Where Edwards works

Why the town matters

North Bay vs the surrounding communities: what actually changes

A patio is a patio, but the ground under it and the office that permits it are not the same from town to town. Here is the short version of what changes once you leave the city.

Landscaping and construction in Muskoka

Muskoka is roughly two hours south of North Bay on Highway 11, and it is the second area Kayden named as primary. It is Canadian Shield country with more than 640 lakes over eight hectares, and roughly two thirds of the district is mapped as bedrock at or near the surface. Rock is a normal part of foundations, driveways, and septic beds here rather than a surprise. Close to 40 percent of Muskoka homes are seasonal, so a great deal of the work is opening, restoring, and finishing cottage property. Muskoka sits outside every conservation authority in Ontario, which means there is no conservation authority permit to pull. Approvals run through the area municipality, the District, and the province instead. The District’s own engineering standards design to a frost depth of 1.5 to 1.8 metres. Read the full Muskoka page.

Landscaping and construction in Huntsville

Huntsville is about 129 km south on Highway 11, roughly an hour and a half, and it is Muskoka’s most populous municipality at 21,147 people. It is also the one place on this list with no zoning by-law at all. In 2023 Huntsville replaced both zoning and site plan control with a Community Planning Permit system that regulates site alteration, grading, fill placement, and vegetation removal across the whole town. A permit is required for any development on a waterfront property, shoreline buffers have to be kept 15 metres deep across at least 75 percent of the lot, and conditions can include a tree preservation plan. Many waterfront owners also do not own the shore road allowance between their lot and the water. The town core sits on sand and gravel outwash that digs easily, while lots a few kilometres out are commonly rock at surface. Read the full Huntsville page.

Landscaping and construction in Sturgeon Falls

Sturgeon Falls is about 40 minutes west on Highway 17. The town is built on a sand and gravel delta the Sturgeon River pushed into glacial Lake Algonquin, roughly seven kilometres by five, with old wind-blown dunes two to five metres high sitting on top of it. Step off the delta and the ground changes to flat, poorly drained silt and clay plains with bedrock knobs poking through. It is the same municipality and two completely different digs. West Nipissing also sits outside any conservation authority, so shoreline and floodplain rules come from the municipality’s own official plan and zoning by-law rather than a conservation authority permit, which catches out contractors used to working in North Bay. On a waterfront lot a natural buffer has to be kept across at least half the lot to a depth of 7.5 metres, and it cannot be lawn. French is the mother tongue of most residents. Read the full Sturgeon Falls page.

Landscaping and construction in Callander

Callander is minutes south of North Bay on Highway 11, and it is the one community here that sits in Parry Sound District rather than Nipissing, while still falling under the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority for both septic and shoreline permits. Municipal water and sewer stop at the urban service area, roughly 780 properties, so most of Callander including much of the waterfront is on private well and septic. Anything within 120 metres of water that drains into Callander Bay faces mandatory septic inspections every five years, because the bay is treated as over capacity for phosphorus. The conservation authority names regrading, filling, hardscape, and retaining walls as work that needs a permit, which surprises most homeowners. Read the full Callander page.

Landscaping and construction in Mattawa

Mattawa is about 60 km east on Highway 17, roughly 45 minutes, where the Mattawa and Ottawa rivers meet in a rift valley. The geology here is documented better than anywhere else on this list. Boreholes drilled downtown for highway work hit gneiss bedrock between 2.9 and 4.3 metres, refused on boulders as shallow as 2.3 metres, and found the water table 1.4 metres down near the rivers. Mattawa also publishes a minimum 1.2 metre depth of bury for deck foundations, which most municipalities do not. Flooding here is current rather than historical: the town declared a state of emergency in 2019 when the Ottawa River rose 4.25 metres, and water passed the major flood threshold again in May 2026. Town lots have municipal water and sewer; everything outside is well and septic. Read the full Mattawa page.

Landscaping and construction in Corbeil

Corbeil is about 20 km east on Highway 94, in the Municipality of East Ferris, sitting on the La Vase River between Trout Lake and Lake Nosbonsing. The single most important fact about working here is that every property in East Ferris is on a private septic system. There is no municipal sewer or water anywhere in the municipality. A renovation that increases a house by 15 percent or more triggers a mandatory conservation authority septic review. In practice that means every patio, driveway, retaining wall, and pool has to be laid out around a septic bed and its setbacks before anything else is decided. Corbeil is also where the Dionne quintuplets were born in 1934, though their doctor practised in Callander and the farmhouse itself now sits on the North Bay waterfront. Read the full Corbeil page.

Landscaping and construction in Bonfield

Bonfield is about 20 minutes east, reached by Highway 531 off Highway 17. Like East Ferris, the township has no municipal water or sewer anywhere within it, so every job runs on private well and septic with conservation authority permits. The province has identified a significant number of lots in Bonfield with steep slopes, which are treated as hazardous sites and can require engineering before anything is built on them. Talon Lake and Kaibuskong Bay were both assessed as at capacity in 2017 and cannot absorb more development without ecological impact. Bonfield also has the fastest per capita growth of any community in the Nipissing district, and construction is one of its largest employing industries. Read the full Bonfield page.

Landscaping and construction in Burk’s Falls

Burk’s Falls is about 90 km south on Highway 11, in the Almaguin Highlands, and it is the one place on this list where a single project can involve three separate offices. The village has no building department of its own, so permits are issued by a Joint Building Committee based in Sundridge that serves seven municipalities. The village signs off zoning compliance separately, and that form has to be submitted with the application or it is deemed incomplete. Septic goes to the conservation authority’s Parry Sound office, which handles septic across the district even where it has no watershed jurisdiction. The village has municipal water and sewer inside its boundary, drawn from the Magnetawan River; step outside and it is well and septic again. Read the full Burk’s Falls page.

North Bay

North Bay is home. Edwards Landscape & Construction is based at 850 Lakeshore Drive and works across the city and its neighbourhoods year round, from West Ferris and Pinewood to the waterfront. Most city lots are on municipal water and sewer, which removes the septic constraint that shapes so much of the surrounding work, and replaces it with buried services that have to be located before anything is dug. Everything on the five service pages is built here first. Read the full North Bay page.

Service area FAQ

Service area questions, answered