Dear Minister Mauro;
RE: Deer Hunt in Short Hills Provincial Park
Congratulations on your new position. I look forward to working with you in your new capacity as Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry.
Minister Mauro I am writing to follow up on the conversation we had, shortly after your swearing in, regarding the deer hunts in Short Hills Provincial Park. I have written to your predecessor, David Orazietti, regarding this issue on multiple occasions. I am asking, once again, for your ministry to end these hunts in the interest of public safety.
Short Hills Provincial Park is not a large conservation area in a remote part of our province. Quite the opposite, at 660 hectares it is one of the smallest provincial parks in the system. Hikers, cyclists, fishers and horse riders enjoy this park. The park includes a wheelchair accessible path system that encourages the public to enjoy this natural area. Situated in the heart of the Niagara Region and surrounded by up to one hundred homes, this is no place for hunting. It is with good reason hunting has not been allowed in this park before the aboriginals claimed treaty rights.
Since the deer hunts were first established in this park the public has voiced this opposition to any hunting in this conservation area based on some very real concerns for the safety of residents near the park. Opponents to the hunt have said they are afraid the hunt will spill out of the park and onto adjacent, private property putting pets and humans at risks; and that the hunt will result in a number of wounded deer left within the park.
Mr. Mauro, these concerns, which I share, have become very real. There are documented incidents of your ministry's failure to keep the hunt contained and the general public safe. One of my constituents has come face to face with an armed hunter on her property as he chased a wounded deer through a buffer zone meant to keep the hunt inside the park. There are also incidents of unmarked entrances to the park and photographs showing hunter talking to the public inside the park during the hunt.
It has become very clear that your ministry cannot guarantee the public's safety during these hunts nor can it enforce the safety plan created by ministry staff.
Based on these concerns a number of local municipal councils have put the safety of the public first and called for an end to this new, and dangerous, practice.
There is absolutely no reason to continue to allow a small group of native hunters to roam this park. The province has the ability to stop these hunts in the interest of public safety based on the Sparrow Ruling of 1990. In that ruling, which states aboriginal rights are not absolute rights, the Supreme Court of Canada set out that governments can regulate hunting for wildlife conservation and public safety reasons.
It is also common sense. This is a small park, surrounded by homes, that is frequented by men, women and children of all walks of life. Someone is going to get hurt if you do not act now.