Crown Land Planning In Ontario

Approximately 87% of the land and water of Ontario is still under public ownership, and is managed by the Ministry of Natural Resources on behalf of the people of Ontario. These public lands are often referred to as “Crown lands”, to distinguish them from public lands owned by other agencies.

  
MNR carries out Crown land use planning under the authority of the Public Lands Act. Land use planning determines where specific land use designations apply (e.g., provincial parks, conservation reserves, enhanced management areas) and establishes broad policies for the land uses that can occur. Planning can occur at scales ranging from the development of large regional plans to site-specific land use amendments. Land use planning decisions are made through an open public process and are documented in the Crown Land Use Policy Atlas and/or local planning documents.

In 1999 MNR released the Ontario's Living Legacy Land Use Strategy which provided land use policies for Crown land in central and mid-northern Ontario. The Land Use Strategy established some new land use areas, revised some land use policies and identified nine signature sites.

Signature sites have important natural and cultural heritage values, often with significant tourism and recreation potential that merit strategic planning to guide the management, protection, development and promotion of these important areas. Several strategic plans have been completed for these sites. 

During the development of the Land Use Strategy, the conservation community, the forest industry and the Ontario government developed and signed the 1999 Ontario Forest Accord - A Foundation for Progress (PDF - 87kb). This was an innovative approach to establish new protected areas while meeting the needs of the forestry industry for sustainable wood supply.

Crown land use policies for central and mid-northern Ontario have been consolidated in Ontario's Crown Land Use Policy Atlas. In southern Ontario, local land use policies are outlined in District Land Use Guidelines and other approved land use plans. In time, the Atlas will be expanded to include Crown land use policies for the entire province. 

In far northern Ontario, MNR has undertaken some land use planning which has resulted in the designation of some provincial parks, as well as land use areas described in Keeping the Land - A Land Use Strategy for the Whitefeather Forest and Adjacent Areas (pdf 23.6mb).
 

Amendments to Local Land Use Policies
From time to time, the need to amend local land use policy will arise because of changing government policies or public needs, changing resource conditions, new or refined information, or proposals for land use change resulting from other processes. MNR has established processes to amend local land use policies that are effective and that promote transparency and accountability. Land use amendment decisions will be made based on consideration of the full range of natural, cultural, social and economic values and effects. Ontario’s Crown Land Use Policy Atlas provides an index of proposed and approved amendments to local land use policies. View amendments at:

http://crownlanduseatlas.mnr.gov.on.ca/LUAmend.html