New Brunswick Weighs Licence Curbs on U.S. Hunters and Anglers
New Brunswick has moved to possibly restrict hunting and fishing licences as part of its response to the ongoing trade war with the United States, and the people on both sides of that border say they were caught off guard by it, CBC reports. American hunters and anglers and New Brunswick outfitters were among those surprised by the proposal. The trade war is the stated reason, which makes a fish-and-game office an unlikely instrument of foreign policy — but a licence is one of the few levers a province can pull without touching tariffs or procurement. The awkward part is who pays first: outfitting businesses, lodges and guides on the Canadian side earn their living from the same visitors a restriction would keep out, which may be why the surprise registered so loudly among New Brunswick operators rather than only among Americans.
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Using recreational licences as trade-war leverage is a strange choice precisely because the spending at stake — guiding fees, tags, lodge nights — happens on the Canadian side of the line.
The surprise is the more revealing detail than the restriction. Whatever the merits of the policy, a measure aimed at Washington lands on people in the province who had no warning it was coming.