Commercial outfitters looking to head to the territory for next year’s hunting season will have to change their plans – as the government will drop their quotas down to zero, an Environment Yukon spokesperson said last week.

Roxanne Stasyszyn, the department’s director of communications, explained that this year, hunting is a go for the two outfitters granted operating licences in April and May.

Her comments come on the heels of frustration from the Yukon Fish and Game Association’s (YFGA’s) president, Charles Shewen.

He was reacting last week to the department’s cancellation of Finlayson caribou herd hunting permits for resident hunters. That was announced in a July 31 release explaining that the decision was a result of ongoing negotiations with the Ross River Dena Council (RRDC) about hunting in its traditional territory.

Stasyszyn noted last week that the declining population of the herd over nearly the last two decades also played a role in the decision.

Those stats were provided by the department after Shewen voiced his frustration that it seemed like the department was not making a decision based on scientific evidence.

“Not only was it cut but we’re the only ones who are cut – others will hunt this herd as planned,” he told the Star Friday. “It makes me highly suspicious.”

That suspicion, he explained, is not surrounding the figures that show a slump from an estimated 4,130 in 1999 to about 2,712 just last year in 2017.

“We’re not concerned about the data; we’re just saying we don’t feel that’s why this hunt (for Finlayson) was closed (to us).”

That’s even after Stasyszyn explained last week that both discussions with RRDC and the declining population were taken into consideration.

But shortly after, resident hunters and some of the YFGA’s membership grew upset that they were the only ones seemingly impacted, as outfitters and First Nations would continue to hunt as normal this season.

“It may be a conservation issue, but how can it only be conservation that applies to just resident (hunters)? That doesn’t sit well with us at all,” Shewen said.

Meanwhile, Stasyszyn said this morning that because of the short timeline and advance notice required in notifying outfitters, the decision to not cancel these licences for this season was made.

“The Yukon government is legally required to provide notice before changing” any details about the upcoming season to hunters, she said.

That requirement is important for outfitters, and is a one-year notice, “because of the nature of their business – they may book clients well outside of the territory” and well in advance of the season itself.

“In the case of resident PHA, we hadn’t issued those permits yet, that was something we controlled this year,” she said, but “for outfitters, we had already signed their operation certificates in spring.”

The decision to cancel Finlayson permits for resident hunters was something the department could “control,” especially since those permits were put on hold in early July, which is when those whose names were drawn were notified of their successful status.

This means that they were not physically issued the permits, Stasyszyn said last week, and were told that a final decision would be made before the Aug. 1 date.

The release announcing the cancellation was issued July 31.

Shewen acknowledged he was unaware that the permits had been put on hold, as the YFGA as an organization was not notified but individual hunters were in their correspondence with the department.

“That was a subtly that we didn’t pick up on,” he said.

He did acknowledge that it could be difficult for some outfitters to make alternate plans, but at the end of the day, the result for him and his membership was disappointing.

“I can understand the logistics side of it from outfitters,” he sighed.

Noting that there is often co-operation from both parties, Shewen said the relationship between resident hunters and commercial outfitters is a positive one.

“But the bottom line is for this year, there is no impact to commercial hunters.

“They can hunt, we can’t hunt – that’s not fair.”

Stasyszyn said that while it was unfortunate for resident hunters, it was the result of tight timelines.

“The conservation concern is real,” she said, adding “but there is a process we go through when we use or put in place or change a management tool like a harvest restriction.

“Unfortunately, that process wasn’t able to get through its course in time to restrict outfitters’ harvest, but it was early enough to restrict residents’ harvests.”

Still, Shewen remained unimpressed.

Stasyszyn, however, said that “it’s not about unfairly targeting, it’s about going through the proper process to change the harvest as required.”

The decision was also the result of scientific data and traditional knowledge from the First Nation, she continued.

Noting the last set of data was gathered in 2017, Stasyszyn said “the numbers aren’t new – what was new was our ability to sit down with” RRDC.

“The piece that didn’t happen was sitting down with RRDC,” she said, adding that once that was done and the concerns were echoed, “we decided to take action as much as we could.”

That action now means that residents hunters will not be able to hunt Finlayson caribou this season, while outfitters and First Nation can – something that Shewen said is problematic.

“We aren’t too happy at all about the government’s latest response in how they handle Finlayson caribou herd,” he said.

“This latest issue – just saying its a potential conservation issue even though we (YFGA) didn’t know about (the numbers) and it only applies to a certain amount of hunters – that’s a problem,” he sighed.

“And it’s a little disingenuous saying that it’s a concern but only applies to certain people,” he added.

He also remained skeptical of the department’s motivation in citing the figures after he voiced his anger – which Stasyszyn said last week are not hidden from stakeholders but brought “out when we’re having management conversations” like these.

“If they were being truly sincere about this being a conservation concern, they would never have even drawn the 30 names,” Shewen guessed. The department’s data show the herd has been in decline for just under two decades (1999 to 2017), he noted.

“You lay those factors over top of each other ...” he trailed off, sighing, before adding he fears the government is “trying to control the message a little bit.”

He also feared that this could open the door for other concerns.

“Other First Nations can have concerns about hunting pressures in their traditional territory as well,” Stasyszyn acknowledged.

That dialogue between YG and that First Nation is “part of our regular business when we put any restrictions” in place, she added.

For his part, Shewen did credit and thank the department for its support in sharing concerns with its members in the past.

“They’ve been very good when we have went to approach them” about species concerns, Shewen said, noting that he is grateful for the work that biologists do to track populations.

As for the dialogue with the First Nation, Shewen said the association may consider reaching out to the RRDC directly “to figure out where this is going in any way we can to help understand the First Nation’s concerns.”

“We have been seeing a decline in harvest, which is indicative of a decline in herd,”Stasyszyn said.

Of the 30 or so permits that would have been issued, she said that between 2007 and 2017, the department’s data show a range of five to 16 caribou would have actually been hunted.

That range includes both resident hunters and outfitters, though, as the department tracks licensed hunters as a whole.