Proceedings instituted by AttorneyGeneral. Prosecution for penalty over $100. Penalties a first charge on railway. Interpreta tion. trate, a stipendiary magistrate or any person with the power or authority of two or more justices of the peace. 2. Whenever the Board shall have reasonable ground for belief that the company, or any person or corporation is violating or has violated any of the provisions of this Act in respect of which violation a penalty may be imposed under this Act, the Board may request the Attorney General for Canada to institute and prosecute proceedings on behalf of His Majesty the King against such company or person for the imposition and recovery of the penalty provided under this Act for such violation, or the Board may cause an information to be filed in the name of the Attorney General for Canada for the imposition and recovery of such penalty. 3. No prosecution shall be had against the company for any penalty under this Act in which the company might be held liable for a penalty exceeding one hundred dollars, without the leave of the Board being first obtained. 301. Where the company has been convicted of any penalty under this Act, such penalty shall be the first lien or charge upon the railway, property, assets, rents and revenues of the company. XV. STATISTICS AND RETURNS. 302. In the following sections of this Act down to section three hundred and eight inclusive, unless the context "Company." otherwise requires, the expression "company "" means a company constructing or operating a line of railway in Canada, whether otherwise within the legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada or not, and includes any individual or individuals not incorporated, who are owners or lessees of a railway in Canada, or parties to an agreement for working a railway in Canada. 51 V., c. 29, s. 298. Annual returns to be prepared. Form and attestation. Period included. Duplicate for Minister. 303. Every company shall annually prepare returns in accordance with the forms contained in schedule one to this Act, of its capital, traffic and working expenditure, and of all information required, as indicated in the said form, to be furnished to the Minister; and such returns shall be dated and signed by, and attested upon the oath of the secretary, or some other chief officer of the company, and of the president, or in his absence, of the vicepresident or manager of the company. 2. Such returns shall be made for the period included from the date to which the then last yearly returns made by the company extended, or from the commencement of the operation of the railway, if no such returns have been previously made, and, in either case, down to the last day of June, in the then current year. 3. A duplicate copy of such returns, dated, signed, and attested in manner aforesaid, shall be forwarded by such company to the Minister within three months after the first day of July in each year. Other re 4. The company shall also, in addition to the information required to be furnished to the Minister, as indi-quired when re cated in the said schedule one, furnish such other information and returns as are, from time to time, required by the Minister. non-compli ance. 5. Every company which makes default in forwarding Penalty for such returns in accordance with the provisions of this section, shall incur a penalty not exceeding ten dollars for every day during which such default continues. Returns to be submitted 6. The Minister shall lay before both Houses of Parliament, within twenty-one days from the commencement to Parliament. of each session thereof, the returns made and forwarded to him in pursuance of this section. 51 V., c. 29, s. 299. returns of 304. Every company shall, weekly, prepare returns of Weekly its traffic, that is to say, from the first to the seventh of traffic. the month inclusive, from the eighth to the fourteenth inclusive, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first inclusive, and from the twenty-second to the close of the month, inclusive, and such returns shall be in accordance with the form contained in schedule two to this Act, and a copy of such returns, signed by the officer of the company responsible for the correctness of such returns, shall be forwarded by the company to the Minister, within seven days from the day to which the said returns have been prepared. The Minister may in any case extend the time within which such returns shall be forwarded. 2. Every company which makes default in forwarding Penalty. the weekly returns to the Minister, shall incur a penalty not exceeding ten dollars for every day during which such default continues. 51 V., c. 29, s. 300, Am. Making false returns a mis 3. Every person who, knowing the same to be false in any particular, signs any return required by this or the demeanour. next preceding section, is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction. 51 V., c. 29, s. 301, Am. Semi-annual returns of ac 305. Every company shall, within one month after the first days of January and July, in each and every year, cidents. make to the Minister, under the oath of the president, secretary or superintendent of the company, a true and particular return of all accidents and casualties, whether to life or property, which have occurred on the railway of the company during the half year next preceding each of the said periods respectively, setting forth (a.) the causes and natures of such accidents and casualties; (b.) the points at which they occurred, and whether by night or by day; (c.) the full extent thereof, and all the particulars of the same; And shall also, when required by the Minister, return a true copy of the existing by-laws of the company, and Causes and nature. Locality and time. Extent and particulars. Copies of by laws. Minister may of its rules and regulations for the management of the company and of its railway. 51 V., c. 29, s. 302, Am. 306. The Minister may order and direct, from time to prescribe form time, the form in which such returns shall be made up, and may order and direct any company to make up and deliver to the Minister, from time to time, in addition to Returns of the said periodical returns, returns of serious accidents of returns. serious accidents. Penalty for non-compli ance. Returns are privileged communications. Returns to Board, of as ities. Of stock is sued and out standing, etc. occurring in the course of the public traffic upon the railway belonging to such company, whether attended with personal injury or not, in such form and manner as the Minister deems necessary and requires for his information with a view to public safety. 51 V., c. 29, s. 303. 307. If the returns required under the two sections next preceding, so verified, are not delivered within the respective times in the said sections prescribed, or within fourteen days after the same have been so required by the Minister, every company which makes default in so doing shall forfeit to His Majesty the sum of one hundred dollars for every day during which the company neglects to deliver the same. 51 V., c. 29, s. 304. 308. All returns made in pursuance of any of the provisions of the six sections of this Act next preceding shall be privileged communications, and shall not be evidence in any court whatsoever, except in any prosecution under subsection three of section three hundred and four, Exceptions. or for perjury in making the said oath or for forgery of said return or any part thereof. 51 V., c. 29, s. 305, Am. 309. The Board may from time to time, by notice served sets and liabil- upon the company, or any officer, servant or agent of the company, require it, or such officer, servant or agent to furnish the Board, at or within any time stated in such notice, a written statement or statements showing in so far, and with such detail and particulars, as the Board requires, the assets and liabilities of the company--the amount of its stock issued and outstanding-the date at which any such stock was so issued-the amount and nature of the consideration received by the company for such issue, and, in case the whole of such consideration was not paid to the company in cash, the nature of the service rendered to or property received by the company for which any stock was issued-the gross earnings or receipts or expenditure by the company during any periods specified by the Board, and the purposes for which such expenditure was made the amount and nature of Of bonuses. any bonus, gift, or subsidy, received by the company from any source whatsoever, and the source from which and the time when, and the circumstances under which, the same was so received or given-the bonds issued at any time by the company, and what portion of the same are outstanding and what portion, if any, have been redeemed, the amount and nature of the consideration received by the company for the issue of such bonds-the character and extent of any liabilities outstanding, Of earn ings and expenditure. Of bonds. Of secured liabilities. Of cost of property. Of cost of chargeable upon the property or undertaking of the company, or any part thereof, and the consideration received by the company for any such liabilities, and the circumstances under which the same were created-the cost of construction of the company's railway or of any part thereof, the amount and nature of the consideration paid or given by the company for any property acquired acquirements. by it, the particulars of any lease, contract or arrange- and contracts. ment entered into between the company and any other company or person, and generally, the extent, nature, value and particulars of the property, earnings, and business of the company. Of leases Generally. Powers of returns. Or inquiries 2. The Board may summon, require the attendance of, Board and examine under oath, any officer, servant or agent of respecting the company, or any other person, as to any matters included in such return, or which were required by notice aforesaid to be returned to the Board, and as to any matter or thing which, in the opinion of the Board, is relevant to such return, or to any inquiry which the Board respecting deems it expedient to make in connection with any of the same. matters in this section aforesaid; and for such purposes may require the production to the Board of any books or documents. documents in control of the company, or such officer, servant, agent or person. Production make re turns. Penalties. 3. If any company, or officer, servant, or agent thereof Refusal to wilfully or negligently refuses to make such return when, and as thereunto, required by the Board, or fails to make any such return to the utmost of its, or his, knowledge or means of knowledge, the company, and every such officer, servant or agent, so in default, shall severally be liable, on conviction, to a penalty not exceeding one thousand dollars, and in addition, each such officer, servant or agent, so convicted shall be liable to imprisonment in the common jail of the county in which such conviction is made, for any period not exceeding twelve months. false returns 4. If the company, or any officer, servant, or agent Making thereof, wilfully or negligently makes any false return, to Board. or any false statement in any such return, the company, and any such officer, servant or agent, shall be severally liable on conviction to a penalty not exceeding one thousand dollars, and such officer, servant or agent shall also on such conviction, be liable to imprisonment for any period not exceeding twelve months, in the common jail of the county where such conviction is had. Information 5. Any information furnished to the Board by any privileged. such return, or any evidence taken by the Board in connection therewith, shall not be open to the public, or published, but shall be for the information of the Board only; and if any official or servant of the Board, or any person Penalty having access to or knowledge of, any such return or of Board evidence shall, without the authority of the Board first divulging. obtained, publish or make known any information, having obtained the same, or knowing the same to have been derived, from such return or evidence, he shall be liable, for employees Governor in Council may examine returns, etc. Board may make information public, on notice to on conviction, to a penalty not exceeding five hundred dollars for each offence, and to imprisonment not exceeding six months in the common jail in the county where such conviction is had. 6. The Governor in Council may nevertheless require the Board to communicate to him in Council any or all information obtained by it in manner aforesaid. 7. The Board may authorize any part of such information to be made public when, and in so far as there may appear to the Board to be good and sufficient reasons for company, etc. so doing; but if the information so proposed to be made public by the Board, is of such character that the company would, in the opinion of the Board, be likely to object to the publication thereof, the Board shall not authorize such information to be published without notice to the company and hearing any objection which the company may make to such publication. XVI.-REPEAL AND COMING INTO FORCE. 310. The following Acts of the Parliament of Canada are hereby repealed: Chapter 29 of 51 Victoria;-the whole. Chapter 9 of 59 Victoria;-the whole except section 2. 311. This Act shall come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Governor General, and notice thereof shall be published in The Canada Gazette. But, in order to allow time for the companies to comply with this Act in respect of tolls, tolls may be charged under the law as it stood immediately before the coming into force of this Act, until three months after this Act comes into force, or until such later date as the Board may by order in any case, or by regulation, fix and allow. |