Can the Public Walk Across a Shore Road Allowance Beside My Cottage?

You bought a cottage with a lawn running down to the water, and then people start walking across it, launching kayaks or setting up for the afternoon. Before you confront anyone, it helps to know whether the strip they are standing on is actually yours.

This article explains who owns and controls shore road allowances and Crown shoreline reserves, what the trespass and nuisance rules can and cannot do, and the sensible steps to take. Whether the public may use a particular strip depends on its status and local rules, so confirm the details for your property before acting.

Is the strip really yours?

Road allowances are strips originally laid out for roads by a Crown surveyor, generally 66 feet wide. A highway is owned by the municipality with jurisdiction over it, subject to any rights reserved by the person who dedicated it. Even if the lawn, firepit and dock look like a seamless part of the property, whether your lot ends at the water or at a strip in front of it depends on your deed and survey.

There is also the Crown shoreline reserve, which is ungranted Crown land no more than 30 metres deep between the water and private upland. Road allowances inside municipalities fall under municipal jurisdiction unless stopped up and sold, while those in unorganized territory and all Crown shoreline reserves fall under the Minister's jurisdiction.

Check your deed and survey, and ask the municipality whether the strip has been closed or conveyed. How this applies depends on your situation, so it is worth confirming with a lawyer.

Whether the public may use it

There is no single answer for every strip. An assumed highway is a public road, and the municipality must keep it in a state of repair that is reasonable in the circumstances. An unassumed, unopened allowance generally carries no municipal maintenance duty, but that is a different question from whether people may walk on it. Who may use a given shore strip, and how, depends on its status and on local by-laws, and a lawyer or the municipality can confirm.

What you can lawfully do

Whether trespass rules help you depends on who owns or controls the strip, so it is worth confirming that first. Under the Trespass to Property Act, a trespass conviction carries a fine of up to $10,000, and recent amendments added aggravating factors such as prior notice to leave. The set fine for entering when entry is prohibited is $50. Those rules do not turn public land into private land, so confirm what you own before telling anyone to leave.

If people are on your own land, or their behaviour from the strip disturbs you, other tools exist. Private nuisance requires an interference with the use or enjoyment of land that is both substantial and unreasonable, judged by factors such as locality, malice, frequency, duration and time of day. In one noise case the Court of Appeal upheld a permanent injunction and held that the obligation to abate a nuisance falls on the party creating it, not the victim. That does not mean every complaint succeeds.

• Do talk calmly to neighbours and visitors; most disputes start from misunderstanding.
• Do keep dated notes and photos of problems such as noise, litter or damage.
• Do report safety problems and by-law concerns to the municipality.
• Do not block, fence off or post signs on a strip you do not own without confirming your rights.
• Do not confront anyone physically or remove their belongings.

Fires and other local rules

Campfires and brush burning raise their own questions. Outdoor fire rules under the Wildland Fire Management Act and O. Reg. 43/26 apply in Northwestern, Northeastern and North-Central Ontario, and elsewhere you should check municipal by-laws. Fire season runs April 1 to October 31, and a permit is generally required to burn wood, brush, leaves or grass unless all conditions are met. Incorporated municipalities may impose additional conditions or permits. If visitors light fires near your cottage, a call to the municipality or fire authority is usually safer than a confrontation.

What to do next

• Get your survey and deed, and mark the exact boundary at the water side.
• Ask the municipality whether a road allowance or shoreline reserve lies in front of your lot and what its status is.
• Ask whether any by-law restricts public use or camping along the shore.
• Keep a dated record of incidents, with photos.
• Avoid building barriers or signs on the strip until you know your rights.
• Speak with a real estate lawyer if the problem is ongoing, or if you want to acquire the strip.

If you want to secure the strip, acquiring it may be possible in some cases. A municipality can convey a road allowance only after it has been stopped up, and the Ministry generally approves sale of Crown shoreline reserves to adjacent owners of developed lots unless there is a compelling reason such as loss of access or conflict with public use like water access.

Frequently asked questions