4-5 EDWARD VII.

CHAPTER 3.

An Act to establish and provide for the Government of the Province of Alberta.

(Assented to 20th July, 1905.)

HEREAS in and by The British North America Act, 1871, being chapter 28 of the Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed in the session thereof held in the 34th and 35th years of the reign of her late Majesty Queen Victoria, it is enacted that the Parliament of Canada may from time to time establish new provinces in any territories forming for the time being part of the Dominion of Canada, but not included in any province thereof, and may, at the time of such establishment, make provision for the constitution and administration of any such province, and for the passing of laws for the peace, order and good government of such Province and for its representation in the said Parliament of Canada;

And whereas it is expedient to establish as a province the territory hereinafter described, and to make provision for the government thereof and the representation thereof in the Parliament of Canada: Therefore His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

1. This Act may be cited as The Alberta Act.

2. The territories comprised within the following boundaries, that is to say, commencing at the intersection of the international boundary dividing Canada from the United States of America by the fourth meridian in the system of Dominion lands surveys: thence westerly along the said international boundary to the eastern boundary of the province of British Columbia; thence northerly along the said eastern boundary of the province of British Columbia to the north-east corner of the said province; thence easterly along the said parallel of the sixtieth degree of north latitude to the fourth meridian in the system of Dominion lands surveys as the same may be hereafter defined in accordance with the said system; thence southerly along the said fourth meridian to the point of commencement -is hereby established as a province of the Dominion of Canada, to be called and known as the province of Alberta.

3. The provisions of The British North America Acts, 1867 to 1886, shall apply to the province of Alberta in the same

way and to the like extent as they apply to the provinces heretofore comprised in the Dominion, as if the said province of Alberta had been one of the provinces originally united, except in so far as varied by this Act and except such provisions as are in terms made, or by reasonable intendment may be held to be, specially applicable to or only to affect one or more and not the whole of the said provinces.

4. The said province shall be represented in the Senate of Canada by four members: Provided that such representation may, after the completion of the next decennial census, be from time to time increased to six by the Parliament of Canada.

5. The said province and the province of Saskatchewan shall, until the termination of the Parliament of Canada existing at the time of the first readjustment hereinafter provided for, continue to be represented in the House of Commons as provided by chapter 60 of the statutes of 1903, each of the electoral districts defined in that part of the schedule to the said Act which relates to the North-West Territories, whether such district is wholly in one of the said provinces, or partly in one and partly in the other of them, being represented by one member.

6. Upon the completion of the next quinquennial census for the said province, the representation thereof shall forthwith be readjusted by the Parliament of Canada in such a manner that there shall be assigned to the said province such a number of members as will bear the same proportion to the number of its population ascertained at such quinquennial census as the number sixty-five bears to the number of the population of Quebec as ascertained at the then last decennial census; and in the computation of the number of members for the said province a fractional part not exceeding one-half of the whole. number requisite for entitling the province to a member shall be disregarded, and a fractional part exceeding one-half of that number shall be deemed equivalent to the whole number, and such readjustment shall take effect upon the termination of the Parliament then existing.

2. The representation of the said province shall thereafter be readjusted from time to time according to the provisions of section 51 of The British North America Act, 1867.

7. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, the qualifications of voters for the election of members of the House of Commons and the proceedings at and in connection with elections of such members shall, mutatis mutandis, be those prescribed by law at the time this Act comes into force with respect to such elections in the North-West Territories.

8. The Executive Council of the said province shall be composed of such persons, under such designations, as the Lieutenant Governor from time to time thinks fit.

9. Unless and until the Lieutenant Governor in Council of the said province otherwise directs, by proclamation under the Great Seal, the seat of government of the said province shall be at Edmonton.

10. All powers, authorities and functions which under any law were before the coming into force of this Act vested in or exercisable by the Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories, with the advice, or with the advice and consent, of the Executive Council thereof, or in conjunction with that Council or with any member or members thereof, or by the said Lieutenant Governor individually, shall, so, far as they are capable of being exercised after the coming into force of this Act in relation to the government of the said province, be vested in and shall or may be exercised by the Lieutenant Governor of the said province, with the advice or with the advice and consent of, or in conjunction with, the Executive Council of the said province or any member or members thereof, or by the Lieutenant Governor individually, as the case requires, subject nevertheless to be abolished or altered by the legislature of the said province.

11. The Lieutenant Governor in Council shall, as soon as may be after this Act comes into force, adopt and provide a Great Seal of the said province, and may, from time to time, change such seal.

12. There shall be a legislature for the said province consisting of the Lieutenant Governor and one house, to be styled the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

13. Until the said Legislature otherwise provides, the Legislative Assembly shall be composed of twenty-five members to be elected to represent the electoral divisions defined in the Schedule to this Act.

14. Until the said Legislature otherwise determines, all the provisions of the law with regard to the constitution of the Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories and the election of members thereof shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to the Legislative Assembly of the said province and the elections of members thereof respectively.

15. The writs for the election of the members of the first Legislative Assembly of the said province shall be issued by the Lieutenant Governor and made returnable within six months after this Act comes into force.

16. All laws and all orders and regulations made thereunder, so far as they are not inconsistent with anything contained in this Act, or as to which this Act contains no provision intended as a substitute therefor, and all courts of civil and