from further up the chain — we don’t know that but that’s a worry that we have,” says Sean Richardson of the Oceola Fish and Game Club.
Premier Christy Clark says she has confidence that Steve Thomson can please both sides in the dispute, but adds that the hunting guides need to be heard.
“Steve Thomson can get to a solution on this. He’s trying to strike a very delicate balance. Wildlife belongs to all of us and we want to make sure that resident hunters have access that. At the same time we want to protect all those small family-owned businesses, many of which are located in some very remote rural communities, have a chance to survive,” says Clark.
Thomson has indicated that he’s ready to tweak the new harvest allocation policy.
The resident hunters also gave Clark a petition containing more than 1200 signatures.
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