02Sled

For the sake of $15 and less than 5 minutes online I prefer not to get into a debate with the OPP trailside or possibly find the need to go to court to object. Insurance will typically try to find a way to not pay. I suspect it could be an argument they may put forward. Similar to you not being covered in your vehicle if you are traveling on a road the police have closed or you not being covered if the driver doesn't have a valid drivers licence.

I would love to see interest rates sky rocket to the levels of the 80's. Considering the debt load the province is facing I doubt it will change any time soon. Really tough to spend way more than you have coming in for long. It's not sustainable. COVID has dug a real deep hole for us to climb out of.

all these nice to haves are totally reliant on volunteers who are already busy prepping and maintaining trails and who would also like to ride just as much as you do if not more. They would like to enjoy the results of their volunteer labour. Who would you like to provide all the nice to haves that people have been saying they want. Should the volunteers ride less so that those who don't volunteer can have their wish list?

It did for me... I renewed the vehicle tags which expired in August on schedule at Service Ontario in Midland... I didn't have the sled ownership or licence number with me at the time so I renewed the sled tag online in early November... had it in the mail in under a week. For $15 I'm not going to have to concern myself with the officer choosing to issue a ticket or not. Then there comes the question... insurance. I believe to have your policy valid there is a clause in there that says the sled must be licensed and in compliance with the laws. If I were in an accident I wouldn't want to take a chance on whether the insurance company would use that as an escape clause for their liability.

Personally I like the way the trail conditions are reported today over what was done before. I remember things like C trail from X road to the junction of 19 is in good condition. From 19 to Y road is moderate with some wet spots. If you were a local and rode these trails regularly the reports may be meaningful to you. If you weren't familiar with the names of the roads, the lakes and the trails themselves you would be trying to look for them on paper maps and hopefully finding what you needed to know.

I realize that... the question was can the OPP enforce the speed in Haliburton Forest since it's private property. My observation was that BOTH the Haliburton Forest AND most of the OFSC trails are on private property yet the OPP enforce the speed on the OFSC trails on private property so why wouldn't they be able to enforce the speed on the Forest trails as well. Especially if they are in there at the request of the owners and possibly even there on paid duty.

Most of the OFSC trails are on private property... it's enforceable there. If the owners of the forest want it enforced I imagine it would be the same situation or perhaps the MSVA in fact applies there as well.

The way I read it was the landowner denied permission due to people riding off trail. The club rep says he patrols that section of trail and there is little if any off trail riding. Sometimes all it may take is one off trail scenario that particularly irks the land owner. Great job by the club in finding and establishing a reroute to compensate for the trail loss though.

Big thank you for your hard work...

Is the Quebec Trail Patrol compensated in some way. You are likely aware of how hard it is to get volunteers for the clubs. My experience is it's even harder to get people to volunteer for Trail Patrol. I've had conversations with people where they ask if the sled I was on was what they supply for Trail Patrol, do I get reimbursed for my gas expense and why would I give up seat time to do Trail Patrol.

only sledjunk can change that....

My take on it is that it was the OFSC, primarily one person in particular that drove the Trail Patrol system to where it is today... toothless. The phrase I heard over and over was Trail Ambassador. All the Trail Patrol I have known have included ambassador as part of it going way back. I and others have stopped when they have found people on the side of the trail just to make sure every one was okay and they weren't either lost or experiencing a break down, handed out countless trail maps, loaned tools / booster cables and / or helped with a breakdown or a boost, provided directions to the nearest gas, lunch or a destination. On a number of occasions I have told those I have been riding with to continue on and I would see them later to lead others to the closest gas as it was questionable if they would make it. If I found someone without a trail permit I would issue a notice of trespass and give them an email address. If they could provide proof of getting a trail permit in the next 10 days the notice was torn up. Never had one that didn't get torn up. We have been talking about it for a long time now and things continue to move in the wrong direction.

I have heard of an ATV club that has had paid duty OPP out on the ATV trails to enforce permits etc. The cost of the paid OPP was more than offset by the sudden increase in permit revenue. I bet that if the OPP were paid to be in a few of the real trouble spots, zero tolerance for permits, cans, off trail, license, registration and insurance, the revenue in permits would more than pay for their time.

Their laws regarding coverage for vehicle and snowmobile insurance liability limits are vastly different than Ontario.

One of the factors is the geographic aspect. Take a look at a map of Canada and the latitude of Toronto compared to the latitude of Montreal. They are significantly farther north. You can snowmobile essentially just on the outskirts of Montreal. I have flown into Montreal and seen as we are coming into land snowmobiles running the ice on parts of the St. Lawrence as well.

They wanted to encourage people to use public transit rather than personal vehicles so monthly public transit passes were an eligible deduction. It didn't hinge on what you used it for... going to work or just traveling around the city.

Yes we indeed need more enforcement. I was checking permits in Port Severn and a group of late teen early 20's came up. They all had permits on the sleds except one of them... he said it was in his pocket and it was too cold to stick it on the sled. I insisted it wasn't especially since it was above freezing and the option was a notice of trespass. He very reluctantly put it on the windshield. One of his buddies chimed in... Steve's going to be some pissed when you can't give him his trail permit back.

Fighting CRA is a challenge... public transit passes used to be deductible. My wife worked at Yonge & Dundas and took the subway daily so she had the monthly Metro Pass. We bought them from the local variety store and paid cash. Like most variety stores the cash register receipts really don't tell you much beyond the amount. Doesn't tell you anything about what it's for. The Metro Pass was a plastic card the size of a credit card. We claimed the deduction and they wanted proof. I set up all the cards on the bed of the scanner and sent CRA the pdf documents. They wouldn't accept the images of the 12 cards, all of which were unique and had the month on them. They wanted receipts... copied the register receipts... wouldn't accept them either even though the amounts were all the same and in the same amount as the TTC website said the pass cost since the receipt didn't say what it was for.

Rather than being concerned with winning bragging rights about how many km's I did in a day I prefer to actually see where I've been and the nature around me. Some of the favourites over the years have been the deer standing on their hind legs nibbling on the trees, the beaver that was about to cross the trail but then backed up as it saw us coming and the otters playing at the edge of the lake. There's been many times when I have asked people... did you see _______ ? and they missed it because they were going too fast.

That would be them... I don't believe they are doing it anymore.

From what I heard from Freeland speaking they want it unlocked which to me translates to government getting their hands on it long before you pass and are subject to estate/inheritance taxes. Those taxes are minimal. I have heard her allude to a tax not only on the earnings on your investments but a tax on the value of your savings. i.e. You have $100,000 in savings you hand over a % of the value of your savings to them to spend for you.

The PM and our finance minister have already mentioned that Canadians have vast amounts of savings that the government must figure out how to unlock these funds. Trudeau is also investigating how to tax the equity people have in their homes.

It's definitely a sellers market... neighbor bought a boat 4 years ago last summer for $10,000. After 4 years of use was able to sell it for $18,000.

Depends on where you are in the US. There are some real variants in fees. I have heard of a fee for the state, the city and the county.

Back in the spring during the first lockdown I had a woman that would yell at me that I needed to go home and that I wasn't supposed to be out walking our dog.