Ontario Trail News - TCT tackles development issues, OTC sent letter of support, we await New Tecumseth Membership

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TCT approval to push forward with eye on spring construction

Posted January 20, 2015

The Trans Canada Trail (TCT) coordinator for Southern Ontario reassured New Tecumseth councillors last night that most of the route between Windsor and Ottawa, and Niagara Falls to North Bay was built along abandoned rail corridors (ARC) and had to overcome many of the same concerns and obstacles raised locally by adjacent landowners and farmers.

Jim Paterson's delegation to council was an 11th hour effort to avert passage of the previous week's committee decision to suspend any further work on the TCT in town "until all matters pertaining to the whole phase two of the trails are resolved." Because the motion did not include a deadline, there was a sense it could be delayed indefinitely.

"Over 2,000 km of (TCT) in southern Ontario, and knowing the geography of southern Ontario, the majority of that is through rural agricultural land. A great deal of that trail has been built on abandoned rail lines. So, there has been a lot of public consultation on the development and completion of those trails, and during that consultation, there has been a great deal of similar issues and concerns that have been raised there that have been raised here in the town of New Tecumseth," said Mr. Paterson. "Those are issues such as trespassing, the impacts on agricultural activities, and crops and livestocks, concerns about unauthorized use of the trail, so they're very common. ... And as a result there has been a great deal of efforts to mitigate those issues. Things such as clear and proper signage, control of access at rights of way road crossings to control unauthorized use. Also a number of agreements in place for fencing, and that takes a different variety of forms to mitigate trespassing and crop and livestock issues."

Mr. Paterson said he was in attendance last week when Ward 5 councillor Donna Jebb raised a concern for food safety/security, which propelled him to review how Leamington dealt with similar issues raised by its tomato and cash crop farmers adjacent to their proposed trail, which opened last summer.

"Now, they did have some issues raised, and they were dealt with, with the adjacent landowners - fencing, and signage." When Ms. Jebb suggested "we have not had a full crop year to see if there are any issues," Mr. Paterson replied, "the trail was built over last summer; it was built during the growing of the crops... they did deal with those."

He told Ward 1 councillor Marc Biss that realistic cost estimates put trail development at between $80,000 to $100,000 per km, while assuring Ward 7 councillor Shira Harrison-McIntyre there are many other properties intersected by the TCT.

"With the abandoned rail line, which is the nature of that strip of land that cuts through so many agricultural farms, there are so many crossings," he said. "Where I'm from, we have 44 km of abandoned rail line trail as part of the TCT. We have over 56 agricultural crossings, those crossings are all posted and signed where trail users would come up to it, we have worked with the landowners to make it proper. People know they're coming up to a crossing. On the other side, we recognize the farmer's historical rights to use the trail to get to one side or the other. We honour those."

Ms. Harrison-McIntyre also asked how he would deal with the property issues in New Tecumseth.

"The option to go around is quite costly," he said. "But I think there are always going to be deviations, and it's council's decision to do that. I think the WD Potato, the access along the driveway and back up the road to bypass it, I don't think it's unreasonable. I think from a trail user perspective, it's not as safe as staying on the trail. From our perspective, trail use and trail safety and the quality of trail, is first and foremost, but we know that we can't always have the trail in the best location. And other factors come into play, but we do have areas where it does deviate and go onto roads as long as its safe..... Those are reasonable options."

The approximate hour long debate regarding the trail's fate, circled around "friendly" amendments to Ms. Jebb's original motion. Ward 4 councillor Fran Sainsbury's attempt failed to win support because it didn't provide a sunset clause on negotiationing with the adjacent landowners.

Ward 6 councillor Richard Norcross pointed to a draft recommendation that was prepared for council as part of the 2015 budget package. It stated the Town proceed to tender the trail between the 9th and 10th Line, and between 10 and 20 Sideroad for spring 2015 construction, while simultaneously directing mitigation measures and easements for trail section reroutes be worked out with WD Potato and the bison farmers on the 13th Line. It was approved by council.

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Ontario Trails News - We support trails. We supported New Tecumseth. With a membership we can support you too!

OTC Supports New Tecumseth Trails

March 29, 2014
Mr. Ray Osmond
Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture
Municipality of New Tecumseth
10 Wellington Street East
Alliston, ON L9R 1A1

RE: Trails, Private Land Use and Completing the Trans Canada Trail in Ontario

Dear Mr. Osmond;

Thanks for the opportunity to comment on the issue of recreational trails and farmland in New Tecumseth.

Firstly, let me say that your efforts to complete trail and the section of the Trans Canada Trail on lands under your authorized management and control is something the Ontario Trails Council supports.

In Ontario, there are over 80,000 kilometers of trail, much of which is in southern Ontario where the majority of private land issues arise. Most of Ontario’s farmland is in central and southern Ontario and this makes up roughly 63% of Ontario’s trail inventory.

Thusly, the majority of trail in south west and central Ontario is near, or passes through some form of managed or private land ownership or commercial operation, that could include farming, logging, wetland protection or park.

In fact many trails, such as the Upper Grand Trailway have been supplied interpretive signage through OMAFRA grants to explain faming uses adjacent to the trail to promote agriculture appreciation. Hundreds of other trails operate harmoniously with farmers, such as the Chrysler Greenway in Essex and the Millennium Trail in Prince Edward County.

It is also, in our opinion, more than reasonable to state that the vast majority of this @26,000 kilometers of trail does not involve threat of closure or re-route requests on the part of local landowners or business owners. While there are situations where there may be trail use issues, they tend to be local in nature and remediated through public meeting, signage and effective ongoing trail wardenship and stewardship practices.

The OTC supported New Tecumseh trail development in 1999-2001 as the agent of the Trans Canada Trail in Ontario, and we believe that completing and providing additional trail capacity in New Tecumseth is of great public value. A public value that does not unreasonably impact on farming or private business operation, and which, when or if it does these issues can be usually be resolved without the dissolution of the current trail routing.

Our research shows that at that time of initial master plan and TCT development the public officials of New Tecumseth met with the public, local landowners, and local land-managers as a process of due diligence to implement the trail route in New Tecumseth.

Importantly, during this process you, and others in your office engaged the public, listened to concerns and resolved many land use agreements in the process. Many of these sessions involved local farmers and local agreements were reached with not only the farmers, but representatives of these farmers, such as the local Board of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

We are also given to understand that during the fall on 2013 additional meetings were held at which time additional permissions and resolutions were discussed and agreed upon. These progressive discussions involved the go ahead to seek funds and complete routes.

At OTC, we expect that private land rights be respected. We expect users to expect and respect other users. We do not approve trespass, nor do we endorse trail users negatively impacting on any land use practice or negatively on the environment or eco-systems through which a trail may travel.

We do expect public consultation and negotiated settlement on the part of users, land managers, land owners, route planners, tourists, accessibility to be promoted, top quality amenities and rules and expectations provided through signage. Moreover, we really appreciate consultation with volunteer groups and trail non-profits that support local trail, when public consultation takes place.

At OTC we understand that the Municipality is seeking new information about issues that have come to light, bison and bison ranching impacts from trail use.

In our opinion, the Municipality of New Tecumseth has enacted a thought out and publicly consulted trail master plan development process; worked with the local business community to define issues and a pathway to issue resolution; learned about new issues in order to resolve these issues; involved local trail volunteers and trail management groups, and is not unduly impinging on the rights of concerned groups to continue business in conjunction with future trail traffic, users, wardens and stewards.

Based on your due process and diligence, we would recommend that New Tecumseth support the recommendations of staff as you work to complete the TCT trail.

Sincerely,

Patrick Connor
Executive Director
Ontario Trails Council