There aren't any flakes on the city streets, but the issue of snowmobiles in Whitehorse is up for debate.

Administration provided city council with a Snowmobile Report and recommendations for a new snowmobile bylaw in July. Now council is set to decide which of those recommendations they want bylaw services to pursue in reshaping the city's nearly 40-year-old snowmobile legislation.

A new bylaw is necessary to mitigate confusion caused by current legislation, bylaw services manager Dave Pruden told council at the standing committee meeting last night.

Currently, four city bylaws, the territorial Motor Vehicles Act and the city's Trail Plan all speak to snowmobiling.

"To say the least, this can be confusing for the public,” Pruden told council.

Having one piece of legislation will help ensure users are aware of all snowmobiling rules and regulations, Pruden said.

Administration presented council with 15 recommendations, including everything from prohibiting snowmobiles on city streets and, in environmentally sensitive areas, to requiring snowmobile users to take a safety course.

The new bylaw should also clarify that users must have a driver's licence and wear a helmet, and owners must insure and register their snowmobiles, all of which are required by the Motor Vehicles Act, the recommendations state.

Pruden recognizes many of the recommendations are contentious.

"Emphasis must be made that bringing forward a new snowmobile bylaw will be unpopular in many circles,” he said. "It will not go far enough with others.”

Keith Lay is one resident who wants to see more from a new bylaw.

Lay spoke at last night's council meeting, offering several additional recommendations, including restrictions on passengers, prohibiting snowmobiles towing people and requiring snow machines to have larger licence plates on both ends of the vehicle so they can be identified more easily.

Bylaw services should also have more staff in order to enforce the rules, Lay said. "People will continue to flaunt the law if they know their chances of being caught are extremely limited,” he said.

Publicizing the number of tickets handed out and impounding vehicles would show people there are consequences for breaking the rules, Lay suggested.

Enforcing the rules is secondary to having clear legislation and a good education program, Pruden said.

"Enforcement is important…. However, the key to dealing with issues is clear legislation,” he said. "When we have to send people to six different places to find out what they need to do with a snow machine, that can be pretty confusing.”

Mark Daniels, president of the Klondike Snowmobile Association, doesn't believe administration's recommendations reflect the Whitehorse community.

"If you look at the recommendations, it looks like there's a problem, bylaw has the answer; there's another problem, bylaw has another answer,” he told council.

"There's nothing around lifestyle, no comments around economic development.”

Some of the organizations administration received information from for the report are Ontario and Quebec-centric, and the recommendations to council don't recognize the differences among the jurisdictions, Daniels said.

Daniels wants council to reconsider the recommendations, which he sees as simply reacting to problems that have arisen.

"Basically, I want the city — council, if you will — to take a holistic view of this,” he said.

Last night it appeared as though city councillors were still carefully mulling over which of the recommendations they'd like to see come to fruition in a new bylaw.

Coun. Dave Stockdale said he was generally pleased with the recommendations, but suggested the age requirement could be lowered and the requirement for a driver's licence could be dropped in favour of having operators complete a snowmobile safety course.

"There are some 26-year-olds that don't drive as well as 16-year-olds,” he said. "I wouldn't look amiss at someone who could competently show they could ride one of these things but they're not 16.”

The city could put in such a regulation in an area that isn't considered a highway, Pruden said, but according to territorial legislation, operators must have a driver's licence to operate a snowmobile on any highway, including trails.

"We're bound by the Motor Vehicles Act,” he said.

There will be pushback from the public on these recommendations, Coun. Betty Irwin said. She believes prohibiting snowmobiles on roadways will be of particular concern to snowmobiler users.

The public will have opportunities to comment, Coun. Doug Graham noted.

The recommendations will be voted on by council at their meeting next Monday. Afterwards, bylaw services will draft a new bylaw, which will then go through the public process.

"Everybody has a couple more shots at it,” he said. "This isn't the end all.”

Graham suggested council vote on each recommendation individually next week.

"It's really important that each of these recommendations be considered very carefully,” he said.

Mayor Bev Buckway suggested the councillors go back and read all the input they've received on the recommendations and think about whether or not they want to make any changes in wording.

"We've certainly got more work to do on this and I'm not convinced that an hour-long discussion tonight is going to get us there,” she said.