Saskatchewan officially adds federal employees to trespass legislation

The Saskatchewan government has finalized changes to the province’s trespassing legislation after alleged incidents of trespassing by federal employees.

On Wednesday, the province introduced The Trespass to Property Amendment Act, 2022.

“This formalizes and reinforces the change to trespass regulations, made earlier this year, that requires federal employees to comply with the Act which prohibits individuals from entering private land without the owner’s consent,” Minister of Justice and Attorney General Bronwyn Eyre said in a media release.

“After agricultural producers in our province raised concerns about federal employees testing water on their private land without consent, Health Canada admitted that federal employees had, in fact, been testing for pesticides.”

In late August, Jeremy Cockrill — Saskatchewan’s minister responsible for the Water Security Agency — sent a letter to federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and posted it to Twitter.

In the letter, Cockrill said the province had received several complaints of federal workers going onto private farmland without permission and taking water samples.

In the letter, Cockrill called the testing “covert” and inappropriate, said the workers were trespassing, quoted The Trespass to Property Act and noted there could be financial penalties. He also demanded that federal employees “cease and desist any further surreptitious entry on private lands.”

The day before Cockrill sent that letter, an Order in Council was passed in Saskatchewan to add federal government workers as an entity to which The Trespass to Property Act applied.

In his response letter, Guilbeault didn’t say exactly what the scientists were doing in Saskatchewan, but did say they routinely conduct water monitoring in all provinces to help ensure people’s health and safety and the environment are protected.

He confirmed that scientists were in Saskatchewan on Aug. 11 and were taking samples along a highway near Pense when a landowner approached them and told them they were on private land.

On Wednesday, the provincial government reiterated the Trespass to Property Act bars a person from entering land without the consent of the owner or while acting under legal authority. Fines of up to $200,000 can apply.

“Seeking the consent of landowners prior to access is simply best practice and common courtesy, and we see no reason for federal government employees to not meet this standard,” Eyre said in the release.