Look what happened last year with municipalities signing the LOA’s once the crap hit the fan with tourism, the dollars from it, and by not signing, what that would do to local economies. Signed…..   trail retraction in my view is NOT an option and every club need to simply say no, hands off, we run our club.  

There is greater impact in numbers - what do you think a MP, MPP or regional counsellor does not want the most - negative remarks towards them or their riding when it becomes politically messy. A small group of people from the OFSC office is not going to get the traction it needs - plain and simple. A signed petition is not doing anything either.   Agreed with all, people were a sleep at the wheel in this, if not, the optics sure look that way. Transparency is key and the OFSC has not been - when questions are asked, rather than an informed answer, you get, "go to a club" or "join a club" and all your answers will be provided, maybe I am wrong, but there are people here that fall into this category of being part of a club and they do not seem to have the answers either or there are different variations of some answers - so there is a problem here that needs to be addressed and should have years ago.

I was thinking Ofsc needs some lessons in communications.  They need to be ahead of this story which they aren’t.  Both in communicating to clubs and also to permit buyers.  When the insurance crisis hit we had Dennis Burns writing articles to the membership telling everyone the issues and what the organization was doing.  Who is the Ofsc president now?  They have the e-mail list.  Should be an easy thing to communicate.

Even if the 6 billion of disposable income is exaggerated somewhat by OFSC math,  it is still  spent in Ontario, but without snowmobiling trail system maybe half that disposable income might be spent outside Ontario. So OFSC still has a pretty good case to go hat in hand to Government.  

I hate to be critical of OFSC but an email should have been send to every permit holder from the previous two years clearly stating the present financial situation and the possible implications of the situation. This should have been done 90 days ago with an email link provided to the MINISTER of TOURISM. If the Minister of Tourism had received a form letter from a couple thousand citizens would have been much more impactful than just OFSC head office pleading the case.   Every day you see news releases from various provincial ministers announcing funding for various pet projects for 10 of millions of dollars.   In this day and age $5 million would be a positive investment by the provincial government with the spin off effect on the economy, particularly the northern regions that tourism has such an importance.