The Township of Severn…

The Township of Severn strongly supports the amendment to the Public Lands Act to exclude floating accommodations or float homes from the ability to be used for 'camping'.

We do have several concerns that are either not considered, or are inaccurate in the ERO posting:
1) it will be difficult to enforce the prohibition of floating accommodations to "camp" on public lands without the help and cooperation of the Federal Government and Transport Canada who is continuing to license these structures as 'vessels'. Once these structures are considered a vessel it is unclear if they will be under Provincial enforcement.
2) the posting notes that there might be benefits to marinas if occupants of floating accommodations stay at marinas as an alternative to public land. This does not consider that marinas may not have municipal zoning to permit overnight accommodation and it would take away transient boater slips that are important to local economies. Marinas are not an acceptable alternative for floating accommodations and should not be proposed as such.
3) the posting notes that there are no new administrative costs associated with this proposal. The MNRF does not currently have the manpower and tools (such as boats) to enforce activities on water. If those resources are not increased and there is no enforcement capacity, then changing the regulation will have little effect.

The Township also supported previously published and then rescinded changes to the Public Lands Act such as reducing the amount of days someone can camp in one location and requiring them to move further to the next location. We are unclear while these amendments were rescinded prior to the close of the commenting period.

We appreciate the Province taking these beginning steps to address the concerns surrounding floating accommodations, however we hope these are just first steps and that continued solutions be sought, most importantly collaboration with the Federal Government and local municipalities as this is a complex, multi-jurisdictional problem that requires a comprehensive solution.