An Ontario Superior Court judge has ordered a personal watercraft rental company to immediately cease its operations1 in the Town of Wasaga Beach, granting an interim injunction sought by the municipality in a heated dispute over business licensing and jurisdiction. The decision, released on August 11, 2025, found that Wasaga Jet Ski Rentals was operating within the Town’s boundaries without a valid licence, despite the company’s argument that its business was conducted exclusively on a federally regulated waterway. The ruling by Justice J. Speyer effectively shuts down the company’s activities on the Nottawasaga River pending a future, more comprehensive court hearing on the matter.
The legal conflict began to take shape more than a year ago. In May 2024, Lake Simcoe Jet Ski Rentals Ltd., operating under the name Wasaga Jet Ski Rentals, successfully applied for and received a business licence from the Town. The company established its base of operations at 72 Main Street in Wasaga Beach, a property that backs onto the Nottawasaga River, where it moored its fleet of personal watercraft at a dock. For a time, the business operated under this municipal licence. However, the relationship between the company and local authorities soured significantly by the summer of 2025.
According to court documents, by June 2025, the Town and the Ontario Provincial Police had issued several provincial offence notices to the company, alleging it was operating contrary to the conditions stipulated in its business licence. These infractions prompted a meeting on June 24, 2025, which included a Town by-law enforcement officer, representatives from the OPP, and an official from Transport Canada, who met with the company to provide education on its licence conditions and other applicable safety regulations. The two sides presented conflicting accounts of this meeting in court. An affidavit from Racheael Ivak, the Town’s Coordinator of Municipal Law Enforcement, stated that officials observed additional by-law infractions during the meeting itself, leading to another charge being laid. Conversely, Rosen Andonov, the owner of Wasaga Jet Ski Rentals, stated in his affidavit that the meeting concluded with a determination that his company was fully compliant with all relevant water activity rules and federal and provincial laws. The days following the meeting saw further reports of safety related infractions being made to the OPP.
The escalating series of alleged violations culminated on July 3, 2025, when the Town of Wasaga Beach formally revoked the company’s business licence. Wasaga Jet Ski Rentals was informed of the decision, and on July 9, the company acknowledged the revocation and filed a request for an appeal through the Town’s Chief Administrative Officer. That appeal remains pending. Despite the revocation and the pending appeal, the company continued its rental operations from its 72 Main Street location. This defiance led to numerous charges for the offence of operating a business without a licence. The company continued its activities undeterred until it was served with the Town’s notice of application to the court, a move that signalled a significant escalation in the legal battle.
Faced with a court application seeking to shut it down, Wasaga Jet Ski Rentals altered its business model in an apparent attempt to remove itself from the Town’s jurisdiction. The company took steps to disassociate its physical presence from Wasaga Beach, particularly the 72 Main Street address. It shifted all customer transactions to its website, removing any mention of the physical address from its online presence. The company’s owner argued that the business was no longer being conducted wholly or partly within the Town. Instead, he claimed it operated entirely online and on the water. The core of his argument was that the Nottawasaga River and Georgian Bay are federally regulated waterways, and that the use and operation of watercraft there are beyond the legal reach, or ultra vires, of a municipal government. The company maintained a floating dock on the river near its former office, which it described as a spot for individuals to launch watercraft. Access to this floating dock from the shore was possible only via a staircase physically attached to the land at 72 Main Street.
At the court hearing on August 5, 2025, the Town of Wasaga Beach presented its case for an interim injunction. Its lawyer, Emerson Wargel, argued that despite the company’s changes, it was still carrying on a business at least partly within the municipality’s geographic area. The Town’s by-law explicitly requires any business operating wholly or partially within its limits to hold a valid licence. The Town’s central legal argument rested on the Territorial Division Act, an Ontario statute that defines municipal boundaries. The Act states that the limits of townships on rivers extend to the middle of the main channels. Since Wasaga Beach abuts both banks of the Nottawasaga River as it flows through the town, the Town argued its jurisdiction covers the entire width of the river in that section. Therefore, the company’s dock and its rental activities on the river were taking place squarely within the Town’s legal territory.
In response, Robert Karrass, counsel for Wasaga Jet Ski Rentals, argued that the company had successfully ceased all its business operations within the municipality. He framed the case around two key questions: whether the business was being carried on within the Town, and whether the Town had the jurisdiction to regulate watercraft on the Nottawasaga River and Georgian Bay. He advanced a constitutional argument, suggesting that the Town’s business licence conditions were inapplicable because of federal paramountcy over navigation.
Justice Speyer first addressed the company’s constitutional challenge. He noted that the company had failed to follow a mandatory legal procedure set out in the Courts of Justice Act. This rule requires any party questioning the constitutional validity or applicability of a by-law to serve formal notice on the Attorney General of Canada and the Attorney General of Ontario. Because this notice was not given, Justice Speyer ruled that he could not, at this interim stage, consider or grant a ruling that the Town’s by-law was invalid or inapplicable. This procedural misstep effectively sidelined the company’s primary defense for the purposes of the injunction hearing.
With the constitutional question set aside, the judge turned to the central factual issue: whether Wasaga Jet Ski Rentals was carrying on business in the Town. He decisively concluded that it was. He rejected the company’s submission that its only connection to the Town was the floating dock. Justice Speyer pointed out that renters access the dock by crossing the property at 72 Main Street and using the staircase that is physically affixed to that property. He made what he called an “easy inference” that renters were being advised, in some way, to go to the dock behind 72 Main Street to access their rented watercraft, even if the address was no longer on the website. Furthermore, the judge accepted the Town’s interpretation of the Territorial Division Act. He affirmed that because the Town abuts both banks of the river, its geographic limits include the entirety of the Nottawasaga River as it runs through Wasaga Beach. This meant the company’s floating dock and its business activities on the water were, as a matter of law, taking place within the Town.
Having found a clear breach of the by-law, Justice Speyer then considered whether to grant the temporary injunction. He explained that the legal test for an injunction to enforce a municipal by-law is different from the standard test. Normally, a party seeking an injunction must prove a serious issue to be tried, that it will suffer irreparable harm if the injunction is not granted, and that the balance of convenience favours its side. However, in cases involving a public authority enforcing its laws, the court applies a modified test. The municipality must establish a “strong prima facie case” that its by-law is being breached. If it meets this higher standard, the court does not need to consider irreparable harm or the balance of convenience. This is because the breach of a law is presumed to cause irreparable harm to the public interest, and a public authority is presumed to be acting in that interest.
Justice Speyer found that the Town had easily met this standard. There was no dispute that Wasaga Jet Ski Rentals did not have a licence, and the judge had already concluded that it was operating its business inside the Town’s geographic limits. He found no exceptional circumstances that would justify refusing the injunction. The Town also provided a formal undertaking as to damages, a standard court practice where the party seeking an injunction promises to compensate the other party for any losses if the injunction is later found to have been wrongly granted. The judge therefore ordered that, pending the full hearing of the Town’s application, Wasaga Jet Ski Rentals must cease and refrain from operating a business without a licence in the Town of Wasaga Beach, including on the Nottawasaga River within the Town’s geographic area.
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