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A grassroots group is showing cottage municipalities how to restrict floating accommodations

Houseboat on a Lake Photo by Shutterstock/docstockmedia

In June, the Floating Accommodations Not Vessels Coalition (FANVC) published a paper outlining ways for Ontario municipalities to regulate or restrict floating accommodations.

Floating accommodations have become a sticking point for cottagers lately. Waterborne shipping containers and wooden dwellings are popping up more frequently on Ontario waters, cruising where they want and anchoring where they want.

“Over the past four years, they have eluded control as the issue of floating accommodations fell into a very large gray area,” says FANVC in its paper.

Since the structures are motorized, Transport Canada considers them a “vessel” extending them the same rights as boats.

But FANVC says that floating accommodations aren’t regulated like boats. There are no standards for construction or rules around the use of municipal services. This poses environmental issues, such as leaking wastewater and the use of hazardous building materials; regulatory issues, such as property owners using floating accommodations as boathouses to defy zoning bylaws; and taxation issues, such as the use of municipal waste management services without paying property taxes.

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The coalition was formed by cottagers from the Georgian Bay Association and the Gloucester Pool Cottagers Association in August 2023 to address the lack of regulations. The coalition created a working group with members of Parks Canada, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), and several municipal governments. Together, they discovered that the best way to restrict and regulate floating accommodations was through land-based policies.

This revelation came after the group discovered a 2015 legal case, Glaspell v Ontario, which ruled that lakebeds and riverbeds fell under the ownership of either the federal government, the provincial government, municipal governments, or private ownership (such as cottagers). It also ruled that municipalities could issue zoning regulations over their lakebeds.

In response to this discovery, the MNR created a new regulation that restricted floating accommodations from occupying provincially owned lakebed or shoreline. Parks Canada took a similar tactic, requiring floating accommodations to acquire a permit to moor on federal lakebeds overnight. And the townships of Georgian Bay and Severn both passed bylaws banning floating accommodations from municipal waters, including private properties and commercial marinas.

“While they have not been tested in court, one bylaw has already been successfully used as a deterrent to a floating accommodation presence,” FANVC says of the township bylaws.

Parks Canada implements restrictions for floating accommodations on federal waterways

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have also gotten involved, successfully prosecuting a floating accommodation that was anchored on a private lakebed. The OPP charged the floating accommodation’s owner with trespassing.

Using these regulations, FANVC has proposed solutions for other municipalities wanting to restrict or regulate floating accommodations. To restrict the structures, FANVC suggests taking the same route as Georgian Bay and Severn, passing a bylaw that bans floating accommodations from municipal waters.

The other option is regulating them. FANVC suggests creating a zoned area for stationary floating accommodations. This means the structures must stay in one specified location. They would be subject to municipal zoning bylaws and connected to sanitation, hydro, and power. According to Transport Canada, these structures would be considered floating homes not floating accommodations, meaning they wouldn’t have vessel rights.

“There are multiple instances of these floating residences, but the most popular and recognized communities are the 24 floating homes in Bluffers Park on the shores of Lake Ontario in Scarborough, and 60-plus homes in False Creek in downtown Vancouver,” says FANVC.

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Without strong municipal bylaws like these, floating accommodations can skirt federal and provincial regulations, mooring in municipal waters. For instance, a lakefront property owner could anchor a floating accommodation on their private lakebed, bypassing building codes and local taxation on the structure.

Floating accommodations could also moor permanently at commercial marinas with the owner’s permission. Or floating accommodations could move locations each night, dodging provincial and federal enforcement officers before they’re able to lay charges.

To avoid this, FANVC says municipalities must enact their own floating accommodation regulations. “It is suggested that municipalities consult with their own legal representatives to determine what regulatory approach is best suited for [their] jurisdiction,” says the coalition.

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