I was wondering along similar lines. The land they're near is isolated, so the property taxes would be minimal and their probably would be no zoning regs. But I was wondering how they got their hands on the land, or if they even own the land. From what I've seen, the govs in Canada are notoriously resistant to opening up government-owned land to homesteading. I don't mean land designated as a park, I mean land that's in the hands of the gov because it's de facto unowned: i.e., no-one wants to use it for anything as of now. Because of that tight-fistedness, I was wondering if they even own the adjoining land at all...