Snopass

A highly visible plate will help Conservation officers & other enforcement agencies to readily identify who has a Snopass. Snopasses are required on all Snoman trails from December 1 to April 30.

A Snopass is $150, to be paid when you renew your registration or before December 1st. Snopasses are for the snowmobile, not the owner, so you must purchase one Snopass for each machine. Snopasses are not available to ATVs or Side by Sides with or without tracks. Snopasses are not mandatory for your snowmobile. However, if you don’t buy a Snopass when you register your snowmobile, you will be asked to sign a form indicating you declined the Snopass and declare that you will not travel on designated Snoman trails.

Annual Snopasses are valid for as long as your snowmobile registration is valid. You pay for it each year at the same time you pay for your registration on your snowmobile. If your anniversary date falls within the riding season and you purchase a Snopass before then, that Snopass is only valid up to your anniversary date. If you want to continue to use the trails after that, you will have to renew your Snopass along with your registration.

In order to not incur a charge for the upcoming season you MUST return your orange Snopass plate to a MPI broker BEFORE your renewal date OR before December 1st, whichever date comes first.

With snowmobile registration and the Snopass, there is no financial advantage to the customer to ‘cancel’ the insurance/registration and/or Snopass, since all three components are fully earned immediately (non-proratable/non-refundable). All you need to do is wait until you have your new snowmobile and you can transfer your registration and Snopass to your new snowmobile!

Yes, you will incur a fine of $486.00.

Permits are available for 3-day and 7-day passes and are available by visiting https://www.manitobaelicensing.ca/ Annual Snopasses for out-of-province snowmobilers are available through MPI. The coloured Snopass plates are annual and only available to Manitoba residents.

Purchase your Annual Snopass at any Manitoba Public Insurance Agent throughout Manitoba

3- and 7-day passes are available here.

Please visit the MPI website for more information regarding Snopasses.

There are no refunds through MPI or Snoman. We would like all of our snowmobiling friends to know that in seasons where snowmobile clubs are unable to groom their trails due to a lack of snow, Snoman Inc. does not provide refunds to Snopass holders, nor do we provide a credit for the purchase of a Snopass for the following year. We ask that you bear with us as we cannot control the weather as much as we would like to.

When a Snopass is cancelled (or the snowmobile registration is cancelled), the plate must be surrendered or the transaction cannot be completed.

For a customer with an anniversary date outside of the riding season, a full refund will only be issued if one of the following is true:

• The snowmobile registration is cancelled before the first day of the riding season (December 1).
• The Snopass is cancelled before the first day of the riding season.

For a customer with an anniversary date in the riding season, a full refund will only be issued if:

• The customer renews their registration in advance, pays in full, and cancels before their anniversary date.

Outside of the indicated scenarios noted above, a refund will not be issued by Manitoba Public Insurance or Snoman.

You will be charged for a Snopass for the upcoming season in addition to the interest and your account will be in arrears. For additional information please contact MPI directly. It is important that you take the necessary action prior to December 1st of each year or your renewal date.

If you are not a Manitoba resident, you must purchase a Snopass to ride the trails in Manitoba. You can purchase an Annual Snopass by visiting an MPI Broker. 3- and 7-day passes are available online by visiting https://www.manitobaelicensing.ca/ You must indicate proof of ownership and valid registration from another jurisdiction that includes a minimum of $500,000 third-party liability coverage. An Annual Snopass allows you to ride on designated trails until April 30.

Did you know that Saskatchewan snowmobilers are welcome to enjoy Snoman’s trail system? In the Crown Lands Act, the requirement for a Snopass does not apply as long as the person’s snowmobile has current Saskatchewan Government Insurance registration and a minimum of $500,000 third-party liability coverage. Manitobans are also welcome to enjoy Saskatchewan’s trail system as long as they have an Annual Snopass! 

To purchase your Annual Snopass in advance, you can mail your information to an MPI Broker. Your Snopass sticker will be mailed to you from the Broker. Please allow time for this process.

The following needs to be provided to the broker by mail:

• Proof of registration and insurance
• Proof of $500,000 Third party liability
• Proof of age (must be at least 17+, or customers between 16 and 17 years of age with parental consent – A letter of authorization from a parent or guardian for their child or ward to purchase the Snopass.)
• Guaranteed funds (cash, certified cheque, money order, debit, or credit card)

For locations and addresses of MPI Brokers in Manitoba, please click here.

3- and 7-day passes are available online at https://www.manitobaelicensing.ca/

If you wish to travel on designated Snoman trails in Manitoba, you are required by law to have a valid orange Snopass plate affixed to your snowmobile. Conservation Officers and the RCMP patrol the trails regularly, and a snowmobiler found to be on a designated trail without a valid Snopass will be fined over $480.00.

There is also the option of purchasing a 3-day or 7-day pass online to try the trails by visiting https://www.manitobaelicensing.ca/

The answer is NO. The first and most obvious reason is that wheeled vehicles can destroy the base and grooming that our volunteers have worked so hard on. This results not just in an unpleasant ride, but many times an unsafe one as well. A snowmobiler, coming upon tire ruts can be sent off balance. The result could be a rider thrown from their snowmobile or there could be a loss of control, sending the snowmobile into a tree or other obstacle. This leaves our members in danger for injury or worse.

The next reason that we can’t allow access to our trails is that we have landowner agreements, either with the government or our private landowners to only operate a snowmobile on the trail. Our trails exist on a frozen landscape, and in many places on terrain that is not suitable for wheeled or heavier vehicles. We must take ecological concerns into account when planning, building, and grooming our trails. In conditions where the snow-pack is minimal, wheeled or heavier vehicles can reach down into the ground and cause terrain damage. We must comply with our land owners’ requests and wishes to be able to access the landscape. To allow other vehicle types (wheeled, tracked, or otherwise) could result in the clubs losing land access and the trails.

There is also a big concern with other ORVs since the majority of them far exceeds the width of a snowmobile, therefore being a huge safety issue.

A huge reason, from Snoman’s perspective, is that we are only insured for snowmobiles. We must carry a large Commercial General Liability (CGL) policy to operate our trails on the landscape. Our coverage providers only cover the operation and activities of snowmobiles and you need a Snopass to ride on the trails.

Your Snopass fee helps to enhance recreational snowmobiling across Manitoba, as it supports the local Snoman member clubs who groom and maintain more than 13,000 kilometres of designated trails across Manitoba.

• Entitles the Snopass purchaser to ride all of Snoman’s designated snowmobile trails.
• Annual Snopasses also provide additional entitlement to ride on designated trails in Saskatchewan.
• Creates more sustainable funding to ensure the designated trail system continues to provide snowmobilers with a safer riding opportunity.
• Provides important announcements on safety and trail conditions through media such as radio, print, and website.

Registering and insuring your snowmobile
Rules for operating your snowmobile
Riding safely

Annual Snopasses can be purchased year-round anywhere Autopac is sold. You can defer the payment until December 1st, but the Snopass must be purchased or cancelled prior to December 1st. You can also take the pre-authorized payments available through MPI.

An Annual Snopass costs $150.00. A 3-Day Snopass costs $49.50 and a 7-Day Snopass costs $75.50. If you ride 500 km per season on designated trails, the annual Snopass of $150.00 breaks down to paying 0.30 cents per km traveled. The more you ride, the better your value becomes. Fuel and oil savings is another cost-benefit of riding groomed trails.

Annual Snopass: $150.00
3-Day Snopass: $49.50
7-Day Snopass: $75.50

All the prices include GST

Snofund – $132.86
Agent fee – $10.00
GST – $7.14

Annual Snopasses are valid for as long as your snowmobile registration is valid. You pay for it each year at the same time you pay your registration on your snowmobile.

Snoman operates under an agreement with the Government of Manitoba. This agreement requires that the monies Snoman receives from MPI from the sale of Snopasses go directly into a SnoFund Trust Account. Money from the SnoFund Trust Account can be used solely for activities designed for trail maintenance, trail improvements, and administration of the designated provincial trail system in accordance with the agreement.

Under the agreement, the SnoFund Trust is managed by a committee consisting of two members from each of the five regions of Snoman, two members appointed by the Government of Manitoba, and chaired by the President of Snoman.

Clubs are compensated per kilometre for the maintenance and grooming of snowmobile trails. The amount of compensation clubs receive is based on total dollars collected from Snopass sales, the total number of kilometres of trails in the province, and the total kilometres groomed in the season. The current policy states that clubs are to receive a per kilometre rate for trail maintenance and a per kilometre rate for grooming. The payout varies each year depending on Snopass sales and kilometres groomed.

To help ensure that minimum compensation payments can be made to clubs each year, the agreement between the Government of Manitoba and Snoman permits Snoman to operate a Stabilization Fund which is to be used when there is a decline in the sales of Snopasses and/or an increase in grooming activity for a particular year.

The last increase was in 2015.

Clubs still have trail maintenance which is done earlier in the year.  As well, clubs still get paid for two grooming as per our operational policy.  Clubs still have the costs of loans for groomers, shelter upkeep, and other operational costs.

The Manitoba Snopass is one of the lowest in Canada and Manitoba has the third largest trail system. Current fees range from $132 to over $400.