There will be no Sunday gun hunting in this township, council decided.
In a 4-1 recorded vote at the June 27 meeting, Mapleton councillors defeated a resolution that would have allowed hunting with firearms on Sundays during the various hunting seasons.
The resolution, presented in a staff report from CAO Brad McRoberts called for the township to ask the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) to add the township to the list of Ontario municipalities allowing Sunday gun hunting.
On April 12 council heard delegations from three proponents of Sunday gun hunting, including Brian McRae, marketing and club membership manager for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters. McRae told council that since 2005, 173 municipalities have voted to allow Sunday hunting, including just recently neighbouring Wellington North.
About 25 people attended a special meeting held by council at the PMD arena on May 3. The majority of speakers favored Sunday gun hunting, while a call for written submissions generated 37 responses, with 29 in favor and eight opposed.
In his report, McRoberts pointed out that from 2011 to 2015 Wellington OPP dealt with 24 hunting complaints in Mapleton, 18 from the former Maryborough Township, with most calls occurring on weekends during the fall and winter.
McRoberts said OPP Inspector Scott Lawson advised him hunting complaint calls are very labor intensive for police, because “they’re not going to show up with one officer in a car” as their protocols require a response from two cruisers, with four officers, plus backup.
The staff report notes attempts to gather “citable statistics” on hunting safety were unsuccessful.
McRoberts explained statistics provided by McRae at the April 12 meeting “were assembled by Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters and were not independently verifiable.”
The report pointed out “Mapleton specific nuances” of Sunday gun hunting, such as “only for Mapleton residents” or “only with written permission from land owner” would not be enforced by the OPP or MNRF and any enforcement would have to be handled by a municipal bylaw officer.
“This enforcement will be problematic, create need for additional resources and training and potentially place ill-equipped staff in a potentially dangerous situation. Staff do not recommend council includes any Mapleton-specific conditions to the authorization of Sunday gun hunting,” McRoberts stated.
Councillor Michael Martin, who cast the only vote in favour of the proposal, said arguments about the safety of hunting and other elements presented by the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters “didn’t really resonate with me.”
Although recognizing the need to “accommodate all our different religious groups,” Martin said, “the part about all of this that really makes a difference to me … it still comes down to being the private landowner’s decision on whether hunting is conducted on Sunday or any other day for that matter.”
However Mayor Neil Driscoll said “my biggest fear is giving permission to some hunter from out of town and he comes in and shoots every gun that he has and shoots up everything in the bush.”
Councillor Lori Woodham said nearly 30 per cent of Mapleton’s population is Mennonite.
One member of the group told her that Sunday is their travel day to church and approving the proposal would mean one more day when the sound of gunfire could startle their horses.
However, Woodham likened the issue to the Sunday shopping debate, noting that many people were initially aghast at the idea, “but how many of us can say we don’t shop on Sundays?
“It’s really difficult. My hand will go up and yes my vote will be yes, but when that gun hunter comes and asks me if they can deer hunt on our property my husband and I will continue to say no,” stated Woodham, who none-the-less voted against the proposal when the question was called.
Councillor Dennis Craven expressed concern that township approval “may make it a little more difficult to say no,” resulting in arguments between landowners and hunters requesting permission.
Councillor Marlene Ottens disagreed with that point.
“It’s easy to say no. I’ve said no to hunters lots of times, depending how I’m feeling that day about allowing hunting on my property,” she stated. However, she added, “Regardless, when this vote is done, half the community will be happy about it and half won’t be.”
“I think we gave our citizens a process to follow and to come and speak … and they did,” said Driscoll.
Following the vote on Sunday hunting, council agreed to consider repealing a 1970 bylaw that prohibits “anyone other than a resident of the Township of Maryborough upon his own lands, or person carrying the written consent of the said owner” from discharging “any firearm or airgun or spring-gun” within the township.
The bylaw carries a penalty of not less than $1 or more than $50, depending on “the discretion of the convicting provincial judge.”
The motion to repeal the bylaw will come before council at a future meeting.
