MAPLETON – A rule prohibiting hunting with firearms on Sundays is set to be reviewed by Township of Mapleton staff.
Resident Ray Kuper asked Mapleton council on June 11 to allow people to hunt with guns on Sundays.
The township already permits the discharging of firearms on Sundays, but for target practice only.
“You can target practice all day long,” Kuper said. “You can unload hundreds of bullets into a target … all Sunday long.
“But for some reason you can’t hunt.”
Sunday hunting is only permitted with a bow and arrow, and during specific wildlife seasons, such as turkey and deer.
The province permits hunting deer with shotguns for just one week each year in this area, Kuper noted.
And many hunters are unable to hunt during the week because they work Monday through Friday, leaving Saturday as the only possible day for hunting.
If Mapleton permitted gun hunting on Sundays, that would double the amount of time many local hunters have for hunting deer with shotguns.
“Hunting is just another sport,” Kuper said, and it’s “one of the safest sports.”
Hunters must all complete hunter safety and firearms safety courses, and Kuper said 0.001 per cent of sporting accidents are connected to hunting.
Kuper also spoke to the wildlife management benefits of hunting, noting it reduces damage to farmers’ crops from foraging deer and also reduces car accidents from collisions with wildlife.
Sunday gun hunting elsewhere
About 90% of municipalities in Ontario already allow gun hunting on Sundays, Kuper said.
Minto council voted unanimously in favour of permitting hunting with guns on Sundays earlier this year.
That made it the 192nd municipality in Ontario to lift the ban on Sunday gun hunting, according to the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH).
Wellington North, North Perth, and Perth East permit hunting with guns on Sundays.
According to OFAH manager Mark Ryckman, the organization “has been the driving force behind the expansion of Sunday gun hunting opportunities since 2005, when we, along with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, successfully convinced the provincial government to liberalize regulations in southern Ontario.
“At that time, 67 municipalities … immediately passed resolutions in support of Sunday gun hunting,” Ryckman states in a letter to Mapleton council.
History in Mapleton
The matter was last brought to council in 2016, at which time 25 people attended a public meeting on the topic.
The majority of speakers favoured Sunday gun hunting.
There were also 37 written submissions at that time – 29 in favour and eight opposed, as well as an email from then-OPP inspector Scott Lawson explaining the challenges police face when responding to calls involving hunting with firearms.
Council voted against changing the bylaw prohibiting hunting with guns on Sundays, with councillor Michael Martin the only vote in favour of changing the rule.
Councillor Marlene Ottens said on June 11 she has since changed her position.
“I’m not a hunter. I’m not a fan of it; not a fan of guns, it’s not my thing,” she said. “But I respect people’s desire to do that.”
Ottens added, “The more you talk to people the more you learn about it and the more you understand that, as you said, you only get one weekend a year where you can do that and if you want to put a deer in the freezer [and] you’re working all week, that gives you two days instead of one to do that.
“So I appreciate the request and bringing it back to council.”
Misconceptions?
OFAH representative Dave Mendler accompanied Kuper for the delegation and spoke about what he considered misconceptions around hunting.
“A lot of people’s perceptions of hunters go back 40, 50 years – a bunch of guys out hunting and then going out for a few beers after,” he said.
But that’s often not the case anymore, Mendler added, noting, “The largest demographic that has now started hunting is women … and part of the reason for that is the Sunday gun hunting.
“Because now it has become more of a family sport … and allowing for a Sunday hunt is always going to allow more families to get out together.
“Just like camping or fishing or whatever, it’s just another sport that they can all partake in.”
Kuper and Mendler argue the Sunday hunting ban is outdated and out of touch with current lifestyles, where people have moved away from a “Monday-to-Friday, nine-to-five world.
“At one point you weren’t even allowed to darn socks on Sundays,” Kuper noted. “And we’ve thrown that right out the window, too.”
Mapleton council directed staff to come back to council with a report after reviewing the bylaw.
