Daudrich blames NDP for cancelled permits

WINNIPEG — A leadership candidate for the Manitoba Tories has vowed to sue the provincial government after it cancelled two polar bear viewing vehicle permits for his tour company in Churchill.

Wally Daudrich, who is battling Obby Khan for the party leadership, said he met with a lawyer and court documents will be filed in the next few days.

“I joined this race to fight corruption, and that’s what I’m fighting right now,” Daudrich said on Wednesday. “Why are they singling my permits out and not somebody else’s?”

He blamed NDP Premier Wab Kinew.

“I believe that our provincial government, under the present administration, is weaponizing the bureaucracy in an attempt to hurt the leading contender in the PC race … Mr. Kinew has weaponized the bureaucracy against me.”

Daudrich’s company, Lazy Bear Lodge and Expeditions, has operated hotel rooms and tundra buggy tours of polar bears and other wildlife in Churchill for years.

He said the province told him it cancelled the permits because of concern the bear population’s feeding habits were negatively affected by the number of vehicles that encroach on their habitat.

Not only does he dispute that claim, but he questioned why the province would cancel his permits at a time when Canada is in a tariff war launched by the United States.

“Why would our government all of a sudden try to destroy a part of the economy which is actually tariff-proof?” he said.

“There is ample evidence the bureaucracy is being weaponized against my company and only my company.”

Natural Resources Minister Ian Bushie insisted politics played no part in the decision.

“We are not politicizing this in any way,” Bushie said, adding the department had recommended the permits be cancelled.

“It is the department doing its due diligence and having the recommendation of walking back the limits to 2018, which was the norm that had been happening for quite some time.

“There was no political interference or political decision making that had a political kind of reference whatsoever. This is doing right by the habitat, doing right by the tundra, doing right by Churchill.”

In 2020, the Tory government under Brian Pallister added two polar bear viewing vehicle permits to the 18 that had been allowed since 1984, and awarded them to Lazy Bear.

Daudrich, who has run for the federal Conservative party twice and once for the Reform Party of Canada, said that decision had nothing to do with him or other family members donating more than $86,000 to the provincial Tory party since 2016. Almost $60,000 of that was donated between 2016 and 2020, when the permit was awarded.

“You can argue I’m hated in Churchill because I’m a Conservative,” he said. “I give my max to the federal party as well and I have for decades … I have a long history of being a conservative.

“I’m a leadership candidate, and the timing of it is done to try to pull me aside my campaign. I will deal with this as leader.”

A provincial spokesman confirmed two polar bear viewing vehicle permits have been cancelled to get back to the number of licences recommended by the 2013 Churchill Wildlife Management Area plan.

“This decision is intended to protect the sensitive tundra ecosystem,” the spokesman said in a statement.

“The (plan) represents a fragile ecosystem and after extensive engagement in the fall of 2024, the province determined that polar bear viewing tourism is saturated, and the province needed to return to the previously set limit of 18 vehicles within the (plan).”

The spokesman said the two permits, which were cancelled, had been the last ones to be granted.

Daudrich said he will continue to run tours, as allowed by four permits he was given in 2004, which allow him to drive in smaller areas near Churchill.

“There won’t be less vehicles; they will be vehicles limited in the territory they can cover.”

The Tory party will announce its next leader at a convention on April 26.

» Winnipeg Free Press