A golf cart trial program is coming to Erieau.
CK Council voted unanimously in favour of the trial at Monday’s council meeting, which will allow golf carts on certain roads within Erieau under specific rules.
“Over the next several years, there will be a pilot project in Erieau allowing golf carts on roads. You can’t do that anywhere else in the municipality,” said Mayor Darrin Canniff. “It’s against the law to have golf carts [on the road], but the province is allowing Erieau to do a pilot project… It’s exciting for Erieau to experience that and to see how that works.”
Under the pilot program, golf carts can be driven on roads with a speed limit of 50 km/h or under by drivers holding a G-class licence. The minimum age of passengers cannot be below 8 years old, and the number of occupants cannot exceed six people or the number of seats.
Ward 2 Councillor Ryan Doyle added an amendment to the motion to lower the annual price of registering a golf cart.
“Other municipalities who are doing this have lower costs,” said Doyle.
However, CK Chief Financial Officer Gord Quinton explained that the $100 cost for registering was determined to allow for cost recovery with minimal or no involvement from taxpayers.
Doyle amended his request to allow for adjustment in future years.
“$75 for the first year until we figure out the uptake in this program, and then we can adjust for cost recovery,” said Doyle.
Changing the registration fee was passed 9 to 7. Councillors B. McGregor, Ceccacci, Crew, Finn, McDonald, Thompson and Mayor Canniff voted against.
The municipality hopes to implement the program in the next few weeks so it can run until the end of November.
Council also voted in favour of asking the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to consider including Mitchell’s Bay as a possible location for the golf cart program in the future.
