The National Parks Act
Statutes of Canada, 20-21 George V, Chap. 33
Assented to 30 May 1930

AN ACT RESPECTING NATIONAL PARKS

His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

Short Title

This Act may be cited as The National Parks Act...

PART 1. NATIONAL PARKS OF CANADA

Establishment of Parks

(1) The Dominion Parks as established under the provisions of the Dominion Forest Reserves and Parks Act, chapter seventy-eight, Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927, with the exception of Fort Howe and Vidals Point and Menissawok Parks, are hereby set apart as National Parks of Canada, except that the Rocky Mountains Park, which shall hereafter be known as the Banff Park, and the Jasper, Yoho, Glacier and Fort Beausejour Parks shall comprise the areas as described in the schedule to this Act; and all those parcels or tracts of land which heretofore formed a part of the said Parks, but which are outside the boundaries of said Parks as described in said schedule, are hereby withdrawn from the said Parks.

(2) The Fort Howe National Park, as set aside by Order in Council of the 30th of March, 1914, P.C. No. 848, and the Vidals Point Park as set aside by Order in Council of the 31st of October, 1921, P.C. No. 4049 and the Menissawok Park as set aside by Order in Council of the 31st of May, 1922, P.C. No. 1134, are hereby abolished.

General Purposes

4. The Parks are hereby dedicated to the people of Canada for their benefit, education and enjoyment, subject to the provisions of this Act and Regulations, and such Parks shall be maintained and made use of so as to leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

Park Administration

5. (1) There shall be a Commissioner of National Parks, who, subject to the direction of the Minister, shall control, manage and administer the Parks.

(2) Every Park warden and any other Park officer designated by the Minister shall have all the powers of a police constable.

(3) Every Park officer whose duties include patrolling a line of railway under construction or an operation shall be furnished, by the person constructing or operating such railway, with free transportation on all trains running on such railway in a Park and while in the discharge of his duty, whether they are passenger, freight or construction trains.

(4) The Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Justice, may appoint, by Commission under the Great Seal, one or more fit and proper persons to be stipendiary magistrates within the Parks, and such magistrates shall be at liberty to exercise any jurisdiction which may be conferred upon them by provincial authority in matters coming within the exclusive legislative jurisdiction of the province, insofar as the exercise of such powers may be consistent with the powers hereby conferred.

(5) Every such stipendiary magistrate shall have and exercise within the limits of the Parks, all the powers, authority and jurisdiction by law appertaining to stipendiary magistrates, including the powers and authority of a police magistrate and two justices of the peace, and including the jurisdiction given to magistrates pursuant to section seven hundred and seventy four of the Criminal Code of Canada.

(6) The Governor in Council may appoint persons resident within the Parks to have, for the purposes of this Act, all the powers of a justice of the peace.

Park Lands

6. (1) Lands within the Parks shall not be disposed of or be located or settled upon, and no person shall use or occupy any part of such lands, except under the authority of this Act or of regulations made hereunder.

(2) The Governor in Council may sell or lease land within a Park when such land is required for the right of way or station grounds of any railway, but such land, subject to the use for which it is sold or leased, shall still be part of the Park within which it is situate; and if any such land ceases to be used for the purpose for which it was so sold or leased it shall forthwith revert to the Crown.

(3) The Governor in Council may authorize the Minister to purchase, expropriate or otherwise acquire any lands or interests therein, including the lands of Indians or of any other persons, for the purposes of a Park.

(4) The Expropriation Act shall apply to any expropriation proceedings taken under this section.

Regulations

7. (1) The Governor in Council may, from time to time as he deems expedient, make regulations for,

(a) the preservation, control and management of the Parks;

(b) the protection of the flora;

(c) the protection of wild animals, the disposal of noxious, predatory or superabundant animals and the taking of animals for scientific and propagating purposes;

(d) the management and regulation of fishing; and the protection of fish, including the prevention and remedying of any obstruction or pollution of waterways;

(e) the prevention and extinguishing of fire upon or threatening Park lands, and requiring persons residing or being in the vicinity to report any such fire or to assist in its extinguishment;

(f) the fire protection measures to be observed and complied with by any company not under the jurisdiction of the Board of Railway Commissioners for Canada constructing or operating a railway upon or across any Park lands and the payment by the said company for

(i) all expenses incurred by the Crown in extinguishing and controlling any fire which originated by reason of the construction, operation or maintenance of such railway or by reason of the action of the company's employees,

(ii) the whole or any part of the expense of any fire protection carried on by the Minister in pursuance of this Act along or near such railway while under construction;

(g) the granting of leases for lots in townsites for the purpose of residence and trade: th« granting of licences for lands outside townsites only for the entertainment of persons visiting the Parks;

(h) the granting of yearly permits for

(i) the grazing of horses and cattle,

(ii) the removal of sand, stone and grave! for construction purposes within a Park,

(iii) the cutting and removal of dead or diseased timber and such green timber as may be necessary for thinning or forest protection,

(iv) the use in the Parks of water for domestic or railway water supply purposes,

(v) the use and disposal of mineral waters for recreational and therapeutic purposes;

(i) the establishment, operation, maintenance and administration by the Department of the Interior of public works, and utility services and the use of same within the Parks, such works and services to include domestic water supply, sewerage, telephone, electric power, streets, street-lighting, sidewalks, fire protection, garbage removal and any other works, improvements or services of a public character; the levying of taxes upon any properties benefited thereby and upon the owners or other persons holding interests therein; the sale or forfeiture of the said properties or interests when such taxes are not paid;

(j) the administration and use of roads, streets, sidewalks, trails, wharves, docks, bridges and other ways within the Parks, and the circumstances under which such ways shall be open or may be closed to public traffic or use; provided that the establishment or use of any existing road or way or any additional road or way shall in no case operate to withdraw the same from the Park within which it is situate;

(k) prescribing the conditions under which any building, sign, placard, advertisement or other structure may be erected, the design and location of any such structure and the materials of which it may be constructed; the general maintenance and improvement of properties in the Parks that have been leased; the defining of zones for residential buildings, business buildings or areas in which only buildings of fire proof or fire resisting construction may be erected;

(l) controlling trades, traffic, business, amusements, sports, occupations and other activities or undertakings, and prescribing the places where any such activities or undertakings may be carried on; and the levying of licence fees in respect thereof;

(m) the summary removal from a Park and the preventing of the return thereto of any person guilty of an infraction of such provisions of the Park Regulations or the Criminal Code as the Governor in Council may specify;

(n) the preservation of public health and the prevention of disease;

(o) the abatement and prevention of nuisances.

(2) All regulations made hereunder shall be published in the Canada Gazette for a period of thirty days, and shall thereupon have the same force and effect as if herein enacted.

Penalties and Procedure

8. (1) Any person violating any provision of this Act or any regulation made hereunder shall, in addition to any civil liability thereby incurred, be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of not more than five hundred dollars, and in default of immediate payment of such penalty and of the costs of prosecution, such person may be imprisoned with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding six months.

(2) Any constable or any person having the powers of a constable under the provisions of this Act for regulations hereunder may,

(a) on view, arrest any person found committing an offence against this Act or regulations hereunder or found committing within a Park any unlawful act;

(b) without warrant or other legal process at any time enter and search any building, premises, structure, camp, vessel, boat, vehicle, conveyance, or other place and open and examine any trunk, box, barrel, parcel, or other package or receptacle, whether within or without the boundaries of any Park, where he has reason to believe there is any fish, mammal or bird or any parts thereof, or any firearms, traps or other devices for capturing or destroying fish, birds, or mammals in respect of which a breach of this Act or of the regulations may have been committed;

(c) on view, seize, whether within or without the boundaries of any Park, any timber, hay, mineral, fish, mammal or bird, or any part thereof, arms, ammunition, explosives, traps, nets, rods, vessels, boats, vehicles, equipment, outfit, appliance, or any other article whatsoever which he has reason to believe are or have been possessed or used in connection with the commission of a violation of any of the provisions of this Act and regulations.

(3) Where any chattel is seized under the provisions of this Act the same shall, without undue delay, be taken before a magistrate or two justices of the peace who, upon satisfactory proof that such chattel was in possession or used contrary to the provisions of this Act or was used in connection with the commission of any offence under this Act and regulations, may order same to be forfeited to His Majesty; or, in the case of timber, trees, hay or minerals, to be held for such time as may be deemed proper, pending payment of any penalty in lieu of forfeiture.

9. (1) All regulations made by the Governor in Council under the provisions of the Rocky Mountains Park Act or the Dominion Forest Reserves and Parks Act in force at the time of the passing of this Act shall continue in force until repealed.

(2) The Governor in Council shall have the like powers to repeal such regulations as in the case of regulations which the Governor in Council may make under this Act.

10. Section twenty-one and subsection two of section twenty-three of the Dominion Forest Reserves and Parks Act are hereby repealed.

PART II

11. The Governor in Council may set apart any land, the title to which is vested in His Majesty, as a National Historic Park to

(i) commemorate an historic event of national importance, or

(ii) preserve any historic landmark or any object of historic, prehistoric or scientific interest of national importance,

and may from time to time make any changes in the areas so set apart which he may consider expedient.

12. The Governor in Council may, by order, apply to the areas set apart under this Part such provisions of sections five, seven and eight of Part I of this Act as he may, from time to time, consider advisable ...