Death of the Hunt Camp by Joanne Cooney
- 2018-01-01
- By admin
- Posted in Latest News
Evidence suggests that the earliest humans on earth hunted animals, their first tools were weapons. Though the need for hunting has evolved over the years, hunting for subsistence, wildlife conservation and management, protection of property and recreation is still common practice in many places in Ontario.
Hunting has evolved and, like most things, has become a target of government bodies to licence, control and regulate. There are courses and licences in order to use your firearms, you can only hunt certain game at certain times of the year with certain weapons, and you need permits to hunt specific game, and you can only hunt in specific places.
In order to abide by all of the laws and regulations, its common place for families and hunting groups to establish ‘hunt camps’. A hunt camp can be anything from a small shed where you can put your gear and have a camp fire, to an insulated building that can sleep a crew and a kitchen usually with a wood cook stove to cook up a feast for the gang. Hunt camps are not homes. There’s no civic address, no postal delivery, no garbage pickup and generally no hydro or maintained road to the camp.
For most people, going to a hunt camp is a special time. A place to teach the next generation how to use a bow and arrow or shoot a gun. It’s a place to teach the kids or grandkids how to chop wood, cook on an open fire or wood stove and how to live a life without electronics. It’s a place for friends to escape the stress of life for a while and reconnect with the people closest to you and nature. It’s about a lifestyle and culture as much as it is about hunting. To add to the current government regulation on the hunting lifestyle, government authorities are now
also using Google Earth to find hunt camps and go after camp owners for building permits.
In 2007, The Mc Nab family purchased a 300 acre old farm in the Municipality of Mississippi Mills, Ontario. The entry to the farm is not on a maintained township road and the township told them they could not get a building permit. They communicated with the municipal government that their primary use of the land was for hunting and their councillor told them that they could build a hunt camp because the lot was zoned rural. So the three generations of the McNab Family built a hunt camp and worked on food plots to help the local deer population and enjoyed some wonderful years there together as a family. On May 13th, 2016 the McNab family received a registered letter at their home from the Chief Building Official for the Corporation of the Town of Mississippi Mills. The letter stated that it had recently come to the municipalities’ attention that there was a building erected at their home address in McNab-Braeside Township, which was incorrect.
A month later on June 3rd, a second registered letter arrived from the Inspector for the Town of Mississippi Mills with an order to comply, dated May 1st, saying that failure to apply for a permit would result in a fine of $500 per day. The McNab family hired paralegal, Jeff Bogaerts and met with the CBO at the Municipal Township office on June 13th. During this meeting the CBO disclosed that he had discovered their hunt camp via the use of Google Earth imaging. The CBO made it very clear that all hunt camps were being investigated via Google Earth and would be required to retroactively obtain building permits. It was also clarified that the original letter stating that the building was at their primary residence was incorrect and it should have indicated the request for a permit was pertaining to the hunt camp.
Another meeting was held on July 12th with the McNab family, their MPP, Mr.Jack MacLaren and his staff, the Mayor of Mississippi Mills, the CBO and the local councillor. There was a lengthy discussion about the legality of the use of Google Earth imaging to search for hunt camps, the statute of limitations on requiring a permit, and the interpretation of the building code that is not consistent and can represent a misuse of authority. The meeting ended with it being agreed that the municipality would consult with their lawyers about the legal concerns, and in the meantime, the daily fines for the order to comply would be put on hold until the details of the matter could be clarified by the lawyer.
However, a few weeks later, on July 22nd another letter directly from the CBO was received stating that the order to comply was only being extended to August 12th. The McNab family contacted their councillor directly and were told ‘not to worry about the order to comply’, and discussed how the hunt camp may be grandfathered in and not require a permit, and they were still looking into it.
Months went by with no communication on the matter. No phone calls, no emails, no more letters.
Then, on October 13th, 2017 the McNab family received a supplementary property tax bill for $6,730.11, which had retroactive charges and a MPAC re-evaluation of the lot that their hunt camp was on. To this point MPAC, nor any other authorities other than the CBO had been involved in the McNab hunt camp file – so why was MPAC all of a sudden re-evaluating their land?
The McNab family contacted MPAC directly. MPAC confirmed that on June 16th, 2017, the CBO of Mississippi Mills contacted MPAC personally. The CBO brought attention to the McNab hunt camp property, and they used high resolution imaging and Agmaps measuring tools to determine that the ‘hunt camp’ was a 2 storey, 3,140 square foot building with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The McNab family were flabbergasted and explained that this information was false, that the property tax reassessment was incorrect, but were told that the only way they could rectify the problem was to pay the bill, then allow the authorities onto the property to inspect it, then challenge the assessment and be given a credit on their property tax bill if the reassessment was accepted.
The McNab hunt camp file is a classic and frightening example of our tax dollars being used to pay government bodies to spy on our private property. It doesn’t matter if you built your hunt camp 10 or 20 years ago, to quote the building inspector, “they are going to paint everyone with the same brush”. Hunt camps are clearly defined in the local municipal act, however do not have a class of their own in the MPAC tax class, and it doesn’t look like that will be changing any time soon.
So if you’re currently enjoying your hunt camp with your friends and family, it would be wise to spend your next conversation around the camp fire discussing how you will get your hunt camp ready for its building inspection and how you’re going to pay your substantially increased residential property taxes on it.
Search:
Categories
Archives
- April 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- June 2013
- April 2013
- October 2012
- May 2012
- September 2011