New Manitoba Waterfowl License Regs: Applications Accepted June 15 to July 15, 2023
All American duck and goose hunters wishing to hunt Manitoba this fall will be provided a license, but must apply for licenses this summer
Manitoba Natural Resources and Northern Development has announced new licensing requirements for foreign resident migratory bird hunters in the province beginning with the 2023 hunting season.
Under the new regulations there will be three categories of foreign resident licenses: 1) a seven-day permit for freelance hunters issued via a drawing, 2) a legacy migratory gamebird license for grandfathered property interest holders, and 3) a seven-day permit purchased through a licensed Manitoba outfitter.
These changes are essential news for all hunters who want to go to Manitoba and hunt on their own this fall. They’ll need to apply via the e-licensing portal between June 15 and July 15. For the 2023 hunting season, all hunters who apply via the portal within the proper time frame will receive a license—a 100 percent success draw rate. What’s different from the past is that the license will be limited to one seven-day period during the season. There will be no over-the-counter migratory gamebird licenses sold.
Another portion of the regulation change reduces the number of outfitters licensed to guide waterfowl hunters in Manitoba by approximately 50%. Hunters who will be utilizing their services will purchase a license through the outfitter, and the number of those licenses has been capped at the average number of hunters hosted previous to COVID.
The Delta policy team appreciates the opportunity to participate with the Waterfowl Advisory Group, which was established after the guiding legislation passed last fall. Delta used this opportunity to inform the regulations to ensure all stakeholders, Manitoba residents, and those freelance Americans were all represented in the final product.
The legacy licenses will be available to foreign residents who have lawfully held a Manitoba foreign resident gamebird license anytime between August 15, 2018, and December 6, 2022, and who prior to September 1, 2022, and currently remain:
- A registered landowner in Manitoba
- A shareholder of a corporation that owns land in Manitoba, or
- A lessee of Crown land in Manitoba
Applications for legacy licenses must be received by June 1, 2023. More information is available at https://www.gov.mb.ca/nrnd/fish-wildlife/pubs/fish_wildlife/wildlife/waterfowl-application-guidelines.pdf.
Prematurely disseminated disinformation resulted in wide-spread confusion since discussions on the proposal began late last summer. However, the new regulations are made clear in the postings by the province at https://www.gov.mb.ca/nrnd/fish-wildlife/pubs/fish_wildlife/wildlife/waterfowl-guide-changes-migratory.pdf.
It’s clear that all U.S. hunters wishing to hunt in Manitoba this fall will be able to acquire a license to do so.
The intent of the Manitoba Government’s regulatory changes, along with significantly beefed up enforcement, is to crack down on ‘rogue’ outfitters who have long operated illegally in the province and have negatively impacted opportunity and access for all waterfowl hunters. In turn, it was felt that this should help relieve some of the difficulty many resident hunters perceive in gaining access in highly pressured regions of the province.
Additionally, the new regulations will manage outfitting within the province and ensure outfitting does not exceed those pre-COVID levels this year and beyond. It caps new growth in commercial waterfowl hunting in the province and takes steps which are hoped will diminish efforts to control hunting access. Earlier suggestions by others that “all American hunters would need to use guides and outfitters in Manitoba” are clearly inaccurate as described in the actual regulations released by the province.—Bill Miller
For more information contact John Devney at jdevney@deltawaterfowl.org or (701)-471-4235.
It would be nice to see a published list of the outfitters who will no longer be able to offer hunts in Manitoba as a result of these regulation changes. Clearly illegally operating outfitters has been a serious problem for many years across prairie Canada. A seven day hunting period for non-residents does however seem restrictive, especially if the issue is with illegal outfitters.
Mark, feel free to reach out to our John Devney with this question. He’ll have more information for you.
Manitoba’s problem with waterfowl hunters is not US hunters staying too long in Canada nor is it illegitimate Canadian waterfowl hunting outfitters from Manitoba controlling all the “good” hunting areas so most hunters don’t get access to good opportunities.It is the Canadian Wildlife Service not staffing enough CO’s or game wardens there in Manitoba to stop the ridiculous arguing that goes on between outfitters that claim they control the property they hunt and foreign residents who are just trying to get in on a “duck shoot”!!….If CO’s were present everyday in all of the province to control this silly and contrived problem and REALLY do some valuable wildlife protection work we wouldn’t have this problem!!…And if you can keep the Canadian Government and political officers out of it this the “problem” will go away!! I’ve hunted Manitoba for 23 years and not seen a CO more than 3 times!!..Not enough!!!…To have the. presence of CWS officers always “on the job”keeps everyone honest and forthright!!…David Hopkins..
i have hunted northern manitoba for waterfowl for 41 years….this is a back-doored legislation the did not notify many members of the Manitoba Lodge association and yes, many lodges will be out of waterfowling after this year. the alleged problem exists in the southwest and should not have affected the north as so few non-resident waterfowlers hunt up north. there are undelying undefined reasons for this change. Manitoba losing 58,000 resident waterfowlers since 1979 has nothing to do with American waterfowlers. the American dollars that went to Manitoba through DU & Delta surpassed what the province of Manitoba and Canada put into their own province. this happened for underlying interests that are not explained. they do not have enough people to work there for $40 and hour much less guide for 2.5 months a year if they’re lucky. waterfowling was already at a low & they and what better time to finish it off. your DU/Delta donations will have financed nice refuges and we helped finance our own demise!