What is Incidental Use?
Incidental use is the practice of using public land for commercial recreation without a formal permit or license. It is intended to be used in limited situations and is not intended as the basis for a commercial recreation business.
The Adventure Tourism Policy defines Incidental Use in the Adventure Tourism Policy under “Appendix 1: Incidental Use for AT Guiding Purposes.” A PDF of the complete policy can be downloaded here. The text of Appendix 1 is below.
Incidental Use refers to intermittent and dispersed AT guiding activities on provincial Crown land, recognizing the minimal impact on the land. Specifically, Incidental Use refers to:
- Temporary AT guiding activities conducted by an AT Tenure holder outside their Extensive Use Area to address safety matters during unforeseen environmental events;
- Temporary staff training activities conducted by an AT Tenure holder outside their Extensive Use Area due to environmental conditions within the tenure area;
- AT activities which are ancillary to the primary AT activity under Tenure and use the same facilities and modes of transport as the primary Tenured activity. This includes AT activities carried out by a Guide Territory Certificate Holder within their Guide Territory area;
- Temporary AT tent camping up to 14 consecutive calendar days(7); or
- Untenured AT operators under the following circumstances:
- AT outdoor education or training activities which are no more than 3 consecutive days in length and occur with a maximum of 21 days total in a calendar year, or
- low impact hiking, climbing and ski touring activities, which includes occasional motorized air access, carried out in a dispersed manner by members of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides or Canadian Ski Guides Association. Note that motorized access (e.g. helicopter) cannot be the foundation of the business model or used as a regular mechanism to transport clients for the service offered. If motorized access is foundational to the business model, application must be made for an License of Occupation for an Extensive Use Area.
The Incidental Use activities listed above will not require Tenure under this policy if all of the
following conditions are met. An operator must:
- Belong to the appropriate recognized provincial or national association for the incidental activity, or at a minimum comply with the operational, safety, experiential and service standards (i.e best practices) for the activity.
- Obtain the appropriate liability insurance for the proposed activity;
- Adhere to the Backcountry Recreation/Tourism Wildlife Guidelines;
- Keep the groups size to the maximum of 15 participants to minimize any damage to the environment and disturbance to wildlife;
- Avoid popular(8) public recreation/tourism areas and trails;
- Construct no Improvements(9); and
- Notify AT Tenure holders in writing of the proposed Incidental Use activity within a reasonable time-frame (preferably 14 days) prior to commencing the activity.
(7) For the purposes of calculating 14 consecutive days, a period of consecutive days is cumulative unless the person and their vehicle and equipment, as the case may be, are not present on the site for a period of at least 72 consecutive hours.
(8) ‘Popular public recreation/tourism areas on Crown land’ are not defined solely by high use numbers – for example, in remote areas ‘popular’ recreation/tourism areas are expected to have low interactions with other people and contain a key recreation resource feature, such as a sand beach, waterfall, hotspring etc.
(9) Temporary tent camping is permitted.
An AT operator must apply for Tenure under the AT Policy prior to carrying out activities on Crown
land if they do not comply with the definition and above conditions for Incidental Use.
An AT operator undertaking ‘Incidental Use’ activities has no Tenure for those activities and no
rights to the land – they will not be given any consideration for comment or referral when new
Land Act Tenure applications or modifications are being reviewed beyond what is done for the
general public.
If there are substantive concerns raised with the Authorizing Agency related to an Incidental Use
activity (e.g. unfair competition issues raised by the overlapping AT Tenure holder) the AT
operator may, at the Authorizing Agency’s discretion, be directed to cease the Incidental Use
activities and apply for an License of Occupation for an Extensive Use Area under this policy.