Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Ontario Trails Council News - check out http://ontariotrails.on.ca

Ontario Trails NewsTrails Insurance Program AvailableOnce again, members of the trails community find themselves seeking alternative trails insurance. The volatility and unpredictability of your insurance plan keeping you hopping? Wondering what you are getting, curious if your agent or the underwriter understands trails?

If you want:

cost stability
product assurance
insurance perseverance
a broker that understands trails

At OTC our mission is "trail preservation." See the note from Intercity Insurance, Mike King, below.

Further to our recent discussions, I wanted to let you know that we have investigated various markets to get a sense of the appetite that insurers have for coverage associated with trails.

Our findings suggest that coverage is available - but from a very limited number of carriers and that the cost of insurance in this class is not heading down anytime soon. The reality is that there have been losses associated with trails in general and that the frequency and severity of claims is on the rise.

On the positive side of the issue, we have had several specific discussions of late with our current carriers at Lloyd's of London and we are (collectively) very interested in ramping up our work with OTC to connect with your associates who manage trails. We and the insurers we represent are firm in our commitment to work collaboratively with the OTC trail community to develop a comprehensive risk management strategy that makes sense - and insurance is just one part of that strategy.

As for what trail insurance products we have "in the box” right now:

a) Commercial General Liability coverage —premium costs start at $1,000.00 for $2,000,000 coverage.

b) Directors and Officers liability coverage — premium costs start at $200.00 for $I,000,000 coverage. We find that even the smallest community group is seeing the importance of acquiring D and O coverage.

c) Accidental Death and Dismemberment coverage - premiums start at $250. 00 to cover the Officers, Directors, employees, members. The limit of coverage is $100,000.

In the near future OTC will be bundling these products as a part of membership services and products.

Congratulations to OTC Member - Headwaters Communities in Action

2013 Call for Applications Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund
Ontario is providing grants to help communities take action to protect and restore their corner of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Basin.
This is the second call for applications under the Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund. Grants are available for projects that take place in Ontario within the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Basin. The basin includes: Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, Lake Superior, the St. Lawrence River, the Ottawa River, their connecting channels, and their watersheds. Examples of projects that could qualify include:

Planting trees to restore stream banks
Protecting and restoring sensitive and degraded natural habitats by managing the flow of storm water runoff
Protecting traditional harvesting areas from invasive species by using traditional ecological knowledge

You can receive a grant of up to $25,000 grant for your project. Smaller projects are also encouraged. Applications for funding will be accepted until April 26, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. E.D.T. Information on the fund, including the application guide, form, frequently asked questions and 2012 grant recipients, is available at ontario.ca/GreatLakesFund.

Trailhead Ontario - Updates

June 9-12, 2013 - Peterborough

Early Bird Special on Now!

Join trail advocates, organizations, speakers, builders, use groups, volunteers, planners and regulators as we discuss, learn and improve Ontario's Trails

We are working with the full support of Our Favorite Place (RTO8), Peterborough and the Kawartha’s Tourism and a number of local trails groups to bring you the best Trailhead Ontario yet!. There are a lot of new trails and trail tourism partnerships in RTO8. The Ontario Trails “Trailhead Ontario 2013″ Committee is is pleased to announce the Holiday Inn Waterfront Peterborough as the location of our conferencing. Site locations for our trail education program are being determined now.

General Membership AGM!

The Ontario Trails Council is providing notice to membership and guests that the OTC Annual General Meeting is at Noon June 10, 2013. In accordance with the OTC By-Laws, Notice of Nominations for the Board of Directors is hereby served. Download the nomination letter and forms here.

NEW for 2013!

Regional Tourism development includes trails. Trail packages, trail experiences, trail destinations. This takes a blending of major destinations, natural topographies, parks, conservation, county forest and up to 18 different trail activities. What’s in your “Trail Mix”? What’s our plan for marketing this unique matrix of dynamic outdoor experiences so that the world can find the world’s best range of trail fun right here at home.