Sometimes, regulation is worth the loss of freedom or the cost.
Few begrudge spending tax dollars or the loss of freedom to have the Auditor General review the province’s books. When government attempts to solve a problem that appears to be overblown, however, regulation becomes expensive and unnecessary.
For decades, one of the perks of living outside British Columbia’s urban areas has been easy, free access to some of the most beautiful and diverse wilderness on Earth. Rural British Columbians often use all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and other off-road vehicles (ORVs) to enjoy the 94 per cent of B.C. that is Crown land – collectively owned by taxpayers.
However, the provincial government is preparing to tinker with the Motor Vehicle Act to bring in new regulations – and new fees – that will make owning an ORV a lot more expensive.
The cost to individual ORV owners, and to provincial taxpayers as a whole, could be substantial, although the government’s website promoting this “ORV management framework” is suspiciously light on tax and fee details.
How much will the ORV registration fee be? What guarantees are there the fee will remain one-time and at a reasonable level? What will that money be used for? Will expensive ICBC insurance become mandatory for every ORV?
Policing these new rules won’t come cheap. Whenever a new regulation is passed, there needs to be enforcement, meaning taxpayers spending money.
Will there be spot checks? ORV enforcement traps? How much will those cost, and how can a “one-time registration fee” cover ongoing, annual wages, benefits and infrastructure for more conservation officers?
Or will it be downloaded onto local police forces, to add to their already significant workload? And will the police then ask property taxpayers to pay for more officers?
Will ICBC have to build a special database to monitor all of the ORV registrations? Will this cost be passed on fully to the ORV owners, or seep into other insurance rates?
Those who damage environmentally sensitive areas by driving their ORVs like idiots are already being targeted and can be fined up to $100,000. Tellingly, most of the patrols for this happen in southern B.C. – near Chilliwack, Mission, Hope, Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton and the Sunshine Coast.
In other words, this is mainly a southern B.C. problem, likely caused by a small handful of dummies who are not taking care of the wilderness they enter. Yet, it will be rural British Columbians living in the northern three-quarters of the province who will bear the brunt of this expensive regulation and unnecessary tax grab.
The government has taken several positive steps forward in reducing regulations and other red tape in the past 12 years. This flies in the face of that philosophy and ORV owners and taxpayers should write their local MLA and ask them to rethink this plan.
Jordan Bateman is the B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.