Document Information

Date: [prob.] 1867-01
By: Hewitt Bernard, John A. Macdonald, British North American Delegates
Citation: John A. Macdonald Fonds, Local Constitutions Draft Package [Scrap Resolution], January 1867 (MG 26 A, Vol. 47/1, pp. 18265-18266).
Other formats: Click here to view the original document (PDF).
Note: The dating of the draft remains uncertain. More study of the draft is required and is being undertaken by our team. Only a rough transcription has been completed and we hope to decipher the remaining text in the near future. Please check back for updates.
Note: This document was found in the following grouping of documents. Endnotes are from Michael Scott & Charles Dumais, Book in Progress: The British North America Act (2025).

18625

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27. The Governor of Lower Canada may, by a proclamation to be issued by him for that purpose under the Great Seal of the Province, and to take effect from a day to be named therein, constitute townships in those parts of the province of Lower Canada in which townships are not already constituted, and may fix the metes and bounds thereof.

28. All the powers, privileges and duties conferred and imposed upon Catholic separate schools and School Trustees in Upper Canada, shall be extended to the Protestant and Catholic Dissentient Schools in Lower Canada.

29. All Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances, which at the time of the Confederation of the said Provinces shall be in force within the said province of Canada, or the Provinces of Lower Canada or Upper Canada, or either of them, or any part of the same Provinces respectively, shall remain and continue to be of the same force, authority, and effect within the Provinces of Lower Canada and Upper Canada respectively, as if this Act had not been made, except in so far as the same are repealed or varied by this Act, or in so far as the same shall or may hereafter, by virtue and under the authority of this Act, be repealed or varied by any Act or Acts of the General Parliament or of the Local Legislatures of the said Provinces respectively, as the case may be.

Union Act, sec., 107.

30. All the Courts of Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction within the Province of Canada, or within Lower Canada, or Upper Canada, and all legal Commissions, Powers, and Authorities, and all Officers judicial, administrative, or ministerial within the said province of Canada, or within Lower Canada, or Upper Canada, except in so far as the same may be abolished, altered, or varied by, or may be inconsistent with the Provisions of this Act, or shall be abolished, altered, or varied by any Act or Acts of the General Parliament or the Local Legislatures of the Provinces of Lower Canada and Upper Canada respectively, as the case may be, shall continue to subsist within […][1]

8[2]

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36. No lands or property belonging to the General or Local Governments shall be liable to taxation.

37. All Bills for appropriating any part of the public revenue, or for imposing any tax or impost, shall originate in the House of Commons or House of Assembly, as the case may be.

38. The House of Commons or House of Assembly, shall not originate or pass any vote, Resolution, Address or Bill for the appropriation of any part of the Public Revenue, or of any tax or impost to any purpose, not first recommended by message of the Governor-General, or the Governor as the case may be during the session in which such Vote, Resolution, Address or Bill is passed.

39. Any Bill of the General Parliament may be reserved in the usual manner for Her Majesty’s assent, and any Bill of the Local Legislatures may, in like manner, be reserved for the consideration of the Governor-General.

40. Any Bill passed by the General Parliament shall be subject to disallowance by Her Majesty within two years, as in the case of Bills passed by the Legislatures of the said Provinces hitherto, and in like manner any Bill passed by a Local Legislature shall be subject to disallowance by the Governor-General within one year after the passing thereof.

41. Subject to any future action of the respective Local Governments, the seat of the Local Governments in Upper Canada shall be Toronto; of Lower Canada, Quebec; and the seats of the Local Governments in the other Provinces shall be as at present.

42. All stocks, cash, bankers’ balances, and securities for money belonging to each Province at the time of the Union, except as hereinafter mentioned, shall belong to the General Government.

Endnotes

[1]      The clause cuts off here.

[2]      Page 8 is also missing from this scrap draft.