Ontario will ban 'floating homes' from overnight stays on lakes
CBC
Premier Doug Ford's government will slap restrictions on floating homes, a new style of on-the-lake accommodation that has triggered controversy in Ontario's cottage country, CBC News has learned.
The vessels — built using converted shipping containers — have provoked outrage among cottage owners and have been slammed as "ugly" by at least two local mayors.
The province's ban will prohibit the floating homes from staying overnight on public waterways.
The restrictions will take effect on July 1, according to a regulation posted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
The ban will only apply to what the province calls "floating accommodations," defined in the regulation as floating structures designed primarily for residential purposes and not primarily for navigation.
Sailboats, houseboats, cabin cruisers or other traditional watercraft are not prohibited from overnight stays.
The ban comes after the province asked the public to comment on a proposal to regulate floating homes earlier this year.
The minister of natural resources and forestry, Graydon Smith, who is also MPP for Parry Sound-Muskoka in the heart of Ontario's cottage country, says environmental and safety concerns — not esthetics — are the reasons for the restrictions.
"We heard a number of concerns about the use of floating accommodations on Ontario's waterways, including their potential effects on the environment as well as concerns about safety," says Smith in a news release to be made public on Friday. Officials provided CBC News with an advance copy.
"Concerns were expressed that floating accommodations could disturb local fish and wildlife by disrupting the natural environment and increase the risk of pollution from garbage, greywater disposal and spills," says the text of the release.
The overnight stay ban would not apply to floating accommodations docked in private water lots, such as marinas, or on waterways under jurisdiction of other governments, such as portions of the Trent-Severn Canal, the province's release says.
The floating homes that first sparked debate in the Muskoka region and beyond are the brainchild of Joe Nimens. Using four shipping containers, Nimens built one to live in, based at the harbour in Port Severn, about 150 kilometres north of Toronto. Then he launched a business venture to custom-build floating homes for as little as $200,000.
Nimens told CBC News this spring that he suspected his vessels were the target of the province's proposed new regulations. He was not available for comment Thursday evening.
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