Report a Violation

All Ontarians can play a part in protecting our natural resources from waste, abuse and depletion. If you are witness to a resource violation within Ontario, please call the Ministry of Natural Resources TIPS line at:

1-877-TIPS-MNR (847-7667)

Before reporting a potential violation or occurrence, please make note of the following:

• Nature of Violation (see list in right column)
• Vehicle Information
• Location of violation (Address, County, Township, Municipality, Lot, Concession)
• Particulars of violation, other relevant information  
  

The TIPS-MNR reporting line is not an emergency response telephone number.   If you are calling to report public safety matters please call 911 or the police.

The TIPS line is designed to provide everyone in Ontario with a toll-free telephone line that they can call, any time of the year, day or night, to report natural resources violations directly to the Ministry of Natural Resources.  This allows the public to report suspected natural resources violations that the Ministry may not otherwise be aware of.  A review of the news releases related to convictions resulting from TIPS shows just how successful the program has been.  Look under the TIPS Results to see just a sampling of these convictions.

Although the Enforcement Branch can make no commitment about how quickly a Conservation Officer will be able to address any given TIP, all information is valuable and appreciated.  Reports to the line are reviewed and those requiring action are assigned to Conservation Officers for follow-up in the most appropriate manner.  This does not necessarily mean there will be an immediate or any on-scene attendance by a Conservation Officer.  There are a variety of reasons for this including:

• The current duties assigned to the local Conservation Officer may not allow for an immediate response.  For example the Conservation Officer might be attending court, gathering evidence related to another ongoing investigation, or they might be on patrol somewhere else in their assigned patrol area.
• The report given to the TIPS-MNR line makes it clear the offence is no longer occurring and/or the offenders have left the scene.
• The officer is able to determine that no offence has actually occurred (e.g. reports of fishing in a sanctuary when the area is in fact open).
• The information provided in the TIP is sufficient to investigate the event without on-scene attendance.
• The information received may not be as serious as another TIP the Conservation Officer is investigating.
• The information received was not clear or complete enough for the Conservation Officer to act on it.
• The report is one of many duplicate TIPS that report a well known problem where the officer is already checking an area regularly but not in response to every TIP.

The intelligence and field operations sections of the Ministry’s Enforcement Branch use all of the information collected to focus Conservation Officer efforts on areas where there are high numbers of reports even where the individual reports themselves do not result in immediate on-scene attendance by an officer.

The most important thing the public can do is provide the information to an enforcement officer, and we’ll take it from there.  If you don’t call - we won’t know.
 
Please Note:  This is not an information line.  For general inquiries please call
1-800 667-1940.

If you have additional questions about a potential violation or occurrence, you can also contact a Conservation Officer at the MNR office nearest you.