MNR looking at regulating fish shacks in this area

Ken Johnston

One last bastion of life that has yet to be regulated in this area may soon be.
The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) is currently looking at creating regulations for the commercial operation of ice fishing houses on area waterways.
While the matter is being looked at provincially, MNR Lake of the Woods Area Supervisor Betty Wires said officials in Kenora and Fort Frances are hoping to take the matter a step further.
She expects the province to come forward with a registration system for fish houses. There is already a system in place in eastern Ontario and across the border in Minnesota. House owners have to register their shacks and clearly mark their registration number on them so officials can identify who a house belongs to.
Until very recently MNR used the Public Land’s Act to restrict tourist camps from leaving the fish houses on the water overnight. But recently the government determined that fishing houses should fall under the Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Act.
In December MNR announced new regulations for the Lake Nippissing area noting that after this year the ministry may regulate the number of houses a commercial operation will be able to leave on the lake.
Wires said that is where the local district offices want to go. “There are no new fish on Lake of the Woods. This could add more pressure to the fishery if we do not regulate the number of fish houses out there.”
While there is no time line at this point for new regulations, Wires noted that they are looking at them. In the mean time there is no rule saying that commercial operators can not have them on the water overnight or all winter for that matter.
On the U.S. side of Lake of the Woods, ice fishing has become bigger than summer fishing. That concerns MNR and for that reason they want to ensure that if there is added pressure in the winter that harvest levels do not increase. “It has to be sustainable,” said Wires.
As for Joe Citizen’s fish house, Wires said that right now they are focusing their attention on the commercial end of things. “However, we will wait and see what comes out of the provincial process.”
In eastern Ontario all ice fishing houses have to be registered with the province. That could very well be the case here in the not to distant future.
Any changes will require public consultations. “We want to be fair in terms of letting the public know what we are thinking,” said Wires.