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Comment by patja | Hacker News Reader

I am curious about how and whether building or environment impact codes come into play with this kind of remote private island in Canada. Things like septic systems, building a dock or anything near the shoreline, and even putting in a mooring buoy can be significant challenges to get approved in many US jurisdictions.

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In lakes the rules are extremely strict, for an island in the ocean the rules are much more permissive. No matter what the rules you typically want to keep your impact as low as possible or your island feeling will soon be replaced by something more akin to living in a small polluted town.

Legally all your island really is is a bit of land surrounded by shoreline and that shoreline is the interesting bit. It may automatically be public access or not depending on where you are, you may be accidentally part of some incorporated town and there may be specific rules governing islands.

I would advice against issuing your own passports but if you happen to have an anti-aircraft gun and an old torpedo lying around you could even consider going sovereign.

And once you successfully pull that off you can do whatever you want with your island ;)

Presumably the island is still part of Canada, right? I doubt you could get away with trying to start your own little sovereign country on it.

It's been tried with England (Sealand). And I did advice against it :)

The trick is to make friends with your neighbors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dumpling_Island

I have a friend who investigated the possibility of this, he owned a small island off the coast of another larger inhabited island. Although he wasn't far enough off the coast to be declared international (ie international waters) he did tell me that in Canada he could issue commemerative coins (although not his own currency) and stamps.

If you have the backing and historical roots of a large country you can find a loophole:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Pierre_and_Miquelon

Everything depend son the municipality and province you live in. I can't speak for Halifax area, but on Lake of the Woods and surrounding unincorporated area, Ministry of Ontario is the governing body. Floating docks do not require a permit, but for the most part, you aren't allowed to modify the shoreline, except under direct permission from Ontario and/or the Department of Fisheries (Federal). You are allowed to build boat houses on land (with permits), or by driving pipe into the ground, as that minimizes damage to the shore.

The ministry will do periodic inspections of land, and will investigate complaints. The property we purchased had all vegetation removed from the shoreline to expose the natural sand beach. The owner was fined, and forced to lay down landscaping fabric and crushed granite to cover it in order to reduce erosion. The matter was strictly dealt with by Department of Fisheries.

As for septic, you're required to build a field, but permits are easily obtainable. Same goes with putting buildings; permits are (usually) required, but usually attainable relatively easily.

I'm curious about this, too. We've done a little research, and it seems like building non-permanent things like sheds and yurts will be fine, but docks, septic, permanent buildings that cost over $5k will need permits.

Then again, there are some pretty janky home-made docks in the bay that seem to have been there for a while.

Those docks might not be permanent structures, which probably removes any permit requirements. You might want to go this route too if you all won't be visiting much or at all during the winter months. Remove your dock to 'winterize' your island.

You might like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6355488

If it is anything like in the US, old stuff is grandfathered when things tighten up. This is why it is often advisable to look for property that already has a dock or other permanent structures on or near the shoreline. It is quite likely that none of that janky stuff could be built today.

This is exactly how it works in most of Canada. The new laws are strict to an extreme measure, in some cases you are not even allowed to add a window to a wall that is facing water (reflection and glare issues) or cut down any fauna within 60 feet of the waters edge. Docks usually have a permit but are limited to a specific size, and you cannot alter the general structure of grandfathered objects.

I think you mean flora... and even then I'm guessing it only applies to trees and large shrubs. I'm Canadian and all the anti-cutting laws I've heard about only restrict you from removing plants over a certain size. So you can remove saplings and small shrubs, but if you wait for them to get big it'll be too late.

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