Feds pump brakes on St. John's mountain bike trail expansion
CBC
The elaborate mountain bike trail system that runs through the White Hills in the east end of St. John's might go unnoticed by many.
But the fact volunteers were trying to add to the growing network wasn't missed by the federal government, which sat down with the Avalon Mountain Bike Association earlier this year and asked them to stop.
"Basically it was a cease and desist on all new construction," said AMBA's president, Lachlan Roe-Bose.
"We said we'd keep them in the loop on anything that we wanted to do maintenance-wise."
With new trail-building plans now on hold, the not-for-profit group is focusing its attention on maintenance of existing trails.
Mountain bikers began building the trails in the White Hills in the summer of 1997.
Chris Jerrett, the owner of Freeride Mountain Sports in St. John's, led the volunteers back then and is still on site today overseeing the work on the more than 17 kilometres of developed trails.
"Now we have this spectacular network of trails and a mission of conservation that everybody wants to get behind," he said while taking a break during a weekly build.
The bikers who use the trails also maintain them — hiking in to get to the trails with tools in hand — once a week when the weather allows.
It's laborious work as the builders lug large rocks around and move tons of soil and dirt to make the trail.
"We got a massive increase in usage during the pandemic, and that has stuck," Boe-Rose said. "What's happened is [the trails] are degrading faster than we can really keep up with."
The land sits between the back of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans building and the RCMP's headquarters. It belongs to the federal government and is overseen by Public Services and Procurement Canada.
Earlier this year, AMBA met with Helena Jaczek, minister of the department at the time, before a federal cabinet shuffle.
Boe-Rose said the group has gotten lots of support from provincial and federal politicians, but the two sides still need an agreement.
Newfoundland and Labrador needs to create several hundred new long-term care beds over the next decade, warns the head of the province’s health authority.
A lawyer for the Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario (IPCO) said he’s still meeting with Public Safety Canada to iron out procedural requirements as he seeks a hearing before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT).
New data appears to confirm a widespread perception among Halifax drivers: traffic congestion is not improving and remains among the worst in Canada.
Nearly a third of the materials sent to New Brunswick landfills could be going to the compost pile instead.
A fire burning in an abandoned building on De Lorimier Avenue in Montreal has forced the closure of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge ahead of Wednesday morning's rush hour.
A man who was convicted and then acquitted in connection to the 1984 killing of Winnipeg teenager Candace Derksen was arrested in Vancouver this month on sexual assault and unlawful confinement charges.
Like the cat in the old folk song, Veronica Hermiston keeps coming back.
Some farmers in Prince Edward Island say they don’t want to take any chances when it comes to the possibility of another drought this year.
On the last day of Risha Golby’s life, she was forced out of the room at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver that had been her home for six weeks.
A Windsor man says he is being asked by the city to undo the changes he made to his backyard but he worries it will financially ruin him — and the deadline is looming.
The federal government's national gun buyback program is facing obstacles in Alberta — namely that the province is refusing to enforce or participate in it.
As several major projects are being proposed across northwestern Ontario, the City of Dryden is looking to embrace new development.
A heavy snowfall warning is in place for Toronto with 10 centimetres of snow expected to affect the morning commute on Wednesday, according to Environment Canada.