Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry

Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry

Ministère des Richesses naturelles et des Forêts  (French)
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry headquarters at Robinson Place in Peterborough
Ministry of the Government of Ontario overview
Formed	1972
Headquarters	Peterborough
Minister responsible	Bill Mauro
Website	https://www.ontario.ca/ministry-natural-resources-forestry

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) is a government ministry of the Canadian province of Ontario that is responsible for Ontario’s provincial parks, forests, fisheries, wildlife, mineral aggregates and the Crown lands and waters that make up 87 per cent of the province. Its offices are divided into Northwestern, Northeastern and Southern Ontario regions with the main headquarters in Peterborough, Ontario.

The current Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry is Bill Mauro.

History

The first government office was the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Northern District of North America, created in 1763 and initially headed by Samuel Holland. In 1827, this function was taken over by the newly created Commissioner of Crown Lands.

From 1867 to 1972, these responsibilities were conferred on the following Commissioners and Ministers:

Period	Name	Minister (Commissioner before 1905)
1867–1905	Department of Crown Lands	Stephen Richards, 1867–1871 Matthew Crooks Cameron, July–December 1871 Richard William Scott, 1871–1873 Timothy Blair Pardee, 1873–1889 Arthur Sturgis Hardy, 1889–1896 John Morison Gibson, 1896–1899 Elihu Davis, 1899–1904 Alexander Grant MacKay, 1904–1905 James Joseph Foy, February–May 1905
1905–1906	Department of Lands and Mines	Francis Cochrane
1906–1920	Department of Lands, Forests and Mines	Francis Cochrane, 1906–1911 William Howard Hearst, 1911–1914 Howard Ferguson, 1914–1919
1906–1946	Department of Lands and Forests	Beniah Bowman, 1920–1923 James W. Lyons, 1923–1926 Howard Ferguson, Mar-Oct 1926 William Finlayson, 1926–1934 Peter Heenan, 1934–1941 Norman Otto Hipel, 1941–1943 Wesley Gardiner Thompson, 1943–1946
	Department of Mines	Harry Mills, 1920–1923 Charles McCrea, 1923–1934 Paul Leduc, 1934–1940 Robert Laurier, 1940–1943 Leslie Frost, 1943–1949
1946–1972	Ministry of Lands and Forests	Harold Robinson Scott, 1946–1952 Welland Gemmell, 1952–1954 Clare Mapledoram, 1954–1958 Wilf Spooner, 1958–1962 Kelso Roberts, 1962–1966 René Brunelle, 1966–1972
	Ministry of Mines	Welland Gemmell, 1949–1952 Phil Kelly, 1952–1957 Wilf Spooner, 1957–1958 James Anthony Maloney, 1958–1961 George Wardrope, 1961–1967 René Brunelle, 1967–1968 Allan Lawrence, 1968–1970
1972–Present	Ministry of Natural Resources	Leo Bernier, 1972–1977 Frank Miller, 1977–1978 James Auld, 1978–1981 Alan Pope, 1981–1985 Vince Kerrio, 1985–1989 Lyn McLeod, 1989–1990 Bud Wildman, 1990–1993 Howard Hampton, 1993–1995 Chris Hodgson. 1995–1997 John Snobelen, 1997–2002 Jerry Ouellette, 2002–2003 David Ramsay, 2003–2007 Donna Cansfield, 2007–2010 Linda Jeffrey, 2010–2011 Michael Gravelle, 2011–2013 David Orazietti, 2013–2014 Bill Mauro, 2014– Eleanor McMahon 2014-present, Parliamentary Assistant

From 1970, the Department of Mines became the Department of Mines and Northern Affairs, a predecessor of the current Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. The Department of Lands and Forests became the Ministry of Natural Resources in 1972. From 1995 to 1997 Natural Resources and Northern Development and Mines were under a single super ministry. In 2014 the ministry was renamed Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, but responsibilities did not change.

Organization

MNRF is organized into divisions; within each division are branches/regions, sections, and units.

Divisions

• Regional Operations Division
• Provincial Services Division
• Policy Division
• Corporate Management and Information Division

Responsibilities

File:FireSeason01.JPG

A Ministry of Natural Resources fire watch sign at Dryden, Ontario.

The Ministry is responsible for:

• Fish & Wildlife Management – sustainably managing Ontario's fish and wildlife resources.
• Land & Waters Management – leading the management of Ontario's Crown lands, water, oil, gas, salt and aggregates resources, including making Crown land available for renewable energy projects.
• Forest Management – ensuring the sustainable management of Ontario's Crown forests.
• Ontario Parks – guiding the management of Ontario's parks and protected areas.
• Forest Fire, Flood and Drought Protection - protecting people, property and communities from related emergencies.
• Geographic Information – developing and applying geographic information to help manage the province's natural resources.

The ministry also has responsibility for the Office of the Mining & Lands Commissioner and the Niagara Escarpment Commission agencies.

Ontario Parks

Ontario Parks protects significant natural and cultural resources in a system of parks and protected areas.

Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services

The Ministry’s Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES) program coordinates forest fire detection, monitoring, suppression and public information and education services for Ontario. AFFES also provides aviation services for the Ontario government and leads emergency management planning and response for natural hazards such as forest fires, floods, erosion, dam failures, unstable soils and bedrock, droughts and oil and gas emergencies.

The Ministry's entrance into the field of aviation started with hiring Laurentide Air Services to carry out fire patrols however the government soon realized it could save money by carrying out the operations itself and formed the Ontario Provincial Air Service, (O.P.A.S.) in February 1924 with 13 second hand Curtiss HS-2L flying boats that had been originally built for the US Navy. The OPAS was an early pioneer in the use of aircraft for the discovery and extinguishing of forest fires. Initially this involved carrying warnings of fires back to existing fire patrols, to be extinguished by teams that travelled by canoe or overland but soon they began landing firefighters (never more than a few at a time due to the limited carrying capacity of the aircraft available) with a hand operated water pump near a fire. As a part of this program the OPAS completely rebuilt damaged aircraft before they began building a number of aircraft under license to meet their requirements such as the Buhl Air Sedan, and later provided considerable input on the development of the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver and de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter and finally were central to the invention of the water bomber. The first water bomber was an OPAS DHC Beaver with a tank mounted on the float designed to dump the water out quickly. This had followed unsuccessful experiments with bags of water.

Current AFFES Airfleet

• 9 Bombardier Canadair CL-415 - firefighting
• 3 Bell 206 L-1 Long Ranger II
• 1 Eurocopter 350-B2s
• 2 Beechcraft King Air 300
• 7 Eurocopter EC 130 B4
• 6 de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters - firefighting
• 5 de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Mk III Turbo Beavers - firefighting

Retired

• 4 Buhl CA-6 Air Sedans
• 2 Canadian Vickers Vedette Flying Boats
• 14 Curtiss HS-2L Flying Boats
• de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver
• de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter
• de Havilland Dove Twin Engine Monoplane
• de Havilland Fox Moth Cabin Biplane
• 2 de Havilland Giant Moth Cabin Biplane
• 17 de Havilland Moth (includes DH.60G Gypsy Moth, DH.60M Moth & DH.60X Moth)
• 4 Fairchild 71 cabin monoplanes
• Fairchild KR-34 (Open cockpit biplane permanently assigned to the Superintendent)
• Grumman CS2F-1 Tracker - firefighting
• 4 Hamilton Metalplane cabin monoplanes
• 1 MBB/Kawasaki BK 117 twin engine helicopter
• 10+ Stinson Reliant Cabin monoplane
• Waco ZQC-6 Cabin Biplane

Aircraft on display

• Former MNR de Havilland Beaver, C-FOBS, serial number 2, the first production Beaver manufactured by de Havilland Canada, is on display at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario

OMNR Image Gallery

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  MNR Canadair CL-215 air tanker and Cessna 337 contract fire detection aircraft in Dryden, Ontario 1995

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  MNR CL-215 and Cessna 310 birddog aircraft in Kenora, Ontario 1995

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  A Bell 205A-1 on contract firefighting duty with Ministry of Natural Resources parked on the MNR's lower helipad at Nym Lake, ON, 1996

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  A contract Bell 205A-1 with its MNR helitack firefighting crew on standby at Sioux Lookout, Ontario, 1995

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  MNR contracts a variety of aircraft for fire fighting each year, such as this S-58T ready to deploy to a project fire, Dryden, Ontario, 1995

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  An MNR contract firefighting aircraft at work: a S-58T with bambi water bucket, near Dryden, Ontario, 1995

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  Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources deHavilland DHC 2 Mk 3 Turbo Beavers on amphib floats in Dryden ON in 1995

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  Bell 205A-1 and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources firefighters working on Fire 141 in 1995

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  Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources firefighters prepare to deploy on an arriving contract Bell 204B on Fire 141 in 1995

See also

• Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre (CBHC)
• Ontario Forest Research Institute (OFRI)

External links

• Official website