Private beach

Pentecostal Church says it owns shoreline in Hillier

Who owns the Hillier beaches? This particularly impressive strip of sandy beach has been the subject of controversy, seemingly, since it was first surveyed more than 200 years ago.

Ownership of a stretch of this beach has been called into question again. This time as a result of the Times story “Storming the beach” November 13. It recounted recent military exercise conducted by about 100 Canadian Armed Forces personnel on and around the beach.

The story noted that the Armed Forces had originally erected barriers at two ends of the beach—one near the outlet of Huyck’s Bay, the other at the outlet of Pleasant Bay. But when informed by neighbours and users of the beach they were on public land—the Armed Forces folks pulled the barricades back and opened the beach again.

The owner of the nearby church camp and hosts of the Armed Forces company for two weeks in November, says the Times is wrong, that it, the United Pentecostal Church (Ontario District) owns the beach. Through their lawyer, the Church says the stretch of Hillier beach between the two outlets is private property and not open to the public.

“The church is entitled to exercise its ownership rights so far as all the property is concerned,” wrote Ian Brady, on behalf of the United Pentecostal Church.

Meanwhile the Mayor Peter Mertens says the beach is public property and that the municipality will assert the public’s right to use it.

“We own the beach,” said Mertens. “They have the right to use it just like everyone else. But it is my belief the beach belongs to the people.”

The Pentecostal Church’s claim to the beach appears to rely on a 1975 survey in which the lands were registered as lots as part of Prince Edward County’s land registry. The history of this property, however, goes back much further. The land was originally patented in 1765 and again in 1812. This later patent was registered by William Walcot and the land was known for many years as the Walcot Patent.

A solitary figure walks the beach on Sunday.

But seeming to override such claims is an Order-in-Council of the province of Upper Canada dated December 8, 1835 that reserves the beaches for public use. It reads “which in effect reserved fishing grounds, beaches and bars on that part of the shore of Lake Ontario extending from Salmon Point to the Village of Wellington and from Huyck’s Point to the westerly extremes of Weller Bay, for public benefit and not for disposal to individuals.”

The church’s claim to the beach is murkier still, since, as many folks who have examined the documents, note the beach was used historically as a roadway or cart path—as a means to traverse the frontier County. These quarter session roads, as they were known, were established by the district administrative body known as The Court of the Quarter Sessions.

As recently as 2001 the province recognized the legal existence of the road allowance on nearby Alexander Island, directly to the north of the beach claimed by the church. Some claim the road allowance, and by virtue the public right of way, extends south to Huyck’s Point.

In the early part of the last decade the Pentecostal church attempted to block access to the beach from Bakker Road as development of the property began to scale up. In a compromise hammered out with the municipality, a parking area was created and signage erected about 200 metres before the beach.

Many folks, even those who have lived here many years, remain unaware of the beautiful sandy beaches that lie along Hillier’s shoreline.