SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The number of commercial retailers in the city selling sport fishing licences has fallen to one after the YK Diirect Co-op's decision to stop offering the service last week.
Reddi Mart owner Qui Pham isn't keen on the paperwork required to sell fishing licenses for the ENR. April 15, 2013. - Sarah Ladik/NNSL |
Non-aboriginal anglers require a licence to fish anywhere in the territory. Licences can be obtained on a yearly basis and expire April 1, but can also be bought for three-day periods, mainly for tourists. While many retailers in Yellowknife used to sell the permits, including Gastown, Canadian Tire and Circle K, the Reddi Mart on 49 Street is the only one left.
"It doesn't make any sense for retailers to sell (licences)," said Qui Pham, Reddi Mart's owner. "For any license I sell, I get $1, and that's not worth it for the paperwork and effort I have to put in."
Licences for NWT residents run $10 for the year, $20 for Canadian residents and $40 for anyone else. Three-day permits are $15 for Canadian residents and $30 for foreign visitors.
Right now, Pham said she mostly sells to residents who are renewing their permits for the year, but come June and July she expects to be busier with tourists.
"Lots of customers come in saying they've looked elsewhere and couldn't find (fishing licences)," she said. "They say that after trying a few places they find out I still sell them and then come here, but they're frustrated."
Territorial government offices, including the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) and Services TNO in the Laing Building, also sell licences, in addition to the Northern Frontier Visitor's Centre. Only the latter is open on weekends and then only from noon to 5 p.m.
Tourism operator and owner of Bluefish Services, Greg Robertson, told Yellowknifer the tourism industry as it relates to fishing has changed enormously over the last decade.
"Before, it was all lodges, but now we have people coming to the city for conferences who don't necessarily want to be out for more than a few hours or a day," he said. "We have to keep up with the times."
In most NWT communities, ENR and other government offices are the sole vendors of sport fishing licences, but there are 15 lodges that offer the service. Wallace Finlayson of Trophy Lodge said that while most lodges are more than happy to sell permits to anglers who haven't booked trips with them, their remote locations make people coming in off the street to do so a rarity.
Robertson runs short trips, often less than a day, and buys licences in advance for visitors who weren't able to procure one for themselves. He is also the treasurer of the Northern Frontier Visitors Association and knows the hassle vendors have to go through with ENR.
"It's a lot of paperwork," he said. "In the rest of Canada you can get them online or by phone, and our system just needs to get with the times."
Judy McLinton, manager of public affairs and communications at ENR, told Yellowknifer by e-mail the department is "investigating" a potential online system for purchasing fishing licences.
The YK Co-op could not be reached for comment by press time, but Robertson stated that there "has to be a problem if no one wants to sell licences.
"They have to make it easier for both the person buying the licence and the person selling it."
