Uh oh, TrapperMike, now you've gone and done it. The leadership at the association doesn't want the membership to know about this.
In 2016, a couple of weeks before the AGM, a 5 member team from the association consisting of 2 private trapping school owners, 2 trapping instructors and the spouse of a trapping instructor, met with AEP and formally requested a mandatory snaring course and a separate license required to be allowed to snare in Alberta. They did it without the membership's knowledge or consent and apparently still want to keep it secret. I found out through a FOIP (Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act) request to AEP.
Last year I posted the info on here because I figured that Trappers had the
right to know only to be met with the usual shills shouting me down with their conspiracy theory, tin foil hat, garbage. Wolfcrazy even went so far as to call me a liar. How do you feel now Wolfcrazy?
In fairness though, it is kind of unbelievable that something like that would happen.
Trapping education generates HUGE amounts of revenue. In one year alone the association made in excess of $130K from the Trapping course and workshops. That's not including the tens of thousands of dollars that the instructors made. For the private trapping schools, who knows how much? I figure that per 10 student Snaring course $400 in revenue will be generated. Multiply that by 3000 Trappers......WOW!
It's in their best interests to lobby for as many mandatory courses as they can get away with and there's not a darned thing that you can do about it.