Camping on Crown Land

Loughborough Lake is home to several Crown islands - this is land owned by the federal or provincial governments. Authority for control of these lands rests with the Crown, hence their name. In Ontario, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) is guardian of Ontario Crown land.

About 77% of Ontario's land is made up of Crown land managed under the Public Lands Act. An additional 10% of Crown land is held as provincial parks and conservation reserves. More than 95% of northern Ontario is Crown land. There is very little Crown land in southern Ontario due to high levels of population settlement.

Under Ontario's Public Lands Act, all Canadian citizens are allowed to camp on Crown land for free for a maximum of 21 days. After that you must move your camping equipment a minimum of 100 meters from your previous site to be entitled to another 21 days. You are not allowed to camp on your previous site for a year. Not all Crown land is available for camping so you should check with MNRF before heading out as you can be fined for camping on prohibited Crown land.

Fines can be hefty if you leave camping equipment on a site for longer that 21 days- up to $15,000(!) with an additional fine of $1,000 for each day the offense continues.

Over the years the Lake Association executive has placed privies on the camping approved islands and most of these islands are busy in the summer. The Lake Association also does some fall clean-up on the busiest sites.

This consists mainly of picking up garbage and broken glass. Recently we were informed of an informal campsite that had sustained a lot of damage, as shown in the picture.

We are reminded that some people are not respectful of this gift of free camping on an island on our beautiful lake. Relying on people’s good nature to leave a site tidy and nature unharmed sometimes does not work. Thankfully they are in a minority.