C-14 - Railway Act

Section 9 Disposition versions

1987-05-27

9. The company shall have power and authority:

(1)  To receive, hold and take all voluntary grants and donations of land or other property made to it, to aid in the construction, maintenance and accommodation of the railway; but the same shall be held and used for the purpose of such grants or donations only;

(2)  To acquire, hold and take of any corporation or person any land or other property necessary for the construction, maintenance, accommodation and use of the railway, and also to alienate, sell or dispose of the same at pleasure;

(3)  With the consent of the Government, to take and appropriate, for the use of its railway and works, but not to alienate, so much of the wild lands in the public domain, lying on the route of the railway, as have not been granted or sold, and as may be necessary for such railway, as also so much of the public beach or of the land covered with waters of any lake, river, stream or canal, or of their respective beds, as is necessary for making and completing and using their said railway and works, subject, however, to the authority and control of the Parliament of Canada, in so far as shipping and navigation are concerned;

The Government may, however, if it deems that special circumstances justify it in so doing, consent to the conveying of ownership title in such lands or property in the public domain, without any restriction whatsoever, in favour of the company;

(4)  To make, carry or place the railway across or upon the lands of any corporation or person on the line of the railway or within the distance from such line stated in the charter, although, through error or other cause, the name of such corporation or person has not been entered in the book of reference hereinafter mentioned, or although some other corporation or person has been erroneously mentioned as the owner of or as entitled to convey, or as interested in such land;

(5)  To construct, maintain and work the railway across, along, or upon any river, water course, canal, highway or railway which it intersects or touches; but the river, water course, highway, canal or railway, so intersected or touched, shall be restored by the company to its former state, or to such state as not to impair its usefulness; subject always, however, to the authority and control of the Parliament of Canada, in so far as respects shipping and navigation;

(6)  To survey, lay out, construct, make, complete, alter and keep in repair an iron or steel railway of a gauge of 143.5 centimetres, to be worked by the force and power of steam or of electricity, or of the atmosphere, or of animals, or by mechanical power, or by any combination thereof authorized by the special act, with double or single iron or steel tracks; and the said railway or any part thereof, as far as the same may be operated by electricity, or any power other than steam, may be carried along and upon such public highways as may be authorized by the by-laws of the respective corporations having jurisdiction over the same, and subject to the restrictions and provisions therein and in this Act contained, and under and subject to any agreements between the company and the councils of the said corporations and between the company and the said companies, if any, interested in such highways; and the company may make and enter into any agreements with any municipal corporation or road company as to the terms of occupancy of any street or highway, subject to the provisions and conditions contained in this Act, in the Municipal Code (chapter C-27.1), in the Cities and Towns Act (chapter C-19), or in the charter of the town interested therein;

(7)  To purchase land for and erect powerhouses, factories, warehouses, elevators, docks, offices, and workshops, and to sell and convey such land as may be found superfluous for any such purpose, and to hold as part of the property of the said company as many steam or other vessels as the directors of the company may deem requisite, to facilitate the carriage of passengers, freight and all other traffic in connection with the railway;

(8)  To erect and maintain all necessary and convenient buildings, stations, depots, wharves and accessories, and to change, repair and enlarge the same, and to purchase and acquire stationary or locomotive engines, motors and carriages, cars, floating-stages and other machinery necessary for the accommodation and use of the passengers, freight and business of the railway;

(9)  To construct, maintain and operate works for the production of electricity for the motive power of the said railways, and for lighting and heating the rolling-stock and other property of the company;

(10)  To sell and lease any such electricity, not required for the purposes aforesaid, to any person or corporation, and to acquire and hold any property necessary for the purposes mentioned in this division;

(11)  To purchase the right to carry electricity required for the working of the railway, and lighting or heating the same, over, through or under lands, other than the lands of the railway by the special Act authorized to be built, and, with the consent of the councils of the municipalities affected, to purchase the right to lay conduits under or erect poles and wires on or over such lands as may be determined by the company, and along and upon any of the public highways or across any of the waters in Québec, by the erection of the necessary fixtures, including posts, piers or abutments for sustaining the cords or wires of such lines, or the conduits for such electricity, upon and subject to such agreement in respect thereof as shall first be made between the company and private owners of the lands affected, and between the company and any municipality in which such works or any part thereof, or of the railway, may be situate, and under and subject to any by-law of the council of such municipality passed in pursuance thereof; provided such works are not so constructed as to impede the public use of such roads or highways, or as to be a nuisance thereto, or to impede the free access to any house or other building erected in the vicinity of the same, or to endanger or injuriously affect the same, or injuriously interrupt the navigation of such waters;

(12)  To construct branch railways authorized by the charter, and to manage the same, and, for that purpose, to exercise and possess all the powers, privileges and authority necessary therefor, in as full and ample a manner as for the railway;

(13)  To construct and make all other matters and things necessary and convenient for making, extending and using the railway, in pursuance of this Act and of the charter;

(14)  To take, transport, carry and convey persons and goods of all kinds on the railway; to regulate the time and manner in which the same shall be transported, and the tolls and compensation to be paid therefor, and receive such tolls and compensation;

(15)  To purchase, lease or acquire by donation, and to sell, lease, alienate or mortgage any lands or premises intended and necessary or suitable for any park or pleasure grounds, not exceeding 40 hectares in any one municipality, and to improve and lay out such lands as parks or places of public resort, and to make and enter into any agreements with the municipal corporations of the municipalities where the same are situate or any of them, in respect thereto; but none of the provisions of this paragraph shall have any force or effect, unless the municipal council of the municipality wherein the lands proposed to be acquired by the company are situated, has by by-law assented to the company’s acquiring lands under, and for the purpose mentioned in this paragraph;

(16)  To borrow, either in Canada or elsewhere, at a rate of interest not exceeding 6% per annum, such sums of money as may be expedient for completing, maintaining or working the railway; to make the bonds, debentures and other securities, granted for the sums so borrowed, payable either in currency or in sterling, in francs or in the currency of any country, and at such place or places, within Canada or without, as may be deemed advisable; to sell the same at such prices or discount as may be deemed expedient, or be necessary; and to hypothecate, mortgage or pledge the lands, tolls, revenues and other properties of the company, for the payment of the said sums borrowed and the interest thereon; but no such bond, debenture or other security shall be for less than $100;

(17)  To enter into and upon any lands in the public domain, without previous permission therefor, or into and upon the lands of any corporation or person, lying on the intended route or line of the railway; and to make all surveys, examinations, or other operations on such lands necessary for fixing the site of the railway, and to set out and ascertain such parts of the lands as are requisite and proper for the railway;

(18)  To fell or remove any trees standing in any woods, lands or forests where the railway passes, to the distance of 35 metres from either side thereof;

(19)  To cross or intersect any other railway, and join and unite the railway with any other railway, at any point on its route, and upon the lands of such other railway, with the necessary conveniences for the purposes of such connection; and the owners of both railways may unite in forming such intersection, and grant facilities therefor; and in case of disagreement upon the amount of compensation to be made therefor, or upon the point or manner of such crossing or connection, the same shall be determined by arbitrators to be appointed by a judge of the Superior Court;

(20)  No railway company shall avail itself of any of the powers contained in paragraph 19 of this section, without application to the Minister of Transport, for approval of the mode of junction, crossing, or intersection proposed;

Notice in writing of such application shall be given to any other railway company affected, by sending the same, by mail or otherwise, to the address of the president, superintendent, managing director or secretary of any such railway company;

When such approval has been obtained, either railway may, in case of disagreement as to the amount to be paid for compensation, proceed to determine such compensation, as provided in paragraph 19 of this section;

(21)  Any railway company may, whenever a by-law sanctioning the same has been passed by the municipal council of the municipality within which such proposed branch is situate, construct a branch or branches, not exceeding 10 kilometres in length, from any terminus or station of its railway;

No such branch shall, as to the quality and construction of the road, be subject to any of the restrictions contained in the charter or in this Act, nor shall anything in either authorize the company to take for such branch any lands belonging to any person, without the consent of such person first obtained;

(22)  For the purpose of connecting any city, town, village, manufactory, mine, or any stone or slate quarry, or any well or spring, with the main line of the railway of the company, or with any branch thereof, or with any railway worked or leased by the company; and for the purpose of giving increased facilities to business, or for the purpose of transporting the products of any such manufactory, mine, quarry, well or spring, the company may build, make, construct, work and use, sidings, or branch lines of railway, not to exceed, in any one case, 10 kilometres in length; but the company shall not proceed to locate or build any branch line of more than 400 metres in length, under this section, until public notice shall have been given for six weeks, in some newspaper published in the counties through or in which such branch line is to be built, that it is the intention of the company to apply to the Government to sanction the building of such branch line, and to expropriate the necessary lands for that purpose, under the compulsory powers vested in them by this Act, or by any Act concerning such company; nor unless the company shall, prior to the first publication of such notice, have deposited in the registry office of any city, county or part of a county, in which the line or any part thereof is to be constructed, the maps and plans indicating the location of the line; nor until the company shall have submitted such maps and plans to, and until such maps and plans shall have been approved by the Government, after the last publication of the notice; and provided that the order of the Government, approving the said maps and plans, shall limit the time, not exceeding two years from the date of such order, within which the company may construct such branch line;

For any and every such purpose, each and every company herein referred to, shall have and may exercise all the powers given them, with respect to their main line, by the charter of the company, or Acts relating to the company, or by the Act authorizing the construction of the main line, and by this Act; and all the provisions of the said Acts which are applicable to such extension, shall extend and apply to every such siding, or branch line of railway;

(23)  Any railway company, desiring at any time to change the location of its line of railway in any particular part, for the purpose of lessening a curve, reducing a gradient, or otherwise changing such line of railway, or for any other purpose for the advantage of the public, may make such change; and all the provisions of this Act shall refer as fully to the part of such line of railway, so at any time changed or proposed to be changed, as to the original line; but no railway company shall extend its line of railway beyond the termini mentioned in the charter;

(24)  To enter into any agreement with any person or company, for leasing, hiring or using any electric motors, carriages, cars, rolling stock or other moveable property from such company or person, for such time and on such terms as may be agreed on; and also to enter into agreements with any railway company, for the use, by any contracting company, of the electric motors, carriages, cars, rolling stock or other moveable property of the other, for the running of the cars or carriages of the company over the track of any other railway company with the consent of such company, on such terms as to compensation and otherwise as may be agreed on;

(25)  To enter into any agreement with any person or company for supplying steam or other power for the production of electricity for the purposes of the railway, or with any electric light or electric railway company, or any company organized for the purpose of supplying or furnishing electric power, for the purchase, leasing or hiring of power to run their electric motors, carriages or cars, or for lighting or heating the same, or for any other purpose for which it may be required by the company to construct, carry on and operate the railway;

(26)  The price to be paid by the company in virtue of any agreement mentioned in paragraph 24 or 25 of this section, shall be reasonable in amount; but such agreement shall not be valid unless confirmed and approved by a resolution passed by the votes of shareholders holding two-thirds in value of the capital stock of the company, at a general meeting specially called for the purpose of considering such agreement;

(27)  The original capital stock of any railway company may be increased at will to any amount, but such increase must be sanctioned by a vote, in person or by proxy, of shareholders representing at least two-thirds of the shares, at a meeting specially called by the directors for that purpose, by a notice in writing to each shareholder, served on him personally, or properly directed to him, and deposited in the post-office at least twenty days previous to such meeting, stating the time and place and object of the meeting and the amount of the proposed increase;

The proceedings at such meeting must be entered in the minute books, and thereupon the capital stock may be increased to the amount mentioned by such vote.

Before exercising the powers provided in paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 14, 22 and 23, a company must obtain, in each case, the authorization of the Minister of Transport.

R. S. 1964, c. 290, s. 9; 1972, c. 55, s. 104; 1977, c. 60, s. 40; 1987, c. 23, s. 76.

1984-09-01

9. The company shall have power and authority:

(1)  To receive, hold and take all voluntary grants and donations of land or other property made to it, to aid in the construction, maintenance and accommodation of the railway; but the same shall be held and used for the purpose of such grants or donations only;

(2)  To acquire, hold and take of any corporation or person any land or other property necessary for the construction, maintenance, accommodation and use of the railway, and also to alienate, sell or dispose of the same at pleasure;

(3)  With the consent of the Government, to take and appropriate, for the use of its railway and works, but not to alienate, so much of the wild lands of the Crown, lying on the route of the railway, as have not been granted or sold, and as may be necessary for such railway, as also so much of the public beach or of the land covered with waters of any lake, river, stream or canal, or of their respective beds, as is necessary for making and completing and using their said railway and works, subject, however, to the authority and control of the Parliament of Canada, in so far as shipping and navigation are concerned;

The Government may, however, if it deems that special circumstances justify it in so doing, consent to the conveying of ownership title in such Crown lands or property, without any restriction whatsoever, in favour of the company;

(4)  To make, carry or place the railway across or upon the lands of any corporation or person on the line of the railway or within the distance from such line stated in the charter, although, through error or other cause, the name of such corporation or person has not been entered in the book of reference hereinafter mentioned, or although some other corporation or person has been erroneously mentioned as the owner of or as entitled to convey, or as interested in such land;

(5)  To construct, maintain and work the railway across, along, or upon any river, water course, canal, highway or railway which it intersects or touches; but the river, water course, highway, canal or railway, so intersected or touched, shall be restored by the company to its former state, or to such state as not to impair its usefulness; subject always, however, to the authority and control of the Parliament of Canada, in so far as respects shipping and navigation;

(6)  To survey, lay out, construct, make, complete, alter and keep in repair an iron or steel railway of a gauge of 143.5 centimetres, to be worked by the force and power of steam or of electricity, or of the atmosphere, or of animals, or by mechanical power, or by any combination thereof authorized by the special act, with double or single iron or steel tracks; and the said railway or any part thereof, as far as the same may be operated by electricity, or any power other than steam, may be carried along and upon such public highways as may be authorized by the by-laws of the respective corporations having jurisdiction over the same, and subject to the restrictions and provisions therein and in this act contained, and under and subject to any agreements between the company and the councils of the said corporations and between the company and the said companies, if any, interested in such highways; and the company may make and enter into any agreements with any municipal corporation or road company as to the terms of occupancy of any street or highway, subject to the provisions and conditions contained in this act, in the Municipal Code (chapter C-27.1), in the Cities and Towns Act (chapter C-19), or in the charter of the town interested therein;

(7)  To purchase land for and erect powerhouses, factories, warehouses, elevators, docks, offices, and workshops, and to sell and convey such land as may be found superfluous for any such purpose, and to hold as part of the property of the said company as many steam or other vessels as the directors of the company may deem requisite, to facilitate the carriage of passengers, freight and all other traffic in connection with the railway;

(8)  To erect and maintain all necessary and convenient buildings, stations, depots, wharves and accessories, and to change, repair and enlarge the same, and to purchase and acquire stationary or locomotive engines, motors and carriages, cars, floating-stages and other machinery necessary for the accommodation and use of the passengers, freight and business of the railway;

(9)  To construct, maintain and operate works for the production of electricity for the motive power of the said railways, and for lighting and heating the rolling-stock and other property of the company;

(10)  To sell and lease any such electricity, not required for the purposes aforesaid, to any person or corporation, and to acquire and hold any property necessary for the purposes mentioned in this division;

(11)  To purchase the right to carry electricity required for the working of the railway, and lighting or heating the same, over, through or under lands, other than the lands of the railway by the special act authorized to be built, and, with the consent of the councils of the municipalities affected, to purchase the right to lay conduits under or erect poles and wires on or over such lands as may be determined by the company, and along and upon any of the public highways or across any of the waters in Québec, by the erection of the necessary fixtures, including posts, piers or abutments for sustaining the cords or wires of such lines, or the conduits for such electricity, upon and subject to such agreement in respect thereof as shall first be made between the company and private owners of the lands affected, and between the company and any municipality in which such works or any part thereof, or of the railway, may be situate, and under and subject to any by-law of the council of such municipality passed in pursuance thereof; provided such works are not so constructed as to impede the public use of such roads or highways, or as to be a nuisance thereto, or to impede the free access to any house or other building erected in the vicinity of the same, or to endanger or injuriously affect the same, or injuriously interrupt the navigation of such waters;

(12)  To construct branch railways authorized by the charter, and to manage the same, and, for that purpose, to exercise and possess all the powers, privileges and authority necessary therefor, in as full and ample a manner as for the railway;

(13)  To construct and make all other matters and things necessary and convenient for making, extending and using the railway, in pursuance of this act and of the charter;

(14)  To take, transport, carry and convey persons and goods of all kinds on the railway; to regulate the time and manner in which the same shall be transported, and the tolls and compensation to be paid therefor, and receive such tolls and compensation;

(15)  To purchase, lease or acquire by donation, and to sell, lease, alienate or mortgage any lands or premises intended and necessary or suitable for any park or pleasure grounds, not exceeding 40 hectares in any one municipality, and to improve and lay out such lands as parks or places of public resort, and to make and enter into any agreements with the municipal corporations of the municipalities where the same are situate or any of them, in respect thereto; but none of the provisions of this paragraph shall have any force or effect, unless the municipal council of the municipality wherein the lands proposed to be acquired by the company are situated, has by by-law assented to the company’s acquiring lands under, and for the purpose mentioned in this paragraph;

(16)  To borrow, either in Canada or elsewhere, at a rate of interest not exceeding 6% per annum, such sums of money as may be expedient for completing, maintaining or working the railway; to make the bonds, debentures and other securities, granted for the sums so borrowed, payable either in currency or in sterling, in francs or in the currency of any country, and at such place or places, within Canada or without, as may be deemed advisable; to sell the same at such prices or discount as may be deemed expedient, or be necessary; and to hypothecate, mortgage or pledge the lands, tolls, revenues and other properties of the company, for the payment of the said sums borrowed and the interest thereon; but no such bond, debenture or other security shall be for less than $100;

(17)  To enter into and upon any Crown lands, without previous permission therefor, or into and upon the lands of any corporation or person, lying on the intended route or line of the railway; and to make all surveys, examinations, or other operations on such lands necessary for fixing the site of the railway, and to set out and ascertain such parts of the lands as are requisite and proper for the railway;

(18)  To fell or remove any trees standing in any woods, lands or forests where the railway passes, to the distance of 35 metres from either side thereof;

(19)  To cross or intersect any other railway, and join and unite the railway with any other railway, at any point on its route, and upon the lands of such other railway, with the necessary conveniences for the purposes of such connection; and the owners of both railways may unite in forming such intersection, and grant facilities therefor; and in case of disagreement upon the amount of compensation to be made therefor, or upon the point or manner of such crossing or connection, the same shall be determined by arbitrators to be appointed by a judge of the Superior Court;

(20)  No railway company shall avail itself of any of the powers contained in paragraph 19 of this section, without application to the Minister of Transport, for approval of the mode of junction, crossing, or intersection proposed;

Notice in writing of such application shall be given to any other railway company affected, by sending the same, by mail or otherwise, to the address of the president, superintendent, managing director or secretary of any such railway company;

When such approval has been obtained, either railway may, in case of disagreement as to the amount to be paid for compensation, proceed to determine such compensation, as provided in paragraph 19 of this section;

(21)  Any railway company may, whenever a by-law sanctioning the same has been passed by the municipal council of the municipality within which such proposed branch is situate, construct a branch or branches, not exceeding 10 kilometres in length, from any terminus or station of its railway;

No such branch shall, as to the quality and construction of the road, be subject to any of the restrictions contained in the charter or in this act, nor shall anything in either authorize the company to take for such branch any lands belonging to any person, without the consent of such person first obtained;

(22)  For the purpose of connecting any city, town, village, manufactory, mine, or any stone or slate quarry, or any well or spring, with the main line of the railway of the company, or with any branch thereof, or with any railway worked or leased by the company; and for the purpose of giving increased facilities to business, or for the purpose of transporting the products of any such manufactory, mine, quarry, well or spring, the company may build, make, construct, work and use, sidings, or branch lines of railway, not to exceed, in any one case, 10 kilometres in length; but the company shall not proceed to locate or build any branch line of more than 400 metres in length, under this section, until public notice shall have been given for six weeks, in some newspaper published in the counties through or in which such branch line is to be built, that it is the intention of the company to apply to the Government to sanction the building of such branch line, and to expropriate the necessary lands for that purpose, under the compulsory powers vested in them by this act, or by any act concerning such company; nor unless the company shall, prior to the first publication of such notice, have deposited in the registry office of any city, county or part of a county, in which the line or any part thereof is to be constructed, the maps and plans indicating the location of the line; nor until the company shall have submitted such maps and plans to, and until such maps and plans shall have been approved by the Government, after the last publication of the notice; and provided that the order of the Government, approving the said maps and plans, shall limit the time, not exceeding two years from the date of such order, within which the company may construct such branch line;

For any and every such purpose, each and every company herein referred to, shall have and may exercise all the powers given them, with respect to their main line, by the charter of the company, or acts relating to the company, or by the act authorizing the construction of the main line, and by this act; and all the provisions of the said acts which are applicable to such extension, shall extend and apply to every such siding, or branch line of railway;

(23)  Any railway company, desiring at any time to change the location of its line of railway in any particular part, for the purpose of lessening a curve, reducing a gradient, or otherwise changing such line of railway, or for any other purpose for the advantage of the public, may make such change; and all the provisions of this act shall refer as fully to the part of such line of railway, so at any time changed or proposed to be changed, as to the original line; but no railway company shall extend its line of railway beyond the termini mentioned in the charter;

(24)  To enter into any agreement with any person or company, for leasing, hiring or using any electric motors, carriages, cars, rolling stock or other moveable property from such company or person, for such time and on such terms as may be agreed on; and also to enter into agreements with any railway company, for the use, by any contracting company, of the electric motors, carriages, cars, rolling stock or other moveable property of the other, for the running of the cars or carriages of the company over the track of any other railway company with the consent of such company, on such terms as to compensation and otherwise as may be agreed on;

(25)  To enter into any agreement with any person or company for supplying steam or other power for the production of electricity for the purposes of the railway, or with any electric light or electric railway company, or any company organized for the purpose of supplying or furnishing electric power, for the purchase, leasing or hiring of power to run their electric motors, carriages or cars, or for lighting or heating the same, or for any other purpose for which it may be required by the company to construct, carry on and operate the railway;

(26)  The price to be paid by the company in virtue of any agreement mentioned in paragraph 24 or 25 of this section, shall be reasonable in amount; but such agreement shall not be valid unless confirmed and approved by a resolution passed by the votes of shareholders holding two-thirds in value of the capital stock of the company, at a general meeting specially called for the purpose of considering such agreement;

(27)  The original capital stock of any railway company may be increased at will to any amount, but such increase must be sanctioned by a vote, in person or by proxy, of shareholders representing at least two-thirds of the shares, at a meeting specially called by the directors for that purpose, by a notice in writing to each shareholder, served on him personally, or properly directed to him, and deposited in the post-office at least twenty days previous to such meeting, stating the time and place and object of the meeting and the amount of the proposed increase;

The proceedings at such meeting must be entered in the minute books, and thereupon the capital stock may be increased to the amount mentioned by such vote.

Before exercising the powers provided in paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 14, 22 and 23, a company must obtain, in each case, the authorization of the Minister of Transport.

R. S. 1964, c. 290, s. 9; 1972, c. 55, s. 104; 1977, c. 60, s. 40.

1977-12-31

9. The company shall have power and authority:

(1)  To receive, hold and take all voluntary grants and donations of land or other property made to it, to aid in the construction, maintenance and accommodation of the railway; but the same shall be held and used for the purpose of such grants or donations only;

(2)  To acquire, hold and take of any corporation or person any land or other property necessary for the construction, maintenance, accommodation and use of the railway, and also to alienate, sell or dispose of the same at pleasure;

(3)  With the consent of the Government, to take and appropriate, for the use of its railway and works, but not to alienate, so much of the wild lands of the Crown, lying on the route of the railway, as have not been granted or sold, and as may be necessary for such railway, as also so much of the public beach or of the land covered with waters of any lake, river, stream or canal, or of their respective beds, as is necessary for making and completing and using their said railway and works, subject, however, to the authority and control of the Parliament of Canada, in so far as shipping and navigation are concerned;

The Government may, however, if it deems that special circumstances justify it in so doing, consent to the conveying of ownership title in such Crown lands or property, without any restriction whatsoever, in favour of the company;

(4)  To make, carry or place the railway across or upon the lands of any corporation or person on the line of the railway or within the distance from such line stated in the charter, although, through error or other cause, the name of such corporation or person has not been entered in the book of reference hereinafter mentioned, or although some other corporation or person has been erroneously mentioned as the owner of or as entitled to convey, or as interested in such land;

(5)  To construct, maintain and work the railway across, along, or upon any river, water course, canal, highway or railway which it intersects or touches; but the river, water course, highway, canal or railway, so intersected or touched, shall be restored by the company to its former state, or to such state as not to impair its usefulness; subject always, however, to the authority and control of the Parliament of Canada, in so far as respects shipping and navigation;

(6)  To survey, lay out, construct, make, complete, alter and keep in repair an iron or steel railway of a gauge of one hundred and forty-three centimetres and one-half, to be worked by the force and power of steam or of electricity, or of the atmosphere, or of animals, or by mechanical power, or by any combination thereof authorized by the special act, with double or single iron or steel tracks; and the said railway or any part thereof, as far as the same may be operated by electricity, or any power other than steam, may be carried along and upon such public highways as may be authorized by the by-laws of the respective corporations having jurisdiction over the same, and subject to the restrictions and provisions therein and in this act contained, and under and subject to any agreements between the company and the councils of the said corporations and between the company and the said companies, if any, interested in such highways; and the company may make and enter into any agreements with any municipal corporation or road company as to the terms of occupancy of any street or highway, subject to the provisions and conditions contained in this act, in the Municipal Code, in the Cities and Towns Act (chapter C-19), or in the charter of the town interested therein;

(7)  To purchase land for and erect powerhouses, factories, warehouses, elevators, docks, offices, and workshops, and to sell and convey such land as may be found superfluous for any such purpose, and to hold as part of the property of the said company as many steam or other vessels as the directors of the company may deem requisite, to facilitate the carriage of passengers, freight and all other traffic in connection with the railway;

(8)  To erect and maintain all necessary and convenient buildings, stations, depots, wharves and accessories, and to change, repair and enlarge the same, and to purchase and acquire stationary or locomotive engines, motors and carriages, cars, floating-stages and other machinery necessary for the accommodation and use of the passengers, freight and business of the railway;

(9)  To construct, maintain and operate works for the production of electricity for the motive power of the said railways, and for lighting and heating the rolling-stock and other property of the company;

(10)  To sell and lease any such electricity, not required for the purposes aforesaid, to any person or corporation, and to acquire and hold any property necessary for the purposes mentioned in this division;

(11)  To purchase the right to carry electricity required for the working of the railway, and lighting or heating the same, over, through or under lands, other than the lands of the railway by the special act authorized to be built, and, with the consent of the councils of the municipalities affected, to purchase the right to lay conduits under or erect poles and wires on or over such lands as may be determined by the company, and along and upon any of the public highways or across any of the waters in Québec, by the erection of the necessary fixtures, including posts, piers or abutments for sustaining the cords or wires of such lines, or the conduits for such electricity, upon and subject to such agreement in respect thereof as shall first be made between the company and private owners of the lands affected, and between the company and any municipality in which such works or any part thereof, or of the railway, may be situate, and under and subject to any by-law of the council of such municipality passed in pursuance thereof; provided such works are not so constructed as to impede the public use of such roads or highways, or as to be a nuisance thereto, or to impede the free access to any house or other building erected in the vicinity of the same, or to endanger or injuriously affect the same, or injuriously interrupt the navigation of such waters;

(12)  To construct branch railways authorized by the charter, and to manage the same, and, for that purpose, to exercise and possess all the powers, privileges and authority necessary therefor, in as full and ample a manner as for the railway;

(13)  To construct and make all other matters and things necessary and convenient for making, extending and using the railway, in pursuance of this act and of the charter;

(14)  To take, transport, carry and convey persons and goods of all kinds on the railway; to regulate the time and manner in which the same shall be transported, and the tolls and compensation to be paid therefor, and receive such tolls and compensation;

(15)  To purchase, lease or acquire by donation, and to sell, lease, alienate or mortgage any lands or premises intended and necessary or suitable for any park or pleasure grounds, not exceeding forty hectares in any one municipality, and to improve and lay out such lands as parks or places of public resort, and to make and enter into any agreements with the municipal corporations of the municipalities where the same are situate or any of them, in respect thereto; but none of the provisions of this paragraph shall have any force or effect, unless the municipal council of the municipality wherein the lands proposed to be acquired by the company are situated, has by by-law assented to the company’s acquiring lands under, and for the purpose mentioned in this paragraph;

(16)  To borrow, either in Canada or elsewhere, at a rate of interest not exceeding six per cent per annum, such sums of money as may be expedient for completing, maintaining or working the railway; to make the bonds, debentures and other securities, granted for the sums so borrowed, payable either in currency or in sterling, in francs or in the currency of any country, and at such place or places, within Canada or without, as may be deemed advisable; to sell the same at such prices or discount as may be deemed expedient, or be necessary; and to hypothecate, mortgage or pledge the lands, tolls, revenues and other properties of the company, for the payment of the said sums borrowed and the interest thereon; but no such bond, debenture or other security shall be for less than one hundred dollars;

(17)  To enter into and upon any Crown lands, without previous permission therefor, or into and upon the lands of any corporation or person, lying on the intended route or line of the railway; and to make all surveys, examinations, or other operations on such lands necessary for fixing the site of the railway, and to set out and ascertain such parts of the lands as are requisite and proper for the railway;

(18)  To fell or remove any trees standing in any woods, lands or forests where the railway passes, to the distance of thirty-five metres from either side thereof;

(19)  To cross or intersect any other railway, and join and unite the railway with any other railway, at any point on its route, and upon the lands of such other railway, with the necessary conveniences for the purposes of such connection; and the owners of both railways may unite in forming such intersection, and grant facilities therefor; and in case of disagreement upon the amount of compensation to be made therefor, or upon the point or manner of such crossing or connection, the same shall be determined by arbitrators to be appointed by a judge of the Superior Court;

(20)  No railway company shall avail itself of any of the powers contained in paragraph 19 of this section, without application to the Minister of Transport, for approval of the mode of junction, crossing, or intersection proposed;

Notice in writing of such application shall be given to any other railway company affected, by sending the same, by mail or otherwise, to the address of the president, superintendent, managing director or secretary of any such railway company;

When such approval has been obtained, either railway may, in case of disagreement as to the amount to be paid for compensation, proceed to determine such compensation, as provided in paragraph 19 of this section;

(21)  Any railway company may, whenever a by-law sanctioning the same has been passed by the municipal council of the municipality within which such proposed branch is situate, construct a branch or branches, not exceeding ten kilometres in length, from any terminus or station of its railway;

No such branch shall, as to the quality and construction of the road, be subject to any of the restrictions contained in the charter or in this act, nor shall anything in either authorize the company to take for such branch any lands belonging to any person, without the consent of such person first obtained;

(22)  For the purpose of connecting any city, town, village, manufactory, mine, or any stone or slate quarry, or any well or spring, with the main line of the railway of the company, or with any branch thereof, or with any railway worked or leased by the company; and for the purpose of giving increased facilities to business, or for the purpose of transporting the products of any such manufactory, mine, quarry, well or spring, the company may build, make, construct, work and use, sidings, or branch lines of railway, not to exceed, in any one case, ten kilometres in length; but the company shall not proceed to locate or build any branch line of more than four hundred metres in length, under this section, until public notice shall have been given for six weeks, in some newspaper published in the counties through or in which such branch line is to be built, that it is the intention of the company to apply to the Government to sanction the building of such branch line, and to expropriate the necessary lands for that purpose, under the compulsory powers vested in them by this act, or by any act concerning such company; nor unless the company shall, prior to the first publication of such notice, have deposited in the registry office of any city, county or part of a county, in which the line or any part thereof is to be constructed, the maps and plans indicating the location of the line; nor until the company shall have submitted such maps and plans to, and until such maps and plans shall have been approved by the Government, after the last publication of the notice; and provided that the order of the Government, approving the said maps and plans, shall limit the time, not exceeding two years from the date of such order, within which the company may construct such branch line;

For any and every such purpose, each and every company herein referred to, shall have and may exercise all the powers given them, with respect to their main line, by the charter of the company, or acts relating to the company, or by the act authorizing the construction of the main line, and by this act; and all the provisions of the said acts which are applicable to such extension, shall extend and apply to every such siding, or branch line of railway;

(23)  Any railway company, desiring at any time to change the location of its line of railway in any particular part, for the purpose of lessening a curve, reducing a gradient, or otherwise changing such line of railway, or for any other purpose for the advantage of the public, may make such change; and all the provisions of this act shall refer as fully to the part of such line of railway, so at any time changed or proposed to be changed, as to the original line; but no railway company shall extend its line of railway beyond the termini mentioned in the charter;

(24)  To enter into any agreement with any person or company, for leasing, hiring or using any electric motors, carriages, cars, rolling stock or other moveable property from such company or person, for such time and on such terms as may be agreed on; and also to enter into agreements with any railway company, for the use, by any contracting company, of the electric motors, carriages, cars, rolling stock or other moveable property of the other, for the running of the cars or carriages of the company over the track of any other railway company with the consent of such company, on such terms as to compensation and otherwise as may be agreed on;

(25)  To enter into any agreement with any person or company for supplying steam or other power for the production of electricity for the purposes of the railway, or with any electric light or electric railway company, or any company organized for the purpose of supplying or furnishing electric power, for the purchase, leasing or hiring of power to run their electric motors, carriages or cars, or for lighting or heating the same, or for any other purpose for which it may be required by the company to construct, carry on and operate the railway;

(26)  The price to be paid by the company in virtue of any agreement mentioned in paragraph 24 or 25 of this section, shall be reasonable in amount; but such agreement shall not be valid unless confirmed and approved by a resolution passed by the votes of shareholders holding two-thirds in value of the capital stock of the company, at a general meeting specially called for the purpose of considering such agreement;

(27)  The original capital stock of any railway company may be increased at will to any amount, but such increase must be sanctioned by a vote, in person or by proxy, of shareholders representing at least two-thirds of the shares, at a meeting specially called by the directors for that purpose, by a notice in writing to each shareholder, served on him personally, or properly directed to him, and deposited in the post-office at least twenty days previous to such meeting, stating the time and place and object of the meeting and the amount of the proposed increase;

The proceedings at such meeting must be entered in the minute books, and thereupon the capital stock may be increased to the amount mentioned by such vote.

Before exercising the powers provided in paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 14, 22 and 23, a company must obtain, in each case, the authorization of the Minister of Transport.

R. S. 1964, c. 290, s. 9; 1972, c. 55, s. 104; 1977, c. 60, s. 40.