Aside from the gutting of the basic service branches of lands, fire, timber and parks, the people themselves have changed over the years.  In 'the good old days' L&F and now MNR was made up of people with a background in hunting/fishing and trapping.  They called the shots for their areas from District Offices and Chief Ranger headquarters.  Now, there are no Chief Ranger hq's, District Offices are skeletons of what they were 15 years ago and they're being told what to do by Regional Offices.  They in turn are being told what to do from Peterborough by ecologists/biologists and foresters who've never worked south of Barrie.  Add to the mix a government under pressure to supply fiber for the woods industry and an urban population wanting to preserve areas for their short term camping/hiking visits without consideration for the locals. 

The time when CO's simply met and talked about concerns with trappers, hunters and anglers has disappeared. Now their workload which once contained a substantial amount of management programs has been replaced by 100 percent enforcement.  People want to get away from a regimented lifestyle by kicking back and spending a day on the lake or a week in moose camp. Now they're beseiged with  everything from insurance for ATV's, helmets, hunter orange, booze, bailing buckets and whistles, size limits, trail passes, licences-both provincial and Federal.  Man O Man! The list just goes on and on. 

And when we complain or are asked for our input, it falls on deaf ears because the decisions are already made.   

I have to agree with you guys. Our politicians haven't had the same "northern experiences" as we have grown up with.  The only experiences they know is what some tourist outfitter has provided.  Our local MNR game wardens used to have guys who were viewed as pricks but we still respected them because they were enforcing  game laws that we had to follow.  Today there is no common sense to our Game Laws.  The ministry decides that it is smarter to shoot the future generation (calfs) than adult moose.  Now the fishing limits are being reduced.  The federal government decides that the guys with rifles are commiting all the crimes forcing us to register these weapons of mass destruction when we were raised to no them as "fire arms".  Now the MNR close roads to protect the tourist outfitters.  They combine to attack us legal citizens and label us law breakers.  The real criminals get a slap on the wrist when they are caught.