Land for sale in Manitoulin District, Ontario

About Manitoulin District

The area

Manitoulin District sits in northern Lake Huron, between the North Channel and Georgian Bay. Its 3,074 km² of land is mostly Manitoulin Island itself, about 2,765 km² and the largest island in any lake in the world, plus Cockburn, Barrie and smaller islands. The district had about 13,900 people in 2021. The island is limestone with a ragged, rocky shore and many inland lakes, and the Kagawong, Manitou, Mindemoya and Blue Jay Creek are its main rivers. The largest communities in 2021 were Wiikwemkoong (about 2,700), Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands, which includes Little Current (about 2,600), and Central Manitoulin, around Mindemoya (about 2,200). Gore Bay had about 800.

History

The island is home to Odawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi people, and six Anishinaabe First Nations communities are here today. Under the 1862 McDougall Treaty most of the island was opened to settlers, but Wiikwemkoong, on the eastern peninsula, refused to sign and remains unceded territory. Settlers farmed where the soil allowed, and the island became known for turkeys and later sheep, with logging and commercial fishing that have since faded.

Services and access

Manitoulin Health Centre runs hospitals in Little Current and Mindemoya, both with emergency departments; check its website for current status. Health Sciences North in Sudbury is the regional hospital for northeastern Ontario. Highway 6 is the only road onto the island: it leaves Highway 17 at Espanola and crosses the Little Current Swing Bridge, a single-lane bridge that opens for boats in summer. From May to October the province's Chi-Cheemaun ferry carries cars between South Baymouth and Tobermory, a crossing of under two hours. The nearest scheduled flights leave Greater Sudbury Airport; Sudbury is about two hours from the island by road. Farming and tourism are the main industries.

Land and climate

Good soil is patchy, but farming has always mattered here. Rural lots usually rely on private septic systems, and Public Health Sudbury & Districts must approve the septic system before a municipality will issue a building permit.

Before you buy

The Manitoulin Planning Board in Gore Bay approves severances and subdivisions and handles zoning amendments for every municipality except Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands, which has its own planning and building department. Building permits come from the municipality (Billings and Northeastern Manitoulin, for example, each have a building official). In the unincorporated townships of Dawson and Robinson the board also handles zoning and building approvals, and its by-law there sets a 20 m setback for dwellings and septic systems from inland lakes, keeps the 20 m shore road allowance vegetated, and limits building near the Lake Huron 100-year flood line. The six First Nations govern their own lands.

Sources

• Manitoulin Planning Board: mandate, forms, Dawson and Robinson zoning by-law 2022-05
• Statistics Canada, 2021 Census population and dwelling counts (tables 98-10-0002, 98-10-0007)
• The Canadian Encyclopedia, Manitoulin Island
• Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, History
• Destination Ontario, Manitoulin Island
• Manitoulin Health Centre
• Health Sciences North, About
• Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands, driving directions and planning and building
• Owen Sound Transportation Company, Who We Are
• Greater Sudbury Airport, airlines
• Township of Billings, building and renovating
• Manitoulin Expositor, Little Current Swing Bridge replacement contract

Written by AcreScout from the sources listed; facts checked October 1, 2026. Rules change: confirm anything that matters with the municipality.