The Ontario Federation of ATV Clubs says in a statement that the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance has ended talks for a reciprocation agreement.
“On May 25th, 2020, Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance communicated to the OFATV that the EOTA was pulling out of and ceasing all negotiations with the OFATV for a (memorandum of understanding) for Hastings County trails and reciprocation agreement,” OFATV says in a statement.
The agreement would have been OFATV passes allow riders to go through EOTA trails, and vice versa. The two sides have been working on the deal since 2018.
One of the conditions of a reciprocation being agreed to was that the OFATV had to end its loyalty program. The group’s board of directors voted on June 2nd, 2019 to end the program if a reciprocation agreement could be reached with the EOTA.
“This came as a surprise to OFATV as we have been waiting since February 2020 for a meeting requested by EOTA to finalize an MOU written by ROTA regarding Hastings County trails,” the club adds in their statement. “The meeting was booked for March 19th, but rescheduled on March 18th. Setting a new meeting date has been delayed multiple times due to COVID-19.”
“We’re working on giving our riders the trails and the riding they want without using EOTA trails,” OFATV’s General Manager Denise Erickson says. “We know what riders want.” Erickson says they want to have a permit that can be used on “the most amount of trails.”
“We’re always hopeful,” Erickson says. She adds they hope to re-open the negotiation process in the future.
The MyBancroftNow.com newsroom reached out to EOTA for comment but did not hear back from them by the time this article was published.
