THUNDER BAY – The future of the motorcycle training course in this city remains in question.
Confederation College announced last week they would be discontinuing its motorcycle training program, which had been offered for the past two decades.
Chief instructor Greg Stein intends to take over and continue the program, which includes both an initial gearing up training course as well as an M2 exit course.
“Motorcycle safety should be paramount for anybody who wants to ride a motorcycle,” he said on Monday. “I really want to keep it going and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The college is the only facility in Northwestern Ontario that currently offers the program. The next closest course is run in Sault Ste. Marie.
While taking a course is not required to obtain a provincial motorcycle license, Stein said many people are seeking the instruction for insurance purposes.
“The insurance companies they have sought out make it a requirement, otherwise they won’t give insurance. In that sense it becomes mandatory,” he said.
John Hatton, the college’s director of training, said liability and risk management were two among a number of factors that led the school to decide to stop offering the program.
He added the college intends to partner with Stein and his new group in continuing the course.
“As a college we felt it wasn’t in our best interests to offer the program for a number of reasons,” Hatton said.
“We felt the program was best to be offered by someone who is an expert in that field and the group that is putting it together are motorcycle riders.”
Stein, along with some of the other former instructors, is looking to partner with the college and use their parking lots and existing fleet of motorcycles to continue the program.
Without that support it’s likely the program, which is run through the Canada Safety Council, would not be able to continue.
“We really require that. There are very few places in the city that have a parking lot big enough to run the program and the college has the classroom facilities.”
He said participation in the program, which runs multiple times throughout the spring and summer, has been steady.
“There are a lot more female riders and a lot more people who have motorcycling on their bucket lists,” he said. “The program has sustained itself throughout the years and we get a lot of interest not only in Thunder Bay and the immediate area but also the region.”
