Ontario boasts over 80,000 km in trails. Whether you're in downtown Toronto or North of Superior, we have a trail for you. The Ontario Trails Council is a registered charity, led by volunteers who promote the development, management, use and conservation of Ontario's trails. You'll find everything from gentle walking trails to rock faces for climbing and water routes to canoe and kayak.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Friday, August 8, 2014
Ontario Trails Council - Join Today Support Ontario Trails Development!
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- LEND A HAND
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- Join the OTC
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Join the OTC
The Ontario Trails Council is a charitable organization, established in 1988, that promotes the creation, development, preservation, management and use of recreational trails.
Over past years membership got: a working Ontario Trails Strategy, new Regional Trail Committees, $25 Million in federal funding for communities (NOT OTC!), 84 trail projects in Ontario equaling 16.4M, and work to enhance the Waterfront Trail, Toronto Trails, Lake Erie Coastal Trail, Trans Canada Trail and 2,000 other trails in Ontario. We do this with your support!
Benefits to Individual
- Savings on conference/seminar registration
- Monthly e-bulletins
- Access to OTC trails database
- Great gift price!
- Savings on trail literature/maps
$25.75 + $3.38 = $29.13 (includes 13% HST)
Benefits to Student
- 4 editions of the OTC newsletter Greenways
- Access to OTC trails information
- Conference and selected literature savings
* must provide student verification
$20.60 + $2.67 = $23.27(includes 13% HST)
$20.60 + $2.67 = $23.27(includes 13% HST)
Types of Members
Our members include municipalities, conservation authorities, parks, trail management groups, trail clubs, trail user groups, health units and other trail-related supporting organizations.
Benefits to Organization
- Access to Trail Insurance package
- OTC Web page representation
- Option on registration in Trillium Trail Network
- Access to Professional Development sessions, i.e. Trails Tourism Practices, Trails Tort Reform, Trail Design Build Workshops
- User conflict resolution
- Representation on OTC trails maps
- Regional Trail Management Committee development
- Knowledge exchange
- Office services and networking support
- Advocacy benefits - provincially and nationally
- Savings on conference/seminar registration
PRICING - Buy fax, credit card or mail (all include 13% HST)
Base | HST | Total | |
Less than 200 users | $103.00 | $13.39 | $116.39 |
Between 200 and 5000 users | $257.50 | $33.47 | $290.97 |
Greater than 5000 users | $772.50 | $100.42 | $872.92 |
These prices do not include PayPal fees.
You can support the OTC in a number of ways. One way is to add one of the badges below to your website or blog. Or become a member! Options below.
Simply cut and paste the text beneath a badge into your HTML:
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Ontario Trails - Join Today! Support Ontario's Trails
- HOME
- /
- LEND A HAND
- /
- Join the OTC
- /
- MORE
Join the OTC
The Ontario Trails Council is a charitable organization, established in 1988, that promotes the creation, development, preservation, management and use of recreational trails.
Over past years membership got: a working Ontario Trails Strategy, new Regional Trail Committees, $25 Million in federal funding for communities (NOT OTC!), 84 trail projects in Ontario equaling 16.4M, and work to enhance the Waterfront Trail, Toronto Trails, Lake Erie Coastal Trail, Trans Canada Trail and 2,000 other trails in Ontario. We do this with your support!
Benefits to Individual
- Savings on conference/seminar registration
- Monthly e-bulletins
- Access to OTC trails database
- Great gift price!
- Savings on trail literature/maps
$25.75 + $3.38 = $29.13 (includes 13% HST)
Benefits to Student
- 4 editions of the OTC newsletter Greenways
- Access to OTC trails information
- Conference and selected literature savings
* must provide student verification
$20.60 + $2.67 = $23.27(includes 13% HST)
$20.60 + $2.67 = $23.27(includes 13% HST)
Types of Members
Our members include municipalities, conservation authorities, parks, trail management groups, trail clubs, trail user groups, health units and other trail-related supporting organizations.
Benefits to Organization
- Access to Trail Insurance package
- OTC Web page representation
- Option on registration in Trillium Trail Network
- Access to Professional Development sessions, i.e. Trails Tourism Practices, Trails Tort Reform, Trail Design Build Workshops
- User conflict resolution
- Representation on OTC trails maps
- Regional Trail Management Committee development
- Knowledge exchange
- Office services and networking support
- Advocacy benefits - provincially and nationally
- Savings on conference/seminar registration
PRICING - Buy fax, credit card or mail (all include 13% HST)
Base | HST | Total | |
Less than 200 users | $103.00 | $13.39 | $116.39 |
Between 200 and 5000 users | $257.50 | $33.47 | $290.97 |
Greater than 5000 users | $772.50 | $100.42 | $872.92 |
These prices do not include PayPal fees.
You can support the OTC in a number of ways. One way is to add one of the badges below to your website or blog. Or become a member! Options below.
Simply cut and paste the text beneath a badge into your HTML:
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Friday, July 25, 2014
Monday, July 21, 2014
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Ontario Trails News - Summer 2014 Archive
Toronto pushing customizable cycle tourism options
A group of cyclists is lead through the busy streets of Kensington Market while on an organized bicycle tour in Toronto on Saturday, July 12, 2014. (Darren Calabrese / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Alexandra Bosanac, The Canadian Press
Published Monday, July 14, 2014 9:30AM EDT
TORONTO -- Inside a hotel in the grey, concrete-dominated downtown core, Stephanie Kampmann thought Toronto seemed dark, congested and uninviting.
The first-time visitor from Germany had resigned herself to the idea that Vancouver, the next leg of her cross-Canada tour, would make up for the disappointment. Seeing the city as a cyclist, she says, gave her a new perspective.
On a bright July morning, Kampmann, her husband Axel and their two teenaged children took a pass on the sightseeing bus and zipped around the city as many locals do -- by pedal power. Led by a guide from Toronto Bicycle Tours, Kampmann and her family covered significant territory in the span of a few hours, crossing well-known tourist destinations such as the CN Tower, the Rogers Centre and the Eaton Centre off their list.
But it was the sights otherwise inaccessible by tour bus -- the side streets and the little green patches tucked away between looming office buildings -- that made her trip special, she says.
Letter - MNR Closes Canoe Portage "The Public Has No Right To Use Ontario's Public Lands" |
Written by Simon Guillet Guilletville, ON. |
Monday, 14 July 2014 11:16 |
Dear Brenda,
According to the Ontario Liberal government, and the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), in their own words, “the public has no legal right to use Ontario’s public lands. It only has a privilege.” And it is a “privilege” that we are being denied more and more by this government.
Many believe that the government is badly mistaken and that Ontarians do have the legal right to access their own public lands under Section 3 of the Ontario Public Lands Act and under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is a point that must be challenged in court, if only we could afford it as private citizens.
For decades, the government through the MNR has severely restricted access to over 2,000 of our best lakes and vast areas of prime public lands, mostly for the benefit of the remote tourism industry and its “guests” willing to pay big bucks for the remoteness, which means that no locals will bother them.
Now, the MNR is taking their privatization of public lands one step further by blocking canoeists from using a very historic portage at Bala Falls. The MNR claims that it’s for reasons of “public safety” but Bala residents are certain that the real reason is to allow the construction of a huge hydro-electric project at Bala Falls, one that residents do not want nor need. The case is now before the Ontario Court of Appeals with the township of Bala maintaining that the Public Lands Act gives people the right to portage if a route existed before the Crown sold or disposed of its land. The government’s position is that aspect of the legislation doesn’t apply.
Canoeing and portaging is an intrinsic part of Canada and our history; it is how our country was opened up by explorers. Our rivers served as our highways for centuries by the aboriginals and early settlers and the fur trade. It is part of our identity; we have always had the right to portage, without which the right of navigation is meaningless. It is our land – and we want to be able to enjoy its beauty and splendour. It is our historical right, dating over four centuries.
However, we Ontarians deserve what we tolerate. Already, most of our biggest and best lakes are off limits to us unless one registers as a paying guest at high-priced tourist lodges. Many of our forest roads, built with public money, are closed off and posted “No Trespassing” so that we cannot enjoy our natural heritage. What’s next on the MNR’s agenda? If they succeed closing portages in Bala, there will no doubt be other closures of portages. Is this the beginning of the end of the only remaining free means of accessing and enjoying our remote wilderness?
Simon Guillet
Guilletville, ON.
|
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Ontario Trail News Summer 2014 - Archive
A new approach is needed to curb the loss of farmland
Guelph Mercury
By Owen Roberts
It's rare to hear much optimism about farmland preservation in Ontario.
Even with such high-profile measures at the Greenbelt in place, we're still losing farmland at a breakneck pace. Last year, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture estimated 100 acres of farmland disappears in this provinceevery day to development.
I believe it. Look around at almost any Ontario community, especially now that the growing season is in full swing and the line between farmland and development is clearer.
Recognition is growing that farmland is essential to the future of feeding a hungry world in the eyes of the general public, says the province's other major general farm group, the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario.
Yet sprawl is everywhere. Overall, society has yet to connect the dots when it comes to food production and farmland availability. If it had, we'd see more of a backlash against the kind of farmland disappearance that continues everywhere.
It's said only about five per cent of Ontario land is suitable for agriculture … and for the most part, that's the same land being paved over and used for housing, malls and other uses not related to food production. When it's used for development, it's unlikely it will ever be used for growing food again.
But all's not lost. The Christian farmers' federation thinks there's hope for farmland preservation — and maybe even what it calls "positive gains"— with the new government.
Here's why. In the Liberals' election campaign, a program called Farms Forever was proposed. Basically, it would lessen farmland loss through agricultural easements. The Ontario Farmland Trust explains that through the program, willing farmers would receive tax advantages or other incentives to protect their farms with easements that would prevent future non-agricultural developments on the land, such as housing subdivisions and aggregate pits.
OAKLEY – Liberal Budget: The Greenbelt
The Liberals are planning to expand the outer boundary of the Greenbelt — about 800,000 hectares of protected land that largely encompasses an area from Peterborough around the western end of Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls — a move some say will hurt farmers. This restricts the use of the land along with reducing its value. How will this affect you?
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