Frontenac County Talks About Trails and ATV's

Jeff Green | Feb 28, 2024

Trail expansion funding approved, with opposition.

Frontenac County Council began their February meeting talking about the K&P Trail, with presentations by both the Frontenac ATV Club and the Ontario Federation of ATV Clubs.

Jim Knapp, the President of the Frontenac club (formerly known as the Verona District ATV Club) briefly outlined the role that the club plays in promoting and managing ATV used on the K&P Trail from the trailhead from Verona northward. The club has close to 300 members, Knapp said, who pay a membership fee to the club, which includes membership in the umbrella group, the Ontario Federation of ATV Clubs (OFATV) . An OFATV pass comes with the membership, permitting Frontenac ATV members to use trails on the 8,000 kilometre OFATV trail system.

Those passes are not necessary for ATV's to ride the K&P trail, which does not require a permit.

“I would not be opposed to a permitting system for ATV's on the K&P Trail,” Knapp said. “It would create more revenue for us to use on the trail. Now we are able to provide labour to help with projects, but it would be beneficially if we could provide funding as well.”

Shari Black, representing the OFATV, made a presentation to Council after Knapp. She said the OFATV is affiliated with 23 local ATV clubs, and works with many partners to enhance the multi-use trail system in Eastern Ontario, the Timmins area, and Grey County and vicinity.

She said the OFATV funnels money from trail passes to local clubs for trail projects, provides liability insurance for the trails it manages, supports the most popular app based trail map in Ontario (QuadON), is working on a consistent signage across all trails in its system, and works on lobbying and advocacy efforts.

In addition to its relationship with local ATV clubs, it maintains relationships with municipalities, the ministry of transportation, the OPP, and others.

She said the federation is also developing a safety program for teenage riders, pointing out there is a provincially mandated course for youth snowmobilers, but not for youth riding ATV.

We have developed an online course, which is voluntary now but will be ready when the province decides to act” she said.

After her presentation, some of the divisions on trails among council began to surface.

Deputy Warden Ron Vandewal said that he sees the tourism and economic development impact of ATV's on trails as something that can only grow.

Black had said that about 500,000 Ontario ATV riders traveled over 50 km from their home on a day trip at least once last year, and the average amount of money the spent on the day was $250, and about half of those people took multiple trips last year.

“One of our key goals is one permit for all trails in Ontario, similar to what our partners at the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs has in place. Currently there are 7 or 8 permits across Ontario,” she said. She also said it would be helpful if Frontenac County instituted the OFATV pass for ATV's on the K&P Trail

Warden Smith said council may consider passing a resolution asking the MTO to act on a one-pass ATV system.

Frontenac County Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender said that instituting a pass for ATV use of the K&P is not a new idea, but has not happened because there are two trail organisations active in Frontenac County, the OFATV and the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance (EOTA). Attempts to bring those two organizations together on a reciprocal pass agreement have not been successful, however.

Councillor Fred Fowler, who sits on the EOTA board as a North Frontenac Township Representative, said, “I support a one pass system as well, and I have been trying to work with my other club on that issue”

Fowler added that he is expecting to see Cindy Cassidy, the Executive Director of EOTA, address a meeting of Central Frontenac Council.

Clerk Janette Amini said that an email was sent to Cassidy on Janaury 8th inviting her to come to a councilmeeting, but the county has not heard back.

“It has to come to our meeting,” Fowler said, “but it will soon and she will be here.”

In an interview a few days after the meeting, Fowler said that Cassidy will be addressing Frontenac County Council within the next two months, and will be meeting with Shari Black as well.

Apptempts to arrange for a shared pass between EOTA and OFATV were promoted by Frontenac County by engaging Wayne Robinson, a K&P Trail supporter from Sharbot Lake, to work with both organisations, but that effort has not yielded an agreement.

Councillor Judy Greenwood-Speer said that Frontenac County “needs to step back a bit, because if you look at the foundation documents around the trail when it was first being talked about, it was to be non-motorised, and we need to look at that, because our own data shows that people walk less when there is motorised vehicles on it.”

Shari Black said that she lives half the time in Almonte, and in Almonte the trail is multi-use and is popular among walkers, and cyclists as we as ATV riders.

“But as we go forward it is clear that it is the motorised users that are going to pay for the upkeep of th trails.”

A proposal to extend the motorised section of the K&P trail south from the trailhead in Verona to the trailhead in Harrowsmith was rejected by Frontenac County Council earlier this year.

Economic Develpment and Trails

The report from the Economic Develoment Advisory Committee (EDAC), which met on February 13, contained a number of components.

One of those was the suspension of the Destination Development Plan that council had approved in 2022 but did not have sufficient staffing to be implemented after Council turned down a request for a third member of the department. This item was passed without comment

Another item from the CDAC was discussed, however. The committee brought forward a proposal for a commitment of $60,000 from the Community Development reserve for use on the extension of the K&P Trail from Clarendon in Central Frontenac to the Mississippi Bridge in North Frontenac, if an application for a provincial Rural Economic Development grant for the project is successful.

Councillor Fowler wanted to discuss this item on its own, and said that “he does not support it”, not offering any further comment.

He did ask for a recorded vote on the item, however, which passed 6-2, with Fowler and Judy Greenwood-Speer recording the two not votes.

When contacted later to explain why he opposed the motion but did not offer any explanation and did not try to convince his fellow councillors to reject it, Fowler said he “did not want to comment on it”

As the K&P trail has been rolling out in North Frontenac, there have been two land expropriations as some residents have opted not to come to terms with the county on sections of trail running through their land.

The goal of Frontenac County, and this underpins the discussions with the ATV Association and others, is to connect the Frontenac portion of the K&P with the section in Lanark County. Once it gets over the bridge and through Snow Road, the former rail line heads north by northeast before crossing into Lanark County.