Earlier this year the Saskatchewan Government passed the Trespass to Property Act. Before the new law was passed individuals that wished to use land for hunting, snowmobiling, or general activities, did not need to seek the permission of land owners. Land owners did have the authority to post signs if they did not want land users on their property. Under the new law, the users will  now need to seek out the permission of land owners, whether there is a sign posted or not.

Rural municipal governments praised the new law. Avid land users, not so much. It can be difficult to locate and contact a land owner. As a result users fear their ability to enjoy the best the prairie landscape has to offer will be greatly diminished.

One company is now working to alleviate those fears.

Aldo Scribante is a project manager with Western Heritage, a software company based out of Saskatoon. Aldo and a team of programmers are working on an app they're calling 'SaskLander'. The app is being designed with the purpose of connecting land users with land owners.

"We're looking to create a solution to connect land owners with potential land users. Needing permission from land owners creates a few problems. Often times land owners aren't necessarily on the land, or it's owned by a corporation, or it's just difficult to find them. We're just developing an app to facilitate the communication between owners and users. We're looking at everything you'd probably want to do on private land. Hunting, Bird Watching, Hiking, ATV, we'll give you the ability to ask for permission."

The provincial government, along with the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) acknowledged the new law could create some problems for land users. That is why they implemented the Innovation Challenge shortly after passing the new law. Western Heritage was one of a few developers that submitted plans to the program. The Innovation Challenge will provide a small amount of funding for the APP's development.

Western Heritage received $10,000 and a 16-week residency to assist in developing their solution. But Scribante says that's just a small portion of the costs for a project of this size.

"We have a small-sh team of about 5 people working on the APP. The grant really is more of an incentive. The $10,000 is a fraction of the cost we need. So it's definitely not a wholly government funded APP. We are a private company which are developing this APP and we received the small amount of help from the grant program."

Aldo says his team is hard at work on many features. The idea is users will be able to select land from a map, and alerts will be sent to the land owner to provide approval. They're also working on a rating system so land owners can rate users and vice versa. Other features will also include alerts for hunters if there are other land users nearby, and incentives to get land owners to participate in the system.

Scribante's team is now into week 3 of development, and they're hoping to have an beta test ready to go for the fall of 2019. The goal will be to test the early version of the APP for the 2019 hunting season, and hopefully roll out the completed APP for the 2020 Hunting Season.