New trespassing law will require permission to access private land

A new trespassing law has been introduced to the Saskatchewan Legislature that will make stepping onto rural private property without owner permission a trespassing offence.

The new act comes after pressure from rural landowners and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) for a more stringent law. Under existing law, land owners are required to post no trespassing signs to make entry an offence.

The law follows an online government survey with over 1,600 responses..Sixty-three per cent want automatic trespassing offence without the need for posting land

Responses included comments that this is common sense and city dwellers do not want people wandering over lawns and flower beds.

Thirty-two per cent were opposed to automatic trespassing without permission. Opposing comments noted distant land owners makes it difficult to contact owners and the new law would end snowmobiling in Saskatchewan. Government officials have indicated that an app could be developed to make contact with land owners easier.

First Nations see the new trespassing law as an end run around court-won rights to hunt year-round and threaten court action.

Meanwhile, a survey by the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, SARM, Sask. Cattlemen’s Association and Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association shows support for the law with general agreement that permission is needed to enter private land.

Division comes on the kind of permission. Hunters believe that verbal permission is appropriate while land owners want written permission.

Land owners among the 731 interviews cited crime, bio-security and trespassing as concerns while hunter concerns involved difficulty contacting land owners and the fact a few abusive hunters spoil access for others.

Sixty-six per cent of land owners in the survey post their land but 88 per cent of them allow hunting on the land.