Better Farming - January 2017

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TROUBLE WITH TRAILS
through provincial grants and alternate
sources of money to widen them.”
Moreover, adds Walker, the liability
coverage that comes with trail agree-
ments protects landowners not only
during snowmobiling season but also
for the months of preparation leading
up to the season and afterward to
remove trail markers.
Insurance doesn’t cover damage
on the trail from another type of
vehicle, but that doesn’t mean the
federation will abandon a farmer if
such a situation arises. “We’ve been
named in lawsuits where it has
actually been an ATV that was riding
on a snowmobile trail. We have
always dealt with it,” says Snyder. “It
doesn’t necessarily mean that our
insurance covers it, but the OFSC is
self-insured for the first $1 million,
so they will take care of whatever
lawsuits they can on their own. In my
time, they’ve taken care of every one
of them.”
Both Snyder and Walker say that
the provincial organization has
adjusted its memorandum of under-
standing (MOU) landowner agree-
ment to address landowner concerns.
One section states that the organiza-
tion doesn’t want anything to do with
easements. There’s an expiry date “so
that there is no chance that this could
be a continuity issue,” says Walker.
Another section offers the land-
owner the opportunity to list specific
expectations, such as removing trail
signs throughout the property each
year.
There’s even a section which
provides space to list the times when
the club volunteers and permit
holders have permission to be on a
property. Permission can be renewed
annually.
Weirmeir agrees the MOU Walker
talks about “wasn’t too bad.”
However, the organization’s overall
approach to the agreements is
problematic, he says, because it
appears more than one agreement
template is in use. At a recent Ontar-
io Landowners board meeting, there
were four different snowmobile
agreements on the table, he says.
“How can we say we think this isn’t a
bad thing when there are this many
across the board? At that point, there
was a press release that went out that
we’re not standing behind any of
them.”
Black says his organization would
like to see a rental agreement instead.
“That, our lawyers tell us, is a
two-person agreement, and you have
to pass a dollar, you have to ex-
change. And that’s a sealed agree-
ment that can’t be interfered with by
the government.”
But both Snyder and Walker say a
rental agreement would mean the
federation’s insurance could no
longer cover the property owner.