A Constance Bay homeowner drew a line in the sand. Is it legal?
CBC
A fence that runs across the sand and into the water at a Constance Bay beach colloquially known as The Point has some questioning whether waterfront property owners have the legal right to build structures on the shorelines that front their properties.
In Ontario, some do, according to a lawyer consulted by CBC News. While she couldn't comment on the Constance Bay case, Margot Pomerleau, a partner with the Ottawa-based firm MBC Law, explained it depends on two factors: shoreline ownership and riparian rights.
"A riparian boundary is that line that you have between you and the water," Pomerleau said. "So when we're talking about riparian rights, we're talking about what kind of rights does everybody have with respect to the boundary that they share?"
Pomerleau said many landowners aren't aware that the Crown owns the beds — or portions of a waterbody located below the ordinary high-water level — of most bodies of water in Ontario, and has since it first subdivided parcels of land for private ownership.
Some still believe waterfront property owners own up to the "high-water mark," but Pomerleau said that's now an outdated term no longer used to legally describe the riparian boundary between private and Crown property in Ontario.
"If you own to what used to be the high-water mark … that is now the water's edge," said Pomerleau.
Ontario owns most beds in the province due to the Beds of Navigable Waters Act, which stipulates its jurisdiction over waterways that have value to the public as a means of travel or transport from one point of public access to another.
Transport Canada considers the Ottawa River navigable from Lake Timiskaming to the St. Lawrence River.
Based on charting by the Canadian Hydrographic Service — part of Fisheries and Oceans Canada — Constance Bay sits upon a stretch of the Ottawa River that is navigable, including at Sand Point.
A spokesperson from Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources added the lands below the water's edge of the Ottawa River are public.
A property's legal boundary determines the riparian rights that may apply to it.
Pomerleau recommends property owners refer to documents registered at the time of purchase like reference plans, deeds and property descriptions. She also suggests they consult surveyors and lawyers to determine exactly where their property lines extend and what their riparian rights may be.
The fence dividing residents and beachgoers in Constance Bay went up in May at a rental property at 122 Lane St. CBC News has reached out to the property owners who have not responded to repeated requests for comment.
However, CBC obtained a copy of a reference plan for the property filed last November through Ontario's land registry services.
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