Soldier Settlement Act (R.S.C. 1927, c. 188)

Short Title

Marginal note:Short title

1 This Act may be cited as the Soldier Settlement Act.

Interpretation

Marginal note:Definitions

2 In this Act, and in any regulations made under it, unless the context otherwise requires, the expression

• (a) agricultural land means land which, in the opinion of the Board, is adaptable for agricultural purposes and the value whereof for any other purpose is not greater than its value for agricultural purposes;

• (b) block means a parcel or parcels of land owned within a settlement area by any person, and whether or not the parcels are contiguous the one to the other, but including only the parcels any part of any one whereof is situated within three miles from any part of another of them;

• (c) Board means the Director of Soldier Settlement;

• (cc) Commissioner of the Board means the Director of Soldier Settlement;

• (d) Court means the Federal Court of Canada;

• (e) district superintendent means a person appointed as such by the Board;

• (f) Dominion lands means any lands owned or held by the Dominion of Canada, excepting Indian or School Lands;

• (g) former Act means The Soldier Settlement Act, 1917;

• (h) gazetted means published in the Canada Gazette;

• (i) land or lands includes granted or ungranted, Dominion, provincial or private lands, and real or immovable property, messuages, lands, tenements and hereditaments of any tenure, and real rights, easements and servitudes, streams, watercourses, waters, roads and ways, and all rights or interests in, or over, or arising out of, and all charges upon, land or lands as herein defined;

• (j) military and military forces include “naval” and “naval forces”;

• (k) Minister means the Minister of Veterans Affairs;

• (l) owner includes a person holding private land in fee simple, and a person who, being trustee, executor, administrator, life tenant, mortgagee or otherwise, has the legal power to will or convey, whether with or without the consent or approval of a court or of any person having any estate or interest, such land to be held in fee simple or by a person as the owner thereof;

• (m) permanent improvements and improvements includes buildings;

• (n) private land means any land which has been alienated by the Crown;

• (o) property includes land, as herein defined, and goods, chattels real and personal, and personal or movable property, and all rights or interests in, or over, or arising out of, and all charges upon, property as herein defined;

• (p) Registrar of Deeds or Registrar includes the registrar of land titles, or other officer, with whom, according to the law of a province, title to land is registered;

• (q) Registry of Deeds or other words descriptive of the office of a registrar of deeds, includes the land titles office, or other office in which, according to the law of a province, title to land is registered;

• (r) settlement area means an area of land in any part of Canada, so designated, and defined as this Act requires by the Board, within which the Board exercises or proposes to exercise, its power of compulsorily purchasing lands;

• (s) settler to mean male member only of certain military forces means a person who at any time during the war has been therein engaged on active service in a military force

  • (i) of Canada and has served out of Canada; or wherever he may have served, is, by reason of disability incurred or aggravated as the result of such service, in receipt of a pension, or

  • (ii) of His Majesty or of any of His Majesty’s Allies and, being ordinarily resident in Canada when he enlisted in or otherwise became a member of such force, has served thereafter out of Canada, in a theatre of actual war, or

  • (iii) of His Majesty or of any British Dominion or Colony and has served out of the country wherein he enlisted or otherwise became a member of such force in a theatre of actual war;

  and has been otherwise than dishonourably discharged from such force, or has been permitted honourably to resign or retire therefrom, or, without fault on his part, has been dispensed from further service therein; and the widow of any person who died on active service and who, but for his death, might be a settler as now defined, shall be capable of being a settler in her deceased husband’s right: Provided that, notwithstanding anything in this Act, settlers of the class numbered (iii) in this definition may be required by the Board to provide a larger cash down payment in case of purchase of property from the Board or to provide greater or other security in case of an advance or loan received from the Board, than is by this Act authorized or required with respect to settlers generally; Provided further that the word “settler” as applicable to the class of persons numbered (iii) in this definition shall be deemed to include male settlers only; (settler to mean male member only of certain military forces)

• (t) soldier grant means a free entry on Dominion lands, granted by the Minister to a settler recommended by the Board;

• (u) special settler means a settler as defined in this section, who, in the opinion of the Board, has had adequate and successful farming experience in Canada, and who is possessed of qualifications or equipment which, in the opinion of the Board, specially fit him for success as a farmer;

• (v) standard date means the first day of October in Manitoba and the provinces west thereof, and the first day of November in the provinces east of Manitoba;

• (w) this Act and Act and former Act includes regulations lawfully made thereunder;

• (x) the war means the war declared by His Majesty on the fourth day of August, one thousand nine hundred and fourteen, against the Empire of Germany and, subsequently, against other powers.

PART I

Constitutions of the Board

Marginal note:The Director of Soldier Settlement

• 3 (1) The person who from time to time holds the office of the Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs or such person as the Deputy Minister may designate is, by virtue of holding that office or by virtue of that designation, as the case may be, the Director of Soldier Settlement.

• Marginal note:Powers of Director Transportation

  (2) The Director of Soldier Settlement shall have and exercise all the powers and authority heretofore vested in the Soldier Settlement Board, and shall have and be accorded the same rights or privileges as to transportation free or at reduced rates upon railways as are from time to time enjoyed by a deputy head of a department.

• Marginal note:Salary

  (3) There shall be paid monthly to the Director of Soldier Settlement such salary and at such rate per annum as the Governor in Council shall fix and allow.

• Marginal note:Reference to the Board deemed a reference to the Director

  (4) In this Act and in any regulations made under it, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference to the Board or to any Commissioner of the Board shall be deemed to be a reference to the Director of Soldier Settlement.

• (5) [Repealed, 2000, c. 34, s. 47]

Corporate Powers of the Board

Marginal note:Director to be a corporation sole and agent of Crown in right of Canada

• 4 (1) For the purposes of acquiring, holding, conveying and transferring and of agreeing to convey, acquire or transfer any of the property which he is by this Act authorized to acquire, hold, convey, transfer, agree to convey or agree to transfer, but for such purposes only the Director of Soldier Settlement shall be a corporation sole and as such the agent of the Crown in the right of the Dominion of Canada, except as hereinafter provided.

• Marginal note:Property to vest in the Director Director not subject to enactment respecting corporations

  (2) All property acquired for any of the purposes of this Act shall vest in the Director of Soldier Settlement as such corporation sole; but these provisions shall not in anywise restrict, impair or affect the powers conferred upon the Director of Soldier Settlement generally by this Act nor subject him to the provisions of any enactment of the Dominion or of any province respecting corporations.

• Marginal note:Seal of Director

  (3) The Director of Soldier Settlement in his corporate capacity shall have an impress seal inscribed with the words “The Director of Soldier Settlement of Canada” and showing the coat of arms of Canada.

• Marginal note:Execution of documents Evidence

  (4) All documents which require execution by the Director of Soldier Settlement in his corporate capacity shall be deemed validly executed if the said seal is affixed and the name of the Director of Soldier Settlement is signed thereto, the whole in the presence of one other person who has subscribed his name as witness; and every document which purports to have been impressed with the seal of the Soldier Settlement Board and sealed and signed in the presence of a witness by a commissioner on behalf of the said Board or which purports to be impressed with the seal of the Director of Soldier Settlement and to be sealed and signed in the presence of a witness by the Director of Soldier Settlement shall be admissible in evidence in all courts in Canada without proof of any such seal or of such sealing or signing.

• Marginal note:Land deemed to be held by Director as corporation sole

  (5) Any land vested in the Director of Soldier Settlement in respect of which an assessment has been duly made by a taxing authority at any time since the first day of January, 1933, is hereby declared for the purpose of recourse to the land itself for realization for taxes based upon such assessment and for such purpose only to be and from the said first day of January, 1933, to have been held by the said Director of Soldier Settlement as such corporation sole and not as an agent of the Crown in the right of the Dominion of Canada.

Marginal note:Officers, clerks and employees

• 5  The Board may, from time to time, subject to the provisions of the Civil Service Act, attach to its service such officers, instructors, clerks, stenographers and other employees as the execution of the purposes of this Act may require, and at such salaries as the Governor in Council may approve.

• Marginal note:Tenure of office

  2. All such appointees shall hold office during the pleasure of the Board and shall perform such duties and functions as the Board shall prescribe.

• Marginal note:Certain officers deemed to be permanent employees R.S., c. 22

  (3) Any officer, instructor, clerk, stenographer or other employee attached on the first day of July, 1935, to the service of the Director of Soldier Settlement whose position is in a report in writing of the Director of Soldier Settlement certified to be of indeterminate duration and who upon the recommendation of the Treasury Board is designated by the Governor in Council shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Civil Service Act, be deemed to be a permanent employee and shall upon such designation become subject in all respects to the Civil Service Act.

Reservation and Acquirement of Lands and Other Property

Marginal note:Minister may reserve and transfer lands to Board

• 6  The Minister may, at the request of the Board, for the execution of any of the purposes of this Act, reserve, or, with the approval of the Governor in Council, transfer, to the Board, any Dominion lands which are under the Minister’s administration.

• Marginal note:Lapse of reservation

  2. Any reservation of lands made pursuant to this section shall lapse and become determined whenever the Minister shall, before transfer made to the Board, so direct.

Marginal note:Board may acquire lands and other property by agreement

7 The Board may, for the execution of any of the purposes of this Act,

• (a) purchase by agreement, at prices which to it shall seem reasonable; or

• (b) in any other manner acquire by consent or agreement, from all persons, firms and corporations;

such agricultural land, situate in any part of Canada, and such live stock, farm equipment and building materials as it may deem necessary.

Marginal note:Compulsory purchase

8 The Board may, for the execution of any of the purposes of this Act, acquire by way of compulsory purchase, in the manner provided by Part III of this Act, from all persons, firms, and corporations, such agricultural land as it may deem necessary.

Marginal note:Arrangements with provincial governments to acquire agricultural lands

9 The Board may, with the approval of the Governor in Council, arrange with the Government of any province

• (a) for the acquiring or utilizing for any of the purposes of this Act of any Crown or other agricultural lands of such province; and

• (b) the terms and conditions upon which the Board will acquire, hold and dispose of or will utilize such lands, or upon which it will assist settlers to whom such province itself shall grant or convey any of such lands, such terms and conditions to be, as nearly as possible, the same as those which are by or under this Act provided with respect to settlers to whom the Board shall sell lands acquired by it.

Marginal note:Indian lands

10 The Board may acquire from His Majesty by purchase, upon terms not inconsistent with those of the release or surrender, any Indian lands which, under the Indian Act, have been validly released or surrendered.

Marginal note:School lands

• 11  Notwithstanding anything in the Dominion Lands Act having reference to school lands, the Governor in Council may, for such price as two arbitrators, one thereof appointed by the Minister and the other by the Government of the province concerned, shall in writing certify to the Minister as fair and reasonable, grant or convey to the Board any school lands held pursuant to the provisions of that Act.

• Marginal note:Application of amount paid

  2. The amount payable by the Board for the acquirement of such lands shall be applied as if received as the proceeds of a sale of the same lands made pursuant to the provisions of the Dominion Lands Act.