On Wednesday, May 19th in Question Period I asked the Minister for clarification on the government's plans with respect to Wildlife Management areas. My question and the Minister's response are below.
Conversion
of Crown Land to Pasture Land
Management by Manitoba Wildlife Federation
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River
Heights): Mr.
Deputy Speaker, I ask the minister to provide details of the government's plan
to convert Crown lands designated as wildlife management areas into pasture
land so that these lands can become domestic animal management areas.
Is it correct that trees will be
bulldozed to put up permanent fencing, and the producers who access these
pasture lands will have free rent for five years? This seems odd and unfair, as
many producers using Crown lands have seen extraordinary rent increases.
And why is the Manitoba Wildlife
Federation to be managing these pasture lands? I thought Manitoba Wildlife
Federation members are more interested in hunting wild animals, not domestic
ones.
Will the minister table the
contract with the Manitoba Wildlife Federation to clarify this situation?
Thank you.
Hon. Blaine Pedersen (Minister
of Agriculture and Resource Development): Well, misinformation seems to be the flavour of the day with
the Liberals.
First of all, I'm surprised at the
member for River Heights with this misinformation he's putting forward there.
The wildlife management areas were formed since about 1962, and what's happened
is we've seen forest overgrowing the wildlife management areas, which makes for
very poor habitat for upland game birds.
With clearing some bush, with brush
control in there, pasture management becomes a very important tool for wildlife
management, including upland game birds. And this will improve–we're doing some
pilot projects in a couple of wildlife management areas, which will improve
their capacity for wildlife and, at the same time–
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