Mr. A. K. MACLEAN:
What is the purpose of this last subsection?
Mr. MEIGHEN:
It was thought that as the work proceeded it might be found that there were too many local tribunals, and that in that event provision should be made for consolidating tribunals. This is the provision. The powers of any tribunal may be transferred to another, and then the other takes the place of the first one, and may carry on anything that the first one has had under review.
Sir HERBERT AMES:
Is there any stipulation making it obligatory upon a man to appeal to a certain tribunal? Must he appeal where his residence is? What would prevent a man, if he should feel that one local tribunal was easier to pass than another, from going into the other district and appearing before the local tribunal where he thought his chances of securing exemption were best?
Mr. MEIGHEN:
There is nothing to prevent him. A man may make his selection in his own province. If it is good enough for him, it is good enough for the department. But having made his choice, he must abide by it. .
Sir HERBERT AMES:
Is it not likely to become something like the divorce law in the United States, where men go to the state where it is most easy to obtain a divorce, Nevada, for instance?
Mr. MEJGHEN:
If a man gets a divorce in Nevada, there is no appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, but here we have a system of appeals. With the other plan the danger would be that we would have a great many questions of domicile.
Subsection agreed to. On subsection 7, section 11: When a certificate is lost, destroyed or defaced, the tribunal by whom it was granted shall, upon the application of the man to whom it was granted and upon payment of a fee of fifty cents, issue to him a duplicate of such certificate.
Mr. A. K. MACLEAN:
What is the purpose of levying a fee of fifty cents?
Mr. MEIGHEN:
It is a precaution against the certificate being too lightly lost. We had to take a more exacting precaution than this in connection with the . exodus regulations.
Mr. SINCLAIR:
Who gets the fee?
Mr. MEIGHEN:
It is the intention that it shall go to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada. I think under the law it does not become the property, of the tribunal unless it is made its property.
On subsection 2, section 12:
(2) All proclamations and regulations shall be published forthwith in the Canada Gazette and in such other manner, if any, as the Governor in Council may think necessary to ensure knowledge thereof by all persons concerned, and shall forthwith be laid before Parliament if then in session, and if not in session within ten days after the next meeting thereof.
Mr. PARDEE:
I think the proclamations should be published once in a newspaper in each county town where the boards are to sit. The Canada Gazette is not widely circulated, and comparatively few people ever get it.
Mr. A. K. MACLEAN:
It is not important.
Mr. PARDEE:
I think it is important enough to let the people know what is being done.
Mr. MEIGHEN:
I agree that the Gazette publication really gives little or no publicity. It simply enables the newspapers to get it. The most of the proclamations are important, and they should be published in local newspapers. It may be necessary to utilize the poster system or billboards, but as to the publication of newspapers, there can be no question. The only reason that section was inserted as it is was that some minor regulations and changes might have to be made, and it would not be wise to insist on the publication because it might involve too much expense. The House may take the assurance that an important proclamation will receive wide newspaper publicity.
Mr. SINCLAIR:
Will the peace officer appointed under this section be under military control?
Mr. MEIGHEN:
No, this is a civilian Bill, under a civilian minister, and the Governor in- Council appoints the peace officer and other officers to carry out the provisions of the Act. They will be in no sense military officers. They are peace officers.
Sir WILFRID LAURIER:
I observe
that in this section there is provision to remunerate the registrars. Paragraph (a) reads:
Define the duties of registrars and fix their remuneration.
And subsection (f) says:
Make provision for expenses and the remuneration of officers.
I assume, therefore, that the members of the tribunal will not be remunerated.
Mr. MEIGHEN:
The intention is that
they shall not be remunerated.
Mr. OLIVER:
Subsection 3 reads:
All regulations shall have the same force and effect as if they formed part of this Act.
The Solicitor General said that the tribunal should be granted, in some measure, by memoranda or letters of direction. Would those directions be a part of this Act under that section-?