Whitehorse working on new trail rules

Whitehorse city officials say they are working on new rulesfor how motorized off-road vehicles can use the city's trails, but they want the Yukon government to make those vehicles registered with licence plates.

Concerns about snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles on municipal trails came up on Wednesday night, as a committee of Yukon MLAs studying the idea of regulating off-road vehicles held its last public meeting in Whitehorse.

The committee, which has been touring Yukon communities, has found deep divisions in most places between people who want off-road vehicles regulated and those who do not.

In Whitehorse, the multi-use trail along Hamilton Boulevard has been particularly contentious. Some residents have complained of reckless snowmobilers roaring past pedestrians at speeds well over the limit of 30 kilometres an hour.

"I believe a mindset or attitude has developed in Whitehorse, due to a lax or completely absent enforcement routine by the city's bylaw department," Larry Leigh, a former Whitehorse bylaw chief, said during the Wednesday night meeting.

"I believe that mindset is carried outside of Whitehorse into too many fragile and irreplaceable environments by people from Whitehorse."

Licence platesneeded: official

But Rob Fendrick, the city's director of administrative services, said the city is about to start updating its bylaws for snowmobile and ATV use.

At the same time, Fendrick said enforcement can't go far until the Yukon government makes registration and licence plates mandatory for off-road vehicles.

"We can pass bylaws, but without the plating and registration it's very difficult to enforce unless the bylaw officer or the peace officer is directly on-site," Fendrick told CBC News on Thursday.

"The small percentage that I'm talking about are relatively skilled in avoiding that kind of detection."

If off-road vehicle users become required to get licence plates, citizens can report bylaw violations by jotting down the plate number or taking a photograph of it with their cellphones, he said.

Fendrick said a small minority of off-road vehicle drivers are to blame for the dozens of complaints they receive each year.

"Somebody is roaring around; they've got a stinger on their nice 600, 700, 800 [cubic centimetre] machine, makes a lot of noise. So we have noise complaints, we've got speed complaints," he said.

Wilderness vs. lifestyle

Close to 100 people attended the Wednesday night meeting, with the debate focused on preserving a way of life versus preserving the Yukon's wilderness.

Chris May of the Off-Road Riders Association said snowmobiles and ATVs can be used responsibly in the wilderness and can be driven off trails without damaging alpine areas.

But Paul Deuling, a longtime Whitehorse-area hunter, said off-road vehicles do leave their mark on the environment.

"One day I was sitting at 5,200 feet by a little lake, and what appears in front of me is a tracked vehicle chewing its way all the way up the mountain to 6,300 feet. People get out, look around, drive back off again," Deuling said.

"Those tracks don't just disappear; they're there for a long time."

Darryl Tait, who lost the use of his legs from a snowmobile accident last year, said snowmobiles and ATVs have given him a lot of freedom compared to his wheelchair.

"Having the option just to jump on a quad [or] snowmobile and go straight from my house to places I wouldn't be able to go to in my chair is a real huge part of my life now," Tait said.

"Even in town, down at the dirt bike track, we have such good memories. To have that taken away, I don't know, it really cuts me deep."

But another speaker, Liesel Briggs, said all Yukon trail users should be able to agree on a way to share the trails.

"We always think we need to legislate to solve things," she said. "We need to think about how to work this in a little bit more amicable way."

The committee of MLAs will now take what it has heard at the public meetings, along with about 2,500 completed surveys, and prepare a report that will be presented to the legislature in the spring.