r/canadaguns 9d ago

News / Politics / Activism Could New Brunswick exclude Americans from its moose and fishing draws?

Premier Susan Holt appears to be kicking the tires on the idea as her government contemplates next moves in the trade war ---- STORY: https://tj.news/new-brunswick/could-n-b-exclude-americans-from-its-moose-and-fishing-draws

105 Upvotes

37 comments sorted by

98

u/Clover_Lawn_4440 9d ago

Good, some hunters in NB have been waiting 10-20 years to get drawn fir a Moose license.

42

u/ONTZ28 9d ago

They should do Ontario next. It'll be another 10 years before I can draw a moose tag in the unit I've hunted in my entire life.

8

u/DannyWilliamsGooch69 9d ago

That sucks, I can get one yearly in Newfoundland.

18

u/ONTZ28 9d ago

Only way to do that here is to pay an "outfitter" 10k USD minimum (they don't even list prices in CAD most of the time)

Or go hunt up around Hudson Bay.

1

u/DannyWilliamsGooch69 9d ago

I just moved to Ontario this year... guess it will be whitetail for me here and back home for the moose hunts.

6

u/NEUMANN-METALWORKS Neumann Metalworks 9d ago

No shit they're like rats there haha

4

u/Flat-Dark-Earth Big Bore Specialist 9d ago

My WMU requires 20+ for an adult. Used to be 22+.

9 years to go.

11

u/ONTZ28 9d ago

We tried taking advantage of the random chance 2nd and 3rd choice draws in the 2nd round of moose tags (real straight forward system). We just wanted a calf tag so we could at least get some experience for when we manage to draw a bull tag in the next 20 years. It's mathematically impossible.

But hey, if we buy an outfitted hunt for a bull they will straight up sell calf tags so the whole group gets to shoot something! What a broken system.

7

u/Eyeronick 9d ago

Yep, dad's gotten tags twice in 40 years. And that's with my brother and myself also applying since we were able to. Never got a tag before we moved out of the province in our mid 20s.

3

u/Free-Tradition5459 9d ago

My father got drawn this year, been 18 years since his last.

50

u/Flat-Dark-Earth Big Bore Specialist 9d ago

Cutting off American hunters from outfitted hunts out west would also likely help reduce the cost of these hunts, as we saw during Covid.

34

u/ONTZ28 9d ago

It's cheaper to go to Africa for a multiple species safari hunt than it is to hunt out west for me as an Ontario resident. Which is both hilarious and sad.

21

u/scottsuplol 9d ago

I’m all for supporting local but fuck the prices those outfitters charge

9

u/Woodytastic 9d ago

I agree, im hesistant to ask the government to regulate anything, but i really think these hunts should be within reach of the every day Canadians and not just rich yanks

9

u/Flat-Dark-Earth Big Bore Specialist 9d ago

I know, have you looked at sheep hunt prices lately? Haha.

More expensive than buying a new truck.

3

u/numbdigits 9d ago

Very difficult to justify if you aren't a resident. Even then, I have less than zero interest in getting guided on a hunt, or anything else for that matter.

1

u/Flat-Dark-Earth Big Bore Specialist 9d ago

A Dall sheep hunt is on my bucket list, without knowing any NWT residents an outfitter is my only option.

1

u/numbdigits 9d ago

I'm pretty much in the same boat, Dall sheep hunting in B.C. as a resident is near impossible, just doesn't mean enough to me personally to go in to the Yukon or NWT and throw down the money. Having opportunity for Stone and Big Horns, as well as mountain goats at least partially makes up for it though.

Hopefully you can bide your time and find a good deal when you do decide to go get it done. My friend went and got his Dall sheep during covid when the G.O.'s were starving for business and got a pretty hefty discount, though that was a pretty unforeseeable one-off event that led to that discount. Doubt he'll be so lucky when/if he decides to complete the slam and go after a desert big horn in the U.S., lol.

1

u/Flat-Dark-Earth Big Bore Specialist 9d ago

I had reached out to all the major outfitters in 2025. After conversion, because everything was priced in USD I was looking at anywhere from $50,000-$90,000 for Dall. The cheap sheep.

Prices have been going up ~10% year over year after covid.

40

u/Woodytastic 9d ago

Absolutely they should. Canadian game should be for Canadians first, hunters are the purest form of what we are as Canadians and we should embrace this aspect of OUR culture.

There is no stronger community's then the ones who share our fish and game. I remember hurricane Juan years ago in NS. My family's dead end road had hundreds of trees downed and left them stranded for a week. The boys busted out the gennys and made sure every house had 3 meals a day and a full glass of rum. Thats who WE are as Canadian hunters.

Its a shame to punish the yanks who are actually friends of Canada and love this country. Some of them who pay for these hunts truly have great relationships with us and we should value their friendship in these emotional times.

However as trump says himself. For now I think we should be CANADA FIRST

23

u/Weak_Flamingo_3031 9d ago

It’s insane that residents have to wait years for tags when rich Americans can just buy them.

13

u/guestpassonly 9d ago

yup. Cut em off.

4

u/ExplosiveFetusActual 9d ago

What percentage of tags go to non-residents and non-canadians? If it's only a small percentage it just may be percieved as bing an issue for residents but the real reason may be low amounts of tags overall. How is the moose population in NB and how many tags are given each season? It never seems to be a problem here in NL, but we have a very healthy population of moose.

4

u/ExplosiveFetusActual 9d ago

So a quick Google said that usually there are over 4000 tags for residents each season, and around 100 for non-residents. So between 2% and 3% of tags are people from outside the province, and I'm guessing a lot of them are still Canadians. I think the amount of American hunters is negligible, and limiting that wouldn't really affect anything other than some outfitter companies losing revenue.

3

u/C_Woodswalker 8d ago

They should be excluded from hunting all across Canada.

6

u/Riversruinsandwoods 9d ago

I don’t know if this is the right answer non resident fishing brings in a lot of money.

10

u/EliteDuck 9d ago

Just what the government needs, more money. Our resources are for our citizens, not rich foreigners.

4

u/IGnuGnat 9d ago

Hunting and fishing is a multi billion dollar industry in the province of Ontario alone. I think we should use every American dollar we can find to prop up our economy, while we keep Canadian dollars at home.

2

u/Riversruinsandwoods 8d ago

I get where your coming from. But it brings money to restaurants, bars, stores etc in nearby areas to the outfitter. Also provides jobs to Canadians as guides, maintenance and services for outfitters.

0

u/ONTZ28 9d ago

Amen

How much of our heritage are we going to sacrifice in the name of "business". Maybe my children will be able to get the Canadian experience by watching wealthy Americans on YouTube.

5

u/Canadian-Footy-Fan 9d ago

Mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand I suspect it would predominantly target Trump supporters as I suspect they would be far more likely travel for big game hunting opportunities.

The flip side is that I don’t think we should be actively discouraging tourism dollars spent in this country - from anyone. We are dealing with an economic crisis initiated by the orange idiot so I don’t think it is the right time to turn away people who want to come spend their money here.

4

u/Creepy-Douchebag 9d ago

Let's use a footgun to ruin an industry that brings millions to NB econonomy.

2

u/saltyspangy 9d ago

My wife is Native and can't even hunt moose in New Brunswick. She's cree and neskapi and the local chiefs won't let her hunt here because she's not apart of their band. 

1

u/Suitable_Zone_6322 3d ago edited 3d ago

Does New Brunswick not require guides for foreign hunters/fishers?

Our province does, some of it involves big money, and it's been a long time source of jobs in rural areas where there's not so many jobs.

Not just guides themselves, but also spin off jobs that support the industry.

I get that that everyone is horny to spite Americans, but I'm not sure how killing an inand shutting out folks who want to bring their money into our country benefits anyone?

Non-resident lisences are a very small percent of the total lisences issued, not issuing them isn't going to make much difference to you getting a lisence, but it sure would kill plenty of jobs.

1

u/kaydenb3 9d ago

I would think you’d just mark the tags way up. High enough price and you can sure replenish more game then was hunted with it.

2

u/Perfect_County_999 3d ago

This thread is a week old I doubt anyone will see this but I have to say that this is a horrible idea and most of the people in this thread acting like it's a good move very obviously have no idea about anything relating to the New Brunswick outfitting industry.

To preface, I may be biased because my family has been outfitting for ~40 years and guiding for longer than that, probably for as long as it's been a profession in NB. I did a bit of guiding in my late teens/early 20s to get me through college. I don't work in the industry any more but my family does.

These Americans spend ass loads of money to come here. Like, $10K+ USD for a moose hunt and that's not even including the cash tips and whatnot. The money doesn't go to the province, it goes to small family owned businesses that employ local people seasonally. American hunters and fishermen are not a contributing factor to why NBers aren't getting licenses to harvest moose, they make up only a few percent of draws every year, blocking Americans from coming here to hunt does not mean your chances of getting drawn for a license would increase by any meaningful amount. All it would mean is that the top paying minority of hunters are no longer paying to come here. If anything the money that Americans bring in does a lot to keep the hobby and industry going in NB even for residents.

If they went through with this it would destroy dozens of generations-old family owned businesses across the province and take away the livelihoods of hundreds of people. The province doesn't like us because most of us get paid in cash which means they don't get the tax revenue they would like but that's a different issue. At the end of the day there are wealthy Americans willing to come to Canada to spend tens of thousands of dollars on what is essentially tourism, there is no logical reason to turn them away, if anything I think we should be encouraging more Americans to come here and inject thousands of dollars into our tourism industry.

This is very short sighted of Susan Holt and dim witted of anyone to support itm