Hunters and anglers who need hunting or fishing licences or licences requiring game seals should be aware of two planned service interruptions to the system that take place starting Nov. 19, 2018.
The first interruption will prevent outdoors enthusiasts from buying hunting or fishing licences from Nov. 19 to Nov. 25 this year. During that period, there will be none for sale.
The second interruption, which extends from Nov. 19 to Dec. 31 2018, will mean that licences requiring a game seal will not be available for purchases during that time, so hunters needing licences that require game seals for 2018 must purchase them prior to Nov. 19.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is urging hunters to plan ahead and says these interruptions are needed in order to implement the new fish and wildlife licensing service, which begins on Nov. 26, 2018. That service will allow hunters to have a mobile licence summary and a single Outdoors Card for all activities.
As of Jan. 1, 2019, all fishing and hunting licence purchases will be available once again within their regular time frames.
For many years I would put in for a doe tag for Area 49 where we own a cabin on a island in the middle of Crown Land. In 2014 an early hard winter devastated the deer population also the wolves reduced the deer numbers as well. Since then the wolves have finished off any remaining deer in our area ! This year moose hunting with a calf tag I covered approximately a 100 square kilometers, walking the area. During the week of hunting I did not see any deer sign also no beavers. As a matter of fact a lot of dams had collapse draining the ponds where turtles and frogs were abundant ! Anyway long story short I never applied for a doe tag for obvious reasons. I did however apply for the Dec. local controlled hunt. A few days before the hunt I had realized that I had not purchased a deer license. I called the Ministry of Natural Resources Information and Support Centre at 1-800-667-1940 all day, the phones were busy till finally a person answered late in the day. They said in order to purchase a deer license they would take my info and put me on a waiting list, next they would contact me ask to pay for it by credit card then have wait for it to arrive by Purlator. Never heard back….called yesterday and they said they are cancelling all license sales due to the fact Purlator was overloaded and it would take three days to have the license delivered. Its so obvious someone who doesn’t fish or hunt is behind the process. They are undeniably stupid for doing their retro process during hunt season.
I need to get a new Hunting Outdoors Card and a fishing one.