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The court will be asked to decide whether the Stoney Lake Road used to access the lakes is a public highway, whether the public should have access to Minnie Lake and Stoney Lake, which are on private property, and whether Douglas Lake Ranch owns the fish in those lakes, which it pays to stock with trout.

“The law has always assumed — at least in Western Canada — that the beds of navigable waters, streams and lakes belong to the Crown, and I think that most of us assume that means the province owns those waters on behalf of the public,” said Andrew Gage, staff lawyer for West Coast Environmental Law.

Complicating the issue is Douglas Lake Ranch’s claim that its property rights extend to the original, natural boundaries of Minnie and Stoney, which are now deep underwater.

The ranch has built dams to increase the size of Stoney Lake from 37 acres in 1890 to about 141 acres today. Minnie Lake has also been enlarged.

The ranch contends that the land between the original boundary of the lakes and the new, larger lake edge is private property — even though it is submerged — and that the lakes are therefore off limits to the public.

The general rule is that property rights extend to the water’s natural boundary; however, property owners must allow access to bodies of water for casual public use, according to the B.C. Ministry of Environment.

“There are thousands of lakes that have been raised, so if that creates a barrier to access that’s a really significant matter,” said Christopher Harvey, lawyer for the game club. “Does the fact that there is private land under the lake extinguish the public right to float on the lake, walk on the ice or fish in the lake?”