The Wildlife Amendment Act which came into effect early this October has council in the RM of Ste Anne raising their eyebrows.

The act makes it illegal to night-hunt on private property, however, with a permit, hunting at night would now be allowed on Crown land.

“They stipulate that you have to a minimum of three kilometres away from any residence,” says Reeve Paul Saindon, “but they don’t specify roads through, and that’s a little concerning.”

As a result, council is requesting the province provide them with a more detailed map.

“We have a lot of Crown land in the RM of Ste Anne," says the reeve, "and I don’t know if there are three kilometres in any direction from the middle of any piece of Crown land, within the RM, that would make a safe zone.”

Saindon has been an avid hunter for 50 years and raises other concerns regarding night-hunting.

“If you don’t pull off an exact shot, the steer’s going to wander off quickly with all kinds of angles and areas and he’ll find the dirtiest spot to drop and die. Now, how do you find it?”

Saindon also wonders how conservation officers are going to police illegal behaviour in the dark.

According to Saindon, the practice of hunting at night using lights has been called “night-lighting” or “moon-lighting” in the past, and has been “frowned upon for 50 years plus”.

The reeve sums up his opinion pretty succinctly in saying; “it’s not, in my view, a very safe practice”.