Canada spent $12M on deer cull, while hunters say they’d do it for free

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OTTAWA — Employing foreign sharpshooters in helicopters to cull deer inhabiting a small coastal B.C. island could cost taxpayers over $12 million, suggest newly released government documents. 

According to figures unearthed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation via an access-to-information act, Parks Canada has earmarked $12 million to fund a multi-phase “Fur to Forest” program, which employs non-Canadian helicopter-mounted sharpshooters to eradicate an invasive herd of European fallow deer from Sidney Island — a nine-square-kilometre tract of land off the coast of Vancouver Island.

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That’s nearly double the $6 million the program was initially forecast to cost.

“It’s appalling for Parks Canada to be blowing $12 million on a project that local hunters have been doing for a decade for free,” the federation’s Carson Binda told reporters in Victoria recently.

The program sparked controversy upon its launch in December, particularly in light of the fact local efforts by private hunters have kept the animals’ numbers in check.

Locals told reporters last year those efforts resulted in the removal of nearly 2,000 deer, and at no cost to taxpayers. 

A total of 84 deer were killed during last year’s cull between Dec. 1 and 11.

As well, Parks Canada confirmed a little under a quarter of the culled animals weren’t actually invasive deer, but species native to Sidney Island.

European fallow deer were introduced to the island as hunting game over 100 years ago, and their presence is harming indigenous wildlife and plants.

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Officials say as many as 900 deer currently inhabit the small island.

According to cost breakdowns provided in the documents, deer eradication amounted to a little more than $4 million of the $12 million total, including $137,407 to facilitate “firearms registration for international workers,” as the hunters brought in to cull the deer were from the United States and New Zealand — plus $35,000 for their work permits.

The eradication costs also include $67,680 for helicopters, and $329,760 for the scent-tracking dogs earmarked for phase two of the cull, expected to begin this fall. 

A total of $800,000 was set aside to facilitate Indigenous participation in the program, which includes payments to three area First Nations, as well as $108,800 for meat harvesting, and $15,250 each for cultural and spiritual workers to train crews. 

Other costs include $2.3 million for salaries for Parks Canada staff, $1.4 million for analysis and studies and $3.3 million in miscellaneous costs.

“Let’s just state the obvious: Parks Canada is bad at hunting and more money isn’t going to make it better,” said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano.

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“The good folks who live on Sidney Island are clearly more qualified to handle this and the government should get out of their way.”

In a statement from Parks Canada, a spokesperson maintains the cost for the cull remains the projected $5.9 million, and said the $12 million refers to the entire restoration project on Sidney Island, which includes restoration of native plant species.

Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights president Scott Carpenter, a B.C.-based hunter and owner of International Shooting Supplies in Surrey, told the National Post there are dozens of different ways the federal government could have conducted the cull, and saved millions of dollars. 

“It’s an epic failure — it’s like the micro-to-the-macro of the ArriveCan debacle,” he said. 

“It’s spending millions of dollars on something that should have only cost a few thousand at worst. At this end, it should have been a money-maker for either the provincial or federal government.”

Rather than bringing in foreign sharpshooters, Carpenter said, the government could have used the cull as a means to generate local income for Canadian hunters.

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“It’s a real slap in the face to Canadian hunters, and there’s millions of us in this country who would’ve been more than happy to spend our own money to go in there and harvest some of the meat ourselves,” he said.

“To turn around and invite foreigners into the country because they felt we were incapable of doing it ourselves, it’s insulting to say the least.”

He also criticized the use of helicopters in the hunt, saying it definitely contributed to the high numbers of local deer killed.

“A controlled hunt on the ground over a period of a few months would have eliminated that problem,” he said.

“On the ground, there’s no problem distinguishing the difference between native and non-native species.”

National Post

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