NUNAVUT
Hundreds of unregistered, uninsured snowmobiles are liabilities flying down hamlet streets and flying in the face of the territory's mandatory Motor Vehicles Act, according to Nunavut Insurance.
The only Nunavut communities that provide registration for snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles are Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk. - NNSL photo
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Presently only Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk provide registration for snowmobiles; all other communities do not.
"It's crazy that (hamlets) are not registering them. I don't really understand why," said Michelle van Doeselaar, manager of operations for Nunavut Insurance, which currently insures about 400 all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles in Nunavut. "There are a lot more that are not insured."
Without a local framework available to register ATVs and snowmobiles, van Doeselaar says owners are caught in a catch-22 scenario in which legally they must insure their motorized vehicle for use within hamlet limits but cannot do so without first registering it through a local bylaw office – a service not available in most hamlets. The gap in coverage is a huge area of liability considering a worse-case scenario if someone on an ATV accidentally kills someone.
"They would not have the liability coverage," said van Doeselaar, adding 98 per cent her clients only request basic liability insurance. "That's all they need legally."
"Up here it's so unique because you don't have snowmobiles and ATVs licenced," said Kevin Sloboda, the chief enforcement officer with City of Iqaluit bylaw. In southern jurisdictions, he said, the Off-Road Vehicles Act lumps ATVs and snowmobiles together so that the only place you're allowed to have them is out of city bounds. "Here, the government has altered the territorial act for all-terrain vehicles because people use them for their day-to-day duties in the city."
In the Nunavut ATV Act, an "all-terrain vehicle" means a motorized vehicle that runs on wheels, tracks, skis, air cushions and is designed for cross-country travel on land, water, snow, ice, marsh or swamp. The Act states these must be covered by public liability insurance if used on a public roadway. However, hamlets are not equipped to monitor or enforce ATVs and snowmobiles operating without proper liability insurance.
"We're investigating the possibility of licensing Ski-doos but it's a pretty difficult issue in the North," said Pangnirtung SAO Ron Mongeau. "It could take a little while to see if we really want to go there."
The Pangnirtung public safety committee is looking at the idea, but even with an average nominal ATV registration fee of $20-30, registering ATVs in the hamlet isn't as simple as just getting plates to people.
"It's an all-or-nothing proposition," said Mongeau. "You have to have community consensus to charge people. There's a cost for setting up this kind of new regime and then the extra hassles of chasing down everyone in town making sure everyone's got a plate.
"Before we go into that we want to look at what the costs will be and just how effective it will be," said Mongeau, adding that Pang will possibly poll representative communities like Pond Inlet, Iglulik, Cape Dorset and Arviat to see what they do. "We still have to look at what this community thinks about it and how the community's going to react to more licensing, more money, more enforcement."
Hamlets derive their power from Nunavut's Cities, Towns and Villages Act -- "the Bible of information passed on from the territory to the municipalities," said Sloboda -- which gives hamlets authority to make bylaws if they see a need for it.
The issue came to the forefront after the Facility Association, an entity established by the automobile insurance industry to ensure insurance is available to all owners, began stipulating that all ATV owners hold documented registration. Until recently, insurance companies would not follow up if they did not receive registration and still wouldn't cancel a policy. Now rules have changed and companies such as Nunavut Insurance will cancel policies and not insure new snowmobiles if they are unregistered.
"I think that what it comes down to in communities is they don't have the staff to handle it," said van Doeselaar. "This could be years in the making."
Nunavut News/North was unable to get in touch with the Department of Economic Development and Transportation by press deadline.
