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The owner of a Churchill ecotourism company is seeking a contempt order against the province for taking too long to revisit a decision not to grant the firm permission to offer polar bear viewing tours in large tundra vehicles.
Wally Daudrich asked Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench on June 2 to declare the province, Natural Resources Minister Ian Bushie and wildlife branch director Maria Arlt in contempt of a court order to reconsider a decision not to grant Lazy Bear Expeditions two tundra vehicle permits.
The province issued 18 of these vehicle permits between 1984 and 2019. Two more were issued to Lazy Bear in 2020, bringing the total number of permits to 20.
On Feb. 27, 2025, the province informed Lazy Bear it would no longer receive permits for the 2025-26 polar bear viewing season, leaving the remaining 18 with rival ecotourism companies Great White Bear and Frontiers North.
In a decision issued Jan. 9, 2026, Justice Shawn Greenberg ruled the province acted improperly when it decided not to reissue permits to Lazy Bear and cast doubt on wildlife branch claims the decision was motivated by a need to protect polar bears.
Greenberg said the evidence before the court suggested the number of vehicles viewing polar bears only appears to be contentious on maintained roads east of Churchill, where 27 tour companies operate. Most of those companies use conventional vehicles, as opposed to the offroad areas where tundra vehicles operate.
The province appealed the order to reconsider on March 3.
Daudrich said he has tried to obtain permits for the 2026-27 season all year.
Correspondence shared by Daudrich with CBC News shows a provincial tourism official told him via email on May 15 the province was waiting for the results of the appeal before it issued any permits.
In a subsequent letter on June 3, also shared with CBC News, Arlt told Daudrich the province had reconsidered its earlier decision and concluded issuing 18 permits “remains the best approach” to “manage, conserve and enhance” wildlife.
Arlt invited Lazy Bear to apply for 2026-27 permits before the deadline, which was Monday.
A polar bear monitors a Frontiers North tundra vehicle east of Churchill. (Cameron MacIntosh/CBC)
“All applicants will have an equal opportunity to apply for the 18 off-road tundra vehicle allocations available,” she wrote.
Arlt also said an existing permit condition for tour operators to keep a 100-metre distance from polar bears will be applied to both road and tundra vehicles for the 2026-27 season.
“This condition will also clearly state that operators must not intentionally position themselves in the known or reasonably foreseeable travel routes or intercept, attract, lure (including by food, scent, bait, or other stimuli) or otherwise influence bear movement to create close encounters,” Arlt wrote.
Other new conditions for 2026-27 include updated vehicle identification, additional GPS tracking requirements for tundra vehicles and improved reporting of polar bear observations.
“Compliance with these conditions — including complete and accurate reporting — will be considered in future applications and renewals,” Arlt wrote.
Permits to be issued this week: province
Caedmon Malowany, a spokesperson for Minister Bushie, said in a Monday statement temporary tundra vehicle permits will be issued this week “to ensure operators can make the most of the summer season.”
Full-season permits will be issued after the province follows a revised permitting process, as ordered by the court in January, he said.
Daudrich said the late notice made it difficult to plan for the summer tourism season, which began in earnest this week.
“They’ve been prolonging the whole situation of permits for months and months and months,” he said in a telephone interview Friday.
“This should have been done back in January, February or March. I believe they’re doing it on purpose so that they can cause this much distress in my company as they possibly can.”
Daudrich maintains Manitoba’s NDP government has singled him out because he is a longtime Progressive Conservative party member and because he ran for the PC leadership in 2025.
The Brian Pallister PCs were in power in 2020, when Lazy Bear was granted two tundra vehicle permits.
A hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 22 to consider Lazy Bear’s request for a contempt order against Bushie, Arlt and the province.