CHAPTER 54.

An Act respecting Villages.

(Assented to April 2, 1927.)

HIS MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Alberta, enacts as follows:

SHORT TITLE

1. This Act may be cited as "The Village Act, 1927."

INTERPRETATION

Short title

Interpretation

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires (a) "Assessor" shall mean the person appointed by the Assessor Council to make the assessment provided for by this Act, or, if there be no such person, the secretary-treasurer;

owner

(b) "Conditional owner" shall mean any person entitled Conditional
to the possession of land which is exempted gener-
ally from taxation by the Province, and shall, but
not so as to restrict the generality of the foregoing
words, include lessees of minerals or mineral rights
from the Dominion of Canada or the Province;
(c) "Elector" shall mean any person entitled to vote at Elector
an election upon any by-law or at the taking of any
vote (as the case may be) in a village as is set out
in Part VI;

(d) "Felony" shall mean any indictable offence which Felony
under The Criminal Code is punishable with death
or imprisonment for a period of five years or over;

election

election

pedlar

(e) "First election" shall mean the election of council- First lors first held after the formation of a village; (f) "General election" shall mean the election in this General Act directed to be held upon the second Monday of February in each year; (g) "Hawker" or "pedlar" shall mean any person who, Hawker or whether as principal or agent, goes from house to house selling or offering for sale, any merchandise to any person, not being a wholesale or retail dealer in such merchandise, or offers or exposes for sale to any such person by means of samples, patterns, cuts or blue prints, any merchandise to be afterwards delivered in or shipped into the village

Improvements

Buildings

and improvements

Judge

Land

Mineral

Minister

Misdemean

our

Owner

Parcel

or sells merchandise upon the streets or roads or elsewhere than at a building which is his established place of business, but shall not include any person selling meat, fruit or other farm produce, which has been produced, raised or grown by himself, or fish of his own catching, or agricultural implements or sewing machines, or any person selling newspapers or periodicals, or books of an educational character or nursery stock;

(h) "Improvements" and "buildings and improvements" shall mean

(i) all buildings or any part of any buildings and all structures and fixtures erected upon, in, over, under or affixed to the parcel of land assessed;

(ii) all increase in the value of the parcel of land assessed which has been caused by the immediate or direct expenditure of either labour or capital thereon;

(iii) the part of the cost of any irrigation or drainage project properly attributable to the parcel assessed, whether there has or has not been any immediate or direct expenditure of labour or capital upon the parcel;

(i) "Judge" shall mean any judge of the District Court of any judicial district within which the village is wholly or partly situated;

(j) "Land" shall mean lands, tenements and hereditaments and any estates or interest therein, and shall, but not so as to restrict the generality of the foregoing words, include minerals;

(k) "Mineral" shall, but not so as to restrict in any way the ordinary meaning of the word, include coal, natural gas, petroleum, gasolene and all oils of a mineral nature;

(1) "Minister" shall mean the Minister of Municipal
Affairs;

(m) "Misdemeanour" shall mean any indictable offence
for which, under The Criminal Code, the penalty is
imprisonment for a term of less than five years;
(n) "Owner" shall mean any person who is registered
under The Land Titles Act as the owner of a free-
hold estate in possession of land;

(o) "Parcel" shall mean

(i) any lot in any area of land a plan of subdivision of which has been registered in a Land Titles Office;

(ii) where there is no such plan of subdivision and subject to paragraph (iii) a quarter section of

land according to the system of surveys under
The Dominion Land Surveys Act, or any smaller
area;

(iii) any mineral or minerals assessed as a unit and
separately from the land in, on or beneath
which it or they lies or lie;

(p) "Person" shall include a partnership;

Person

(q) "Prescribed" shall mean prescribed by the Minister Prescribed of Municipal Affairs;

elector

(r) "Proprietary elector" shall mean any person who is Proprietary entitled to vote upon debenture by-laws under the provisions of Part X;

(s) "Public work" shall include lands, streams, water- Public work courses and property, real and personal, acquired for public works, dams or dugouts erected or made for the storage of water, roads, culverts, bridges, ferries, ditches, sidewalks, wells, drains and public buildings and all improvements, alterations and additions made to any such public work;

(t) "Purchaser" shall mean any person who has pur- Purchaser chased land within the village, whether he has

bought direct from the owner of the said land or
from another purchaser;

election

(u) "Special election" shall mean any election of a coun- Special cillor or councillors other than a general or a first election;

trader

(v) "Transient trader" shall mean any person who Transient
occupies premises in the village and offers merchan-
dise for sale, either personally or through a licensed
auctioneer or other agent or servant, if the name of
such person does not appear upon the assessment roll
of the village or if he has not resided continuously
in the village for a period of three months next pre-
ceding the date of such offer;

(w) "Village" shall mean any village organized under Village
the provisions of this Act, and any village in exist-
ence prior to the passing of this Act.

IMPLIED PROVISIONS

reference to

3.-(1) Where in this Act, a date is fixed on or by which Dates having a certain thing is to be done or proceedings had or taken other dates and it appears that such date was fixed having regard to an earlier date on or by which a certain thing is to be done or proceedings had or taken, then notwithstanding anything herein contained, if delay be occasioned or an extension of time allowed, in respect of the earlier date, a like delay or extension of time shall be allowed in respect of the later date.

(2) Whenever under this Act an election is to be held or a question to be submitted or some other thing is to be done at the time of a general or other election, and it becomes

Minister's power to extend time

Effect of

fixed date

or holiday

unnecessary to take a poll thereat, then such first mentioned election shall be held or question submitted, or other thing done at the time upon which such poll would have been held if necessary.

4.-(1) If anything to be done by or under this Act within a fixed number of days cannot be or is not so done, the Minister may by order from time to time appoint a further or other time for doing the same, whether the time within which the same ought to have been done has or has not expired.

(2) Anything done within the time specified in such order shall be valid as if it had been done within the time fixed by or under this Act.

5. Where in this Act a certain date is fixed on which or being Sunday by which certain things are to be done or proceedings had or taken and the date so fixed is a Sunday or other holiday, such things or proceedings shall be so done, had or taken by the next day following the date so fixed which is not a Sunday or a public holiday.

What

included in
power to
make
by-laws

6. Where power to make by-laws, regulations, rules or orders is conferred it shall include the power to alter or revoke the same from time to time, except where by-laws are made for the purposes of raising money, making assessments or striking rates.

Continuation of existing villages

Order forming village

Contents of petition

PART I.

FORMATION, ALTERATION AND DISSOLUTION OF VILLAGE.

7. All villages lawfully organized or formed prior to the passing of this Act shall continue to be villages within the meaning thereof.

8. The Minister may by written order, form into a village any part of the Province which is not in whole or in part included in a city, town or village, if such part contains not less than twenty-five separate buildings, each of which has been occupied continuously as a dwelling house for a period of at least one month; and may do so either of his own motion, or upon receipt of a petition.

9.-(1) Any such petition shall

(a) be in the prescribed form;

(b) be signed by at least ten persons, who, if such part of the Province were erected into a village, would be qualified as voters therein;

(c) be accompanied by a plan showing the proposed boundaries of the village.