WELLINGTON COUNTY – The County of Wellington is clarifying off-road vehicles (ORVs) are still not permitted on county roads despite some changes to provincial regulations.
At Tuesday’s roads committee meeting, county engineer Don Kudo brought forward an information report in regards to amendments to provincial rules around ORVs on municipal roads.
Previous legislation required municipalities to pass bylaws to allow ORVs to be used on municipal roads. The new regulations have reversed this for some municipalities and they now must pass bylaws to prohibit.
The report noted there is some confusion around this because some municipalities and no counties were listed under this new regulation.
Kudo said to the committee the purpose of this report is to clarify that the new regulations do not apply to municipalities not listed and ORVs remain prohibited on county roads.
There will be some discussion at the lower-tier governments whether or not to prohibit ORVs on town roads.
Puslinch, Guelph/Eramosa, Centre Wellington, Mapleton and Wellington North have been listed under the new regulations.
The Towns of Erin and Minto and the county continue to be governed by the previous legislation.
There were no decisions being made on this issue but Puslinch mayor James Seeley commented he failed to see why the county wouldn’t permit ORVs on county roads.
“I’ve been running the county roads with my ATV for years because you have to go down a municipal road to get to a friend’s trail on their property,” Seeley said, adding his ATV is plated and he has all applicable licenses and insurance.
“Is it a good use of OPP resources to be chasing ATVs that are just driving down a shoulder of the road to go to a friend’s house to go riding?”
He then said this issue may need to be revisited and he’d rather see the county go in the direction of regulating rather than prohibiting.
Erin mayor Allan Alls said he believes the OPP just want consistency in policing as regulations change from town to town.
“The biggest thing is the safety issue and there have been deaths,” Alls said, however admitting this applies to both on and off-road use.
OPP statistics provided in a presentation to the committee showed one fatal ORV collision and 20 injuries reported in Wellington County from 2016 to 2020.
County councillor Jeff Duncan said he’s worried allowing ORVs on county roads would change the nature of why people would ride on county roads.
“It’s not just going to be just going to your neighbour’s property, it’s going to be your basically allowing another lane of traffic and another type of vehicle to legally be on the road,” Duncan said.
The report was received for information.
