THUNDER BAY — Fort Frances Mayor Andrew Hallikas was happy to hear an answer to his question at the Ministers Forum on the last day of the 2025 Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association conference, but he wasn't so happy with the answer.
Hallikas had asked if the province will increase the presence of OPP and conservation officers on Ontario boundary waters to crack down on U.S.-based fishing guides and their clients who “use Canadian resources and do not contribute to the Canadian economy in any way.”
“I appreciate the question,” Todd McCarthy, minister of environment, conservation and parks, said in response.
“I thank you for bringing it to our attention and to my attention in particular. I will simply say it’s a matter of great concern. It’s a major loophole.
“I accept that and I will take this back to the solicitor general and the minister of natural resources as well.”
Hallikas told Newswatch afterwards the answer was less than hoped for, but then the matter is not within McCarthy’s ministerial responsibilities.
“It was a pretty short answer, so clearly I wouldn’t be happy with it,” he said.
“But I do understand, because the minister I really wanted to talk to was the solicitor general, and I would like to have spoken to the minister of forestry, but they weren’t there today.”
Hallikas added that he was glad to have the issue raised in a popular forum of the annual NOMA conference, which draws representatives from more than three dozen municipalities across Northwestern Ontario.
“I asked a similar question last year, but the situation has changed somewhat in that now there’s a lot of pressure on us both from the federal government and the American government about border security, and this is clearly a border security issue in addition to being a conservation issue.
“So the key for us now is enforcement, and we’ve been saying this now for a couple of years. We don’t have adequate enforcement, so we need the OPP to step up.”
More conservation officers are needed as well, he said, “because the boundary waters here are huge. Rainy Lake, Rainy River and Lake of the Woods – that’s a vast area.”
At last year’s NOMA conference, Hallikas asked Graydon Smith, natural resources minister at the time, about strengthening border protection to tackle the problem of fishing guides from south of the border taking business from local guides “while heavily utilizing our resources.”
Smith said he was he working with conservation officers on both sides of the border to get the situation resolved.
Seven other cabinet ministers – including Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce, Rural Affairs Minister Lisa Thompson and Kevin Holland, associate minister of forestry and forest products – participated in Friday’s forum.
Holland, who is the MPP for Thunder Bay-Atikokan, also addressed the conference before the forum, as did cabinet colleagues George Pirie (Northern Economic Development and Growth) and Rob Flack (Municipal Affairs and Housing). Holland, formerly mayor of Conmee, said it was his 34th NOMA conference.
Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford, whose cabinet porfolio includes the Ring of Fire and Indigenous affairs, was scheduled for the forum but did not attend.
