An Important Message for Ontario Snowmobilers

(Barrie, ON. September 19, 2024): On September 13 and 14, more than 350 grassroots volunteers – representing 179 community-based OFSC member snowmobile clubs from across Ontario – gathered in Muskoka to officially kick off the 2024/2025 season! The annual meeting and convention provide an opportunity for volunteers to reconnect with peers, collaborate, and discuss shared challenges and successes. Importantly, it is also an opportunity to celebrate their incredible contributions to a sport that can generate up to $6B annually in Ontario.

No Increase on 2025 Permit Fees
OFSC AGM is also when Member Clubs vote on Ontario Snowmobile Trail Permit fees for the upcoming season. Our members, alongside our program partners at the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO), are pleased to announce that there will be no increase in 2025 Ontario Snowmobile Trail Permit fees. Revenue from permit sales allows the OFSC to continue to make investments into the provincial snowmobile trail network through groomer acquisitions and refurbishment, major infrastructure replacement and maintenance, and trail preparation and grooming operations.

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“A volunteer is a person who willingly takes part in an endeavour
or undertakes a task with no expectation of compensation.”

 

(April 4, 2024 – Barrie, ON): Millions and millions of moments. This represents the accumulated time donated by tens of thousands of club volunteers to building 30,000 kilometres of recreational snowmobile trails metre by metre since founding the not-for-profit Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (OFSC) in 1967.

An OFSC Volunteer Contribution Survey indicated that OFSC volunteers contributed nearly 479,779 total volunteer hours to snowmobiling in Ontario in 2022/23. The monetary equivalent of these total volunteer hours in 2022/23 is an estimated $16.4 million. That equates to millions of moments and millions of dollars of donated volunteer time over the past 55 years.

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Snowmobilers Must Check Interactive Trail Guide Before Riding OFSC Trails

(January 11, 2024 – Barrie, ON): The Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (OFSC) launches Provincial Snowmobile Safety Week (January 13 – 21) by cautioning snowmobilers to always go online to consult the OFSC Interactive Snowmobile Trail Guide (ITG) before riding. Introduced in 2010, the proprietary ITG is well established as the sole authorized source for the status of 30,000 kilometres of OFSC Snowmobile Trails.

With the unusually late start to this winter, this Safety Week update is especially important because most OFSC Prescribed Snowmobile Trails have been unavailable for recreational riding as of this date. Making trails ready to ride requires prolonged sub-zero temperatures to set a deep frost into the ground and to freeze waterways and swamps solid, along with enough snow that groomers can pack a durable trail base. This essential and weather-dependent process is only beginning and may take a while to happen, so the OFSC emphasizes that riders must check trail status on the ITG to avoid trails that are not ready for snowmobiling at this time.

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