Your Rights

Did you know that, as a private landowner, your land use rights, ownership and market values of your land and real estate are being methodically stripped away bit by bit through various layers of policies, laws, strategies and legislation from all levels of Government?

We are sure you will agree that it is unacceptable that various levels of Government and the numerous departments within have endorsed and encouraged assignment of certain designations on privately owned property, without prior review, notice or fair compensation. Designations that may significantly reduce the market value of the property and subverts the given landowner rights to “own, use, enjoy, manage and benefit from your own private property”. The very property that you and your family may have proudly owned and taken care of for generations and of course continued to pay taxes on.

It has been said that one of the great advantage of private ownership is that it frees up the genius of individuals to come up with new and unexpected ways of protecting their land. Author and economist Gordon Tullock tells us “the level of government action is apt to be low and the possibility of damage through erratic, ill-informed decisions great”. Government solutions provide limited cookie cutter management solutions and options. With private ownership, people concentrate their efforts where they receive the most advantages. Those with the most vested interests in the property itself are the best managers.

Improperly imposed Government restrictions and regulations are placed on private property, in many cases without your knowledge, and reduce the intrinsic value of private property and rob you and your family of your investment, inheritance, business or retirement equity. Landowners are encouraged to put up “No Trespassing Signs” and Landowners signs as a secure means of protecting your property from any type of inspection, mapping or photography whether it be by air, water or land.

Entry on to Private Property

In general, terms anyone may enter onto private property to do anything, which is lawful without occupier permission unless the entrant has been given notice that entry is prohibited. Therefore, a private owned bush lot is available to the public until the occupier notifies otherwise. The occupier has a number of options when it comes to letting people know that entry is prohibited or that activities are restricted.

You must Explicitly Notify that Access is Prohibited – Put up Ontario Landowners Association OLA Signs

The most common method used by occupiers to restrict access is by posting Ontario Landowners Association OLA signs. The message on the signs can be written or a picture representation of the activity which is prohibited. If a sign prohibits one activity specifically then all others are permitted. For example, if hunting is prohibited specifically, then fishing, hiking or bird watching etc. is permitted. This information is taken from the government website.

Over the past years our government has invoked an over whelming number of statutory environmental restrictions and conservation protection initiatives in the name of the “public good”. While as the Ontario Landowners Association OLA, like most are not against the spirit of these designations we also recognize the need for balance and the need to protect the minority from considerable ongoing injustice. Most of these cookie cutter directives do not recognize, acknowledge or respect the land title and tenure awarded to the private landowner particularly rural land (though for example crown land patents) whose lives and property are and will be directly impacted. The Ontario government is side stepping “expropriation” by enacting “Partial” taking of property, which occurs when the title remains with the landowner but the use and value are established through bureaucratic legislation, policies or laws. Clearly, there is no protection for the landowner for his private investment, provisions for appeal at government expense or process for recovery of operational or capital losses arising from these restrictions.

Landowners should be aware that government agencies and powerful nonprofit government organizations are seemingly intent on converting privately owned land to a public resource.

Let’s not forget that parts of Socialism theory include eliminating private ownership of land and control of all productive capital and natural resources through Government ownership and regulation.