CONSUMPTION AND DISTRIBUTION-REGULATIONS GENERALLY.

STATUTES 1918, P. 60. (8 GEO. V.)

CHAPTER 12.

FEBRUARY 6, 1918.

AN ACT respecting natural gas.

WHEREAS, complaints have been made by and on behalf of numerous inhabitants in that part of Western Ontario where natural gas is in general use as a fuel, stating that much distress and suffering have been caused at various times. * *

THEREFORE, HIS MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of, the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

1. This Act may be known as The Natural Gas Act, 1918.

2. In this Act,

(a) "Board" shall mean the Ontario Railway and Municipal Board.

3. (1). Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special act or letters-patent, or any agreement, franchise, bargain, or arrangement whatsoever and by and between whomsoever made, or any other matter or thing, the Board shall control and regulate the production, transmission, distribution, sale and disposal and consumption of all natural gas produced in Ontario, and for that purpose shall have and may exercise the powers and duties hereinafter set forth.

(2). It shall be a good and sufficient defence to any action or other proceeding brought or taken against any person producing, transmitting, distributing or selling natural gas that such person so far as regards the act or omission which is the subject of such action or other proceeding has conducted the production, transmission, distribution or sale of natural gas in accordance with the order or direction of the Board.

4. The Board shall make such orders and give such direction from time to time as it may deem proper for the due conservation of the supply of natural gas in Ontario and its distribution in such localities and to such classes of consumers, for such periods and at such times as may best serve in the opinion of the Board to prevent suffering or inconvenience to the general public and particularly to the users and consumers of natural gas for domestic purposes. 5. The Board upon its own motion or upon application made to it may make an order for,

(a) the closing and cutting off of the supply of natural gas to any corporation, company or individual;

(b) the construction or alteration of any works, machinery, plant, or appliance used in the production, transmission, supply, distribution or consumption of natural gas;

(c) the cutting off of the supply to consumers generally or to any class of consumers in any locality for such periods or at such times as the Board may deem proper;

(d) the construction or alteration of buildings, erections, machinery, pipe lines, meters, or any other matters or things as the Board may deem proper; (e) the division of any field of production or distribution between two or more corporations, companies, or individuals engaged in the business of producing or dstributing natural gas;

(f) the closing down and stopping up of any natural gas well or any works for the production, transmission, distribution, or supply of natural gas;

(g) the appointment of such inspectors, officers, agents, servants or workmen as may be necessary to carry out and enforce any order of the Board made under this Act;

(h) fixing the rates to be charged to distributors and consumers or to any class of consumers and in any locality for natural gas supplied to such distributors or consumers;

(i) generally for the better carrying out of the objects and purposes set forth in sections 3 and 4 of this act.

6. The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may make regulations,—

(a) extending and enlarging the powers of the Board with respect to the matters mentioned in sections 3 and 4;

(b) for the better enforcement of any order or direction of the Board;

(c) conferring upon the Board such powers and duties with respect to the prohibiting, limiting, controlling and regulating the production, distribution, supply and consumpton or use of natural gas in Ontario as the LieutenantGovernor may deem expedient.

7. (1) Every person who,

(a) Refuses or neglects to obey any order or direction of the Board made or purporting to be made under the authority of this Act after notice of such order or direction or the promulgation thereof in The Ontario Gazette; or

(b) Hinders, delays or obstructs the Board, its officers, agents, servants or workmen in carrying out the provisions of this Act or any order or direction of the Board or any regulations made thereunder; or

(c) Wastes or causes to be wasted any product of any natural gas well or work for the production, distribution or supply of natural gas, or

(d) Tampers or interferes with any meter, stock-cock, cut-off, or any other matter or thing, placed or used or installed by the Board, its officers, agents, servants or workmen,

shall incur a penalty not exceeding $1,000 and not less than $100 and shall in default of the payment thereof be imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months.

(2) The Ontario Summary Convictions Act shall apply to prosecutions under subsection 1.

8. In addition to any other remedy, any order or direction of the Board whether general or special may be enforced against any corporation, company, or individual in the same manner as any other order of the Board may be under The Ontario Railway and Municipal Board Act or The Ontario Railway Act, and this shall include the power, to take, possess, use and operate any natural gas well or works for the production of natural gas, transmission lines, mains, pipes or meters and any or all buildings, erections, structures, machinery o apparatus necessary for or connected with the use and operation of such works and wells and the distribution and supply of natural gas therefrom. 9. The Board in making any order under this Act may include in the order or direction such terms and conditions as the Board may deem just.

HIS MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative
Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

14. (1) Every transportation receipt, warehouse receipt, accepted order and certificate for crude petroleum, issued by any incorporated company authorized

to carry on the business of warehousing, shall be transferable by endorsement, either special or in blank, and upon being endorsed in blank shall become transferable by delivery, and every such endorsement or transfer by delivery shall transfer all right of property and possession of the petroleum mentioned in any such transportation or warehouse receipt, accepted order or certificate, to the endorsee or transferee thereof, subject to the terms and conditions of such transportation or warehouse receipt, accepted order or certificate, as fully and completely as if a sale of the petoleum mentioned therein had been made in the ordinary way.

(2) On the delivery of any petroleum mentioned in such document, by such company, in good faith, to a person in possession of such transportation or warehouse receipt, accepted order or certificate so endorsed or transferred, the company shall be freed from all further liability in respect thereof, and the endorsee or transferee or holder of every such transportation or warehouse receipt, accepted order or certificate, to whom the property in the petroleum mentioned therein passes by reason of such endorsement or delivery, shall have transferred to and vested in him all rights of action and be subject to the same liabilities in respect of such petroleum as if the contract contained in the transportation or warehouse receipt, accepted order or certificate had been made by the company with himself. (R. S. O. 1897, chap. 145, Sec. 12.)

15. Chapter 145 of the Revised Statutes, 1897, and all amendments thereto are repealed.

HIS MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

PROSPECTING PERMITS.

181. (1) Any licensee desirous of acquiring a permit to prospect for petroleum, natural gas, coal or salt, upon any Crown lands not withdrawn from exploration or sale or upon any lands, the mines, minerals or mining rights of which have been reserved to the Crown in the patent, sale, lease, or location, shall before going into occupation of such lands, stake out the same by planting a post at each corner thereof, and writing or marking on No. 1 post, at the northeast corner of the said area, the words "Prospecting Permit applied for," the name of the licensee staking out the said lands and the number of his license, also the name of the licensee in whose name or on whose behalf

it is proposed to make application for such permit, the number of his license, the date on which the said lands are staked out, a statement of the area intended to be covered by the Permit; and shall within fifteen days thereafter make application in duplicate for the said Permit to the Mining Recorder of the Mining Division within which the lands are situate, which application may be according to Form No. 22 in the appendix hereto. One copy of such application shall at once be posted up in the Recorder's office, and one copy forwarded to the Minister. The application shall be verified by affidavit which may be according to Form No. 23 in the appendix hereto. If the area so staked out is more than ten miles from the office of the Mining Recorded, one day additional for every additional ten miles or fraction thereof shall be allowed for making said application.

(2) After the expiry of thirty days from the making of such application to the Mining Recorder, and not later than ninety days thereafter, the licensee shall make application to the Minister for a Permit to prospect said lands for petroleum, natural gas, coal or salt, or any one or more of the said substances, and shall accompany his application with a plan or diagram showing as nearly as possible, the situation of the lands and shall give the best practicable written description of the same, and pay in a fee of $100. If the lands are situate in surveyed territory the applicant shall describe the lands by the numbers of the lots and concessions. Upon completion of the application, if no good reason appears to the contrary, the Minister may grant the Permit, which shall be called a Prospecting Permit," and shall be for one year only. Such permit may be according to Form No. 24 in the appendix hereto.

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(3) Every tract of land for which a Prospecting Permit is applied, if in unsurveyed territory, shall be rectangular in form and shall not exceed six hundred and forty acres in extent, and the boundary lines thereof shall be due north and south and due east and west, astronomically. If in surveyed territory such tract may consist of any number of lots, not containing in all more than six hundred and forty acres, provided they are contiguous, and the whole tract need not be rectangular in form.

(4) A Prospecting Permit shall require the holder thereof to enter upon the tract of land described therein within two months of the date thereof, and to expend thereon in actual boring, sinking, driving or otherwise searching for petroleum, natural gas, coal or salt, a sum not less than at the rate of two dollars per acre during the term of the permit, which expenditure shall not include any moneys laid out for houses, roads or other like improvements. Upon proof being filed with the Minister that the said expenditure has been made and all other terms and conditions of the permit duly complied with, the Minister may at the expiry thereof, grant a renewal of the same on payment of a fee of one hundred dollars, subject to like conditions as to expenditure in actual boring or otherwise searching for the substances aforesaid, or any one or more of them. Where an application for a prospecting permit includes any lands, the surface rights of which have been patented, sold, leased or located, and the mines, minerals or mining rights of which have been reserved to the Crown, such permit shall not issue until the applicant has filed evidence to the satisfaction of the Minister, that he has arranged with the owner or owners of the said surface rights for compensation for injury or damage thereto, or failing such arrangement that such compensation has been ascertained and paid or secured in manner provided in section 119 hereof.

(5) Upon the holder of a prospecting permit, proving to the satisfaction of the Minister, that he has discovered petroleum, natural gas, coal or salt, or

any one or more of the said substances in commercial quantities upon the lands included therein, the Minister may lease the said lands or any portion of them to the holder of the said permit or his assignee for a term of ten years at an annual rental of one dollar per acre, payable in advance, and subject to the expenditure of not less than two dollars per acre per annum for raising or obtaining petroleum, natural gas, coal or salt, or any one or more of the said substances therefrom, or in actual bona fide operations or works undertaken or made for the purpose of raising or obtaining the same. The lessee shall have the right of renewal of such lease at the expiry of the first term of ten years at the same rental, and at the expiry of the second term of ten years for another term of twenty years at such renewal rental as may then be agreed upon or provided by law or regulation.

6) Every such lease shall contain such other conditions stipulations and provisos as the Lieutenant-Governor in Council may order and prescribe, and shall be forfeited and void if the rental payable thereunder be not paid when due, or upon failure to expend the money required therein to be laid out in bona fide operations or work for the purpose of raising or obtaining the aforementioned substances, or any one or more of them, or upon failure to comply with any of the said terms and conditions of such lease. Provided that a forfeiture for failure to pay rent when due may be defeated by paying up all arrears of rent within ninety days after the same became due and payable.

(7) The right conferred by any such lease upon the lessee shall be to enter upon the lands mentioned or described therein, and to dig, bore, sink, drive or otherwise search for and obtain, raise and remove, petroleum, natural gas, coal and salt, or any one or more of such substances. All other minerals or mineral substances of value shall be reserved to the Crown, and it shall be lawful for the holder of a Miner's License at all times to go upon the said lands and prospect and search for valuable minerals and to stake out mining claims thereon, and obtain patents therefor, upon compensating the said lessee for injury or damage to the surface rights of the said lands; nevertheless, from such patents, the petroleum, natural gas, coal and salt in, on or under the said lands, shall be reserved.

(8) No such lease shall issue for lands in unsurveyed territory unless and until a plan in triplicate by an Ontario Land Surveyor, field notes and description, shall be filed in the Department, showing a survey in conformity with this Act, and to the satisfaction of the Minister.

(9) The holder of a prospecting permit or of a lease for petroleum, natural gas, coal or salt, shall not be entitled to the timber upon the lands included in such permit or lease but if the same are not covered by timber license, such holder may cut and use such timber or trees as may be necessary for prospecting and working the said lands, upon application to the Minister therefor, and upon payment of such rates as he may fix.

(10) The holder of a prospecting permit may, subject to the consent of the Minister endorsed thereon, transfer by assignment in the Form No. 25 in the appendix hereto all his rights in the said Permit or the lands included therein, and upon said consent being given the licensee to whom the same is transferred shall thereupon be entitled to the unexpired term of the said permit, with any right of renewal thereof hereby authorized.