Manitoba Act -
Enactment No. 2

Notice to the reader: This document represents the recommendation of the Committee constituted under s. 55 of the Constitution Act, 1982 and has never been superseded by any other report under that section.

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An Act to amend and continue the Act 32-33 Victoria chapter 3; and to establish and provide for the Government of the Province of Manitoba, 1870, 33 Vict., c. 3 (Can.) (Continued)

• 15. Quorum.

  The presence of a majority of the Members of the Legislative Assembly shall be necessary to constitute a meeting of the House for the exercise of its powers; and for that purpose the Speaker shall be reckoned as a Member.

• 16. Electoral Divisions.

  The Lieutenant-Governor shall (within six months of the date of the Order of Her Majesty in Council, admitting Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory into the Union), by Proclamation under the Great Seal, divide the said Province into twenty-four Electoral Divisions, due regard being had to existing Local Divisions and population.

• 17. Qualification of Voters

  Every male person shall be entitled to vote for a Member to serve in the Legislative Assembly for any Electoral Division, who is qualified as follows, that is to say, if he is:--

  1. Of the full age of twenty-one years, and not subject to any legal incapacity:
  2. A subject of Her Majesty by birth or naturalization:
  3. And a bonâ fide householder within the Electoral Division, at the date of the Writ of Election for the same, and has been a bonâ fide householder for one year next before the said date; or,

     Special - for first election only.

  4. If, being of the full age of twenty-one years, and not subject to any legal incapacity, and a subject of Her Majesty by birth or naturalization, he was, at any time within twelve months prior to the passing of this Act, and (though in the interim temporarily absent) is at the time of such election a bonâ fide householder, and was resident within the Electoral Division at the date of the Writ of Election for the same:

  Proviso.

  But this fourth sub-section shall apply only to the first election to be held under this Act for Members to serve in the Legislative Assembly aforesaid.

• 18. Proceedings at first election, &c.,-- how regulated.

  For the first election of Members to serve in the Legislative Assembly, and until the Legislature of the Province otherwise provides, the Lieutenant-Governor shall cause writs to be issued, by such person, in such form, and addressed to such Returning Officers as he thinks fit; and for such first election, and until the Legislature of the Province otherwise provides, the Lieutenant-Governor shall, by Proclamation, prescribe and declare the oaths to be taken by voters, the powers and duties of Returning and Deputy Returning Officers, the proceedings to be observed at such election, and the period during which such election may be continued, and such other provisions in respect to such first election as he may think fit.

• 19. Duration of Legislative Assembly.

  Every Legislative Assembly shall continue for four years from the date of the return of the writs for returning the same (subject nevertheless to being sooner dissolved by the Lieutenant-Governor), and no longer; and the first Session thereof shall be called at such time as the Lieutenant-Governor shall appoint.

• 20. Sessions at least once a year.

  There shall be a Session of the Legislature once at least in every year, so that twelve months shall not intervene between the last sitting of the Legislature in one Session and its first sitting in the next Session.

• 21. Certain provisions of B.N.A. Act, 1867, to apply.

  The following provisions of the British North America Act, 1867, respecting the House of Commons of Canada, shall extend and apply to the Legislative Assembly, that is to say:--Provisions relating to the election of a Speaker, originally, and on vacancies,--the duties of the Speaker,--the absence of the Speaker and the mode of voting, as if those provisions were here re-enacted and made applicable in terms to the Legislative Assembly.

• 22. Legislation touching schools subject to certain provisions.

  In and for the Province, the said Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to Education, subject and according to the following provisions:--

  1. Nothing in any such Law shall prejudicially affect any right or privilege with respect to Denominational Schools which any class of persons have by Law or practice in the Province at the Union:--
  2. An appeal shall lie to the Governor General in Council from any Act or decision of the Legislature of the Province, or of any Provincial Authority, affecting any right or privilege of the Protestant or Roman Catholic minority of the Queen's subjects in relation to Education:

     Power reserved to Parliament.

  3. In case any such Provincial Law, as from time to time seems to the Governor General in Council requisite for the due execution of the provisions of this section, is not made, or in case any decision of the Governor General in Council on any appeal under this section is not duly executed by the proper Provincial Authority in that behalf, then, and in every such case, and as far only as the circumstances of each case require, the Parliament of Canada may make remedial Laws for the due execution of the provisions of this section, and of any decision of the Governor General in Council under this section.
• 23. English and French languages to be used.

  Either the English or the French language may be used by any person in the debates of the Houses of the Legislature, and both those languages shall be used in the respective Records and Journals of those Houses; and either of those languages may be used by any person, or in any Pleading or Process, in or issuing from any Court of Canada established under the British North America Act, 1867, or in or from all or any of the Courts of the Province. The Acts of the Legislature shall be printed and published in both those languages.

• 24. Interest allowed to the Province on a certain amount of the debt of Canada.

  Inasmuch as the Province is not in debt, the said Province shall be entitled to be paid, and to receive from the Government of Canada, by half-yearly payments in advance, interest at the rate of five per centum per annum on the sum of four hundred and seventy-two thousand and ninety dollars.

• 25. Subsidy to the Province for support of Government, and in proportion to its population.

  The sum of thirty thousand dollars shall be paid yearly by Canada to the Province, for the support of its Government and Legislature, and an annual grant, in aid of the said Province, shall be made, equal to eighty cents per head of the population, estimated at seventeen thousand souls; and such grant of eighty cents per head shall be augmented in proportion to the increase of population, as may be shown by the census that shall be taken thereof in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one, and by each subsequent decennial census, until its population amounts to four hundred thousand souls, at which amount such grant shall remain thereafter, and such sum shall be in full settlement of all future demands on Canada, and shall be paid half-yearly, in advance, to the said Province.

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