QUESTION

Sometimes people park their boats and lawn chairs right in front of our beach in about 15 cm of water, though we own the shore road allowance and have posted the beach as private property. I guess they’re technically not on my property, as I don’t own the lake. But I’m wondering, do I have any recourse to keep them away?

ANSWER

Sorry, no. Even if you have bought the 66-foot shore road allowance from your municipality, the lakebed is still Crown land, “and there’s nothing wrong with putting lawn chairs on Crown land,” says Kathy Hawthorne, acting senior policy advisor in the Land Management Section with the Lands and Waters Branch of the Ministry of Natural Resources in Peterborough. According to its Free Use Policy, anyone is allowed to enjoy such “transient recreational activities” on government property. So unfortunately, assuming they stay in the water, these folks can hang out in front of your cottage for a good long time. “But it wouldn’t occur to me that someone would find this enjoyable,” says Hawthorne. Yeah, we don’t get it either.

* Published in the Summer 2009 issue of Cottage Life