996SPECticle

Some friends and I recently had a discussion about running away from the world and one brought up Alaskan homesteading. In the past a person was basically able to hop off of a train, walk into the woods, or land by parachute and build and occupy a house for a period of time and the land became theirs, I don't know the acreage they got but it wasn't trivial, maybe ~100 acres. This was done away with as far as I can tell in the late '80s.

I was curious to know if Canadia ever had such a homestead provision or if one might still be in use. Is there a distinction between US or Canadian citizens doing such a thing? Any hurdles for an American to own land up there? Are there large chunks of land in the north that are owned by the Crown or is it privately owned?
Lets say you got some land this way or simply bought it, does a landowner get the mineral rights automatically or are they sometimes separable?
Thanks, i'm just musing out the window on this slow sunny day
Yes, Im thinking forward considering global warming!

Christien

I was just looking some of this stuff up the other day. The vast majority of Ontario is crown land (85%). You can't just claim it as yours, you have to buy it from the government. You can, however, camp on most of it, free of charge.

https://www.ontario.ca/page/crown-land

JimV8

There was a homesteading provision in the past but that went away a long time ago. As Christien said one may occupy crown land but not on a permanent basis. There are however many parcels for sale across the country.

http://www.dignam.com