Whose line is the drain?

Desk · 25 September 2026

Water is the fastest way to find out that four governments can own one ditch. A municipal drain sits on an RM or MD inventory. A watershed or conservation district may levy for work in the same channel. A provincial licence may be the only paper that makes the work legal. And the neighbour who cleaned the approach in 2003 still talks as if that settled title.

If you write in, bring the quarter, the year the work was done, and the letterhead on the last invoice. “They should fix the flooding” is a mood. “This licensed crossing, this district levy, this municipal minute” is something another person can check.

A note

Replies are not live yet. If you have the minute book or the licence number, send it and it can be pinned here by hand until posting is open.