Whitehorse residents who have a driver's licence should be able to write their snowmobile operating test by June 1, says the city bylaw manager.

Dave Pruden said this morning with the updated snowmobile bylaw receiving final approval by city council Monday night, his department will begin putting together the material for the on-line course and exam to obtain the required safety card.

In speaking with the company which provides the Internet access – the same company which provides the federal motor boat licence – the cost should be somewhere between $30 and $50, he said.

Pruden suspects anything over an hour to run the course and complete the exam will likely be too long.

"I can't imagine we want to have this thing go any longer than an hour,” he said.

Pruden said the test will be restricted to those already licensed to drive a car or truck, since it's illegal to operate a snowmobile in the city without a licence.

Under the territorial Motor Vehicles Act, it's illegal to operate a snowmobile on public land anywhere in the Yukon without a driver's licence, registration and insurance.

The snowmobile bylaw, last updated in the early 1990s, was first passed in 1972 and is subject to the terms of the Motor Vehicles Act.

The bylaw covers everything from requiring operators to slow down when approaching pedestrians to establishing a maximum 50 kilometre per hour speed limit in the city, unless otherwise posted.

The bylaw contains a list of prohibited areas, like the downtown, parks, school playgrounds, the Millennium Trail, public ski trails and boulevards between the streets and property lines.

It allows snowmobilers to drive city streets but only to access the nearest trail head.

The bylaw also lists seven prohibited roadways, and sets out the amount of fines for each of the 39 offences, from $150 for driving without a safety card to $500 for operating without insurance.

Bylaw officers also have the power to seize snowmobiles under certain conditions.

The manager of bylaw said he expects the test to obtain a safety card will largely be focused on the contents of the bylaw and the principles of minimizing the environmental impact of snowmobile use.

There is also the possibility the safety course and test will be provided by the two or three businesses in town which already provide snowmobile safety courses, Pruden said.

Since the fall of 2010, when city council appointed the snowmobile task force to initiate the bylaw review, there's been much debate.

Even last night, at the 11th hour, Porter Creek resident Keith Lay – a long-standing advocate of non-motorized trail use and an opponent of loud, disruptive snowmobiles – took one more kick at the can.

He told council as there is virtually no enforcement of the bylaw right now, the exercise of renewing it with no expectation of increasing enforcement is rather pointless.

Relying on education rather than enforcement, as the city's mantra seems to be, has not been effective, Lay told council, so why should anybody expect any different now?

He said if people know they can break the law with impunity, they will.

Most snowmobiles, Lay suggested, are not insured and therefore are illegal, but there's no consequence.

Yet, what of the public liability –who would pay for damages or injuries, should an accident happen? he asked.

Some members of council acknowledged the updated bylaw is not perfect. They also congratulated Pruden and city staff for working through adversity to come up with what Mayor Buckway called a "bylaw that we can live with.”

We don't always get everything we want, the mayor said.

And in the words of Coun. Betty Irwin:

"This bylaw will not eliminate conflicts between operators and non-operators. It will not educate those who do not wish to be educated, it will not force compliance on those who choose not to comply and it will make enforcement very difficult and frustrating for both our bylaw personnel and the public.

"I do, however, entertain a small hope that the public discussions and the publicity over this issue might have the positive effect of raising awareness and a spirit of co-operation on both sides of the divide so that we can begin to find ways to share our love, enjoyment and respect of the space we share here.”