Fishing licence snafu

So computers were supposed to make our lives a whole lot easier. And British Columbia’s provincial bureaucrats figured they’d do us a huge favour by offering the freshwater fishing permits online as of this year. Sounded good, but it just didn’t work out that way. By end of March, with the expiry date on last year’s non-tidal fishing licences upon them and unresolved “technical difficulties” with the Freshwater E-Licencing System still unresolved, the Ministry of Environment announced that anglers could fish unlicenced from April 8 through 17.

MoE decided back in September of 2007 to make the switch from the traditional system of paper licences to a “modern, user-friendly” system of vending the permits which would allow anglers to purchase their permits and individual tags over the Internet. Anglers without access to the Internet would still be able to get their e-licences through participating sporting goods stores taking part in the programme. Enthusiasm on the part of the sporting goods stores has been mixed because the stores maintain the system substantially diminishes traffic of anglers through their facilities. More information about the system as well as updates on the implementation of the e-licence system is available here.

Tidal water licences which are a Fisheries & Oceans Canada jurisdiction have been available online for a couple years now. Find out more here.