I'll agree that non resident hunters probably took most of their bears in coastal areas but a significant number were taken in interior areas as well, many sheep, goat, caribou and moose guides have strong huntable populations of grizzlies. I believe if the figures were available we would find that most grizzlies ( and they may be in the majority overall) taken by residents were incidental to a moose hunt and in interior areas. All of the guiding businesses that offered grizzly hunts have now lost a good portion of their business, many will go bankrupt because they can't even sell that business now. In many cases they have a huge investment involving cabins, jet boats, float planes, trail cutting improvements, advertising, etc and have lost it all without any consultation or compensation, all at the stroke of a pen and strictly for political reasons. This is throwing a bone to the Green party and other environmental groups after angering them by continuing the site C dam project.
This isn't the end of the story. These groups passionately want to stop all hunting and the most effective way after getting a sympathetic government elected is to shut down one species or area at a time. They are already mentioning protecting the "spirit Bear" ( kermodei) which has been totally protected in BC for over 40 years. Black bears, wolves of course, caribou, mountain goats and mountain sheep, deer, who knows which is next but this encourages them to target another species. Make no mistake, the envirothugs all over Canada and the USA are dancing with glee now and encouraged because of this success. They have been teaching this mindset in our schools for over 30 years and it's bearing fruit.
It digusts me that the northern Fish and Game clubs along with the Northern Guides and Outfitters Association started warning the BC Wildlife Federation about this trend many years ago and were ignored because "oh, it only affects the guides" and "it will never happen" and " who needs to shoot a grizzly anyway?" Well it's reality and it will spread like cancer if we let it. And for all you others across Canada that don't have these more exotic species, if you ever dream of a mountain sheep or caribou hunt you'd better do it soon, your best chance for the once in a lifetime grizzly hunt has now evaporated.