Protect Our Parks

Niagara Falls Review

March 18, 2007

Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor will reintroduce his Great Lakes Right of Passage bill Thursday.

Last April, Craitor called on his Liberal government to guarantee the public’s right to walk freely along the Great Lakes waterfront from water’s edge up to the high water mark. It’s a big deal in Fort Erie, where private landowners are limiting public access to Lake Erie’s waterfront.

In recent years, the building of fences to prohibit people from walking the shoreline has accelerated on Lake Erie, members of the Ontario Shorewalk Association argue.

Through Craitor’s private member’s bill, fences that block passage would have to be removed to comply with the act.

However, after receiving first reading in the most recent session of the legislature the bill came to a halt as a result of the October provincial election. It has to be reintroduced in the new session of parliament for further deliberation.

In the past, some landowners voiced concerns that the bill - if approved - could have negative side effects near their private properties.

Private property rights will remain intact if the bill passes, Craitor had said, but it would be an offence for a property owner to build or reshape shore lands to impede public right of way. Access to the shore would have to be over public lands and not over private property above the high water mark, he said.

The act would not permit the public to put down blankets or party on the site, only to use the area for walking rights, he said, adding no motorized vehicles will be allowed.