No camping rules often prove difficult to enforce

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But it now seems there is a more definitive answer to the question of whether you can pitch a tent there

“Camping is not allowed on Bowen Island, including Crown land,” said chief administrative officer Liam Edwards during Monday’s council meeting He went on to explain, “Just to be explicitly clear, staff have confirmed with the province that the provincial land use policy for use of Crown land does not apply to municipal crown land – crown land that’s wholly within municipal boundary Because of that clari- fication, and since camping is not an allowable use in our land use bylaw, it’s therefore not allowed on Bowen,” says Edwards But while that may be the case on paper, the reality of enforcing Bowen’s no camping rules are another matter Edwards says this is partly due to the lack of a clear bylaw regarding camping on Crown land “In the courts it would be better if we had a bylaw that was really explicit about no camping on municipal Crown land Without any clear definition about that in our bylaws, and without any bylaws that speak to enforcement and fining and such,