It's a lot more complicated than that, actually.
In Canada, almost all of the land (over 90%) is owned by either the queen, referred to as "crown land" (represented by the federal government). Another 8% is owned by the First Nations (you call them Indians down south) ie: the "Reserve Lands". In the early 1900s, the Federal government turned over control of about half of the queen's land (48% of all the land in the country) to the Provincial governments (like State governments in the USA).
There are a few other types of land, not owned by the queen (crown):
1) The railways were given ownership of a bunch of land in exchange for building the railways. That land is true Freehold. The railways own it in every way, up to a height of some number of feet that I forget and to the highest expected edge of any waterways (high tide for the ocean, spring run for rivers, etc..)
2) SOME small amounts of land were given by the queens/kings to various people or companies between about 1600 AD and 1930 AD. These are sometimes Freeholds and sometimes Fee Tail (basically you can't sell it and it can only pass to your next in line heir, if you have no heir, it reverts to the crown). Some were also Life Estates that couldn't be sold or passed on to heirs but I don't think there are any of those left, there might be.
3) The First Nations used to be considered Fee Simple, but our wonderful court system has invented a whole new kind of ownership called "aboriginal title" which is extremely confusing and means something different depending on who you talk to. That court decision basically put Canada into a recession for the forseeable future.
Other than the First Nations, Railways and the tiny bits of land that were given away by the queens/kings, it's all still government land.
People who "buy" land or are "given" land by the federal or provincial governments are not actually the owners of the land. Their interest in the land is a "Land Tenure" referred to as "Fee Simple Tenure". They THINK they "own" it, but, they don't. One HUGE important difference is that the government owns all the resources. That includes: mineral resources, trees, water from the ground (but not rainwater if you catch it before it hits the ground), the air above the land and almost anything else you can think of.
So, unless you have Aboriginal Title or have land that was either part of the railway lands or was one of the tiny number of freeholds (many were given to the church and the church makes a point of buying any freeholds they can get their hands on), you are basically a tenant on government land and you need a permit to cut down a tree.
Logging companies pay stumpage fees that are set by the provincial or federal government, oil companies pay oil royalties to the provincial or federal government, etc...
And if you dig a hole in your backyard and find gold, not only does it not belong to you but whoever files a claim on it first can come in and turn your entire property into a pit mine and they don't have to compensate you at all. You also can't keep licensed prospectors from coming onto your land and taking "samples" which can be truckloads of rock at a time.
Many people don't know or understand all this, which is why we didn't have our own version of the American Revolution.
Sorry for the history lesson, but I thought that it might be interesting. If not, why did you read all the way down to here?
That court decision basically put Canada into a recession for the forseeable future.
