An Act respecting the National Battlefields at Quebec (S.C. 1908, c. 57)

Marginal note:Constitution of Commission

• 1 (1) The Governor in Council may appoint seven Commissioners, who shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor in Council, and who, with any additional Commissioners who may be appointed under the authority of this Act, shall be a body politic and corporate under the name of “The National Battlefields Commission”.

• Marginal note:Commissioners appointed by provincial governments

  (2) The Government of any province which contributes a sum not less than one hundred thousand dollars to the purposes of the commission shall be entitled to appoint a commissioner, and such commissioner shall hold office during the pleasure of the Government of the province.

• Marginal note:Other commissioners

  (3) If the Government of the United Kingdom, or of any self-governing colony of the Empire, contributes a sum not less than one hundred thousand dollars to the purposes of the commission, such Government shall be entitled to appoint a commissioner, and such commissioner shall hold office during the pleasure of the Government which appoints him.

Marginal note:Chairman

2 The Governor in Council shall name one of the commissioners appointed by the Governor in Council to be chairman of the commission, and he shall hold office as such chairman during pleasure.

Marginal note:Secretary

3 The Governor in Council shall appoint a competent person to be secretary of the commission, who shall hold office during pleasure, and receive such salary as is fixed by the Governor in Council and provided by Parliament.

Marginal note:Expenses of commission

4 The commissioners, including the chairman, shall serve without remuneration, but shall be entitled to receive their actual disbursements for expenses necessarily incurred by them in the discharge of their powers or duties under this Act.

Marginal note:Powers as to battlefields

5 The commission may purchase, acquire and hold the lands or immovable property in the city of Quebec, or in the vicinity thereof, where the great battles were fought, or which were occupied by the various commands of the respective armies upon the battlefields.

Marginal note:Expropriation R.S., c. 143

• 6 (1) If the purchase of any land or immovable property, or of any interest therein, is authorized under the provisions of this Act, and the commission is unable to agree with the owner as to the purchase, acquisition or transfer thereof, or the price to be paid therefor, or if a person interested therein is incapable of making a deed or conveyance, or if for any other reason the commission deems it advisable to proceed compulsorily, proceedings may be taken under The Expropriation Act for the acquisition of the said land, immovable property, or interest therein and for the vesting of the title thereof in the commission; and in any such case, except as herein otherwise provided, all the provisions of The Expropriation Act shall, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context, apply, mutatis mutandis, to such lands or immovable property and to the acquisition thereof and to the determination of the compensation and damages.

• Marginal note:Plan and description

  (2) A plan and description purporting to be signed by the chairman and secretary of the commission shall have the same effect for the purposes of this Act as a plan and description signed by the Minister or deputy minister has under The Expropriation Act; and for all purposes of the proceedings authorized by this Act the provisions of The Expropriation Act shall, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context, be construed with the substitution of the commission for His Majesty, for the Crown and for the Minister.

• Marginal note:Information in Federal Court Proviso as to damages

  (3) In any case in which land or property is acquired, taken or injuriously affected under the authority of this Act, the Attorney General of Canada may cause an information in the name of His Majesty, upon the relation of the commission, to be exhibited in the Federal Court of Canada, and the provisions of The Expropriation Act shall, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context, apply to such information and the proceedings thereunder in the same manner, mutatis mutandis, as they apply to the like informations and proceedings on behalf of His Majesty under the said Act: Provided that His Majesty shall not in any case be liable for any compensation, damages, costs or charges incurred in such proceedings, but the relators shall be subject to the payment of such compensation, damages, costs or charges as may be adjudged by the court.

Marginal note:Powers of commission

7 The commission may,

• Marginal note:Expenditure of moneys

  (a) receive and expend any moneys, whether appropriated by Parliament or the legislatures or contributed by any municipal or other body or private individual, for the purposes authorized by this Act;

• Marginal note:Buildings, monuments, etc.

  (b) remove all buildings and other structures upon the lands taken or acquired, and erect a museum and such monuments and statues or other works as seem fitting or appropriate; and

• Marginal note:National park

  (c) lay out and construct on or through the said lands such avenues, drives or paths, gardens, squares or other works as are, in the opinion of the commission, desirable for the improvement of the grounds and the conversion thereof into a national park of a character to commemorate worthily the great events which happened there.

Marginal note:Payment of $125,000 a year for four years authorized

• 8 (1) The Minister of Finance is hereby authorized to pay out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada to the Commission the sum of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year for a period not exceeding four years from the 1st day of April, 1954, to be expended by the Commission for the purposes and subject to the provisions of this Act.

• Marginal note:Payments quarterly in each year

  (2) The amount payable to the Commission under this section shall be paid in four equal quarterly instalments on the first day of April, July, October, and January, respectively, in each fiscal year but the first of such quarterly instalments shall be paid forthwith upon the commencement of this section.

Marginal note:Appropriation of public lands

9 The Governor in Council is authorized to appropriate for the purposes of the commission all the lands or immovable property now vested in His Majesty for the military or other public purposes of Canada and forming part of the aforesaid battlefields.

Marginal note:Trust account

9.1 There shall be established in the Consolidated Revenue Fund a special account to be known as the National Battlefields Trust Account to which shall be credited

• (a) all money received by the Commission by gift, bequest or otherwise,

• (b) all money received by the Commission as interest on any securities or as rent on any property acquired by the Commission by gift, bequest or otherwise,

• (c) all money received by the Commission from the sale of any real or personal property acquired by the Commission by gift, bequest or otherwise, and

• (d) an amount representing interest on the balance from time to time to the credit of the Account, at such rates and calculated in such manner as the Governor in Council prescribes,

and to which shall be charged such amounts as are authorized by the Commission to be expended for the purpose for which such money or property was given, bequeathed or otherwise made available to the Commission.

Marginal note:Approval of Parliament

10 No lands or immovable property shall be purchased or acquired by the Commission except with the previous approval of Parliament.

Marginal note:No expenditure without funds Approval of Governor in Council

11 No expenditure shall be made and no liabilities shall be incurred by the Commission until funds sufficient to cover such expenditure or liabilities shall be at its disposal for the purposes of this Act, and the Commission shall, before entering upon any work of improvement or construction, or any other work involving the expenditure of money, upon the lands taken or acquired under the authority of this Act, cause to be prepared plans of the proposed works showing locations, and submit the said plans for the approval of the Governor in Council, and the Commission shall furnish such further descriptions or information to the Governor in Council as are required; and no such works shall be proceeded with until approved by the Governor in Council.

Marginal note:Annual statements

12 The commission shall render to the Minister of Finance, on or before the first day of June in each year, detailed statements of all its receipts and expenditures up to the thirty-first day of March in that year; and copies of such statements shall be laid before Parliament by the Minister of Finance within the first fourteen days of the next following session.

Marginal note:Accounts and inspection

13 The commission shall, whenever required by the Minister of Finance, render detailed accounts of its receipts and expenditures for such period or to such date as he names; and all books of account, records, bank books and papers of the commission shall at all times be open to the inspection of the Minister of Finance, or of any person authorized by him.

Marginal note:Audit of accounts

14 All accounts, receipts and expenditures of the commission shall be subject to the audit of the Auditor General as in the case of public moneys, and subject to the provisions, so far as applicable, of The Consolidated Revenue and Audit Act.

Marginal note:Commissioners and secretary not to be interested in contracts

15 No member of the commission shall have, nor shall the secretary have, any contract with the commission, or be pecuniarily interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract or work with regard to which any portion of the moneys at the credit of the commission is being or is to be expended.

Marginal note:Celebration of tercentenary of founding of Quebec

16 Whereas the present year not only will, it is hoped, mark the setting apart of the battlefields as herein authorized, but is also the tercentenary of the founding of the city of Quebec and the establishment of French government and civilization upon the shores of the St. Lawrence by Samuel de Champlain, and it is desirable that these events be appropriately commemorated: Be it therefore enacted that the commission may, under the authority and direction of the Governor in Council, arrange for and carry out at a convenient time a celebration, in every respect worthy and fit, of the tercentenary of the founding of Quebec by Champlain, and the dedication of the battlefields to the general public purposes of Canada as provided by this Act; and that the commission may, subject to the sanction and approval of the Governor in Council, expend and lay out, for the purposes of the said celebration, such portion of the sum of three hundred thousand dollars hereinbefore appropriated as is authorized by the commission subject to such sanction and approval.