Showing posts with label ontario trails act. Show all posts

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Ontario Trails News - Ontario Trails Council introduces first in a series of landowner and Bill 100 educational posters

Download our Educational Poster on Bill 100 and Landowner Issues

Monday, March 7, 2016

Ontario Trails News - London Free Press gets it closest to the mark in reporting on Bill 100

http://goo.gl/EsQKxz

Concerns about Ontario’s proposed Trails Act are, like the trails themselves during spring thaw, “a mess right now.”

That’s the word from farmers and trail advocates who say a provincial bill that would draw together a disparate tangle of rules into one law has received widespread misinterpretation.

The Ontario Trails Act is intended to codify for the first time how public trails are proposed and approved on private land.

But some have said the bill encroaches on landowners’ freedoms — something Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Don McCabe says just isn’t the right interpretation.

“The reality is if you own a farm and somebody wants to go through it (with a trail), you have to sign off on it,” McCabe said.

It’s purely voluntary, he said, and he dismissed as false some claims that farmers risk having their land expropriated for trails.

Patrick Connor, executive director of the Ontario Trails Council, said it could take years to recover from the rhetoric.

“It’s not bad legislation for landowners. It’s not. It’s actually an improvement for landowners,” Connor said.

He said the proposed legislation, Bill 100, draws provisions now under 48 different pieces of legislation into one coherent set of rules.

The intent, he said, is to help build trails that offer recreation for users and legal safeguards for landowners. “This isn’t an us-versus-them agenda,” he said.

There are more than 30,000 kilometres of year-round trails in Ontario, plus tens of thousands of seasonal snowmobile trails.

Many of them run through or adjacent to private land, where farmers have allowed easements.

It says any landowner may agree to an easement, but doesn’t insist that such permission be given, said Neil Currie, general manager of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

“It’s a bit of a confused mess right now,” he said.

Connor said when landowners designate an area for trails, it can lead to less land damage because trail-walkers and -riders will know where the parameters are.

Farmers are often vexed by people in four-wheelers driving through their fields. There are also concerns that people entering a property without permission will jeopardize biosecuruity measures on famrs.

Currie said he has seen photos of someone ripping through a field of soybeans, in summer, with a snowmobile.

He said that exemplefies the lack of respect some people have for private property and the damage that can be done.

OFA says trespassing penalties should be toughened beyond the current maximum $50 fine, perhaps re-defining the maximum penalty as $20,000, the maximum amount that can be collected under small-claims legislation.

“Offering land for a trail to the public is a courtesy that the public has to return,” Currie said.

The bill has passed second reading in the legislature and will go to committees before a final reading.

Monday, February 29, 2016

Ontario Trails News - Bill 100 misreporting and misinterpretation continues, no stoppage despite clarification from OTC and others

Ontario Trails Council continues to track erroneous landowner reporting on Bill 100

Press Release For immediate release: Feb 25, 2016
Contact: Patrick Connor, Executive Director Ontario Trails Council 1-613-396-3226 execdir@ontariotrails.ca

Ontario Trails Council Continues to Correct Misinformation about Bill 100

The Ontario Trails Council has asked the Ontario Landowners Association to cease or retract misinformation regarding Bill 100, that they continue to circulate through public meeting and the media. We also would ask the media to cease and desist as the information they are provided is being misunderstood.

Several respected groups, the Minister of Tourism Culture and Sport, community organizations involving farmers to hikers, and even MPP Randy Hillier (founder of the Ontario Landowners Association) and our organization, wants the closure of trails to stop. We respect landowners and we want to preserve 50 years of friendly relations amongst us.

Bill 100 only needs some tweaks and clarifications and this can be done by the OLA, and other groups, working through the OTC.

Reports from “The Lanark Era,” have “Randy Hillier Member for Lennox-Addington-Frontenac in Provincial Parliament saying the landowners’ group has misled the public on the benefits and drawbacks of Bill 100, which, in part, would regulate easements on private property.”

The OTC is looking to get additional support for other landowner agreements, recognized in the Bill.

Further MPP Hillier, “stressed that Bill 100, which has made it through first reading and has yet to be debated, is a positive bill for property owners and land users…” “It creates a new legal mechanism that provides greater certainty to trail associations and to private landowners over the use of land,” Hillier explained.

At Ontario Trails Council we are working with Ministry Staff, and through committee, to bring to the Bill changes that will work for trails and landowners. At OTC we are moving forward through communication with the government to secure a positive outcome for all.

Despite published clarifications on the part of the Ontario Trails Council and the government, some people and their media partners continue to do damage to trails. Please review our input and work with us to change the Act for the better.

OTC Press Release

https://www.scribd.com/doc/299473575/Hillier-pans-landowner-views-on-provincial-trails-bill#download

If you have any questions about Bill 100 please contact the Ontario Trails Council, 613-396-3226 or email us at: execdir@ontariotrails.ca

We are here to help everybody have a better understanding of trails, trail use and management practice.

Please read our paper on Bill 100 – it's available here -http://goo.gl/yzlO0X

-30-

Friday, February 26, 2016

Ontario Trails News - please publish fact not fiction on Bill 100 impacts!

Ontario Trails Council continues to track erroneous landowner reporting on Bill 100

Press Release For immediate release: Feb 25, 2016
Contact: Patrick Connor, Executive Director Ontario Trails Council 1-613-396-3226 execdir@ontariotrails.ca

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Ontario Trails News - Better Farmer and the Flesherton help us correct misinformation about Bill 100

Ontario Trails Council gets media coverage on issue in The Flesherton

Ontario Trails

Trail groups, including the Ontario Trails Council, are concerned that some property rights associations are spreading mis-information about Bill 100, The Ontario Trails Act, which is now before the legislature.

The main source of confusion concerns property easements, which some groups are representing as mandatory. This is not true. “To be clear, Bill 100 only affects landowners who want to negotiate an easement for trail access. It in no way makes trails on private or public land nor does it take negotiation rights away from landowners, Patrick Connor, Executive Director of the Ontario Trails Council (OTC) says.

As a charitable organization working to promote the management, use, development and preservation of recreational trails, the OTC is concerned that the facts regarding Bill 100, trails and landowners, are being misunderstood by some groups, Connor says. He says the bill actually “makes the process [of negotiating easements with landowners] clearer.”

And, Michael Coteau, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, the ministry that drafted the Bill, has also issued a statement to clarify any mis-interpretations. “To be clear, an easement pursuant to Bill 100, if passed, would be a voluntary agreement between a landowner and an eligible body or bodies. No property owner would be compelled to provide an easement unless they agreed to do so.”

The Ontario Trails Act was introduced in May, 2015, by Coteau. If passed by the legislature, the Act will result in changes to other Acts of Legislation to reduce liability exposure for land owners, increase fines for trespass, as well as introduce other changes that will make it easier for groups to hold events, while providing better guidance on issues of risk exposure and liability.

Ontario Trails Council gets media coverage in Better Farmer

Provincial Trails Act sparks concern in the countryside

February 15, 2016

‘We think the trails and the Trails Act have become a lightning rod for a lot of other concerns’ says Trails Council head

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Farm owners hosting recreational trails on their properties shouldn’t fear that the province is trying to steal their land by using a law that is currently being considered in Queen’s Park, says the executive director of the Ontario Trails Council.

Desboro (Deseronto) -based Patrick Connor says some landowners have recently broken agreements with local trails groups and closed recreational trails through their properties in the Gananoque area because of negative publicity about the Ontario Trails Act, also known as Bill 100. “We are upset because the landowners are upset,” says Connor. On Saturday he sent a release to news media asking them to stop. “We respectfully request that your organization not publish any media that further causes damage to trails or landowner relations. We appreciate the land that landowners provide to trails, and this appreciation is being lost.”

Connor says erroneous charges have been made in the media. “The articles that went out claimed that the Act is going to do certain things that the Act is simply not going to do,” Connor said in an interview. Earlier in the week the federation of all-terrain vehicle clubs lost seven sections of their trails. Some trails arranged for by snowmobile clubs have also been shut down.

“There is a real agitation going on here and rightly so,” Connor says. “If the trail is another way that the government is going to take my land, through this Act, I’m taking my land back before they do so. But the Act doesn’t say that.”

“We think the trails and the Trails Act have become a lightning rod for a lot of other concerns.” Connor mentioned “tensions in rural areas . . . Including wind farms” which are highly unpopular in some parts of rural Ontario.

Connor says trails have been established in Ontario over 40 or 50 years and this legislation was developed from the grass roots up and with consultation from organizations such as the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs, as many as 250 community groups and a number of provincial ministries. Connor says the bill actually strengthens the position of land owners where trails are concerned because it allows for much higher fines for trespass and for property damage. There’s little that’s new in the Act, other than “soft” topics such as a provincial trails week every year and a trail classification system. Mostly the law just puts a lot of pieces about trails “into one file.”

Following a single interview news item quoting a “concerned citizen” decrying the Trails Act, aired on Wingham-based Blackburn Radio early last week, Connor says he spoke at length with the station’s news director and believes that turned down the rhetoric in western Ontario. Completion of the G2G (Guelph to Goderich) trail on a disused rail right of way remains particularly controversial.

Paul Shaughnessy, executive director of the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs, says a letter to the editor published in the weekly newspaper Ontario Farmer and other Postmedia newspapers across the province criticizing the Trails Act is simply incorrect. Elizabeth Marshall, director of research for the Ontario Landowners Association wrote that landowners who let snowmobile trails on their property may be handing their land over to the local conservation authority.

“Landowners do not need to fear snowmobile clubs” because they don’t operate under easements, Shaughnessy says. Snowmobile trails operate under partnerships between local clubs and landowners, a “time-tested” arrangement.

Tom Black, president of the Ontario Landowners Association, which has chapters across rural Ontario and in Toronto, stands by the researcher’s work and words and says the snowmobile federation “is being used.” But he stopped short of asserting that landowners shouldn’t let recreationalists on their property. ”We are not telling people to close their trails. We tell them the information; they can do what they want with it.” But he hopes that weather keeps the snowmobile trails in his area closed “until this gets straightened out.” The 22-page Trails Act passed first reading in the Legislature last May and is now before committee.

Black interchanges the terms “easement” and “right of way” and asserts “it says right there in the Act” under Section 12, once a trail is registered it can belong to any of a dozen groups, including conservation authorities, aboriginal groups, school boards, and charitable organizations such as the Ontario SPCA.

Black counts about 180 groups associated with the Ontario Trails Council, but says no one there represents land owners, where the trails are, and there’s no one on the council representing farm groups.

“I don’t see a problem here,” says Peter Jeffery, senior researcher, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, which made a submission to the province regarding Bill 100. “When you read that whole section on easements ... subsection 3 says property owners may enter into easements. ... You have two choices, yes or no. No is a valid answer. You can’t be forced into this.”

Michael Couteau, minister of tourism, culture and sport also weighed in on the issue in a statement issued Feb. 10. “An easement pursuant to Bill 100, if passed, would be a voluntary agreement between a landowner and an eligible body or bodies. No property owner would be compelled to provide an easement unless they agreed to do so.”

The farm federation had asked the province to stiffen the trespass to property laws but didn’t really get what it wanted. Bill 100 allows for higher maximum penalties, up to $10,000 for trespassing on private property, but Jeffery says it doesn’t help much as most fines levied for trespass are minimal. A $50 or $100 fine for trespassing is meaningless to someone driving an $8,000 ATV in a farm field, Jeffery points out. There needs to be a minimum fine applied. BF

Read Bill 100 supporting the Ontario Trails Act

Read the comments - Patrick Connor added -

THANK YOU

On behalf of the Executive and Board of the Ontario Trails Council I would like to express our thanks to Better Farming for publishing our comments. Just a couple of things, the OTC President and Secretary are ranchers, and our VP is a farmer. And I'm from Deseronto (although Desboro is nice too) Regards, Patrick Connor

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Ontario Trails News - we welcome clarifying statements from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture on the Ontario Trails Act - we call for a stoppage to trail closures

Ontario Federation of Agriculture comments on Bill 100
OFA Commentary: February 19, 2016
Easements are voluntary in Supporting Ontario Trails Act

By Paul Wettlaufer, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

There’s a lot of talk in the countryside about Bill 100, the proposedSupporting Ontario Trails Act. The act was introduced in the Ontario legislature in May, 2015 and has generated much confusion over whether or not a landowner has a choice to grant an easement. Trail-related easements are entirely voluntary under Bill 100.

Ontario farmers have a long history of providing, upon request, access to their land for public use. The proposed act includes rules for easements for landowners wishing to share their land on a seasonal or year-long basis. That being said, Bill 100 does not force farmers and rural property owners to enter into any trail-related easement agreements.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) carefully reviewed Bill 100 and provided comments in June 2015. In our submission, OFA noted section 12 of the legislation is clear that an owner’s decision to enter into a trail easement is their own choice and is completely voluntary. The legislation clearly states a landowner may grant an easement to allow use of their property and have the right to state the length or term of the agreement. That means Ontario farmers and rural property owners will retain a choice and should not feel obligated to enter into any easement agreement for recreational trail use.

OFA does have concerns with the Supporting Ontario Trails Act, including insufficient fines for trespassing and vague best practices for trail operators. To read OFA’s full submission and comments on Bill 100, visitofa.on.ca

Ontario’s farmers have a unique perspective on trails. Former railways crossed through farms, hiking trails run through or adjacent to farmland and many farmers voluntarily permit seasonal use of their land for snowmobile trails. There’s a lot to consider when farmers permit recreational trails on their property. Land easements under Bill 100 and the proposed Supporting Ontario Trails Act are voluntary and should be carefully considered before being granted. If in doubt, consult legal counsel if you any questions about allowing access to your property for recreational purposes.

Ontarians are fortunate to have such a rich and beautiful countryside. It is worth working together to share our appreciation of our natural landscape.

-30-

For more information, contact:
Paul Wettlaufer
Director
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-369-7528

Neil Currie
General Manager
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-821-8883

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Ontario Trails News - misinformation spread by some groups and media killing trails economy in rural Ontario

MPP Randy Hillier, founder of Ontario Landowner's Association responds to OLA claims in the Lanark Era

By Gena Gibson
Era staff
Randy Hillier doesn’t mince words as he dismantles the Ontario Landowners’ Association’s argument about the proposed trails bill making its way through the Ontario government’s approval process.

The Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington Member of Provincial Parliament says the landowners’ group has misled the public on the benefits and drawbacks of Bill 100, which, in part, would regulate easements on private property.

“It’s their inability to understand the English language or their inability to understand legal terminology,” Hillier said in an interview last week. “I’ve often seen it with the present-day (landowners’ association).”

He stressed that Bill 100, which has made it through first reading and has yet to be debated, is a positive bill for property owners and land users, such as snowmobile clubs. “It creates a new legal mechanism that provides greater certainty to trail associations and to private landowners over the use of land,” Hillier explained.

In the past, he noted, property owners and groups have agreed on property use by handshake or informal agreement. Far from eroding property owners’
rights, Hillier added, the bill would give them more control by allowing them to set limits on easements.

A letter in the Feb. 2 Lanark Era by Elizabeth Marshall, the director of research for the Ontario Landowners’ Association, said the proposed legislation would not allow property owners to retain the right to shut down trails if they want or need to.

“This easement cannot be removed by the private property owner; it can only be removed by an ‘eligible body,’” she wrote. Hillier said the statements from Marshall are wrong and misleading.“They’re suggesting that easements can be imposed on private landowners, and nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “It’s not based on fact.”

He said nothing in the legislation imposes easements on anyone, while it does allow property owners to set limits on use of the trail over their property“(In the current legislation), easements were exhaustive...with no ability to restrict the time of year,” he explained. He used the example of a farm field, which a farmer agrees to allow a snowmobile club to use in the winter, but not during the cropping months.

“So this is a big win for everyone,” he said. “It now allows us to put greater covenants or greater restrictions to the easements.” He said snowmobile clubs, such as the local Snow Road Snowmobile Club, will also have greater certainty of trail use under the proposed regulations.

“A handshake agreement doesn’t give much certainty of use,” he said.Hillier pointed out that if an easement agreement is reached for a five-year term, that will be registered on the land’s title, even if it is sold. The new property owner would see the agreement clearly spelled out, as opposed to an informal handshake
agreement that may not have been mentioned and comes as a surprise when winter approaches and snowmobilers arrive.

“So all in all, I think it is a reasonable and practical and beneficial way to increase recreational use and protection,” Hillier said, noting with a laugh that he doesn’t always – or often – agree with legislation put forward by the Liberal government. “Whenever there’s misinformation or dishonest information put forward, it does, rightfully so, cause anxiety,” he stressed, pointing to the need for further investigation and independent verification.

He admitted that he hadn’t read the bill’s content at first reading, waiting until closer to the debate.“When I saw these outlandish claims, I said, I’ll take a look and read this legislation,” he noted.He said the landowners’ association has made false claims in the past, using the Crown patents as an example. The association encouraged property owners to apply for their Crown patents in an effort to protect their land, but Hillier said that has led some people to believe they didn’t have to follow the law.

“When you break the law, you break the law,” he stressed. “There’s many laws that I disagree with, that I think are foolish, unnecessary and intrusive,
but they remain the law.”

https://goo.gl/55X8fX

Ontario Trails Council asks media - please stop the incorrect coverage

Media continues to allow for fear of act - just this week the following commentary appeared:

https://goo.gl/1YITa8

“Something that bothers me as a rural property owner is forced easement. If I have an agreement with my neighbour or snowmobile club that is exactly what it is, an agreement,” said Karen Mahon, a West Perth landowner. “An easement on the other hand is registered and runs with the land. You cannot get out of it. That is mentioned in Bill 100 and is easement law.”

Not forced. To continue to publish this is just wrong.

"But according to Elizabeth Marshall, the director of research for the Ontario Landowners Association, Bill 100 would lead private property owners into thinking they can allow trails across their property while retaining the right to shut those trails down. Shutting trails down that have been registered as easements under Bill 100 would not be as easy as it is through direct agreements, Marshall claimed."

There is no leading, this is a position the landowner can pursue of their own volition.

We request that media outlets stop publishing comments that are opinion and that are scaring landowners. The OTC has done interviews with these publishers clarifying our position, the Act and our go forward strategy, as well as getting our Press Release to them.

Know your easement and we are working with landowners to make sure the types of agreements are better understood and enacted by them.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Ontario Trails News - Better Farmer and The Flesherton help correct damage caused by erroneous reporting on the Trails Act

Ontario Trails Council gets media coverage on issue in The Flesherton

Ontario Trails

Ontario Trails Council gets media coverage in Better Farmer

Provincial Trails Act sparks concern in the countryside

February 15, 2016

Read Bill 100 supporting the Ontario Trails Act

Read the comments - Patrick Connor added -

THANK YOU

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Ontario Trails news - concerned about landowner rights? Read our position paper on Bill 100

Read our presentation on the Ontario Trails Act.

http://www.ontariotrails.on.ca/assets/files/pdf/OTCC/Trails%20Act%20Trailhead%202015.pdf

Media Releases

OTC E-news provides the latest information on events, activities, and news from the world of trails.

Includes notices published in the press or other public media

7.1.16 OFSC and OPP Statement on Snowmobiling - pdf

22.12.15 Ontario Trails Coordinating Committee Action Plan 2014 - pdf

17.12.15 Trail User Survey 2014 - pdf

17.12.15 Trail User Survey 2014 En francais - pdf

30.7.15 Conservation Authorites Act Review - pdf

7.7.15 Ontario Trails Act - Information - pdf

13.5.15 Ontario Trails responds to announcement of Trails Act - pdf

11.2.14 National Trails Coalition receives Federal Funding - pdf

20.5.13 Saugeen Rail Trail Crossing Petition - jpg - flyer

17.5.13 Niagara Trails Long Weekend - pdf

27.6.12 Millenium Trail - pdf

Monday, February 8, 2016

Ontario Trails News - landowners right strengthened by Bill 100

Read our presentation on the Ontario Trails Act.

Media Releases

OTC E-news provides the latest information on events, activities, and news from the world of trails.

Includes notices published in the press or other public media

7.1.16 OFSC and OPP Statement on Snowmobiling - pdf

22.12.15 Ontario Trails Coordinating Committee Action Plan 2014 - pdf

17.12.15 Trail User Survey 2014 - pdf

17.12.15 Trail User Survey 2014 En francais - pdf

30.7.15 Conservation Authorites Act Review - pdf

7.7.15 Ontario Trails Act - Information - pdf

13.5.15 Ontario Trails responds to announcement of Trails Act - pdf

11.2.14 National Trails Coalition receives Federal Funding - pdf

20.5.13 Saugeen Rail Trail Crossing Petition - jpg - flyer

17.5.13 Niagara Trails Long Weekend - pdf

27.6.12 Millenium Trail - pdf

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Ontario Trail News - media scaring landowners unnecessarily about Bill 100

Read our presentation on the Ontario Trails Act.

Media Releases

OTC E-news provides the latest information on events, activities, and news from the world of trails.

Includes notices published in the press or other public media

7.1.16 OFSC and OPP Statement on Snowmobiling - pdf

22.12.15 Ontario Trails Coordinating Committee Action Plan 2014 - pdf

17.12.15 Trail User Survey 2014 - pdf

17.12.15 Trail User Survey 2014 En francais - pdf

30.7.15 Conservation Authorites Act Review - pdf

7.7.15 Ontario Trails Act - Information - pdf

13.5.15 Ontario Trails responds to announcement of Trails Act - pdf

11.2.14 National Trails Coalition receives Federal Funding - pdf

20.5.13 Saugeen Rail Trail Crossing Petition - jpg - flyer

17.5.13 Niagara Trails Long Weekend - pdf

27.6.12 Millenium Trail - pdf