Mr. Lesage:

Mr. Speaker, the Territorial Lands Act was passed in 1950. This act replaced the old Dominion Lands Act and is now the statute which governs the administration, control and disposition of the lands in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, with the exception of quartz and placer mining rights in the Yukon Territory.

In the Territorial Lands Act a simple procedure was provided for taking proceedings before a stipendiary magistrate to evict persons who were trespassing upon or unlawfully occupying crown lands. The power to hear such proceedings was given to a stipendiary magistrate and could not be exercised by anyone else. When the Yukon Act and the Northwest Territories Act were revised and came into effect on the 1st April, 1955, the appointment of stipendiary magistrates was no longer necessary and the positions were abolished. The amendment proposed by the bill will allow the proceedings to be heard before a judge of the territorial court.

There is nobody now to judge these cases of eviction. The amendment proposed by the bill is very simple: it will allow the proceedings to be heard before a judge of the territorial court.

Mr. E. D. Fulton (Kamloops):

There is only one consideration which occurs to me and which I would like the minister to deal with. When the other act was amended in 1955 and the position of stipendiary magistrate was abolished, I am sure there were considered to be very good reasons for it at that time, although I have no idea what reasons they were. My colleague, the hon. member for

Territorial Lands Act

Calgary North (Mr. Harkness), suggests that the reasons may not have been good in the strict sense of the word. However, here is a case where in order to get a matter dealt with at all it has to be brought under the jurisdiction of a county court-

Mr. Lesage:

Territorial.

Mr. Fulton:

A judge of the territorial court. I am wondering whether consideration has been given for this reason and for such others as there may be to reinstating the position of stipendiary magistrate in the territory. It does seem a little open to question whether we should give too many minor matters to a judge of the territorial court.

Mr. Lesage:

The amendments to the new Yukon Act and Northwest Territories Act were passed before I assumed the position I now occupy-they only came into effect in 1955-the old acts continued in effect until that year when the new Criminal Code came into force. I understand it was considered when the new acts were passed by the house that there was no need any more for stipendiary magistrates and that is why there was no provision for them in the new Yukon Act and Northwest Territories Act. Since 1955 the matter has been left in abeyance. There have been a few cases of eviction that could not be brought before any court because there was no court with jurisdiction to which they could be taken. Hence we have this amendment to the Territorial Lands Act.

Mr. Fulton:

I should like to ask the minister a question or two with relation to what he told us on second reading. Are there any other cases where the department found itself embarrassed by the fact that there simply was no stipendiary magistrate, or do all the cases to which he referred relate to evictions?

Mr. Lesage:

That is right. I have not been embarrassed except by such cases.

Mr. Fulion:

How many were there, just two or three?

Mr. Lesage:

There is not a very great number of cases. They only involve two or three people.

Mr. Fulton:

I am trying to get a considered opinion from the minister with respect to whether he now thinks, in the light of experience, that it was as wise as it then seemed to abolish the position of stipendiary

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Currency, Mint and Exchange Fund Act magistrate or whether there are reasons which might give rise to the conclusion that they should be reinstated because of the volume of business that it might be possible to bring before them?

Mr. Lesage:

No. As a matter of fact, there are only one or two cases of procedures in eviction where action has to be taken because of some squatters who had established themselves on the approaches of the new Whitehorse bridge over the Yukon river.

Mr. Harkness:

As far as I know, there is only one territorial judge in the Northwest Territories, and I do not know whether or not there is more than one in the Yukon. I should like the minister to tell us that and whether the number of cases of all kinds which might normally go before a stipendiary magistrate is so small that one judge in each territory is sufficient to handle cases of every kind, even cases that in a province would come before a supreme court judge.

Mr. Lesage:

That is my understanding.

Mr. Harkness:

How many judges are there in the Yukon?

Mr. Lesage:

One.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Applewhaite):

When shall this bill be read a third time? Now?

Mr. Knowles:

By leave.

Mr. Lesage moved

the third reading of the bill.

Motion agreed to and bill read the third time and passed.