The Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation says an announcement made by the provincial government Tuesday morning regarding depredation tags being issued for elk in 2027, was a big surprise with no option for consultation ahead of time.

Todd Smith says the government does have tools in place like the Wildlife Advisory Committee, which is a ministerial committee that can provide feedback on any proposed changes.

“That the government also listen to their biologists on the issue and make science-based decisions on how these tags be allocated and which zones. And how many, what’s the threshold for harvest.”

He says the season would run from January to March 2027 with the option of eight permits for producers who have suffered significant damage from elk, but he says there is no threshold of damage nor is there a mechanism for determining effectiveness of the plan.

“We don’t have any parameters about how they intend to measure the success of the initiative or even what goals have been set so far for it. The other concerns that come up revolve around privatization of the resource. Elk by definition are wildlife and wildlife is a public resource managed in trust by the provincial government for the benefit of all Saskatchewan residents and for the long-term viability of the resource.”

Smith says in addition the SWF is concerned about the potential for misuse of the tags in the former of illegal outfitting.

He also notes, “We just had the extended hunt season. We don’t have all that information back yet so there is the question of what is an accurate count is or what is the accurate picture of the elk population not only from the elk hunt but also from this winter.”

The Saskatchewan government held an additional antlerless elk hunt last November.  Smith says while we may be used to seeing elk in central and northern regions of the province, historically, the range for elk actually stretched from the boreal forest down past the southern border of Saskatchewan out onto the great plains.  He says things like market hunting in the early 20th century took a toll on big game populations so we might be seeing a recolonization of a historic range.