I agree with some re-writing of legislation Nutter.
There is no teeth and no fear of anything anymore.
I was in a meeting yesterday with some counsel over e-bikes, e-scooters etc. - there are big gaps in legislation with them - "changes" have been before legislature since early 2020 and have not moved - with zero indication anything will be done anytime soon. The gaps continue to exist, the problems continue, and that's how it will be in Ontario.
Just to put things into perspective Current population of Ontario is 16 million people living within a 415,000 sq mi slice of land. The OPP has just over 5800 officers and 600 auxiliary officers. It's not hard to see why snowmobile permit enforcement priority is pretty low on the OPP's policing totem pole. In total there's 25,000 police officers when including municipal police forces, I would imagine only a handful of them are in sledding areas and equipped for snowmobile enforcement, and like the OPP they also have more pressing things to addend to.
My 2 cents .....
As for volunteer Trail Patrol and rebirthing STOP enforcement, people are cut from a very different cloth then they were 25-30 years ago. No volunteer should ever have to be in the chance of being in harms way enforcing sled permits.
2 or 3 Seasons ago there was 6 of us doing a hi hello wave stop on the rail trail between Fenelon and Kinmount at a wide spot with a road crossing on a super busy Sunday, 4 decent sized gents and 2 women. A group of 4 came through, the first 2 slowed enough to tell us to F Off, the other 2 veered at us while roosting us. That could gotten real ugly. Despite being decently late model big iron machines, not one of them was displaying a permit that we could see from either side of the trail. I have other stories of coming across tough guy chest pumpers out on the trail, but no need to get into those, we all know they now exist in greater numbers now and have little to no fear of repercussions.
IMO the trespass to property act has to be re-written within the Motor Snow Vehicle Act, it needs the fail to display permit charge attached to it with more meat to it then the broad stroke provincial trespass offence. Increase the fine substantially and attach a mandatory 90 day impoundment of the machine being ridden. Even with low enforcement, the chance of losing your ride for 90 days and paying $1500+ for the towing and impoundment, along with the fine, then the cost of getting home and picking up your sled after 90 days would likely change attitudes towards buying a permit and sticking it on the sled.
When the OFSC leadership in the mid to late 00's referred to the permit and trails as a product and treated it so, a lot of us saw the changes in rider mentality happen quickly.
I have seen the sleds on the trailer at our detachment, but not out and about. Only ones I have come across on the trail in recent years have been out of Burks Falls. super nice guys. Only asked if I had been drinking and for my licence and insurance. My permit is not on my windshield, but I'm sure they saw they saw it as they never asked about it.
You would be foolish to do so and so would your club to take that on. If you got in an altercation with someone and something happened not only, would you be liable as the person with authority but so would the club.
I don't disagree we would need more enforcement but ill say it again. Relying on club volunteers (while the intentions are fantastic) will not and has not made our system better. To add enforcement into that is a whole new ball of wax that would lay you and or the club open to legal battles that are not winnable