PC leadership candidate sues province over revoked ecotourism licences

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/04/2025 (208 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Progressive Conservative leadership hopeful has launched an unusual lawsuit against the provincial government after it revoked permits required to run his polar bear tourism company in northern Manitoba.

Lazy Bear Lodge and Expeditions recently lost two of its six ecotourism licences — a decision its owner is claiming is no coincidence, citing his ties to the PC party.

Wally Daudrich, who is one of two candidates for the party’s leadership — the winner will be announced April 26 — vowed to take legal action after learning via letter on Feb. 27 that his permit count was being slashed for the 2025 season. He followed through on that threat last week.

Daudrich is seeking a judicial review and an injunction to continue using all of his tundra vehicles to take tourists to the coastal plain of the Churchill Wildlife Management Area.

The lawsuit alleges the family business is a victim of a biased decision that the NDP government made in bad faith and constitutes “a misuse or abuse of authority.”

The company first received approvals to operate off-road vehicle tours of polar bears and other wildlife in Churchill in 2004. Frontiers North Adventure and Great White Bear Tours also run permit-backed expeditions.

The total number of permits was limited to 18 between 1984 and 2020. Five years ago, the former PC government approved two additions, both of which were awarded to Lazy Bear.

Daudrich has dismissed questions about whether the allotment had anything to do with his family’s approximately $60,000 in donations to the Tories between 2016 and 2020.

“(The repeal) is unlawful, null and void, invalid, of no force and effect, and contrary to the provisions of the Wildlife Act and regulations,” states an excerpt from a notice of motion filed at the Court of King’s Bench on March 26.

The defendants include the government of Manitoba, minister of natural resources and the director of the province’s wildlife branch.

Provincial officials have said the reduction was made to protect a sensitive tundra ecosystem, aligns with a 2013 wildlife-management plan and responds to a 2024 review that determined the market was saturated.

In relaying the decision to Daudrich, Wildlife Branch director Maria Arlt raised concerns about the decline in the western Hudson Bay polar bear population and safety risks that vehicles pose.

Ethicist Arthur Schafer said the legal challenge is unlikely to be successful, unless the complainant’s goal is to garner publicity for his leadership campaign.

“Good ethics requires good facts, and since he’s invited the courts to adjudicate it, the courts will look at the evidence. On the face of it, I find his claim quite implausible,” Schafer said.

The province must balance economic activity and environmental awareness with the protection of a delicate ecosystem, added the founder of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba.

A 2024 Travel Manitoba-Probe Research Inc. survey on tourism in Churchill found four in 10 residents are concerned growth is happening too fast.

While respondents acknowledged tourism is vital to their hometown’s economy, they expressed concerns many companies are not local and development is prioritizing tourists rather than residents.

Daudrich splits his time between Churchill and Morden.

The longtime PC board member is up against Fort Whyte MLA Obby Khan, a big-tent Conservative who is the front-runner in the leadership campaign.

He has billed himself as a freedom fighter who is business-friendly, anti-abortion and concerned about “indoctrination” in public schools.

Schafer said Daudrich’s legal action may win him support among PC members who are hostile towards the government, but it also carries the risk he will be seen as “a marginalized, crank political figure with poor judgment.”

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Paul Samyn | Editor's Note

Wednesdays

A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom.

Sign up for Paul Samyn | Editor's Note

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

“It’s easy to understand why Mr. Daudrich might surmise that there was political interference, because his very substantial donations to the Conservative party under the previous government (seemed) to get him the result he wanted,” he added.

A spokesperson for the provincial government declined to comment on the legal case because it is before the courts. The press secretary for Natural Resources Minister Ian Bushie did the same.

A representative of Khan’s “Team Obby” campaign suggested a reporter contact the province’s conflict of interest commissioner.

A hearing is scheduled for April 10.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.