The Rural Voice, 2001-12, Page 24{
Whether building a super
highway through a snowy
field, or a winding path
through picturesque bush, area
snowmobilers, with the co-operation
of landowners, have worked hard
over the years to improve the safety
of their trails.
However, good grooming and
maintenance take money and the
Ontario Federation of Snowmobile
Clubs (OFSC), like many
organizations in this tight economy,
has been feeling the pinch of
increasing costs. High quality,
safe trails are attracting
snowmobilers to the area, but
sustainability relies on the
purchase of OFSC permits. Up to
this year, wardens could stop
riders who did not have a permit
and ask them to leave. But there
was no provincial law that would
be a greater deterrent to would-be
trespassers.
OFSC approached the provincial
government a couple of years ago to
ANEW PATH
New provincial legislation will bring tougher
enforcement on snowmobile trails, new
permits, greater protection for landowners
By Bonnie Gropp
explain the situation and ask what
might be done to help. The answer is
Bill 101: an Act to promote
snowmobile trail sustainability and
enhance safety and enforcement.
What this means now is that for the
first time, snowmobilers are under
the same types of regulations as
motorists. Their machine must be
pruperly licensed, and drivers must
carry identification, insurance and
proof of ownership.
It is a move, says Craig Nicholson,
OFSC communications co-ordinator,
enforcement will come from STOP
(Snowmobile Trail Officer Patrol),
OFSC members who have been
trained as provincial offenses
officers.
This law, Nicholson stresses, truly
only impacts the snowmobilers who
have been taking advantage of the
OFSC trails without purchasing a
permit. "Otherwise you will be
unaffected." OFSC is still the
authorized issuer of the permits for
their trails and receives the revenue
to be put back into the trails.
For OFSC, the new permit,
which now carries the Ontario
logo as well as the OFSC logo,
will mean some upgrades to their
administration system to ensure
that all 268 clubs with the
Federation are doing the same
thing, the same way, said
Nicholson. "There have been
some negative comments from a
few on how the process for recording
and reporting the sale of permits is
changing. People, after all, don't like
The new law impacts
snowmobilers who have been
taking advantage of the OFSC
trails without purchasing a
permit
20 THE RURAL VOICE
that has few negatives. "With Bill
101, the laws of the trails are now
enforced by police." Further