Rocky Mountain Dirt Riders

All:

In December 2012, RMDRA provided a position paper to the Land Use Secretariat for consideration in the preparation of the Draft Plan - the next step in the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan. This submission is considered separately from the Public Input, Stakeholder Input, and letter writing campaign that RMDRA members also did a fantastic job of - we definitely have a highly visible and positive profile in the SSRP process!

This document contains three parts:
Part I About the Rocky Mountain Dirt Riders Association
Part II Feedback on the RAC Advice to Government of Alberta
Part III Ingredients for Success in ORM Recreation
The paper was built by a large team of members who provided input, debated positions and language, and tried to capture the key perspectives of our members and the larger community of Off Road Motorcyclists. We worked hard to provide a proactive, balanced position that would be well received by policy makers and difficult to attack by those opposed to motorized recreation. Thank You to all who contributed!!

This RMDRA Position Paper is not the final word on ORM Land Use, and if you think of things that could be added to improve a future conversation or submission, please send me an e-mail with your thoughts at rjh@rockymountaindirtriders.com.

Enjoy the read!
RJH

This paper is incredible. If you run into anyone that says anything about the SSRP, you should link them to this paper. I feel the government will be listening to us a lot more, due to the quality of this paper.

Great job to all who participated in it's creation!

Great job on the paper thank you

Please make sure your MLA sees this document. Attached is a list of MLAs for the Calgary area. Please download it and send it to your MLA. If your constituency isn't listed above you can find your MLA on this page.
http://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=mla_home

I for one sure hope a user pay system does not get implemented because of this.

Really think this is a great paper, huge thanks to everyone involved. I think it will really help us survive this latest attack. It makes me sad to think that these attacks will keep coming, and that our riding terrain will keep getting cut in half every 20 years until there is nothing left except for a few tracks on private land...

Excellent paper! I will pass it on!

steve-o wrote:I for one sure hope a user pay system does not get implemented because of this.

If you had went to any of the stakeholder roundtable meetings, you would understand that EVERY stakeholder wants to see a user pay system, including the OHV community (as long as the money goes back into the trails).

Spinalguy wrote:

steve-o wrote:I for one sure hope a user pay system does not get implemented because of this.

If you had went to any of the stakeholder roundtable meetings, you would understand that EVERY stakeholder wants to see a user pay system, including the OHV community (as long as the money goes back into the trails).

Well, I didn't, and I am part of the OHV community and I still really hope that a user pay system does not get implemented. So, not every stakeholder wants a user pay system. I pay taxes to the federal and provincial government which crown land falls under I'm sure. There is my fee.

If it ever happened the funds would very likely get misappropriated I'm sure. Logistically the cost of policing it properly would be a tall task to under take, likley sucking all the funds that would be generated by a user pay system to begin with.

Wow, great job on this

One would hope a submission of this caliber would get some attention

I have to say I share Steve-o's concern about the funds of a user pay system being misdirected elsewhere. That practice is all too common in government and when you look at the up-coming budget with an expected 4 billion deficit, would anyone be surprised if the money took a different direction?

Back to the letter;

This letter was, in my mind, a very well delivered message of the overall opinion of the OHV community. Recognizing that you can't please 100% of the people, 100% of the time. It seemed to capture the essentials of the club, the user intent and the desired outcome without adding or creating additional conflicts. Well done guys

Speaking only for myself, I look forward to seeing what direction the SSRP takes with the next draft. We have spoken up, now we need to see if they are in fact listening and taking notes.

Hence my caveat steve-o that funds are used to benefit us.
Heck, if they just enforced the laws with no warnings, we never would have got to the point where the 10% reckless community got out of control and the knee jerk reactions would not have happened.

I remain somewhat optimistic....but the course has already been set with the approval of the LARP(Lower Athabasca Region plan) last September. I just don't believe the SSRP will be noticably different in governance. I have to admit I have not not read the entire LARP document but it appears to support the view that motorized access to public lands needs to be further restricted. I am a bit ignorant, if I am wrong I will only be happy to admit it.

I think the RMDRA position paper was really well done and represents my interests, awesome job and thank-you.

That was a very well written paper. I found it informative and gave me a fuller understanding about these issues.

Joe, good idea. I wrote a nice email to my MLA and attached the paper, not sure how useful it is but might as well.