Good day everyone,
I have been following all of the treks on "The Great Trail" for the last couple of years. From Dianne at https://www.facebook.com/
I chatted with Mel while she was in Terrace Bay two years ago about many things, including the VTA trails that she had used on her trek. She had related to me the difficulty that she encountered while trying to access the trail at the eastern end of the Association. She would get a few meters down the trail and then the trail would disappear. Julie and Simon this year have reported the same issues. Sonya and Sean have had to make some tough decisions, you can read their latest blog post here https://
I bring these issues up at this time for a couple of reasons; the new version of the Guidebook and Steve and Kees ongoing audit of the trails within our Association. If the Guidebook update goes to the digital format then it will be easy(er?) to make changes to the trails in a timely fashion. This will allow us to keep the trails that we want, even if they haven't been maintained, and show them as temporarily closed. The update and audit also lets us take a larger view of our trails. Are there trails that are no longer viable? If we want to keep these trails how do we do it? I have one more year to work for CP but will have most of next summer off. I would be willing to bring a chainsaw and a pile of hand tools and give 4 or 5 days to the VTA and help clear trails anywhere it would be needed. If volunteers are needed, many hands make the work light. And the best way to get new people on board seems to be having a good trail to begin with. They quickly see the value and may become trail wardens in the future.
Even though we enjoy a dedicated group on the Casque Isles who walk and maintain the trail we are always working on bringing in the next group of trail lovers who can take care of it in the future.
We have leveraged our relationship with Trans Canada Trail to our advantage as well. I understand some of the issues that you may have with TCT, such as the recent rebranding and lack of input that the actual trails had in it. It seems to me that in the past the main objective of TCT was to get their brand onto the trails, but not put dollars on the ground in building and maintaining trails. We know that has changed as far as building trails, as seen at the south end of Schreiber where the A6 upgrade is ongoing. To my understanding, two years ago they got about $25 million dollars from the Fed's and have had that matched last year. There is a lot of money in the pot, with the focus on building new trails. They offer anywhere from 35% to 50% funding, depending on the number of projects that have applied. The vagaries of getting funding mean that you must be a non profit or a municipality to apply. The VTA is a non profit but we do not have the people power to do the administration required for the grants, so the Casque Isles worked with the Town of Schreiber to write the TCT, Trillium and FedNor grants for the A6 upgrade. We were successful with TCT and Trillium, with Schreiber coming in for $6500 and our Club at $2500. The analogy that I use to gather all of the funders together is like trying to get multiple cats into a balloon 😁. It took some phone calls from me and the Town, but we prevailed. The application process for CIP funding from TCT is now open and if any Club that is part of the TCT wanted to apply then I would be happy to talk to them about our experiences. While it took a couple of years to make it happen, I urge all Clubs to try to get a piece of that TCT pie.
This afternoon I will be taking part in a focus group Zoom call for TCT. I intend to bring up a few things on the call.
1. Because our Clubs are volunteer driven, with the same issues as volunteer agencies are having all over, the VTA is having difficulty maintaining trails that are on the TCT map. Besides building trails, we need help to maintain them. About 3-4 years ago Parks Canada funded a contractor for $20 or $25 thousand on the Casque Isles to take a chain saw and loppers across the trail. They worked many hours that season and cut out the main corridor through the bush. That puts the base price at about $500 per km in 2016 numbers, so we know that amount will increase. Smaller organizations like the VTA could use more dollars like this.
2. The TCT needs to ask for more input at the grass roots level before making decisions, like rebranding. They have to repair these relationships, especially seeing that we are the one's keeping the trails open.
Lastly, I think that we have to use every bit of leverage that we can politically to make changes that benefit Associations like ours in Ontario and at the National level. I understand the issue on why we let our Ontario Trails Council membership lapse and I hope that we can use our relationship with Hike Ontario to our benefit. It does cost to have a voice sometimes. The Casque Isles continues to pay $300 annually to be a member of Superior Country because we can see the benefits right away of being part of our local tourism association. The returns on this relationship have led to a promotional video and upcoming marketing campaign worth $6500, a comprehensive new web page on their portal and having the Casque Isles and VTA be part of the 6 page center spread in the Lake Superior Circle Tour magazine with about 15,000 plus printed and a total price tag of over $16,000 for the project.
I hope to see you all at the September 13th meeting. We have a lot to discuss and many important plans to make moving forward.
Regards,
Matt Borutski
