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EDMONTON — Hunters have been killing cougars in Alberta for decades.

They often follow prints in the snow or use dogs to track the big cats before they are shot with guns or bows.

Last month, outdoor television host Steve Ecklund’s cougar hunt led to online threats and criticisms — including a penis comment from Laureen Harper, wife of former prime minister Stephen Harper — after he bragged about it on social media.

Similar outrage followed the killing of No. 148, a well-known Banff grizzly bear, by a hunter in British Columbia last summer.

Both kills were legal.

Scientists say a cultural divide still exists — even within their own community — about hunting large carnivores.

“It’s seeing a much greater value on an individual animal rather than a population, but the system is set up for us to manage populations, not individuals,” said Adam Ford, an assistant professor of biology at University of British Columbia Okanagan.

“You see this come up when the individual-focus conservation people see a dead cougar and call people out for having a small penis.

“The way hunting has been designed for a long time is to not have an impact on the population.”

Alberta has regulated its cougar population since 1969. An annual quota allows up to 155 animals to be hunted each year.

The province estimates there are 2,000 to 3,500 cougars.

Both the government’s top carnivore expert and University of Alberta biologist Mark Boyce have said it’s a sustainable population that must be managed because cougars can prey on cattle or become a public safety risk.

Similar debates have taken place around grizzly bears. The hunt in B.C. was banned last month after surveys showed it wasn’t supported by most residents.

Although people are concerned about “beautiful cuddly carnivores” being shot, Ford said he worries scientists have been weighing in on the ethical debate over hunting.

“My morals are different than yours, but facts should be facts,” he said, noting he’s working on a paper looking at the growing divide between scientists on issues such as hunting.

Hunters have defended the hunt as a tradition.

“As outdoor enthusiasts, we look for opportunities to get into the outdoors,” said Wayne Lowry, a hunter and past president of the Alberta Fish and Game Association. “The cougar season offers a very late-season hunting opportunity.”

Lowry, who killed a cougar near Crowsnest Pass about 15 years ago, said it’s unlike any hunt he’s experienced.

“It took me two years,” he said. “For me, it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of event.

He still has the mounted cat in his home.

“It was a great experience … You see the dogs get excited and you get excited as well.”

Lowry admitted there’s a lot of controversy about hunting.

“The debate is the same regardless of who it is, where it happens and what the species is. You have people who don’t like it and people who do.”

One scientist said the outrage is not generally with hunting, but an ethical debate over killing large carnivores that can suffer. Chris Darimont, associate professor of geography at the University of Victoria, said hunting for sport makes people uncomfortable.

“They cannot accept the idea that people kill carnivores not to feed their families, but to feed their egos,” said Darimont, who is opposed to killing animals other than for food or protection.

Ecklund said in a social media post that he made a stir-fry from the cougar, although eating the meat isn’t required by law.

Darimont, who hunts one elk or deer a year for food, said it’s a “thin veil of deception” for hunters to say they’re eating the animals, because predator meat isn’t very tasty.

“Wildlife managers for decades have acknowledged that these (animals) are not killed for their meat, but for their trophy items.”

The cougar hunt in Alberta should be re-evaluated, Darimont suggested. Science shows there are risks in overharvesting, because it’s tough to count carnivores and get a clear picture of the population, he said.

“There’s lots of uncertainty. Managers can and do make mistakes, and then we are just starting to learn of the evolutionary and social costs of killing large carnivores.”

The Alberta government says it hasn’t received any calls to end the hunt since the cougar controversy hit.

The province did ban the grizzly bear hunt in 2006 due to concerns about a dwindling population — although recent increases in some areas have led to calls to allow it to return in Alberta.

POINTE-CLAIRE, Que. — A man was rescued from the icy waters of a lake near Montreal on Saturday evening after the small tractor he was driving fell through the ice.

A spokesman for Montreal’s fire department says he believes the man was working to remove the snow on a boat ramp in the western suburb of Pointe-Claire when the vehicle went into the lake at about 5 p.m.

Operations Chief Ian Ritchie says the man was able to climb onto the roof of the vehicle and wait for help.

The fire department’s ice rescue team was able to extend a ladder to the man, who was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure.

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian companies remain optimistic about future sales despite some moderation from highs, and signs of capacity pressures and labor shortages have picked up, the Bank of Canada said on Monday, reinforcing expectations for an interest rate hike.

Little economic slack remains, with companies expected to expand operations to accommodate demand as the job market tightens and expectations for U.S. demand remain firm, the central bank said in its quarterly Business Outlook Survey.

“The (survey) was the last key piece of the puzzle for a rate hike this month, with the focus on diminished excess capacity,” CIBC Economics chief economist Avery Shenfeld wrote in a note to clients.

The business survey added to evidence of a tightening job market after back-to-back employment reports showed strong hiring, boosting expectations the bank will continue to raise interest rates to head off inflation after two hikes in 2017.

The chance of a rate hike on Jan. 17 jumped to 86 percent after the report while the two-year yield pushed to its highest since June 2011 at 1.795 percent. Expectations for a hike hit nearly 80 percent on Friday after data showed the economy added almost 80,000 jobs in December

Pressure on production capacity continued, with the share of firms reporting they would have some or significant difficulty meeting an unanticipated increase in demand hitting its highest level since the 2008-2009 recession, the bank said.

Still, the survey noted increasing concern about the renegotiation of NAFTA, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to terminate. Negotiations are ongoing.

“While respondents are increasingly concerned about the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and rising protectionism more generally, most see healthy U.S. growth and the low Canadian dollar benefiting their sales over the next 12 months,” the bank said.

Inflation expectations were modest and unchanged from the third quarter, the survey showed, suggesting corporate Canada has not been able to raise prices despite the economic strength.

“One notable feature in the survey is that despite the capacity constraints and growing labor shortages, inflation expectations are still quite muted,” said Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz has said the bank needs to tighten monetary policy gradually before inflation bubbles up, rather than slam on the brakes when it appears.

Firms said competitive pressures dampen their ability to raise output prices despite the acceleration in input prices, the survey showed.