I think that you've drank too much koolaid and you're just repeating the rhetoric that you've been served. The ATA charges a whopping $399 IN ADDITION to the MOU money that it receives for education from the GOA! I haven't figured out what the actual amount works out to per student but the profit is well over just what the $399 generates. That MOU money should be used to offset the cost of the course for new trappers making it more affordable. There is absolutely no excuse for being so greedy and shutting low income individuals out of trapping.
Here, IMO, are some of the best mandatory Trapping courses in Canada. Do you think that they have administrative costs just like us? If you bother to look at what these guys are doing, and you truly care about trapping in Alberta, you may come to the realization of just how poorly we are doing.
ON – Mandatory – 40 Hours - Approx
$250 (Price Varies and may be negotiated with the Instructor)
https://www.ontario.ca/page/trapping-ontario
http://www.terranovafirm.com/trapping-licence.php
*(Very Interesting Ontario Trapping Course Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz1DsuEbWxI
QC – Mandatory (With Options) – 2 Days -
$183
Option #1 – Given by experienced Trapper
Option #2 - Learning at your own pace with the manual and training video
YT – Mandatory – 4.5 Days -
$315 - Includes Manual
http://www.env.gov.yk.ca/hunting-fis...reducation.php
In Ontario you can take the 40 hour course right on a trapline, not in a classroom, at a cost of $250 or less. In Quebec it costs $183 for the course and you have the option of learning right at home via instructors on video. Even the 4.5 day course in YT that goes WAY more in depth than ours only costs $315. That course sounds amazing! These are facts, not tin foil hat stuff. How anyone that truly cares about trapping in Alberta can defend the cost of the Basic Trapping course here is beyond me.
If you think that I'm just one person concerned about what's happening you are sadly mistaken. Maybe I should say that if what's happening now continues, trapping in Alberta will cease to exist......That seems to work with fellas like you. I don't believe that to be true but I can honestly imagine the GOA stepping in at some point and putting an end to the ATA treating the Basic Trapping course as a cash cow.
The ATA was given the opportunity to provide the basic trapping course in Alberta but abuse of that privilege by inflating the costs to conduct it could lead to it being taken away IMO. Now there's something to fear. I'd rather the ATA fixed it on their own but with GK firmly in control of the ATA I am not very optimistic.
