After initially shrugging off the idea of a public hearing, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will open for public debate a provision that would strip from some Maine guides their ability to make a living.

The new regulations would require guides to pass a criminal background check before they could get or renew their professional license. Anyone convicted of a Class A or B crime would be banned for life. A Class C conviction would require a 10-year wait. Class D or E crimes would disqualify a person for three years. The new rules also would be retroactive, so current guides could find themselves out of a job for things they did years before.

The intent behind the rule change was to protect unknowing customers from guides who are convicted sex offenders, but morphed into an outright prohibition for all criminal convictions.

There is an ongoing idea within DIF&W that guides must be held to a higher standard than other Maine residents. Guides are expected to report violations of the law when others are not, and the warden service has made a point out of the notion that guides must live up to a different, higher standard.

It’s a nice idea, but deeply flawed. Guides certainly act as ambassadors to the public. And customers often place their safety in a guide’s hands. But the laws of the state should apply equally to everyone. The new standards would hold guides to a higher standard than state employees, who are not automatically disqualified from employment by a criminal conviction.

Rules for professional licenses already give DIF&W great latitude in approving applications for guides. There’s no need to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. The state shouldn’t be in such a hurry to take someone’s job because they’ve had a minor brush with the law.

We hope that the DIF&W gets an ear full during its public hearing, which is scheduled for Jan. 24 at the Bangor Civic Center. Hopefully, that’ll be enough to scuttle this change.

If not, it will be up to the Legislature to repair DIF&W’s self-inflicted damage.