Drivers of all-terrain vehicles in P.E.I. will soon have to pay a registration fee, but the funds will help build and maintain a trail running from one end of the Island to the other.
An amendment to the Off-Highway Vehicle Act was among the bills that were rubber-stamped on the final day of the P.E.I. Legislature’s spring sitting on Tuesday.
It requires ATV owners to pay a $50 annual registration fee if they intend to use the vehicle off their own private property.
“If a farmer has an ATV, for example, that he uses just on his property, there’s not going to be a requirement for that to be registered, plated on an annual basis,” said Ernie Hudson, P.E.I.’s minister of transportation and infrastructure.
“It’s going to enable a flow of funds … to the ATV federation itself.”
Each year, the P.E.I. ATV Federation and local clubs will receive 80 per cent of the registration fees, or $70,000, whichever is higher.
The format is similar to how the P.E.I. Snowmobile Association operates, Hudson said. But instead of machines using the Confederation Trail, the province and the ATV federation will work together to build a trail across P.E.I.
The provincial budget passed on Tuesday included $100,000 to develop plans for such a trail.
