RESOURCE ALLOCATION: AN ONTARIO SOLUTION

Abstract

Conflict among resource users is a common phenomenon, which often confounds the task of resource management. In 1983, Ontario embarked on a “Selective Harvest Program” for moose, in which opportunity to harvest adult animals was limited. In order to facilitate the implementation of this program, a resource allocation policy was developed which partitioned the resource among the four major users (viewers, subsistence hunters, resident hunters and the tourist industry) in a hierarchical and proportional fashion. Conceptually, viewers have the use of the resource all year round and the consumptive users have the use of harvestable portion of the resource during the open hunting season. Within the harvestable portion, the subsistence rights of Treaty Indians are recognized first and the remainder proportioned among the residents and tourist industry on a 90 percent / 10 percent basis provincially. In these latter two groups licences are allocated to individual users by lottery draw for residents and a “Self Allocation Process” for tourist operators.