This could cost us!

This is where it's all going on. One can ask for advice or general information or simply chew the fat about fishing tackle, tips, and locations.
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smitty55
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This could cost us!

Post by smitty55 »

Got this from OOD. Figured it was worth putting it out here for comments. Cheers

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has a broad mandate that includes the sustainable management of fish and wildlife. This diverse program includes resource management activities such as enforcement, resource monitoring, policy and program development, resource allocation, licensing, research, and fish stocking.
Ontarian’s benefit from healthy fish and wildlife resources through recreation, employment, tourism and spin-off benefits to the biodiversity of Ontario’s ecosystems. Ontario has 1.32 million licenced anglers and over 400,000 hunters. The 2010 Survey of Recreational Fishing in Canada estimates the value of Ontario's recreational fisheries at $2.5 billion and hunting is estimated to contribute another $1.8 billion. Together, recreational fishing and hunting provide more than $4 billion to the Ontario economy. In addition, commercial fishing harvests of approximately $35 – 40 million in fish annually create additional economic value through the processing and retail sale of resultant food products. However, trends in fishing and hunting participation, demographics and the economy are impacting the funding available for MNR’s fish and wildlife program and Ontario's resource-based tourism industry which includes approximately 1,575 licensed tourist operators generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues annually, and account for a significant portion of tourism revenue for Northern Ontario.
MNR’s Fish and Wildlife program is supported by the consolidated revenue fund (CRF) which includes general provincial taxes and a Special Purpose Account (SPA). In 1995, the SPA was established through the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act (FWCA) ensuring revenues from licence sales, permits, royalties, fines and fees be used exclusively to fund MNR’s fish and wildlife program. The rules for managing this fund are governed by the Province’s Special Purpose Account Policy (2003).
This program costs approximately $100M annually to deliver programs and services across Ontario, with 67% of funding from the SPA and 33% from CRF. Trends in licence sales and participation in fishing and hunting have changed since the 1995 establishment of the Fish and Wildlife SPA. For example, the number of licenced anglers has declined over the past 15 years from 1.61M in 1995 to 1.26M in 2010 (Source: Department of Fisheries and Oceans). Based on the demographic profile of current licensees and declines in angling participation, MNR will need to reduce fish and wildlife program expenditures starting in 2015 in order to maintain a positive SPA balance. In a recent Consumer Research Survey (Harris/Decima 2013), clients and the public were asked about their preferences for trade-offs given this forecast, and 95% of respondents favoured alternatives to increase funding and sustain the program through various new revenue initiatives over program and service delivery reductions. Only 5% of respondents supported the reduction of the fish and wildlife management program.
Jurisdictions in the US and Canadian western provinces have demonstrated that new, innovative strategies to address fish and wildlife program funding sustainability can be successful by using a blend of initiatives such as new licence offerings to better meet client needs, broadening the client base beyond traditional users, increased transparency and public reporting to show how licence dollars are spent, cost efficiencies, diversification of revenue streams, improved client services to respond to emerging needs, and targeted marketing.
The draft Sustainability Strategy for the Fish and Wildlife Special Purpose Account, 2014-2019 proposes to stabilize and moderately increase revenues to the Fish and Wildlife SPA through a variety of goals, strategies and tactics including strategic review of licences, diversifying revenue streams, marketing and promotion, cost efficiencies, and transparent reporting. Should the strategy be approved, some regulatory change proposals may follow.
The Strategy proposes three goals to sustain fish and wildlife programming well into the future:
1. Increase Fish and Wildlife SPA revenue by enhancing relationships with existing clients, increasing participation, and diversifying revenues
2. Apply Fair Cost Recovery and Value by ensuring licence fees and royalty rates are transparent and based on costs, benefits and a fair rate of return to the Province for the use of the resource
3. Enhance Efficiency by improving program efficiency and finding opportunities for savings thereby allowing more fiscal resources to be directed to fish and wildlife conservation.
The proposed strategies and tactics focus on:
• Enhancing relationships with clients
• Increasing involvement by attracting new participants
• Diversifying revenues
• Improving cost recovery
• Modernizing fees and royalties
• Collaborating with partners to achieve shared goals
To comment on this ebr go to this link... This may cost us higher for fishing and hunting
http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-Extern ... anguage=en
Last edited by smitty55 on Wed Apr 23, 2014 8:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Smitty

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sawchuk
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by sawchuk »

The link isn't working smitty.
Sometimes, late at night...down by the water....you can actually hear the fish laughing.
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smitty55
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by smitty55 »

Hmmm... Sorry bout dat, I usually test links. k it's fixed
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Kerrazy
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by Kerrazy »

Just the wording in the above message is exactly what is wrong and why they are losing money.
A whole lots of mindless banter, and too many departments and funds, when it needs to be real simple.
Just the money they spent on a 3rd party public poll, to tell them something they already were aware of. It is incredible.

So they will likely increase lic fess in particular out of province lic fees, which in turn will affect all of the spin offs involved. Of course that is not until they do a few more studies, burning up hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by rustyhook »

The baby boomers reaching 65 and not requiring a license is one reason for the big decline. The significant loss of tourists from the US due to the bad economic conditions and our very high dollar compared to 5+ years ago. The ontario economy is also affecting local people from fishing as much so I'm sure license sales are down for Ontario residence as well. Not sure what is hard to figure out. They need to cut back on whatever projects they have going on and increase the price of licenses to compensate. They just need to hook up with the Hydro exec's and they will give them a great strategy to increase revenue by %40 or even %50 real fast :) The $700m to $1billion(or whatever the real number is) for the gas plant cancelation would have funded the shortfall for this for +20 years. As the liberals say that is only a cup of coffee for each person. I think this article is just there nice way of saying our license fee's will be going up.
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lapointeric
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by lapointeric »

Ah, my favourite word... transparency.

Of course you can have more money, as long as you tell me where its going! Don't forget to include how much I'm paying for these strategies.

E
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by drake691 »

I will say one thing, Hunting tags are cheaper in other provinces. I use to love hunting in Alberta
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by Jimmy_1 »

Thank you Uncle Dalton and Auntie Kathy!

You do sooooo much for us Ontarians!
We know you didn't lie about raising taxes!
We know you had best intentions when you brought in HST
We know its ok that the Hydro debt retirement charge should be used as your governments "slush fund"
We know you absolutley did not destroy evidence from the gas plant debacle
The extra $900 a year for Health tax is a great thing!
ORNGE and E-Health are beauty ideas and we are really upset it failed and cost us a lot....its ok.
Now, in your infinite wisdom you wish to raise the cost of our past times too and affect businesses (the tax base)!
Oh and thanks for raising hydro rates and natural gas rates! It was about time someone did!

Ontario is truly the BEST province to live in!

We will be sure to vote you in with another sweeping majority and enjoy another 4 years under your rule!

Auntie Andrea supports you too!
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by RJ »

rustyhook wrote:The baby boomers reaching 65 and not requiring a license is one reason for the big decline. The significant loss of tourists from the US due to the bad economic conditions and our very high dollar compared to 5+ years ago. The ontario economy is also affecting local people from fishing as much so I'm sure license sales are down for Ontario residence as well. Not sure what is hard to figure out. They need to cut back on whatever projects they have going on and increase the price of licenses to compensate. They just need to hook up with the Hydro exec's and they will give them a great strategy to increase revenue by %40 or even %50 real fast :) The $700m to $1billion(or whatever the real number is) for the gas plant cancelation would have funded the shortfall for this for +20 years. As the liberals say that is only a cup of coffee for each person. I think this article is just there nice way of saying our license fee's will be going up.
Hats off to you Sir, for thinking about the situation and making a response.

I can say raising license fees despite that being the easiest and obvious answer, the reality is it isn't. Thru various means the MNR has polled found that if the license was to increase substantially it would actually decrease the number of sales as a whole that could/would lead to a further shortfall.

RJ
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by MLR »

RJ wrote:
rustyhook wrote:The baby boomers reaching 65 and not requiring a license is one reason for the big decline. The significant loss of tourists from the US due to the bad economic conditions and our very high dollar compared to 5+ years ago. The ontario economy is also affecting local people from fishing as much so I'm sure license sales are down for Ontario residence as well. Not sure what is hard to figure out. They need to cut back on whatever projects they have going on and increase the price of licenses to compensate. They just need to hook up with the Hydro exec's and they will give them a great strategy to increase revenue by %40 or even %50 real fast :) The $700m to $1billion(or whatever the real number is) for the gas plant cancelation would have funded the shortfall for this for +20 years. As the liberals say that is only a cup of coffee for each person. I think this article is just there nice way of saying our license fee's will be going up.
Hats off to you Sir, for thinking about the situation and making a response.

I can say raising license fees despite that being the easiest and obvious answer, the reality is it isn't. Thru various means the MNR has polled found that if the license was to increase substantially it would actually decrease the number of sales as a whole that could/would lead to a further shortfall.

RJ
Or they could increase to price marginally and get rid of seniors fish for free which would take care of the projected loss of revenue.
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Re: This could cost us!

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I agree with getting rid of the free for 65 year olds. It does not have to be a huge amount but when over 55% of our population right now is baby boomers verging into this magical 65 yr old range it will deplete the income by 55%. Let us say that a seasonal sport is $40 for easy math. Charge the seniors $25 - $30 for the season. I am sure that a tank of fuel for the years license is not a money breaker for them. If it is then a few $100 dollars of new gear, lures and everything will be too so maybe stop fishing all together. I wonder what the actual # of 65 year olds are out fishing free of charge?? How do we know this number?? We dont because they do not need to register anywhere so we cant keep track of this #. So when they say there is 1.3 million anglers in Ontario is that just registered anglers?? I would say there is another 50% of those who are over 65 that were not included in this. Im ok with a bit of an increase to fish but really if they increased it by double would you stop fishing or would you bend over, pay the amount and continue to do what you love to do. I personally would still buy it to fish..so what is the next step here??

Oh and it is good to be back on the site. Missed it alot.

Cheers
Fishing isn't a matter of life and death....
It's much more important.

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smitty55
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by smitty55 »

Well it looks like free fishing for seniors will be a thing of the past. Anything to suck more money out of old folks, many who are on a fixed income. So now some 80 year old guy who may want to go out only a few times with his grandkids will still have to pay. They could at least cut it off at 75 instead but I highly doubt that would happen without a lot of political pressure. A Pathetic use of power to make up for their ineptitude in controlling their own finances is how I see it. I'm not blaming the MNR for all this, because they can only go by how much their budget is, so they are forced into some of these changes.

Check out what is posted on page 30 of this report on the SPA. (Special Purpose Account). http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/stdprodconsume ... 110525.pdf

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Re: This could cost us!

Post by MLR »

The proposed senior rate for a conservation license seems very reasonable with a 20% discount built in compared to what the rest of us pay.

What i don't agree with is imposing a surtax on recreational products. The government is collecting HST, the government then decides where the tax revenue is spent. Now if retailers introduced a program and said that 5 or 10 % of all fishing equipment sales went into fish stocking / habitat improvement local to the store. I might be inclined to shop there and knowingly pay a little more for the product. There is simply too much shrinkage of dollars when it gets processed through queens park.
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by gatekeeper »

Dear Ontario Senior.Happy 65th and here is your jar of vaseline
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almontefisher
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Re: This could cost us!

Post by almontefisher »

gatekeeper wrote:Dear Ontario Senior.Happy 65th and here is your jar of vaseline

Hey at least the 65 years olds today only need a jar...We the next generation will need a whole truck load to take what the governemnt will offer us when we hit that age...
Fishing isn't a matter of life and death....
It's much more important.

ORWL
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