Hi All,

The Township of Addington Highlands has passed a By-law to regulate camping on municipal property. The SDRA was at the table during these committee meetings and assisted with the drafting of the By-law. The By-law will be posted to the Township’s website, but here are some key points.

• The By-law will be enforced during municipal business hours on a complaint basis. There is no capacity for the one By-law officer on staff to patrol the entire Township or to do so 24/7. During evenings and weekends, if there are problematic campers, the OPP non-emergency line (888-310-1122) can be called and officers can respond. Additionally, we recommend members use the MNRF Tips line (1-877-847-7667) to inform them of possible infractions. The MNRF uses this data to identify problematic areas with repeat infractions.

• Due to the fact that shoreline road allowances do lie in front of Crown land, and there is no clear way to identify the boundary, the Township cannot regulate activities on land that cannot be determined as municipal responsibility. With that being said, the Township By-laws still exists and disturbance complaints can be made, as noted above.

• Camping at boat launches that lie on municipal shoreline allowances is not permitted and the above reporting steps can be taken.

• In cases where people pull up vehicles or trailers to waterfront shoreline road allowances, the vehicle access must be legal and have been approved by the MNRF via a permit. If you suspect that the vehicle access is illegal, you can contact the MNRF and/or the OPP to respond.

In the SDRA’s survey of camping, the majority of respondents did not seem to want a ban on camping altogether. Given the nature of shoreline road allowances and the adjacent Crown land, enforcement is a difficult matter. The intention of the By-law was to regulate problematic campers, while not restricting camping. The municipal committee is intending to meet again in the fall to see how things have progressed and what the rate of incidents have been. The SDRA will continue to have a dialogue with the Township and the MNRF and keep them apprised of any issues and work together to address ongoing problems.

We did hear of an instance earlier this month where campers setup at the Upper Lake boat launch. The OPP were notified and officers responded, resulting in the campers leaving. This was the correct response and resulted in both education of the campers and enforcement of the law.

Please be sure to let the Board know of any other camping issues that occur this summer and we will document this for discussion with the Township committee.

Thank You,
SDRA Board