Homeowner in rural P.E.I. wants provincial action to get her neighbour's yard cleaned up

A woman in an unincorporated area near Fort Augustus, P.E.I., has made numerous unsightly property complaints against her neighbour who has camper trailers filled with trash on his property. 

There was an unsightly property order posted on the lot in May 2022, and truckloads of materials were taken away. 

But Lisa Donovan said more needs to be done.

"It isn't just like I don't like the aesthetics of how he decorates his house, or that he doesn't cut his grass. Those are minor little things," Donovan said. 

"It's the trailers, and deep freezes, and old lawnmowers, and the house is just packed full of garbage."

Donovan adds: "I don't want to embarrass him, [and] I don't want to seem like I'm picking on him or his place. It's not about that. It's about the government's inability — or just simply not wanting — to address the situation that's happening there."

She said she has sent many emails and spoken to managers and supervisors at the department that handles unsightly-property complaints, as well as to the deputy minister and minister. 

"Nobody will give me answers. The only thing I've gotten from them is 'He's a private citizen' and I have no right to know anything about him," Donovan said.

"I don't want to know anything about him. I am concerned about the land and what the… garbage on the land is doing to the environment."

Donovan said she's particularly concerned because of the wildlife in what she calls an "eco-sensitive" area, given its proximity to the Hillsborough River. 

She's calling for the province to assess whether the items pose an environmental hazard in their current state and position.

"There's two trailers, there's a deep freeze, there's old lawnmowers — gosh knows what's in there," she said, pointing out that something could leak into the ground and people in the area rely on wells for their water. "Is it seeping into our properties?" 

Of her neighbour, she said: "He seems to have walked away from it. So whose responsibility is it to clean up the environmental mess that's been left behind?"

CBC News contacted the property owner, Kendal MacSweyn, who says he agrees his neighbours had a valid complaint in 2022, when the order was issued, and the property did need a clean-up.