Docks and the foreshore at Okanagan Landing

On Okanagan Lake, your lot usually ends at the natural boundary. The lakebed past it belongs to the Province, so a private dock is a use of Crown land, and it needs to be authorized.

General Permission or Specific Permission

The Province grants a General Permission for many private docks on lakes: build and use it within the published conditions and you’re deemed authorized without an application. It isn’t available in designated application-only areas, and a dock that doesn’t meet every condition needs a Specific Permission (a one-time $250 application fee at the time of writing). Stand-alone boat lifts, boat ramps and group moorage also need a Specific Permission.

Rules every dock has to meet

• One dock per waterfront property.
• It can’t block public passage along the foreshore.
• No fill below the natural boundary, no dredging, no solid-core cribs.
• No covered structures or non-moorage uses on the dock.
• Local bylaws, Transport Canada and building rules still apply.

Fish habitat matters on this lake

Parts of the Okanagan shoreline are critical kokanee spawning habitat under the Okanagan Large Lakes Foreshore Protocol. A new or rebuilt dock in a sensitive zone may need a qualified environmental professional, and an unauthorized dock there can be ordered removed at the owner’s cost.

When you’re buying

• Ask the seller for the dock authorization and any boat-lift permission.
• Don’t assume the authorization transfers automatically. Confirm with FrontCounter BC (1-877-855-3222) what the new owner needs to do.
• Check the dock’s condition and the lift’s service history.
• In a strata, read the moorage bylaws: who gets a slip, what it costs, and whether there’s a waitlist. More in boating and moorage in Okanagan Landing.
• Look at the dock in a low-water month too. Okanagan Lake levels explains why.

Sean’s longer dock guide lives on Vernon Waterfront Homes.

Source: Province of B.C., Crown land private moorage program, checked October 2026. Not legal advice.