Under the Canopy
On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, former Minister of Natural Resources, Jerry Ouellette takes you along on the journey to see the places and meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and Under The Canopy.
Under the Canopy
Episode 86: Beyond Hunting - The Environmental Work of Safari Club International
Chris Everett from Safari Club International reveals how hunting organizations contribute to critical wildlife research and conservation efforts across North America and worldwide. Safari Club's structure of 13 Canadian chapters ensures that 70% of fundraising remains local, supporting community initiatives from habitat restoration to humanitarian projects.
• SCI is the largest non-profit hunting advocacy organization globally with members in 115 countries
• The organization funds crucial wildlife research including grizzly bear studies in BC and caribou recovery in Newfoundland
• Chris previously served as chief of staff for a Member of Parliament focusing on firearms and hunting policy
• Ontario has one of the world's largest polar bear populations with research partially funded by SCI
• Local chapters host fundraising banquets that combine social events with conservation fundraising
• Youth education initiatives include the Sensory Safari program featuring taxidermied specimens
• SCI advocates at municipal, provincial and federal government levels for science-based wildlife management
• Sustainable hunting practices stimulate rural economies during off-peak tourism seasons
Connect with Safari Club International at safariclub.org or find SCI Canada on Instagram and Facebook to learn more about upcoming events and conservation initiatives.
The humble goldfish, everyone's favorite aquatic pet. It's small, easy to care for.
Speaker 2:What's there not to love? Even the cat may be mesmerized by the color and movements of your aquarium friends. Goldfish are great at home, but don't let them loose.
Speaker 1:Releasing goldfish or other domestic aquatic pets or plants into natural environments is harmful to both your pet and the planet.
Speaker 2:Goldfish disrupt ecosystems by out-competing native species for food and resources. In degraded habitats they contribute to algae blooms. They kill aquatic wildlife and pass viruses and diseases contracted in aquariums to wild fish.
Speaker 1:They could even live up to 40 years and grow as big as a football. Anglers, this is where you come in. If you find a goldfish at your local fishing spot, report it to the Invading Species Hotline or go online to eddmapscom.
Speaker 2:Remember to never dump your live bait into the water and risk spreading other aquatic invaders.
Speaker 3:Keep our lakes free from invaders and don't let them loose. As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Ouellette and I was honoured to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal applications used by Indigenous peoples all over the globe. After nearly a decade of harvest, use, testimonials and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession and I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of the strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places, meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and under the canopy. So join me today for another great episode and hopefully we can inspire a few more people to live their lives under the canopy.
Speaker 3:Okay, as always, I want to thank my listeners around the world. We thank those from Canada. We really appreciate you listening to the podcast and, as always, without you listeners we wouldn't be having a podcast. And again, thanks for those listeners in the States and Switzerland and Ghana and Trinidad and Tobago and all around the world. We really appreciate that and if anybody has any questions or comments or wants to hear any specific shows, let us know and what we'll do is we will get some information out there and try to put it together.
Speaker 3:It can't be done sometimes right away, but we take a little bit of time to get a podcast of what you'd like to hear about, because that's what we're all about providing our listenership with what they want to hear about. Now, today we've got a special guest, but as usual, it was raining here where we are. I had my chocolate lab out and he gives me the look that are we going? Are we going for his run? And it's just kind of like no, not today. And we're recording actually at the Toronto Sportsman Show, for because there's a lot of great guests here, and we have a great guest here today in Chris Everett. Welcome to the podcast, chris.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:No problem. So tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you with and what do you do with them? What's your official title?
Speaker 4:So I'm Chris Everett. I'm the official chapter and advocacy specialist in Canada for Safari Club International Right, so my job is to help support the chapters and the membership across Canada, as well as do all of the government advocacy on the provincial, municipal and federal level for SCI.
Speaker 3:So where did you, what's your background and what were you involved with before you got involved with Safari Club International SCI?
Speaker 4:So before I switched over to work for SCI last summer, I was actually the chief of staff for a member of parliament on Parliament Hill, okay, where I, for 10 years, I worked in firearms policy, hunting policy and fisheries policy across Canada, okay. So I worked with some amazing stakeholders around the country and I saw that there was a real need to have some more national voice and some more advocates involved in the fighting for our way of life and protecting our way of life. And Safari Club International was an organization I had worked closely with in my time on Parliament Hill and I really saw an opportunity to work with them and I really supported the work that they were doing around the world really supported the work that they were doing around the world and so we were able to get a position for me to be able to do what I'm passionate about, and I've loved it ever since.
Speaker 3:Oh, good, well, do you know what C-68 is?
Speaker 4:Yes, I have heard about it and I've read through it a number of times.
Speaker 3:So I'm the guy that led the charge Canada-wide against C-68 when it first came out and, in September of 1994, held a huge rally on Parliament Hill where, according to the RCMP, we had over 27,000 in attendance on a Thursday. And I made every single decision from who the speakers were, the parade route, where the washrooms went, you name it. I organized the whole thing. As a matter of fact, it was funny. We had a guy by the name of Rowley, Now Rowley's. A matter of fact, it was funny. We had a guy by the name of Roley Now Roley's, a friend of mine, and Roley was in charge of the washrooms, the outhouses, the port-a-potties, and so we at the Labretton Flats is where the buses were landing, and so those were easy.
Speaker 3:But then, when it came to Parliament Hill, he says, Jerry, I don't know what to do. He says the RCMP won't let me put the outhouses on the Hill property and the Ottawa police won't let me put it on the street. So he says I don't know where to put them. And I said this is what you do, Roe. I said you decide where you want them to put them, I don't care, Just have them there, because we're going to have like 27,000 people who are going to need to go to the washroom. So so anyway. So I said, and this is what you do If you decide to put them on the Hill, you put them on the Hill. And when the RCMP come and say to you, what the hell are they doing here, you tell them the the Ottawa police department told you to put them there, talk to them, and by the time they figured out, the rally would be over and everything was done and it worked out just fine.
Speaker 4:I'm glad that worked out.
Speaker 3:But yeah, so it was interesting because and I chose, the master of ceremonies at the event was Linda Tom, and I don't know if you know Linda, but she was bilingual female.
Speaker 3:She was a cooking show host on a local TV show on a cable network in Ottawa and she was an Olympic gold medalist in handgun shooting. That's amazing, yeah, and plus we had Dr Ruth, judith Ross and a whole bunch of other individuals at the event to bring different perspectives forward and what that was designed to do. And I did the whole thing myself and I can remember getting home at 1 o'clock in the morning and picking up the phone and starting to phone people and my wife Diane says says what are you doing? It's one o'clock in the morning. I said no, no, it's, it's three hours difference in vancouver I'm calling those people in vancouver because we were already and we had parallel protests in all the federal uh members offices, the uh who were supporting the legislation at the same time and we had people, people fly out from BC and Alberta, anyways. So it was a big passion of mine. But yeah, we get involved in those things that we like and we try to make a difference, which is what you're doing, which is good.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes, hunting has always been a passion of mine. I grew up in a hunting family and you know seeing the impacts of the long gun registry way back in the 90s that it had on my family and just the fear that it instilled in some firearms owners just never sat well with me as a kid, let alone when I got involved in parliament and got involved in the federal politics side of things.
Speaker 3:So what does SCI do? Or what is Safari Club International all about?
Speaker 4:Safari Club International can sometimes get an interesting rap because, you know, our original logo was the lion and the shield, and so everyone thinks that we're just about hunting in africa, but we are not. We are much, much more right. We're the largest non-profit hunting advocacy organization in the world. We have 115 countries that we have members in right we have over 100,000 members between us and our affiliate organizations that are part of a larger umbrella organization called Sporting Conservation International.
Speaker 3:So what would be some of the affiliates then that are with you?
Speaker 4:So there's the Safari Club International Foundation, which is I dub it our science wing. There's a lot of humanitarian aid and a lot of scientific study and research that's done through the foundation investments. For instance, the foundation is actually working with the Taltan in BC to study grizzly bear predations on caribou populations. The end goal there is to allow people to be able to hunt grizzlies in BC again, because the numbers in the population seem to be far exceeding what the land can kind of sustain. So we're looking at getting that scientific data. We've invested $500,000 in the caribou recovery strategy in Newfoundland over the years as well. So that's one of our partner or our sister organizations. We also have Syngetica in Spain and we have a number of organizations in Africa and we're in negotiations to join forces with some other organizations as well throughout the world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was a member of SCI back in the 80s when I worked in the industry and one of the things that I was able to do was I worked with SFRI Club International in providing funds for elk research in the province of Ontario.
Speaker 3:So just south of Sudbury there was a burr washer that had been self-sustaining. I knew the population was only around 70 animals and I was able to because I was on the board to donate some funds to Dr Joe Hammer up in that area to continue on the research for elk in the province of Ontario. Not only that, when I was Minister of Natural Resources I recall a research study that was done by, funded by Safari Club International, again for caribou in the far north in northern Ontario, because we have a Hudson's James Bay kind of it's kind of a barren ground woodland cross that SEI covered paid for the funding for that research. So they do do a lot of contributions in a lot of different areas, which is very important that most people don't even realize about. No, so in these studies there's something that, like the ministries that I was in charge of, natural Resources for Ontario, are very important for making the management decisions in future generations.
Speaker 4:For sure, and we have across Canada specifically, which is the area that I focus more on, for Safari Club. We have 13 chapters right now that are actively hosting fundraisers and doing their own on-the-ground initiatives too. So sometimes you might not even hear about the initiatives. They might not be a bigger project like the elk and the caribou studies and such like that, but they're doing on-the-ground initiatives in their local areas, whether it's a habitat restoration program. But they're doing on-the-ground initiatives in their local areas, whether it's a habitat restoration program. If they're doing humanitarian. You know, I know our Nova Scotia chapter took some leftover bear meat from some hunts and made some bear enchiladas and donated them to some homeless shelters and to some people who were in need of some sustenance and stuff. So the chapters are really where a lot of the grassroots work actually happens and you know any chapter that's doing the work out there is super beneficial for the community.
Speaker 3:Now there was a doctor I know when I was minister, one of the things that I did was I brought SCI in because they're great contributors and they need to be recognized for their work, because they want to work with a lot of ministries in doing research and benefits to a lot of communities. And I had what's his name, Dr Harto Ives, I think. His last name was out of Sudbury and he was on the ELK committee when we reintroduced ELK into the province of Ontario and he was one of the lead individuals as part of one of the things that I was able to be successful with for Ontario. So those are some of the things, but you mentioned 13 chapters. Where are both of these chapters located? Across Canada?
Speaker 4:So they're right from coast to coast. So we have Nova Scotia, Udaway in Quebec. We have four chapters here in Ontario.
Speaker 3:Where are they in Ontario?
Speaker 4:In Ontario. We have Algonquin, ottawa Valley, the Ontario chapter, which is our oldest chapter and it's based in Toronto. We have our Southwestern Ontario chapter. We have the Manitoba chapter, which is based in and around Winnipeg. We have Saskatchewan rivers in the province of Saskatchewan. Then we have Northern Alberta, drayton Valley, calgary and Badlands, all in the province of Alberta. So they're right from north of Edmonton all the way down to closer to the border and we have the West Coast BC chapter as well.
Speaker 3:So how does SCI get its funds to be able to donate to events and for the research that you do?
Speaker 4:The funds are generated through the chapters hosting banquets, as well as our large convention, which is one of the largest hunting outdoor shows in the world, which happens in Nashville every year.
Speaker 3:Oh.
Speaker 4:Nashville. In Nashville, yeah, next year it's going to be in February, but our show down there is four days. We host big banquet dinners with large hunts that are donated for hunters to be able to auction off, and all of our funds raised from that go straight back into the advocacy efforts around the world and the conservation measures around the world as well.
Speaker 3:So one of the things when I was minister I was able to do and I worked with some of the staff in the Ministry of Natural Resources and we were able to Ontario has polar bear research study that was going on with Dr Marty Obarts, I think was the doctor who was doing the research on polar bears, because most people don't know that Ontario has one of the largest polar bear populations. And what we did was or what I did when I was minister I was able to get two spots for SCI Safari Club International to attend and participate in the polar bear research.
Speaker 4:That's amazing.
Speaker 3:And we, so one, went to the Ontario chapter and but what I did was I did something special and it was really tricky because most of the time when you buy something you don't get a tax receipt for the purchase.
Speaker 7:Right.
Speaker 3:However, I worked it out so that and the bureaucracy did a great job on it and you know that's what there's a lot of great individuals in the bureaucracies around that do a lot of really good work and what we were able to do was the money was actually donated to one of the universities, who then gave a tax receipt to be able to go and participate in the research, gave a tax receipt to be able to go and participate in the research.
Speaker 3:So, and I think they generated they doubled the amount of income generated to do polar bear research in the province of Ontario by having those two seats off that's amazing now, one went to the Ontario chapter and then one went to the, to the big uh event uh, where your conference is, your convention and the other one was sold there and I think I don't remember. I know the one, ontario, went for 12 15 000, but the one down in the states went for like 30 000 us. Yeah, and they actually participate hands-on with with uh the. What they do is they, they um. It's really interesting, though, because they use a helicopter to do this research and the people are in the helicopter with them. When they did it now and they, they dart uh and they tranquilize polar bears, and what they'll do is they. They bring in these special scales and weigh them, and then they take a tooth sample and a blood sample and uh skin sample, determine fat content and all those things, and the people there that participate in it. It's just unbelievable.
Speaker 3:They've never been involved in something like that and I remember the person bought it two years in a row because it was so great that they couldn't believe that the difference that it was making one in polar bear research but the ability to be there and see all these and to see the number of polar bears ontario has, because we have one of the world's largest populations of polar bears in the world and people don't realize that. So it was just a way of Safari Club International generating more revenue to help out with more research.
Speaker 4:Well, yeah, and that's where our foundation comes in, with Safari Club, the foundation itself, like I said earlier, I kind of call it the science wing, but that's where a lot of the funds go for taxable purposes. But also they're the ones that are sending scientists out. They're the ones that are working with the people on the ground, on the science side of things, to do that research, to get that data, to be able to support the true conservation measures in the area, to make sure that we are helping the animals succeed and helping the animals survive, but also supporting hunting, because we've always said it that hunters are the number one conservationists. We're out there on the ground, we're seeing this and working with these science organizations to get this information, and this scientific data is very important.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there's a lot of contributions that are made through hunting as well, whether it's CWD, chronic wasting disease where hunters in Ontario are contributing animals, parts, deer parts, to determine if chronic wasting diseases is in Ontario and in order to determine that they need all these sorts of parts of animals to be able to do the research on.
Speaker 3:And it's hunters that are contributing back to that and that's how we monitor and regulate and I know the ministry. There's a sector of society that is opposed to hunting but when they learn to start to understand that hunting kind of regulates a lot of the populations out there. And I know I did a podcast with another group that we talked about how deer harvest numbers are determined in Ontario and what happens is crop damage and car accidents are the number one determining factor. So if there's large and abundance of crop damage to a lot of the farms or there's more and more incidents where there's cars having collisions with deer, then they increase the number of tags available to harvest more in order to help the population or to regulate the population.
Speaker 4:Exactly, and you know I'm a sustenance hunter, so all that meat that we harvest when we go hunting fills our freezer, my family, I'd say 75 to 80% of the meat that we eat is all hunted and harvested by us ourselves and instead of buying food at the grocery store and I'm not knocking farming or anything but for us, we, we eat that, we live that lifestyle and and the meat itself we find very healthy and very rich for our, for our diets and and tasty, super tasty.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of meal options that we have yeah, one of the things that I found very interesting at chris was that um you know some of the events I did there was a um, a. It was a um. They were chickens that that were raised in the fields as opposed to pens, and the taste of that chicken was like night and day compared to the domesticated one that grows that you'll get at most of the stores and things like that. But those ones that had the free-range chickens they're called, they had a huge taste difference to them. And it's the same with wild game. You get that substantially different taste because of the natural aspects and there's no hormones and chemicals and all those sorts of things that are involved with that.
Speaker 4:It's 100% organic right.
Speaker 4:Purely off the land. And a couple years ago I was privileged enough to hunt with one of my good friends out in Alberta and I got a whitetail out there and I got a whitetail back here in Ontario that same season. So we did a taste test. We actually took the two meats, cooked them the same way because we wanted to see what the different tastes between the two whitetails were. And you did notice a difference because where I hunt is closer to the Bancroft area, so it's more the Canadian Shield and all the rock and all of that sort of stuff that they're eating in that type of a terrain.
Speaker 4:But out in Alberta I'm hunting deer that mostly are around farm fields, so they're going to be eating the grains and the oats and all that stuff. So it was interesting to see the taste difference there. And you know my family we are active bear hunters as well and we hunt up in the Halliburton area where the bears are almost overabundant and so we're helping with population control in that area. But all that meat they're all eating berries and they're eating all of the stuff in the woods and the meat is just absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 3:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:The humble goldfish, everyone's favorite aquatic pet. It's small, easy to care for.
Speaker 2:What's there not to love? Even the cat may be mesmerized by the color and movements of your aquarium friends. Goldfish are great at home, but don't let them loose.
Speaker 1:Releasing goldfish or other domestic aquatic pets or plants into natural environments is harmful to both your pet and the planet.
Speaker 2:Goldfish disrupt ecosystems by out-competing native species for food and resources. In degraded habitats they contribute to algae blooms. They kill aquatic wildlife and pass viruses and diseases contracted in aquariums to wildfish.
Speaker 1:They could even live up to 40 years and grow as big as a football. Anglers, this is where you come in. If you find a goldfish at your local fishing spot, report it to the Invading Species Hotline or go online to eddmapscom.
Speaker 2:Remember to never dump your live bait into the water and risk spreading other aquatic invaders. Keep our lakes free from invaders and don't let them loose.
Speaker 3:And now it's time for another testimonial for Chaga Health and Wellness. It's Jerry from Chaga Health and Wellness. We're here in Lindsay with Tula, who's actually from Finland and uses Chega. Tula, you've had some good experiences with Chega. Can you just tell us what that experience is?
Speaker 5:Yes, I got sick with fibro and one weekend my husband came here alone. I was home and he brought your leaflet Right and I read it and I said next weekend when we go to a market we're going to buy some. And so we started putting it in our morning smoothie.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 5:And among a few other things that I was doing. Because of that, the chaga has been the steady one Right. I would not want to live without it. Oh good, without it. So it's been working for me Very good.
Speaker 3:And you had some good luck with blood pressure as well.
Speaker 5:Oh right, yeah, Thanks for remembering that. I had a little bit of high elevated blood pressure and within two weeks of starting that every day, every morning, it went to normal.
Speaker 3:And you think the chaga was the reason why. Well, I didn't do anything else in that time frame, and so how much chaga did you have and how did you have it?
Speaker 5:Well, we just put that powder in a smoothie and it yeah. And it's about tablespoon yeah, no, it's less than tablespoon for two of us. Yeah, so you don't need that much.
Speaker 3:Right, but a teaspoon, yeah, yeah, very good. Well, thanks very much for sharing that. We really appreciate that and wish you all the best with the Chaga. Oh, you're from Finland as well? Yeah, and Chaga is pretty popular in Finland, is it not?
Speaker 5:I think it probably is, because there's some professors in a university that's teaching it and talking about it. And of course it's big in Russia, right, because that's where you know the northern woods that comes from. Yeah, and of course Finland has lots of perch trees.
Speaker 3:Right yeah, and it's the only mushroom that you can't forage in Finland.
Speaker 2:You have to forage everything else but not chaga.
Speaker 3:Oh, very good. Well, thanks very much for sharing that. Okay, have a great day you too. We interrupt this program to bring you a special offer from Chaga Health and Wellness. If you've listened this far and you're still wondering about this strange mushroom that I keep talking about and whether you would benefit from it or not, I may have something of interest to you. To thank you for listening to the show, I'm going to make trying Chaga that much easier by giving you a dollar off all our Chaga products at checkout. All you have to do is head over to our website, chagahealthandwellnesscom, place a few items in the cart and check out with the code CANOPY, c-a-n-o-p-y. If you're new to Chaga, I'd highly recommend the regular Chaga tea. This comes with 15 tea bags per package and each bag gives you around five or six cups of tea. Hey, thanks for listening Back to the episode. So whereabouts are you yourself located for our international audience? Kind of give them a Toronto, ottawa kind of point.
Speaker 4:I'm an hour south of Ottawa, so I'm right on the border, right on the St Lawrence, just north of New York State. So I'm an hour south of Ottawa and about a two-minute drive from the American border, if I ever have to get into Ogdensburg, new York.
Speaker 3:So what is your job then with Safari Club International? What do you do, or how do you help chapters and what sort of things like that? What kind of stuff do you do, chris?
Speaker 4:So I help chapters by giving them some suggestions for their banquets, whether it's, you know, helping them connect with some firearm manufacturers to get some donations for their banquets or just overall. You know, my background prior to getting into politics was event planning and special occasion planning and stuff, so I'm able to kind of bring that forward and help them in planning their banquets and coming up with raffle prizes and live auction items and such, but also just helping their membership navigate things through. You know, whether it's they're having issues, you know, for our hunters that do hunt abroad, if they're having issues getting their game meat or their hides and stuff back into Canada, we can help with that. But that's about half. My job is supporting the chapters in their work that way, navigating the government bureaucracies in their area and helping them advocate for other hunting abilities in their provinces and then, on the federal level as well, working with the government of the day and the opposition parties on bringing this on.
Speaker 3:I have somebody who last week was in touch with me because they have somebody who has game heads in Czechoslovakia and they can't get them out of Czechoslovakia and they've been there for over 15 years.
Speaker 4:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:Waiting to get back. So your agency would help those individuals to be able to help them. Bring them back. Now is it just for? You have to be a member in order to be this.
Speaker 4:You would need to be a member, but we do have resources and we have what's called the Hunter Hotline. So anyone who's a member gets access to contact the Hunter Hotline and they can help navigate and find the right people to either get in contact with or the right avenues to navigate. Barbara, who is in charge of the Hunter Hotline. She is an absolute dynamite when it comes to knowing how to navigate these things and get the answers for people that they need to if they need help. So getting a membership with Safari Club International gets you access to these resources.
Speaker 3:So these banquets that you talk about, what is a typical banquet like? Just kind of explain it for somebody who hasn't been. I mean, I've done the SCI ones Rocky Mountain, elk Foundation, ducks Unlimited, rough Grouse Society, wild Turkey OFH ones, we've done them all. Maybe just kind of give a background of what somebody would expect when they walk into a SCI Safari Club International banquet.
Speaker 4:Oh man, a very boisterous atmosphere, lots of people happy to be out. It's a social evening. We have dinners and fantastic meals, depending on the area, but first and foremost there's lots of games and activities and raffles that you can win, prizes that you can win, and then there's live auctions. So we'll have live auction items that might be a hunt in a foreign land, or it might be a firearm, or it might be a local fishing trip, and each chapter kind of looks at who comes to their banquets and who comes to their events and decides for themselves what is going to be better items to offer up for the raffle prizes.
Speaker 4:A lot of times we have, you know, kuyu uh clothing, which is a clothing like a hunting clothing. We we're working with scree as well, um, so we'll have some camo gear, we'll have some backpacks, we'll have some hunting uh, hunting items that you might need in the field, and you can enter into raffles or participate in games. And some chapters do what's called reverse bingo, where you buy a bingo card and you do the draw and at the end you get to win a gun that's on the wall. There's a number of things. I was at one chapter that had a canoe that had been donated and they put a bunch of bottles of liquor and some beer in it and they raffled that off. So each event is tailored to their audience and so, depending on where you are, they're pretty spectacular.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there was one they used to hold when I was a member. It was the only chapter around at the time Ontario chapter, I believe it was and they used to hold a banquet in Colberg and Lloyd Lipke and Jerome Knapp, bless his soul, and Helena used to run that and they used to have a. It was always beaver tail soup was the opening meal and then they would take they would advance it from there on some of the different meals that very wild game oriented and they would bring in char and things like that which you don't normally get in a lot of places.
Speaker 4:So it was very nice to see. Yeah, char is a rare fish, you don't find it down here too often.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, and now they have a banquet once a year, sort of thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, each chapter. Sometimes they'll do multiple banquets or multiple events. So I know one chapter in Alberta they do what's called the guns and gear event. So it's not a full banquet but it's more tailored to just the hunting gear and guns that you might be looking for. So each you know some of them will host multiple banquets or multiple events, but a lot of times they'll do education events too. They might do a kid's day at the gun range where they teach kids gun safety and such. So you know Nova Scotia, they do an ice fishing derby for a day. So not all the events with the Safari club chapter is going to look the same, but every year they will all host a banquet or a major fundraiser with a dinner, and then they'll do additional events throughout the year as well and then they take those funds to distribute back to the foundation or to areas that they decide.
Speaker 3:and I remember terry wheelan he's now a writer with. With one of the major ones we held up, we had a large fundraiser and we actually sent binoculars I think they were Zeiss or Swarovski binoculars to the rangers in Kenya to help prevent poaching in a lot of the jurisdictions in Africa, and it was buying them with the funds raised at that fundraiser. So those are some of the things that people would get involved in. That's what they do with their funds.
Speaker 4:The funds with the banquets themselves. Actually only 30% comes back to headquarters to help with the administrative costs, to help me with getting out and starting more chapters or doing more of the government advocacy. But 70% of the fundraiser the one fundraiser a year that they would do, or their biggest one stays local with the chapter for them to decide what to do with it.
Speaker 4:So that money stays local to the area that they are servicing. So whether it's the kids' education programs or they do humanitarian aid, that sort of stuff, the chapter decides that 70% they put into what they would like to put it into. So, it stays local to those areas. If they host additional events in the year, they keep a hundred percent of the proceeds from that to again, you know, invest in to promote other activities and such like that. So only 30% of their largest event will actually come to headquarters which is very different from a lot of other organizations.
Speaker 3:Very good, and so are there events coming up. How often do they like? Is it in the springtime, most of them in the fall.
Speaker 4:Most of them are in the spring, but we do have some that scatter throughout the fall. So my best suggestion is to come to the Safari Club website and to take a look at where all the events are, or to check out the Safari Club Canada social media pages. So we have a Facebook page and an Instagram page and we'll be putting and sharing out the information about the banquets upcoming banquets across Canada on those pages.
Speaker 3:Okay, very good. So, chris, how can people find out more information or get details about Safari Club Canada International, what you do and where these pages? Where is this actually located? What your? What's your uh page number, your address, yeah so instagram and facebook, both.
Speaker 4:If you look up sci canada, you're going to find us um. Additionally, if you go safaricluborg, that's the website for the entire organization and there's a navigation you can go to the top that. You can look at sai. It's under the international tab. You can go to sci canada. You can look at SAI. It's under the international tab. You can go to SAI Canada.
Speaker 3:Specifically for my contact information, Right and so, and there's a lot of youth involved. What I'm seeing here at the Toronto Sportsman Show is that you've got a lot of other individuals because, quite frankly, when we were there before, it was a lot of the how shall I say the more experienced individuals, yes, but now I'm seeing a lot of youth coming involved and getting actively involved, which is good.
Speaker 4:Well, at the Toronto Sportsman Show we actually brought one of the sensory safari trailers that one of our chapters manages.
Speaker 5:Okay what's that? So the?
Speaker 4:sensory safari has a number of taxidermied animals. So we have some African animals that are taxidermied in there. We have some North American animals, we have a giant moose, a bear, some deer, and then we have some furs that hang on the wall too, some trapped fur, and even some wood ducks and mallards that are in there. So kids and adults can wander through, take a look at the animals, take pictures with them. They can touch the fur, they can see what these animals look and feel like up close and it's just a great opportunity for them to see them and to learn about these animals from around, feel like up close, and it's just a great opportunity for them to see them and to learn about these animals from around the world as well.
Speaker 3:Very good Now, chris. One of the other things you mentioned was that you get involved in federal and provincial actions with the governments for legislation reasons. Can you kind of give us a bit of a background? Do you get right down to municipalities and things like that as well?
Speaker 4:Yeah, by all means, whenever a chapter flags something to me and they're local, it's a little hard for me as one person to keep an eye on every municipality across the country.
Speaker 4:But if a chapter flags to me that there's a municipal gun ban coming up on an agenda, then I can help them come up with the resources and if it's close enough to me, I can run out to the meeting and attend the meeting and then we can advocate for our members and for hunters and gun owners alike. Likewise, provincially, I am in touch with a large number of the municipal or the provincial ministers of natural resource and working with them. Todd Lowen in Alberta actually we have a very good relationship with and have been able to really fight and push for conservation and hunting initiatives in that province. And I met with the Minister of Natural Resources here in Ontario. He was by the trailer yesterday and we had a great conversation.
Speaker 4:I've worked with him in the past as well, and so we were really able to help our chapters help their members, and that's ultimately what it comes down to. My experience on Parliament Hill is where I come as an asset and I can help navigate and get meetings with politicians on Parliament Hill to be able to fight for the larger things that are of federal nature.
Speaker 3:Very good. Yeah, I reached out to the staff within the ministries to bring the minister here, as well as the premier. The premier for Ontario was here at the Sportsman Show yesterday as well, along with a number of ministers. The Minister of Forestry and Natural Resources two separate ministries in Ontario were both here and I worked with a number of those Adam with Natural Resources and the Minister Graham as well and Rebecca in Forestry and and then directly with the Premier to try and bring them out to expose them to stuff like this, which is important.
Speaker 4:It's super important to come out and talk to the people who are on the ground. That's where you get your information. You can only have so many people flying in helicopters taking a look and doing aerial surveillance, but when you have a large portion of your population that are getting out in the woods and hunting and fishing on the landscape, they're the ones that can actually tell you what they're seeing and and it's a great resource to be able to tap into well, and chris, I recall one of the big things was that there was a a very um.
Speaker 3:They were disconnected from, uh, the ability to generate revenue when I was minister of Natural Resources and the economic impacts that it had. And I recall they were looking at essentially increasing the number of deer tags in one particular wildlife management unit in Ontario and because it was a short season, I said look rather than increase the number of tags. Short season I said look rather than increase the number of tags. What you're going to do is let's look at stimulating the economy in that area for an extended period, because right now it's a one-week season. But if you extend that to a two-week season and that way you'll increase your harvest potential. But not only that, but the individuals who are participating in that are going to the local restaurants. You're going to the local restaurants, they're going to the gas stations 100%.
Speaker 3:They're going to the grocery stores to buy their stuff and those. So it helps those economies. Quite frankly, in times of year where you're up in Halliburton Way or Wilberforce, where the economy turns, when the cottages are gone and they're looking for this sort of thing, so extending that season actually generated revenue. Yes, and those are some of the things that aren't even taken into consideration. To municipalities, I mean. When they brought in the moose changes, when I was the opposition critic for natural resources, what I did was I reached out to every one of the municipalities and I said do you realize? This is what's going to happen and this is what it's going to mean to your municipalities?
Speaker 3:The end result was as a result of that, I did my job and the minister of the day was fired for that, because they had not taken that into consideration of the impact on the municipalities yeah so those are some of the things that people like yourself and sei get the message out and let these individuals know that it has huge economic benefits 100, and we're here to be a resource to the ministers as well.
Speaker 4:If they want to talk to us, they're able to reach out to us and get our feedback, and that's ultimately what we want to do. You know, there's a lot of great organizations that do the similar work in a different field, and we're all here to be resources as well. Bring to the table with SEI and help be a louder voice and have a more collaborative voice across the nation to be able to ultimately fight for our ability to continue hunting and protect our way of life.
Speaker 3:Very good. Well, Chris, let our listeners know again how do they get in touch with you, when can they find out more information or how do they reach you to get in touch with you if they want to find out more details about Safari Club club international here in canada?
Speaker 4:yeah, so come to safari cluborg. Navigate to the international tab that says sci canada and you'll find my direct contact information. There's some more resources there about specifically what we are doing in canada and at any time on instagram and facebook you can go to sci canada as well. Thanks very much.
Speaker 3:I really appreciate you being on our podcast and chris, this is just another way that people learning about some of the things. You can go to SCI Canada as well. Thanks very much. I really appreciate you being on our podcast and, chris, this is just another way that people are learning about some of the things and how things get done out there and how the research gets done out there under the canopy. Thanks a lot, chris.
Speaker 4:Thank you for having me.
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