The county is hoping a letter will reverse the MNRF’s decision to stop helping egg collection.
For as long as it has existed, the Haliburton Highlands Outdoors Association has received help from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to conduct their egg collection program. That is until recently when the MNRF announced it was pulling support from that program.
At a meeting of the county’s tourism committee earlier today, the Deputy Mayor of Dysart et al, Patrick Kennedy urged his fellow committee members to pen a letter to the Ministry as well as MPP Laurie Scott in hopes of reversing the decision or finding an alternative solution. Several members of the committee noted that without the help of the ministry the egg collection program would cease to exist and potentially create the lost of Haliburton Gold Lake Trout, a fish renowned around the province.
Amanda Virtanen, the Director of Tourism for the county, echoed the concerns of Kennedy, saying the loss of the trout would be awful. She also explained that the HHOA does the leg work of the egg collection but without the help of the MNRF the program is not feasible.
After a discussion, the committee agreed the best course of action was to create a letter for the ministry urging them to reconsider the decision to pull their support from the program.