So far in the last couple of weeks, The Harper Government™ has announced about $940,000 worth of grants to snowmobile clubs all of which are in Quebec and almost all of which were to help those clubs by snowmobile trail grooming machines — expensive bits of equipment that can cost in excess of $100,000 per machine.
No snowmobile club in any other province has received any other snowmobile grants so far. And, based on the history of snowmobile-related grants made during the last Parliament, it’s unlikely any province other than Quebec is going to get some. That’s because, in the last Parliament, Quebec received $6.4 million in snowmo-grants; NB got $300,000; NL got $155,000 and the rest of the country got precisely nothing in the way of snowmo-grants.
Here, for the record, are the snowmobile-related handouts I tracked from my OttawaSpends database from the 40th Parliament:
| Date | MP Announcing | Description | Town | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17-Mar-09 | Lebel | Club Royaume de la motoneige Snowmobile club | Saint-Zénon | $178,588 |
| 14-Oct-09 | Lebel | To buy new snowmobile trail groomiing machine | Tadoussac | $87,424 |
| 22-Nov-09 | Bernier | To buy snowmobile trail grooming machine | Saint-Come-Liniere | $85,000 |
| 14-Jan-10 | Lebel | For snowmobile club to buy grooming machine | La Tuque | $135,437 |
| 9-Feb-10 | Lebel | Grants to snowmobile clubs | Val-d’Or | $721,174 |
| 12-Feb-10 | Lebel | New grooming machine for snowmobile club | L’Anse-Saint-Jean | $92,009 |
| 15-Feb-10 | Lebel | New snowmobile grooming machine | Clermont | $95,000 |
| 16-Feb-10 | Lebel | Grant to to snowmobile club to buy groomer | Alma | $112,151 |
| 17-Feb-10 | Lebel | Purchase of a snowmobile grooming machine | Alma | $92,550 |
| 20-Feb-10 | Gourde | Snowmobile trail grooming machine | Sainte-Agathe-de-Lotbiniere | $87,500 |
| 27-Feb-10 | Genereux | To help Bas-Saint-Laurent snowmobile clubs buy grooming machines | Rimouski | $609,204 |
| 5-Mar-10 | Blackburn | Snowmobile club to buy trail grooming machine | Saguenay | $223,500 |
| 7-Mar-10 | Paradis | Trail grooming machine for snowmobile club | Magog | $95,000 |
| 4-Dec-10 | Bernier | Snowmobile grooming machine | Frampton | $102,000 |
| 23-Jan-11 | Gourde | New snowmobile trail grooming machine | Saint-Edourd-de-Lotbiniere | $89,000 |
| 7-Feb-11 | Lebel | Snowmobile grooming machines | Gaspe | $633,951 |
| 17-Feb-11 | Cannon | Les Ours Blanc snowmobile club for grooming machines | Maniwaki | $256,675 |
| 1-Feb-11 | Lebel | Nord-Neige Forestville Snowmobile club | Forestville | $268,319 |
| 12-Feb-10 | Lebel | Snowmobile trail improvements | Gaspe | $1,071,185 |
| 15-Jan-10 | Paradis | Club des motoneigistes du Lac William Inc Snowmobile | Saint-Ferdinand | $95,000 |
| 12-Jan-09 | Lebel | Club Nord-Neige Forestville to repair snowmobile trails damaged by storms | Sept-Iles | $439,646 |
| 22-Dec-09 | Paradis | Club motoneige Beauce-Frontenac for snowmobile grooming machine | Thetford Mines | $90,000 |
| 22-May-09 | Blackburn | Club de motoneige Caribou-Conscrits Inc.snowmobile | Saint-Honore | $225,000 |
| 30-Jan-09 | Lebel | Club Passe-Partout Roberval Inc snowmobile | Roberval | $100,500 |
| 17-Feb-09 | Bernier | Snowmobile overpass | Saint-Martin | $110,550 |
| 15-Mar-11 | Paradis | Mouflons des Montagnes snowmobile club to buy snow-grooming machine | Lambton | $94,174 |
| 20-Mar-11 | Genereux | Snowmobile grooming machines | Saint-Fabien-de-Panet | $94,200 |
| 18-Mar-11 | Gourde | Snowmobile grooming machines | Sainte-Croix | $103,500 |
There were two other snowmobile-related grants in the last Parliament:
- Ottawa provided $300,000 to repair 350 bridges on snowmobile trails in New Brunswick.
- Ottawa provided $155,000 in assistance to the 2011 Cain’s Quest Snowmobile Endurance Race in Labrador.
Nice find!
your article is full of OLD information and is not current today! what a waste of space on the internet. You are over a year to late.. lol March 2011 was the last grant!
The government knows that providing local VOLUNTEER snowmobile clubs with grants is a positive economic generate. give those same dollars to provincial government and or municipalities and the majority of it is swallowed up by adminstration. Many of the bridge projects are managed by volunteers, many of the groomers are operated by volunteers.
The other thing you are not noting, is that a new industrial groomer is $170 000 plus, many of these grants are only contributing a % of the money while the VOLUNTEER club fund raises and contributes the remainder.
your article is journalistic crap!
Jeff said: “The other thing you are not noting, is that a new industrial groomer is $170 000 plus…”
Because every club needs the latest and greatest machine to groom their trails? There used to be an age where some welder in the club put it all together for a lot less and it worked too.
Can I have a grant to replace my tired 1994 Bravo LT? I need it to get the firewood in. It’s an emergency! Really!
The other side of the coin of these grants are an ever increasing pressure by the government about regulating snowmobilers to death.