N.B. to allow Sunday hunting
But traditional ban won't be lifted year-round
By James Foster, Canadaeast News Service
http://bugleobserver.canadaeast.com/news/article/229317
Tuesday March 4th, 2008
page A7
Sunday hunting is coming to New Brunswick – although the ban on hunting during the traditional day of rest won't be lifted year-round.
"You're not going to see full implementation and you're not going to see no implementation," provincial Minister of Natural Resources Donald Arseneault said Feb. 29.
The matter still has to be decided by the provincial cabinet. A final decision is expected to be made public by mid-March. However, in an interview, Arseneault tipped the province's hand on the contentious question.
Arseneault called the decision to partially lift the ban on Sunday hunting "a difficult choice."
The department consulted widely on the question and was flooded with almost 10,000 responses from property owners and forest users of every kind, including, of course, hunters themselves.
Surprisingly to some, many hunters were in favour of maintaining Sunday as a non-hunting day, while many non-hunters didn't have a problem with chasing game on the traditional day of rest. As expected, most hunters favoured week-long hunting.
The three Maritime provinces are among the minority of jurisdictions in North America where the woods and fields are off-limits to hunters on Sundays. In most other states and provinces, either wide-open hunting is permitted or else hunting is permitted during only selected seasons or only in selected areas.
For example, in some areas, Sunday hunting is only permitted during big game season. While deer hunting is by far New Brunswick's most popular hunting season and the deer herd is growing by an average of 15 per cent to 20 per cent per year after crashing dangerously in the late 1990s, Arseneault would not speculate if deer hunting on Sunday was in New Brunswick's future.
He has said in the past, however, that whatever form of Sunday hunting might be allowed, he wanted it in place in time for this year's hunting season, which begins with a three-day moose season in late September, followed by hunting for several small-game species Oct. 1 and then by deer near the end of October.
The public consultation phase last year generated the most responses in the history of the department, attesting to how passionate New Brunswickers feel on the topic, whether for and against.
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