The Road Access Act was proclaimed law in Ontario in 1978. It started as a private member’s bill by Mr. Maeck, then the MPP for Parry Sound, and was prompted by concerns over access road disputes in cottage country. The purpose of the Act is to prevent the arbitrary closing of a private road by a landowner when to do so would result in preventing access to another person’s lands for which the private road serves as a motor vehicle access route.
The Act maintains that an access road is to remain open and not to be obstructed until and unless there is a court order authorizing its closure. Thus, a law-abiding landowner, seeking to close an access road, must initiate a court proceeding, on notice to the access user, and prove that the closure of the access road is reasonably necessary to prevent substantial damage or injury to the landowner’s interests or that the access user does not have a legal right to use the road. To receive the protection of the Act, the access user must not have an alternate access route available.
If a landowner barricades an access road without obtaining a judicial closing order, an access user may go to the court and obtain an order that the landowner remove the barricade from the access road.
The refusal to order closure of an access road does not grant to the access user a legal right of way over the land. It is simply a recognition that the access user enjoys the privilege created by the Act of not being considered a trespasser.