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Free Weekend Dead Is a Good Thing


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A good bud of mine text me asking if the free weekend was still going, I said no its dead and I hope it stays that way, he was planning on the free weekend and maybe a couple weekend passes.

So now he is going to buy 4 passes for his family, instead of the freeride. I m sure this is not the only scenario for this type of planning.

And hes been riding for years, just dam cheap. LEAVE IT DEAD

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As i am all for the Ofsc doing everything to move the sport in the right direction,  obviously  the free weekend did not do much. Maybe giving people the chance to ride for 'free', did not turn into more full season passes sold.  Whichever it was, they tried it, and are moving on. 

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Maybe in future one free day, would be a good promotion. Quebec is still doing it this year so they must see a benefit too it. 

Ofsc needs to bring in day passes in my opinion. Not everyone wants to ride a min of two consecutive days. With online system should be no issue to sell day passes too.

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It sure has been interesting to see how people look upon the OFSC as the years have passed. For the life of me I cannot grasp why so much anger in general? I know many former sledders who sold sled, bought ATV, and blame trail pass, ins costs and police hassles as key reasons for getting out of the sport. Conditions anger people too but in my experience they are always a crap shoot year by year and the best riding is end of season, not the beginning. People seem all gung ho at first snow fall and complain the trails are not perfectly groomed when theres no base, and too much traffic. These same types in late March dont give a rats about sleds and are already heading south or thinking summer when the best trail conditions are typically present.

 

Free rides for these types? No thanks, these are friends too :rotflmao:

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1 minute ago, crispy said:

It sure has been interesting to see how people look upon the OFSC as the years have passed. For the life of me I cannot grasp why so much anger in general? I know many former sledders who sold sled, bought ATV, and blame trail pass, ins costs and police hassles as key reasons for getting out of the sport. Conditions anger people too but in my experience they are always a crap shoot year by year and the best riding is end of season, not the beginning. People seem all gung ho at first snow fall and complain the trails are not perfectly groomed when theres no base, and too much traffic. These same types in late March dont give a rats about sleds and are already heading south or thinking summer when the best trail conditions are typically present.

 

Free rides for these types? No thanks, these are friends too :rotflmao:

 

How do these people justify the insurance cost on teh ATV? I have also seen the OPP out on the trails checking for drinking. Lots of empties out on the trails in the summer after I do my spring collection after sledding season has passed & the ATVers are out in force.

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1 hour ago, revrnd said:

 

How do these people justify the insurance cost on teh ATV? I have also seen the OPP out on the trails checking for drinking. Lots of empties out on the trails in the summer after I do my spring collection after sledding season has passed & the ATVers are out in force.

I have also heard of a Muskoka ATV club that had challenges of riders not having permits. They hired off duty OPP for paid duty and had them out checking for permits and issuing tickets. Word apparently got out quite quickly and the number of permits sold sky rocketed and more than covered the cost of the paid duty OPP. Perhaps that is something the OFSC should look at. The clubs would know the best spots to set up permit checks and I bet it wouldn't take long until the expense is recovered multiple times over. Especially if they got checked for license insurance while at it.

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16 minutes ago, 02Sled said:

I have also heard of a Muskoka ATV club that had challenges of riders not having permits. They hired off duty OPP for paid duty and had them out checking for permits and issuing tickets. Word apparently got out quite quickly and the number of permits sold sky rocketed and more than covered the cost of the paid duty OPP. Perhaps that is something the OFSC should look at. The clubs would know the best spots to set up permit checks and I bet it wouldn't take long until the expense is recovered multiple times over. Especially if they got checked for license insurance while at it.

I wonder what legal right an OFF duty OPP has to demand to see permits/insurance/ownership not to mention issuing tickets

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1 hour ago, PISTON LAKE CRUISER said:

I wonder what legal right an OFF duty OPP has to demand to see permits/insurance/ownership not to mention issuing tickets

 

As much as an on duty OPP. Same as game wardens.  This is from a game warden.

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1 hour ago, PISTON LAKE CRUISER said:

I wonder what legal right an OFF duty OPP has to demand to see permits/insurance/ownership not to mention issuing tickets

Any sworn peace officer at any time - tribal police, opp, city police, rcmp, railway police - not the same as in the U.S. where duties are jurisdictional.

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1 hour ago, PISTON LAKE CRUISER said:

I wonder what legal right an OFF duty OPP has to demand to see permits/insurance/ownership not to mention issuing tickets

Whether on duty or off they are officers of the court and theoretically "on duty" at all times. Also this is in essence just over time for them since the organization pays the OPP and the OPP then pay the individual officer. If you look it up there are rates for the officer's time and other items such as a cruiser.

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3 hours ago, 02Sled said:

I have also heard of a Muskoka ATV club that had challenges of riders not having permits. They hired off duty OPP for paid duty and had them out checking for permits and issuing tickets. Word apparently got out quite quickly and the number of permits sold sky rocketed and more than covered the cost of the paid duty OPP. Perhaps that is something the OFSC should look at. The clubs would know the best spots to set up permit checks and I bet it wouldn't take long until the expense is recovered multiple times over. Especially if they got checked for license insurance while at it.

Unfortunately, now that the OFSC has eliminated Buy Where You Ride (no more admin dollars based on sales), the local District would never recover any costs.

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3 hours ago, PISTON LAKE CRUISER said:

I wonder what legal right an OFF duty OPP has to demand to see permits/insurance/ownership not to mention issuing tickets

Hailburton forests does this and they are sure friendly cops if you have your paper work in order. Must be worth three while and maybe need to do it to keep libabilty costs of thier trail system in check. Word gets out fast and then everyone complies pretty much. 

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2 hours ago, 02Sled said:

Whether on duty or off they are officers of the court and theoretically "on duty" at all times. Also this is in essence just over time for them since the organization pays the OPP and the OPP then pay the individual officer. If you look it up there are rates for the officer's time and other items such as a cruiser.

It was not that many years ago that the person hiring the off OPP officer paid cash only directly to the officer. Finally, someone kicked up a fuss about all this nontaxed income the OPP doing off duty jobs were making and the process was changed so that the money flowed through the organization. 

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Hmmm. We pay taxes and purchase val tags each year which in part flows already to the O.P.P to enforce our trail system. 

S.T.O.P program was cancelled. I would find it difficult to support clubs or districts spending money they dont have to pay for enforcement in which we already pay to have already. It would be a case of enforcement double dipping so to speak. 

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3 hours ago, Blake G said:

That's sad that these people jump the fair boxes but yet they want/need a ride. They need to pay their share or the system will collapse.Same thing could happen with our OFSC system if we continue to have freeloaders.

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531 stopped, 176 charges laid, 16 officers. 10 hours.

All on the 1st of December.

This small area is getting the patrol it deserves. 

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20 hours ago, revrnd said:

 

How do these people justify the insurance cost on teh ATV? I have also seen the OPP out on the trails checking for drinking. Lots of empties out on the trails in the summer after I do my spring collection after sledding season has passed & the ATVers are out in force.

Can use atv almost year round...

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2 hours ago, Diceman said:

Can use atv almost year round...

Minus the winter months. Minus the blackflies. Minus the deer & horse flies...

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18 hours ago, Yukon Cornelious said:

Hmmm. We pay taxes and purchase val tags each year which in part flows already to the O.P.P to enforce our trail system. 

S.T.O.P program was cancelled. I would find it difficult to support clubs or districts spending money they dont have to pay for enforcement in which we already pay to have already. It would be a case of enforcement double dipping so to speak. 

Reality is the OPP budget does include patrolling our trails but not adequately enough. There are also other demands on their time. Paid duty is about $75 / hr and no that is not what the officer gets. This is essentially over time for them as well. Check with your HR department what your fully burdened costs are. All the associated background expenses add up. For an 8 hr. day that's $600. Something tells me that the OFSC would have covered that expense very quickly. At $270 per permit during the season if 3 permits were sold that the OFSC wouldn't have sold that puts them ahead by $210 at the end of the day. Something tells me that if the club identified the "hot spots" then there would be a very positive cash flow. Catching 3 a day should be like shooting fish in a barrel. Then as word spreads the spinoff of people that buy permits because they heard about the increased presence.

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4 hours ago, Diceman said:

Can use atv almost year round...

depends on where you want to ride... the ATV's aren't legal on the snowmobile trails... especially those on private property. Yes municipally owned property is privately owned.

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2 hours ago, revrnd said:

Minus the winter months. Minus the blackflies. Minus the deer & horse flies...

That's what has kept me from getting an ATV. Went out with a friend on a couple of club rides... get into the trees and it's like ringing the dinner bell. Here I am come and get me.

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