The NWT government has introduced legislation making trespass on private property an offence, saying the new rules would deter crime and match laws in the south.
Bill 34, the Trespass to Property Act, had its first and second readings in the House last week and will now be considered by a committee. It won’t become law until MLAs approve it, likely next year.
At the moment, the NWT has no act governing trespass on private property. While there is a federal trespassing offence, the GNWT has said that only applies to someone who “loiters or prowls at night on the property of another person near a dwelling-house situated on that property.”
The lack of a Trespass Act meant people and law enforcement had “limited tools to remove trespassers from their property,” the GNWT said in a document about the proposed legislation earlier this year.
The territory has said it hopes trespass legislation will:
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- deter criminal behaviour by legally preventing people from being on property without permission;
- help businesses remove people from their property who “have caused damage or stolen goods in the past;” and
- allow the arrest of drug dealers who try to access property where “they do not have the permission of a lawful occupier.”
Trespass legislation is part of a suite of public safety laws Premier RJ Simpson says his government intends to roll out.
Justice minister Jay Macdonald has characterized the trespass bill as the easiest of the new laws to develop – all provinces already have this kind of legislation – and it is the first to come forward for consideration.
Giving examples last year of when this kind of law would help, Simpson said: “Many times the RCMP get a call, there’s someone who’s causing a disturbance in an apartment, but they have no authority to remove that person because we don’t have a Trespass Act here.”
‘Holding property owners hostage’
Discussion of a Trespass Act in the NWT legislature has often featured Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins – who first raised the issue more than a decade ago – and the subject of encampments.
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“It’s almost impossible to remove someone who is unwanted on a particular property, business, or even in a private situation,” Hawkins told the legislature in May this year.
“Individuals can hold property owners hostage on their own property because they are exercising their rights to be there. Where is the fairness in this? Where is the fairness when you empower an encampment to be on your property? Where is the process to ban them, to make them move along?
“When you have a grocery store that can’t stop people from entering who are known for stealing from it or causing disruption with staff and patrons, what are you left to do other than complain to your politicians?”
Q&A: What can YK learn from a Toronto church encampment?
The territorial government has not framed its new legislation in the terms Hawkins used, but has said it will “enhance public safety and private property protections.”
The bill governs trespass on private property, schools and “certain types of private interests on public lands, such as leases.”
Trespassing would become a territorial offence if the bill passes. The penalties would be a fine of up to $10,000 and up to half a year in jail.
The GNWT says the bill also sets out:
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- how signs should be used to give notice regarding trespassing;
- ways owners and renters can obtain payment for damage caused by trespassers; and
- how sentencing should change if people don’t leave a property promptly after being told to do so.
The bill “will protect Indigenous rights by ensuring land, resources, and self-government agreements take precedence over the legislation,” the territory stated.
A committee of regular MLAs will now review the draft legislation – and has the option of holding hearings – before reporting back to the House.
The bill must come through a third and final reading, with a majority of MLAs in favour, to become law.
