Elderly northern fur trappers will not be seeing free licenses from the Saskatchewan government, despite advocating for this through a legislative petition.

Cumberland MLA Doyle Vermette tabled a petition Monday, requesting the government provide a trapping license exemption for Saskatchewan residents over 65 years of age.

Kevin Murphy, a Deputy Minister with the Ministry of Environment says officials have examined this option, but decided not to make it free.

He says northern trappers already get their license at half the rate as southern trappers. “We’ve explored that, but we’re not at this time proposing to proceed with giving free licenses to trappers,” he said. “Trapping is a commercial activity from which a profit is made. We already provide a 50 percent decrease for northern trappers on their license issuance. The sense is that as a commercial activity from which a profit is gained they [trappers] can recoup those losses, and that the people of Saskatchewan, because it’s on a public resource need to have some level of compensation for the utilization of that resource,” Murphy stated.

Murphy explained that Indigenous trappers not engaging in commercial activity do not require a license and that First Nations on-reserve trapping is eligible for a free export permit.

Murphy says the 50 percent discount is to recognize some disadvantages northern trapper’s experience. “The feeling is, is that northern trappers have significant impediments in terms of being able to access resources like the education programming. It’s just not as easy from them, so we wanted to provide them with a little bit of a break with regards to that,” Murphy stated.

(PHOTO – a recent trappers table in Prince Albert.  File Photo)