Alberta Natural Resources Act (S.C. 1930, c. 3)

Memorandum of Agreement made this fourteenth day of December, 1929,

BETWEEN

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DOMINION OF CANADA, represented herein by the Honourable Ernest Lapointe, Minister of Justice, and the Honourable Charles Stewart, Minister of the Interior,

Of the first part,

AND

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE OF ALBERTA, represented herein by the Honourable John Edward Brownlee, Premier of Alberta, and the Honourable George Hoadley, Minister of Agriculture and Health,

Of the second part.

Footnote ^*Whereas by section twenty-one of The Alberta Act, being chapter three of four and five Edward the Seventh, it was provided that “All Crown lands, mines and minerals and royalties incident thereto, and the interest of the Crown in the waters within the province under The North-west Irrigation Act, 1898, shall continue to be vested in the Crown and administered by the Government of Canada for the purposes of Canada, subject to the provisions of any Act of the Parliament of Canada with respect to road allowances and roads or trails in force immediately before the coming into force of this Act, which shall apply to the said province with the substitution therein of the said province for the North-west Territories”;

• Return to footnote ^*[Note: Act in force on assent May 30, 1930.]

And Whereas it is desirable that the Province should be placed in a position of equality with the other provinces of Confederation with respect to the administration and control of its natural resources as from its entrance into Confederation in 1905;

And Whereas it has been agreed between Canada and the said Province that the provisions of The Alberta Act should be modified as herein set out;

Now Therefore This Agreement Witnesseth:

Transfer of Public Lands Generally

• 1 In order that the Province may be in the same position as the original Provinces of Confederation are in virtue of section one hundred and nine of the British North America Act, 1867, the interest of the Crown in all Crown lands, mines, minerals (precious and base) and royalties derived therefrom within the Province and the interest of the Crown in the waters and water-powers within the Province under the North-west Irrigation Act, 1898, and the Dominion Water Power Act, and all sums due or payable for such lands, mines, minerals or royalties, or for interests or rights in or to the use of such waters or water-powers, shall, from and after the coming into force of this agreement and subject as therein otherwise provided, belong to the Province, subject to any trusts existing in respect thereof, and to any interest other than that of the Crown in the same, and the said lands, mines, minerals and royalties shall be administered by the Province for the purposes thereof, subject, until the Legislature of the Province otherwise provides, to the provisions of any Act of the Parliament of Canada relating to such administration; any payment received by Canada in respect of any such lands, mines, minerals or royalties before the coming into force of this agreement shall continue to belong to Canada whether paid in advance or otherwise, it being the intention that, except as herein otherwise specially provided, Canada shall not be liable to account to the Province for any payment made in respect of any of the said lands, mines, minerals or royalties before the coming into force of this agreement, and that the Province shall not be liable to account to Canada for any such payment made thereafter.

• 2 The Province will carry out in accordance with the terms thereof every contract to purchase or lease any Crown lands, mines or minerals and every other arrangement whereby any person has become entitled to any interest therein as against the Crown, and further agrees not to affect or alter any term of any such contract to purchase, lease or other arrangement by legislation or otherwise, except either with the consent of all the parties thereto other than Canada or in so far as any legislation may apply generally to all similar agreements relating to lands, mines or minerals in the Province or to interests therein, irrespective of who may be the parties thereto or is legislation relating to the conservation of oil resources or gas resources or both by the control or regulation of the production of oil or gas or both, whether by restriction or prohibition and whether generally or with respect to any specified area or any specified well or wells or by repressuring of any oil field, gas field or oil-gas field, and, incidentally thereto, providing for the compulsory purchase of any well or wells.

• 3 Any power or right, which, by any such contract, lease or other arrangement, or by any Act of the parliament of Canada relating to any of the lands, mines, minerals or royalties hereby transferred or by any regulation made under any such Act, is reserved to the Governor in Council or to the Minister of the Interior or any other officer of the Government of Canada, may be exercised by such officer of the Government of the Province as may, be specified by the Legislature thereof from time to time and until otherwise directed, may be exercised by the Provincial Secretary of the Province.

• 4 The Province will perform every obligation of Canada arising by virtue of the provisions of any statute or order in council or regulation in respect of the public lands to be administered by it hereunder to any person entitled to a grant of lands by way of subsidy for the construction of railways or otherwise or to any railway company for grants of lands for right of way, road bed, stations, station grounds, work-shops, buildings, yards, ballast pits or other appurtenances.

• 5 The Province will further be bound by and will, with respect to any lands or interests in lands to which the Hudson’s Bay Company may be entitled, carry out the terms and conditions of the Deed of Surrender from the said Company to the Crown as modified by the Dominion Lands Act and the Agreement dated the 23rd day of December, 1924, between His Majesty and the said Company, which said Agreement was approved by Order in Council dated the 19th day of December, 1924 (P.C. 2158), and in particular the Province will grant to the Company any lands in the Province which the Company may be entitled to select and may select from the lists of lands furnished to the Company by the Minister of the Interior under and pursuant to the said Agreement of the 23rd day of December, 1924, and will release and discharge the reservation in patents referred to in clause three of the said agreement, in case such release and discharge has not been made prior to the coming into force of this agreement. Nothing in this agreement, or in any agreement varying the same as hereinafter provided, shall in any way prejudice or diminish the rights of the Hudson’s Bay Company or affect any right to or interest in land acquired or held by the said Company pursuant to the Deed of Surrender from it to the Crown, the Dominion Lands Act or the said Agreement of the 23rd day of December, 1924.

School Lands Fund and School Lands

• 6 Upon the coming into force of this agreement, Canada will transfer to the Province the money or securities constituting that portion of the school lands fund, created under sections twenty-two and twenty-three of The Act to amend and consolidate the several Acts respecting Public Lands of the Dominion, being chapter thirty-one of forty-two Victoria, and subsequent statutes, which is derived from the disposition of any school lands within the Province or within that part of the Northwest Territories now included within the boundaries thereof.

• 7 The School Lands Fund to be transferred to the Province as aforesaid, and such of the school lands specified in section thirty-seven of the Dominion Lands Act, being chapter one hundred and thirteen of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927, as pass to the administration of the Province under the terms hereof, shall be set aside and shall continue to be administered by the Province in accordance, mutatis mutandis, with the provisions of sections thirty-seven to forty of the Dominion Lands Act, for the support of schools organized and carried on therein in accordance with the law of the Province. The Province will, notwithstanding anything in this Agreement, invest money to which this paragraph applies in securities of Canada, or of a Province, or of a municipal corporation, school district or school division in the Province of Alberta, or in securities guaranteed by Canada or a Province, to form a school fund, and will apply the interest arising therefrom, after deducting the cost of management, for the support of schools organized and carried on in accordance with the law of the Province.

Water

• 8 Canada agrees that the provision contained in section four of the Dominion Water Power Act, being chapter two hundred and ten of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927, that every undertaking under the said Act is declared to be a work for the general advantage of Canada, shall stand repealed as from the date of the coming into force of this agreement in so far as the same applies to undertakings within the Province; nothing in this paragraph shall be deemed to affect the legislative competence of the Parliament of Canada to make hereafter any declaration under the tenth head of section ninety-two of the British North America Act, 1867.

Fisheries

• 9 Except as herein otherwise provided, all rights of fishery shall, after the coming into force of this agreement, belong to and be administered by the Province, and the Province shall have the right to dispose of all such rights of fishery by sale, licence or otherwise, subject to the exercise by the Parliament of Canada of its legislative jurisdiction over sea-coast and inland fisheries.

Indian Reserves

• 10 All lands included in Indian reserves within the Province, including those selected and surveyed but not yet confirmed, as well as those confirmed, shall continue to be vested in the Crown and administered by the Government of Canada for the purposes of Canada, and the Province will from time to time, upon the request of the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, set aside, out of the unoccupied Crown lands hereby transferred to its administration, such further areas as the said Superintendent General may, in agreement with the appropriate Minister of the Province, select as necessary to enable Canada to fulfil its obligations under the treaties with the Indians of the Province, and such areas shall thereafter be administered by Canada in the same way in all respects as if they had never passed to the Province under the provisions hereof.

• 11 The provisions of paragraphs one to six inclusive and of paragraph eight of the agreement made between the Government of the Dominion of Canada and the Government of the Province of Ontario on the 24th day of March, 1924, which said agreement was confirmed by statute of Canada, fourteen and fifteen George the Fifth chapter forty-eight, shall (except so far as they relate to the Bed of Navigable Waters Act) apply to the lands included in such Indian reserves as may hereafter be set aside under the last preceding clause as if the said agreement had been made between the parties hereto, and the provisions of the said paragraphs shall likewise apply to the lands included in the reserves heretofore selected and surveyed, except that neither the said lands nor the proceeds of the disposition thereof shall in any circumstances become administrable by or be paid to the Province.

• 12 In order to secure to the Indians of the Province the continuance of the supply of game and fish for their support and subsistence, Canada agrees that the laws respecting game in force in the Province from time to time shall apply to the Indians within the boundaries thereof, provided however, that the said Indians shall have the right, which the Province hereby assures to them, of hunting, trapping and fishing game and fish for food at all seasons of the year on all unoccupied Crown lands and on any other lands to which the said Indians may have a right of access.

Soldier Settlement Lands

• 13 All interests in Crown lands in the Province upon the security of which any advance has been made under the provisions of the Soldier Settlement Act, being chapter 188 of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927, and amending Acts, shall continue to be vested in and administered by the Government of Canada for the purposes of Canada.

National Parks

• 14 The parks mentioned in the schedule hereto shall continue as national parks and the lands included therein, as the same are described in the orders in council in the said schedule referred to (except such of the said lands as may be hereafter excluded therefrom), together with the mines and minerals (precious and base) in each of the said parks and the royalties incident thereto, shall continue to be vested in and administered by the Government of Canada as national parks, but in the event of the Parliament of Canada at any time declaring that the said lands or any part thereof are no longer required for park purposes, the lands, mines, minerals (precious and base) and the royalties incident thereto, specified in any such declaration, shall forthwith upon the making thereof belong to the Province, and the provisions of paragraph three of this agreement shall apply thereto as from the date of such declaration.

• 15 The Parliament of Canada shall have exclusive legislative jurisdiction within the whole area included within the outer boundaries of each of the said parks notwithstanding that portions of such area may not form part of the park proper; the laws now in force within the said area shall continue in force only until changed by the Parliament of Canada or under its authority, provided, however, that all laws of the Province now or hereafter in force, which are not repugnant to any law or regulation made applicable within the said area by or under the authority of the Parliament of Canada, shall extend to and be enforceable within the same, and that all general taxing acts passed by the Province shall apply within the same unless expressly excluded from application therein by or under the authority of the Parliament of Canada.

• 16 The Government of Canada will introduce into the Parliament of Canada such legislation as may be necessary to exclude from the parks aforesaid certain areas forming part of certain of the said parks which have been delimited as including the lands now forming part thereof which are of substantial commercial value, the boundaries of the areas to be so excluded having been heretofore agreed upon by representatives of Canada and of the Province, and the Province agrees that upon the exclusion of the said areas as so agreed upon, it will not, by works outside the boundaries of any of the said parks, reduce the flow of water in any of the rivers or streams within the same to less than that which the Minister of the Interior may deem necessary adequately to preserve the scenic beauties of the said parks.

Seed Grain, Etc., Liens

• 17 Every lien upon any interest in any unpatented land passing to the Province under this agreement, which is now held by Canada as security for an advance made by Canada for seed grain, fodder or other relief, shall continue to be vested in Canada, but the Province will, on behalf of Canada, collect the sums due in respect of such advances, except so far as the same are agreed to be uncollectible, and upon payment of any such advance, any document required to be executed to discharge the lien may be executed by such officer of the Province as may be authorized by any provincial law in that behalf; the Province will account for and pay to Canada all sums belonging to Canada collected hereunder, subject to such deduction to meet the expenses of collection as may be agreed upon between the Minister of the Interior and the Provincial Secretary or such other Minister of the Province as may be designated in that behalf under the laws thereof.

General Reservation to Canada

• 18 Except as herein otherwise expressly provided, nothing in this agreement shall be interpreted as applying so as to affect or transfer to the administration of the Province (a) any lands for which Crown grants have been made and registered under the Land Titles Act of the Province and of which His Majesty the King in the right of His Dominion of Canada is, or is entitled to become the registered owner at the date upon which the agreement comes into force, or (b) any ungranted lands of the Crown upon which public money of Canada has been expended or which are, at the date upon which this agreement comes into force, in use or reserved by Canada for the purpose of the federal administration.

Historic Sites, Bird Sanctuaries, Etc.

• 19 The Province will not dispose of any historic site which is notified to it by Canada as such and which Canada undertakes to maintain as an historic site. The Province will further continue and preserve as such the bird sanctuaries and public shooting grounds which have been already established and will set aside such additional bird sanctuaries and public shooting grounds as may hereafter be established by agreement between the Minister of the Interior and the Provincial Secretary or such other Minister of the Province as may be specified under the laws thereof.

• 19a The Province may discontinue any bird sanctuary or public shooting ground which was transferred to the Province by virtue of this Agreement or which has since been established by the Province or which may hereafter be established by the Province pursuant to this Agreement in any case in which an agreement is entered into between the Minister of Mines and Resources of Canada and the Minister of Lands and Mines of Alberta approved by the Governor in Council and the Lieutenant Governor in Council respectively, providing for the discontinuance of any such bird sanctuary or public shooting ground.

Financial Terms

• 20 In lieu of the provision made by subsection one of section twenty of The Alberta Act, Canada will, from and after the date of the coming into force of this agreement, pay to the Province by half-yearly payments in advance, on the first days of January and July in each year, an annual sum based upon the population of the Province as from time to time ascertained by the quinquennial census thereof, as follows:

  The sum payable until the population of the said Province reaches eight hundred thousand shall be five hundred and sixty-two thousand five hundred dollars;

  Thereafter, until such population reaches one million two hundred thousand, the sum payable shall be seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars;

  And thereafter the sum payable shall be one million one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.

• 21 If at the date of the coming into force of this agreement any payment has been made under subsection one of section twenty of The Alberta Act in respect of any half-year commencing before but terminating after the said date, a proportionate part of the payment so made shall be taken as having been made under the provisions hereof.

• 22 It is agreed that the Honourable W.F.A. Turgeon, a Judge of the Court of Appeal of Saskatchewan, Charles M. Bowman, of the Town of Waterloo, in the Province of Ontario, Esquire, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada, and Fred E. Osborne, Esquire, Mayor of the City of Calgary, or, if any of the foregoing cannot act, then such other person or persons as may be agreed upon, will be appointed commissioners under Part One of the Inquiries Act to enquire and report whether any, and, if any, what consideration, in addition to the sums provided in paragraph twenty hereof, should be paid to the Province in order that the Province may be placed in a position of equality with the other Provinces of Confederation with respect to the administration and control of its natural resources as from its entrance into Confederation in 1905, such commissioners to be empowered to decide what financial or other considerations are relevant to the enquiry, and the report to be submitted to the Parliament of Canada and to the Legislature of Alberta; and if by the said report, the payment of any additional consideration is recommended, then, upon agreement between the Governments of Canada and of the Province following the submission of such report, the said Governments will respectively introduce the legislation necessary to give effect to such agreement.

Records

• 23 Canada will, after the coming into force of this agreement, deliver to the Province from time to time at the request of the Province the originals or complete copies of all records in any department of the Government of Canada relating exclusively to dealings with Crown lands, mines and minerals, and royalties derived therefrom within the Province, and will give to the Province access to all other records, documents or entries relating to any such dealings and permit to be copied by the Province any of the documents required by it for the effective administration of the Crown lands, mines, minerals and royalties.

Amendment of Agreement

• 24 The foregoing provisions of this agreement may be varied by agreement confirmed by concurrent statutes of the Parliament of Canada and the Legislature of the Province.

When Agreement Comes into Force

• 25 This agreement is made subject to its being approved by the Parliament of Canada and by the Legislature of the Province of Alberta, and shall take effect on the first day of the calendar month beginning next after the day upon which His Majesty gives His Assent to an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland confirming the same.

In Witness Whereof the Honourable Ernest Lapointe, Minister of Justice, and the Honourable Charles Stewart, Minister of the Interior, have hereunto set their hands on behalf of the Dominion of Canada, and the Honourable John Edward Brownlee, Premier of Alberta, and the Honourable George Hoadley, Minister of Agriculture and Health thereof, have hereunto set their hands on behalf of the Province of Alberta.