On Thursday, December 17th, President Bill Bosch, Wildlife Allocations Committee Chair Gerry Paille and Director of Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program Jesse Zeman met with Minister Conroy, Minister Cullen, MLA Russell and staff from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation had pre-briefed the Ministers on record low fish, wildlife, habitat and watershed security values we are currently experiencing and re-emphasized the point that we are losing what makes B.C. special and need to work together to bring it back.
We presented short-term and long-term solutions.
Long-term solutions included:
1) Dedicated funding which must “hit the ground” to restore watersheds, fish, wildlife and habitat
2) Legislated objectives for fish, wildlife and habitat
3) The delivery of fish, wildlife, habitat and water security needs to be centralized in a ministry, which has legislative and regulatory mechanisms to support objectives
4) Approaching reconciliation with the intent of building relationships with First Nations and non-First Nations
Short-term solutions that government could act on now included:
1) Creation of fish, wildlife, habitat and watershed security fund endowments
2) Dedicating all hunting, guide-outfitting and trapping license fees
3) Banning the use of glyphosate for aerial broadcast spraying
4) Introducing broadcast burning of cutblocks to increase vegetation for wildlife
The meeting was extremely productive and the government seemed keen to hear about these issues. The B.C. Wildlife Federation will be meeting with other ministers and MLAs in the New Year.
Best Practices for meeting with an elected official
Follow the best practices by Jesse Zeman, BCWF Director of Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program, in the two videos below for organizing and running a meeting with an elected official.
Please use the solutions presented above as talking points in your meetings with ministers and/or MLAs when aligning yourself with BCWF.