The name of a new exhibit detailing the history of the roles of Ontario conservation officers and forest rangers — Not a Job But a Calling — aptly describes the guardians of our province’s fish and wildlife.
“When I started as a CO, it was my lifestyle, my way of being,” said Sault College Natural Resources and Environmental Law Instructor Bryan Cosgrove, who spent two decades as a CO.
“It was not a job it was what I got paid to do but it was so much more,” he added. “I would spend the time in my off hours answering questions in the grocery store or in the dressing room after a beer league game.”
Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) Past President Dan Elliott, who began his career as a CO, agreed. “We did it because it was a passion we had, a passion for resource management.”
Much has changed since the first “game overseer” was appointed in 1892 to enforce hunting and fishing laws, as provincial investment waxed and waned.
The role was expanded to include forest fire protection in the 1920s and 1930s, but early wardens often were part-time and had little training. That changed in the 1950s when game wardens became full-time employees. Despite dealing with hunters with firearms on a constant basis, it wasn’t until a decade later they started carrying sidearms.
A flurry of changes took place a couple of decades after the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act formalized the enforcement ability of a CO in 1985. This included making COs designated peace officers under the Criminal Code in the 1990s.
Today, COs enforce more than 20 provincial and federal statutes, including the fish and wildlife conservation, endangered species, public lands, migratory bird act, and invasive species act. Their jobs can include investigating illegal hunting and fishing, wildlife trafficking, and environmental damage. They can also be part of emergency response teams and search and rescue, deliver public education and take part in multi-agency enforcement operations.
Many are graduates of natural resources law programs, but it is not mandatory.
What is, is completion of the hunter education course, and other certification such as Pleasure Craft Operator Card and the Firearms Safety Course. Proficiency in hunting and fishing are listed as preferred technical expertise.
While police officers have protocols for the number of officers at incidents, one CO is assigned a vast territory, and they often work alone. For instance, in southern Ontario one CO will be appointed to a county that could have as many 90 police officers.
Natural resource enforcement isn’t just about catching offenders in the act, said Mark Ryckman, policy manager for OFAH Membership, which has long taken the position that more COs are needed in Ontario.
“For any enforcement body to be truly effective, enough people need to believer that there is a legitimate possibility of being caught,” he said. “Logically, the odds of catching infractions dwindle as the number of conservation officers drops. With more than one million square kilometres to cover, current enforcement capacity is simply insufficient to protect our vast and valuable natural resources.”
Using historical data to back his point, Ryckman said there were approximately 280 COs in Ontario in the 1990s, from management and specialists to frontline officers. Today, that number is less than 200, and Ryckman believes only 160 are “front-line, boots-on-the-ground conservation officers that an angler or hunter would encounter in the outdoors.”
For years, two Ontario colleges offered natural resources law programs — Fleming College in Lindsay and Sault College in Sault Ste. Marie. The program and others were axed at Fleming in 2024, as officials cited underfunding and reduction in the number of international students.
The impact is still being measured — nearly 60% of current conservation officers are Fleming graduates. That includes Ontario Conservation Officers Association (OCOA) Past President Matt McVittie, also a former instructor.
“The OCOA communicated its disappointment with the program suspension to Fleming College directly when the suspensions were announced,” he said. “It is unfortunate in situations such as this, that students and employees are often affected.”
However, graduates of Sault College’s natural resources law program have a 90 to 95% employment rate out of college, with 75% hired in Ontario. While inspiring for graduates, the figure is indicative of attrition. As of 2024, 98 field COs have less than five years of service. In contrast, only 70 have between five and 35 years, with most clustered in the five to 10-year range.
Some 132 new COs have been hired since 2021. “When a single-officer detachment loses its staff, all of the institutional and local knowledge often disappears with them,” Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) MNR Ministry Employees Relations Committee Chair Jeremy Rouse said. “The impact on public safety, officer safety, and effective resource protection is significant.”
Several factors have influenced the turnover, but Rouse maintains that compensation in relation to other law enforcement professions is prime among them. This is not a new problem — it was communicated to this writer by former Liberal MNR Minister Donna Cansfield more than 15 years ago. But no one has fixed it.
“Pay fairness is foundational to improving morale and retaining experienced staff,” Rouse said, adding that in 1990, CO compensation was just less than OPP constables, and is now 28.4% less.
The current government has committed to hiring more COs and has, but the compensation issue remains unaddressed. The OFAH partnered with OPSEU in 2021 for the Fair Wages Aren’t Wild campaign, because as Ryckman said, attrition rates aren’t sustainable. Rouse summed up the commitment to address wages and attrition, saying, “There has been no progress on addressing pay fairness or retention challenges.”
The collective bargaining process for conservation officers is led by the Treasury Board secretariat, MNR spokesperson Sarah Figueiredo explained. “Conservation officers play an important role in promoting safety in hunting and fishing and help us to achieve our goals of sustainable resource management,” she said. “As our government moves forward with our plan to protect Ontario, we will continue to support and stand with the conservation officers who are protecting our resources.”
The issue has impacted morale and service time, Cosgrove said. “I do believe we have seen a shift over the last number of years of this simply being a job…The workforce is changing and not necessarily for the better. You go to work and put in your eight or 10-hour shift and go home.”
However, Elliott believes the new director of enforcement is working to improve attitude, and is optimistic for a return to the way things were.
Not a Job But a Calling, created in partnership with the Ontario Conservation Officers Association, Ontario Forest Ranger School Alumni Association, and Ministry of Natural Resources Enforcement Branch, opened last summer at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre in Sault Ste. Marie.
For more info, visit: bushplane.com
Originally published in the Fall 2025 issue of Ontario Out Of Doors
For more on conservation, click here
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