The government must be lobbied to provide the same plants as southern Ontario

To the Expositor:

It’s time that the people of Manitoulin and Northern Ontario demand that the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the Liberal government start to rebuild our fisheries.

We are treated like second class citizens when it comes to fish stocking. What we are getting from the Blue Jay Creek hatchery is nothing compared to southern Ontario.

Example: The pools of Lake Ontario get plants of over a million salmon a year not including the rainbow trout.

We in the North pay the same licence fees and taxes as they do, but get nothing.

Our municipal governments and the Manitoulin Tourism Association and Chamber of Commerce, camp owners, lodge owners, should get together and demand that the MNR should bring our lakes back to ‘80s and ‘90s fish stocking levels.

During the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, South Bay got plants of 220,000 to 260,000 fish a year; now it’s 70,000. Lake Manitou gets $70,000. This is a joke.

Lake Manitou needs plants of 500,000 a year not 70,000.

Lowering limits and bringing in slot sizes does nothing to rebuild our fishery. It’s the MNR’s mandate to give us the best possible fishery.

Read more here: www.manitoulin.ca/2015/07/22/north-being-shortchanged-in-stocking-policies/