Creating A Canadian Federation Of Outfitter Association In Canada

Up in Canada, the hunting community is developing some additional muscle by creating a Canadian Federation of Outfitter Associations. We have that from Dale Drown of the Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia, which has for years done a magnificent job serving the hunting community not only in British Columbia but also in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Drown says eight outfitter associations across Canada have tentatively agreed to become founding members of the Federation, needing only the formal approval of their boards to finalize the deal. Those associations are: Newfoundland and Labrador Outfitters Association, Federation of Quebec Outfitters, New Brunswick Outfitters Association, Northern Ontario Tourist Outfitters Association, Manitoba Lodges and Outfitters Association, Saskatchewan Outfitters Association, Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia and the Yukon Outfitters Association. That leaves the Alberta Professional Outfitters Society, which had not decided at press time whether it would join the new organization.

Drown says the objective of the Federation is to exchange information and ideas between the different outfitter associations and use their collective strength to influence and resolve issues affecting the hunting and fishing community in Canada. Drown says participants have already met several times in Ottawa regarding a number of federal issues common to all of them.

Together, the eight member associations represent a minimum of 2,000 outfitters. A conservative estimate of their contribution to the national economy as a group comes to about three quarters of a billion dollars per year and that's just from hunting outfitters. The amount swells when you start calculating the contribution of fishing operators as well. Drown says the Federation is crunching those numbers now, along with economic contributions generated by ancillary goods and services such as air travel, lodging, restaurants, hunting supplies, etc. With these collective figures behind them, Drown says the Federation will indeed be able to flex some muscle when speaking with legislators and other government officials.

Perhaps if a federation of this sort had existed several years ago, the moratorium on grizzly bears could have been avoided. Here at The Hunting Report,........(continued)