IMBA Canada BC Rep Blog

March 12th was the last meeting of the Trails Strategy Committee in Richmond, BC. We added the last  touches to the final draft which will then be submitted to government.

All of the input from the public meetings, online submissions, faxes and e-mails were compiled in over 300 pages of which were rendered down to the key points. These points were included in the final draft so if your feedback was similar to many others, your thoughts were included. 

With a provincial election in May, there will likely not be any decisions on the draft until after a new political mandate is determined. I’ll keep you informed once we get the word of some forward motion.

We now have some dates for the public sessions to hear about the Trails Strategy for BC. There will be ten regional meetings throughout BC where you will have the opportunity to see the final draft of the Trails Strategy Committee. Along with that you’ll have the opportunity to meet stakeholders and government officials who are behind the plan.

I’m hoping you’ll attend to provide feedback for government to develop a comprehensive strategy that reflects real mountain bicycling issues and concerns. Get your voice heard.

For the dates and places pdf go here.

To read the draft strategy go here.

To download the feedback form (MS Word) go here.

Here is a brief list of the public dates and locations:

Nanaimo - 6:30 pm to 9 pm, 18th November 2008
Vancouver Island Conference Centre, River Rooms A and B,
101 Gordon Street, Nanaimo

Penticton - 6:30 pm to 9 pm, 26th November 2008
Penticton Lakeside Resort, Lakeside Ball Room
21 Lakeshore Drive West, Penticton

Castlegar - 6:30 pm to 9 pm, 28th November 2008
Sandman Hotel, Castlegar
1944 Columbia Ave, Castlegar

Prince George - 6:30 pm to 9 pm, 2nd December 2008
University of Northern British Columbia, Bentley Centre
3333 University Way, Prince George

Smithers - 6:30 pm to 9 pm, 4th December 2008
Hudson Bay Lodge
3251 East Highway 16, Smithers

Langley - 6:30 pm to 9 pm, 13th January 2009
Holiday Inn Express, Langley
8750 204th Street, Langley

Cranbrook - 6:30 pm to 9 pm, 15th January 2009
Prestige Rocky Mountain Resort
209 Van Horne Street South, Cranbrook

Kamloops - 6:30 pm to 9 pm, 20th January 2009
Thompson Rivers University
900 McGill Road, Kamloops

Williams Lake - 6:30 pm to 9 pm, 22nd January 2009
Blue Spoon Cafe
1527 S. Cariboo Highway, Williams Lake

Fort St. John - 6:30 pm to 9 pm, 27th January 2009
Quality Inn Northern Grand Hotel
9830 100th Avenue, Fort St. John

I know some of you have seen this document since its inception of October 2006 but many of you haven’t. Trying to find it otherwise on the hinternet will prove frustrating so here it is and I have posted on my Links page.

June 02/08 was the fourth meeting of the Trails Strategy Committee in Richmond, BC. We spent the day going through the draft of the recommendations of the TSC to government. Some slight and a few major changes were noted as we expect to see the final sometime in the summer. The next steps will be government and public review this fall. There will likely be regional meetings for the public to attend so as soon as I have some dates I’ll post them.

A very productive day and a half was spent in Richmond February 29 and March 01 discussing the Trails Strategy for BC. We managed to get through nearly 50 pages of problems and causes, desired outcomes and suggested strategies on a vast range of topics. Once the summary is ready I’ll post the link so you can all see what we accomplished.

For me the biggest issue facing access is insurance and liability. The climate out there in the insurance industry is not amenable to mountain bicycling. We seem to be the only group under scrutiny at the moment when you compare how other recreational users easily get insurance at ridiculously low rates. The group discussed this topic at length and honestly we could have spent half a day at it. It looks like a higher power will have to get involved to ease the pressure on this one, what I mean is, legislative change.

The next step will be a meeting to review the draft and then the public consultations will begin. Of course I’ll post updates here but expect a traveling road show sometime late summer/fall in regions throughout the province.

January was a day spent in Richmond moving through the process as interested stakeholders, First Nations and government discussed the Trails Strategy for the province.

Working from the Recreation Trails Strategy Background Report we expanded on key issues regarding trails, chapter 8. The discussion was thoughtful and provoking although everyone was respectful of the interests of each representative. This is a good group of people and I strongly feel a positive result will be achieved.

Check out a summary of the first Trails Strategy Committee meeting in Vancouver.

As the IMBA Canada Rep for BC, I have been asked to represent the mountain bicycling community on the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts Trails Strategy Committee. Our first meeting in Vancouver November 13th had 100% attendance from Non-Government Organization stakeholders, First Nations and government.

Non-government organizations (NGO’s) included, BC Snowmobile Federation, BC Cycling Coalition, IMBA Canada, Quad Riders Association of BC (ATV/BC), Thompson River University, BC Off-Road Motorcycle Association, Federation of Mountain Clubs of BC, Outdoor Recreation Council of BC, Hourse Council of BC and Back Country Horsemen of BC.

Government representatives were Environment (BC Parks), Transportation, Union of BC Municipalities, MTSA, First Nations and Tourism BC.

A full day of discussion ensued with an agenda on how to develop a trails strategy for the provinces many trail networks. As you can imagine this is a major step forward for government and although there will be many obstacles to overcome, the end result will be beneficial to all those who enjoy recreating outdoors.

To view PDF’s of all the MTSA Recreation Sites and Trails initiatives go here. To read the Recreation Trails Strategy for BC go here.