Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Hey my northern brothers...

You guys thinkin the border will be open for 21’ huntin season?? Before I get blasted, remember we got Biden and treadeau. Commander is telling me they’re “health care” here in wa are expecting this shiit to last through next fall. Just trying to figure out my season/tag strategy next year.. what the consensus up there? Thanks

Judman;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the day was a good one for you and all that matter in your life are well.

Honestly it's so tough to even begin to imagine what the future holds at this juncture regarding how travel will look by then.

While I'm certainly hoping that it'll settle down by next fall, anything would be a guess on my part.

The closures have devastated our tourist industry and many small businesses and as long as the federal and provincial governments keep pumping our money back to us and increasing our debt loads in so doing, the real economic impact of the closures won't be known, much less felt.

I'm sorry that I can't even begin to guess sir, but I absolutely do hope that the borders open by then - both for those who want to hunt and for the economy of the province as well.

All the best to you and your fine family this Christmas Season Jud.

Dwayne

My guess/ hope is yes. I run a fishing lodge in summer, and take trappers out in winter, as well as guide big game hunters for anther outfitter here in Yukon. We have already lost a years income. Nobody in my business can afford to do it again. We are getting the vaccine next month supposably, so that should speed things up. People are getting antsy to get back out into the woods, and any hunts/trips available will book up fast once we get the go ahead. We've been getting a lot of phone calls recently from guys wanting to go trapping. Lets hope it opens soon.

Maybe I am overly cautious but I feel this could be ongoing. The vaccine could be a boondoggle.
I am not a conspiracy theorist, but maybe our maker is trying to get our attention.
Merry Christmas folks - hold your head up.

Ya hard to say, got the opportunity to pull off BC and Alberta in 21’, guess we’ll see...

I'm praying for fishing in June!

Canada is continuing their monthly extensions, as they did this year. Officially, tourism is stopped until January, but it's not unreasonable to expect that they will keep the borders closed until the COVID numbers drop significantly on both sides of the border.

The Judster … I hope you make it north next year as it’s obvious you’re one of the good lads on this site.

Canadians, plain and simple are kept in the dark and have been for many moons when it comes to issues like these - border closings.

Our ‘news outlets’ (Censors ’R Us) are what FB, Google and Twitter want to become. We need to actively search for authoritative sources up here to have a good perspective on things.

Anyhow .. just this morning it was announced nationally that the borders MAY remain closed until the rest of the world has time to catch up with the vaccine protocols - too difficult to selectively enforce at our points of entry I suppose {sarc on}.

That said ..if you can remain flexible to the last minute me thinks it work well for ya.

Good luck.

Copy that, I’m a hopin. Love me some Canada good times hangin with the pards up there too.

Canadians are not kept in the dark WRT border closings. Neither is the rest of the world.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...ravel-restrictions-exemptions.html#other

Nor would they ever consider keeping Border Crossings under wraps .. it's all there, up front and for all to see.

Another conspiracy theorist.

You realize you are being watched and recorded. Hopefully, you do not get added to the Trudeau ordered hit list.

Ladies and Gents of the 24 .... I give you Paddler North.

Actually the video is true. I did a job for Highways this past summer and saw it first hand. Ive been in tourism all my life and i know a tourist when I see one, and I saw lots of them in northern Yukon. Almost all were Asian. I belong to a couple of tourism associations so started asking question. At that time our Territorial border was closed to all non essential travel other than people from BC. The "tourists" were all in vans or Suvs with BC plates. Presumably rentals. The tourism association told us at that time that flights were indeed still coming in from Asia, and these people were most likely renting vehicles and driving up. I do know a very high percentage of them could not speak a word of english, or read it either. Made it interesting and at times dangerous to be in a construction zone.

Yukon 254 we ran into the same situation camping in Alberta in June and again at the end of August. Camper Vans with BC plates travelling as groups driven / occupied by Asians at the time of no travel across provincial borders. We encountered three different groups of 2 to 4 units travelling together.

I spoke with one group at a lake side camp site and they had a home in Vancouver that they had flown into from Hong Kong. Rented the truck camper (F350 crew with a very large camper) and travelled away from Vancouver. The man driving could not speak English and his wife was about 60% for understanding. She made a statement that it was a good time to not be in China. Clearly Canada was not a primary residence.

Back to the OP's question -- for Alberta the outfitters have been getting small business support from the government to keep them going. Whether a person agrees with this or not would be a separate discussion. Personally I do not think that a general vaccine roll out will be happening in Canada until the early fall at the earliest. Alberta right now is in another semi lock down and hospital beds are filling up. Come spring when everyone gets outside and separated I would expect numbers to drop.

So 2021 is a bit of a gamble --- will there be enough vaccinated health care workers, how will airport testing prove out, what happens with case numbers both in the US and Canada ---- I think we are in a better position today than we were in April / May of this year in understanding the early symptoms / control issues. I know I will be trying for a couple of draws that got shut down this past fall due to worries on infection rates and will be looking closely at at a couple of guided fishing trips that lodges were closed for this past year.

If the borders dont open it will be up to Canadian guys like you HughW . I've been in the fishing lodge business for more than 3 decades now and I know a pile of operators in western Canada. A lot of lodges, including ours, didnt qualify for Govt funding. The vast majority will be in financial ruin if they lose the 21 season, so hopefully enough Canadians will book trips to keep those operators afloat. Traditionally that doesnt happen. The Canadian economy isnt exactly booming. Another problem we are just now trying to deal with is liability insurance. Most companies base rates on previous years income, and a lot of folks are finding out they dont qualify. Our agent told us she only has one tourist company in her portfolio that does. Its a real nightmare all around.

Yukon -- I have made a specific commitment to my wife that my fishing lodge trips this next year will be Yukon, NWT or Sask . These folks need support. I am not happy with what has been going on in BC with DFO. I will take a look at your lodge as well.

Hugh

I feel for the Canadian outfitters but, for my money, they’re overpriced.

My buddies pay @$6k each every two years to go hunt moose in Nfld. Many times they take their moose the first day and they’re sitting on their azzes the rest of the 4-day hunt.

For that same money, I can do 7 or 8 days in South Africa, hunt 5 animals, have amazing food and generally have a blast in a faraway country, not my home country.

Yes, they can take the meat home, 2-300 lbs of it that they have a hard time using. And I can hunt moose with a crew here in Ontario and get enough meat to last me a year.

Hopefully Canadian prices will adjust to not having Americans come. I’d like to do an elk hunt, caribou hunt or a bison hunt, but not at current prices.

I can't imagine anyone allowed in without proof of being vaccinated.