Nova Scotia gets lift ban held off!! a victory....

[Caper]

http://nsmvi.dyndns.org/mvi.htm

Today Nova Scotian wheelers were able to convince the gov't to hold off on an outright ban on modified ride height in the province. a victory, but the battle is still ahead.

In Nova Scotia, vehicles require an inspection every year for rust and brakes, etc. The process had recently come under fire after changes were made that gave unscrupulous shops free reign to gouge the hell out the the motoring public. Your sticker could be pulled in the shop and you are walking home unless you agree to repairs. After mounting public outrage, the process was modified and the Inspection Station Manual was re-issued.

We began to learn from our mechanic buddies taking the update training, section 7-6B of the new manual states "no modified ride heights" Any lifted or lowered vehicle would fail inspection, and the VIN flagged.

This was slipped into the manual with zero public input, or any backing evidence to say modified ride heights are dangerous. Let me clairify this included lowered cars or bikes. NO MODIFIED RIDE HEIGHTS.

The only way to get an inspection sticker on a modified ride height would be if it was OEM or to leave the province and go to New Brunswick, to see ONE private mechanical engineer who could write you a certificate allowing your vehicle to be inspected, with a re-constructed title. Thus devaluing your vehicle, and you are at the whim of insurance gougers, as they do not have to provide insurance on a re-constucted vehicle, or they can charge whatever they want. The whole process stinks of corruption.

The private engineer is on record as saying he will NOT sign-off on any Jeep, and only accepted signing off on full size trucks after National 4WD in NB proved him wrong after getting testing done thru another source.

The Nova Scotia Jeep Club started trying to get the word spread, and contacted our MLA's, the Minister in charge, compliance officers and law enforcement. We used our Club BB to start to get organized.

We got back some positive support from oppostion politicians, but the Minister in charge had no intention of changing anything, or explaining how the changes unilaterally appeared. He did not see the impossibility of the process we had to go thru, and tried to say "its for safety" and "it was only a clairifiaction of existing rules" which was a lie.

We were pretty much done at that point.....we didn't have time (this is all within 2 weeks!) to raise a huge stink, the import tuners didn't really think it would effect them, and the bikers we haven't figured out yet how to contact them en masse.

We really tried to hammer on the Minister with letters to change the law. We got on the news, we wrote letters to the editors of the papers, we talked to who would listen. The whole issue of MVI's in NS was a sore point with this gov't, as this new revision was supposed to be the fix for the last monumental screwup. The MVI issue was in newspapers continuosly for months.

THEN......on monday, the minority gov't was defeated on a fiscal policy bill!!! A provincial election has been called.

We got news today that there will be a 3 month reprieve of the June 1 banning of modified ride height vehicles.....and later this eve, after a ten-minute spot on the 6:00 news from our Club prez outlining the unjust changes, we found out it has now been pushed back a year, and public consultation from stakeholders is supposed to take place.

The election here will be very tight, so we have an great opportunity to get promises made that this new law will not be implemented.

We have the whole summer wheelin/car show/bike rally season to get a head of steam on to oppose these changes. Man, the election saved our asses, for now.

Sooo.....just wanted to fill you all in on the happenings around here. We are so far removed from the core of the Pirate4x4 scene, but i want to thank all you guys for posting info on how to combat this oppression. I am an avid reader and follow all the JV and Tellico (rip) stuff, sent in my letters saying I'm a tourist from out of country, etc. i learned a lot here to bring to my BB to help fight our local fight.

THANK YOU




A little blurb on our land use laws, they are pretty good, you are invited to come wheel with us -

Provincial Crown land - approx 15% landmass- you can wheel anywhere not posted with signs. There aren't many area's you can't go, just some nature and game reserves, and beaches.

Private Land - 75% landmass - open to wheel on any established trail not marked "no tresspassing". No signed waivers or any of that. It is still better to have permission of course, and verbal is good enough legally. People who let others use their land balked at signing anything, so it was dropped. pretty good.

Federal/Parks - 10% - no wheeling, but a managed trail system for sleds and quads in some of them.

Check out our BB, I'm Creepy on there. link to MVI fight - http://nsjc.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=mvi

Thanks again for the insight and figuring out how to get rolling.

Jan MacLean
BB Admin NSJeepClub
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Canada

[Paul Gagnon]

That is great news but the fight isn't over yet. Let us know if there's anything we can do to help.

[Jeepy1981cj]

Yeah, we're all breathing easier today. Now we have time to get organized. This whole thing came out of the blue, there's nothing like finding out one day you have less than 2 months to fight for your rights!

[rodeored]

wow this is crazy - so even a pickup with an add a leaf would fail? what about vans for adapted transportation or fire rescure? brutal

the volkswagen forums for the maritimes are pretty busy, might try talking it up there, they like to drop their vdubs...

[Jeepy1981cj]

We have been passing out leaflets and trying to contact car clubs but many of them are blowing it off, thinking it is only a 4x4 thing and will not affect them.

All we can do is warn them. Apathy is a way of life around here.

[bretty]

we had our local gov run insurance company try the same crap. people went wild. we fought and fought and it was recinded. they are still workin on a policy but are using our input.

[Mudplugga]

My brother lives in Coldbrook, I'm seriously thinking about spending half of my retirement there - the summer! And in the winter head south to Utah or New Mexico.

So keep up the good work.