Nutter you are spot on for the groomer topic.  Reduce the fleet and wear out your existing equipment that much faster.     Not sure there is a payoff there unless you’re a short term finance guy trying to justify a cutback decision.  And we had hit a low snow winter   

Selling sleds doesn’t mean new riders though, at best just means you probably haven’t lost any, and we know the system can’t operate as it is with current rider numbers, permit pricing, and fixed expenses      

Personally I would think a few things will happen going forward.   The province will no longer mess around with going against the OFSC's permit price recommendation.   After such a great season giving an enormous economic boost province wide, the province will be pressured industry wide to further support snowmobiling by investing in infrastructure with grants.     Coming off such an awesome season province wide will soften the blow of a permit price increase.   Personally I'd like to see us just rip the band aid off and hike it $50 a permit across the board and be done with it.    Hoping that the board realizes trying to do more with less equip and over taxing it isn't working, and certainly not saving any money. It's not hard for those who know equip and grooming to see how it's costing a lot more trying to adhere to the 120-150 km per groomer mandate. Then there's also how taxing it has become on the volunteers themselves. 

Based on this story from a week ago, St Onge has had a good season selling sleds. If other dealers have done the same I would think trail passes have been selling and should lead to good sales next season. After all, if you have a new sled I think you'll want to use it. https://www.ctvnews.ca/barrie/article/epic-snowmobiling-season-shifts-into-high-gear-bringing-big-business-to-the-region/

That sounds right - close duplicate trails to offset the "loss" based on no permit increase, etc.... Those trails are all or mostly all back (not 100% sure) - so does 5mil cover the grooming of those trails, bridge repairs of those trails, etc..... At the point the grant was issued, I do not think there was any bridge work done (too late perhaps), just trail prep to reopen (more time I would think than money). So I do wonder what that 5mil would be spent on to recouple this year.....with the great season that started a bit later, did that cause a big jump in full season permits as well. Who knows.    and to add, not knowing what the total number of permits sold is or at what price point, but if you take average of $250 (likely less) x 75,000 permits sold (should be more though) that is $18,750,000.00.....so an extra 5mil is approx. 25% of potential total sales.