Outrage growing over trespass signs
MOUNT SEYMOUR: No public consultation before CMHC put up 25 signs on property it jointly owns
The Gore-Tex gloves are off in the fight for Mount Seymour’s trails.
From dog-walkers to hikers and bikers, event planners and sports retail-shop owners, outrage is growing over the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. closing down the mountain’s famed forest paths.
At least 25 no-trespassing signs were put up late last week across the 644 acres that the CMHC jointly owns with the province on the lower slopes of the mountain in North Vancouver. For the trail-users who bike, hike or run in the area, it means most of the mountain is now shut down.
“It is a real mess up there right now,” Barry Rueger, president of the North Shore Professional Dogwalkers Alliance, said Thursday. “The big question now is, what is CMHC planning on doing with this land?”
Like others who are flabbergasted at the decision by CMHC to put up the signs without any public consultation, Rueger thinks the people making such decisions in Ottawa have no idea how devastating the move is to the local economy.
“A lot of people go up there into the CMHC lands with dogs. Maybe somebody can get a message to Justin Trudeau that there are great trails up there and they should not be closed to the public.”
Rueger said dog-walkers in the alliance all need insurance to operate as a licensed business, and they have been told their insurance will not cover them if they trespass onto CMHC land.
Enzo Federico is the founder of the Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run, an event that has been held annually in July since 1989. The gruelling race goes from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove, with about 200 diehards each summer signing up for the 48.6-kilometre run.
Federico said organizers will not likely be able to get insurance for the next race as the route runs through CMHC-owned sections of Mount Seymour. “We can’t put the race on without insurance,” he said. “We definitely need more information from CMHC on what brought this move on.
“This is about the worst thing they could have done,” he said of at least 30 trails being closed on Seymour. “The trail-users are up in arms.”
Metro Vancouver spokesman Don Bradley said they’re asking people to respect the signs — meaning that people may be forced to turn around and go back uphill if they encounter a sign as they head down the mountain.
“I think it is fair to say the erection of the signage came as a surprise,” Bradley added.
Despite interview requests, no one from the provincial government would talk about the signs. Other landowners on Mount Seymour include B.C. Parks, Metro Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver.
After the signs went up, the North Shore Mountain Bike Association put an advisory on its website telling members to obey the signs. They hope to meet CMHC in the upcoming weeks.
District of North Vancouver Coun. Mathew Bond said the signs caught the district off-guard and the concern is that the closure will impact the entire mountain and neighbouring Mount Fromme.
“This is about the worst thing they could have done. The trail-users are up in arms.” — Enzo Federico