An Act to amend the Indian Act. S. C. 1938, c. 31. (2 Geo. VI)

 

2 GEORGE VI.

CHAP. 31.

An Act to amend the Indian Act.

[Assented to 24th June, 1938.]

HIS MAJESTY, by and with the advise and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:-

1. Subsection two of section fifty of the Indian Act, chapter ninety-eight of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927, is repealed and the following substituted thereof:-

A(2) The Governor in Council may make regulations enabling the Superintendent General in respect of any Indian reserve, to issue leases upon such terms as may be considered proper in the interest of the Indians and of any other lessee or licensee of surface rights,

(a) upon surrender, in accordance with this part, of any land deemed to contain salt, petroleum, natural gas, coal, gold, silver, copper, iron or other minerals and to grant in respect of such land the right to prospect for, mine, recover and take away any or all such mineral, and

(b) without surrender to any person authorized to mine any of the minerals in this section mentioned, of surface rights over such area of any land within a reserve containing any such minerals as may be necessary for the mining thereof.@

2. The said Act is further amended by inserting immediately after section ninety four A the following:-

A94B. (1) For the purpose of granting loans to Indian Bands, group or groups of Indians, or individual Indians and for the expenditure of moneys for co-operative projects on their behalf, the Minister of Finance may, from time to time, authorize the advance to the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada of such sums of money as the said Superintendent General may require to enable him to make loans to Indian Bands, group or groups of Indians or individual Indians, for the purchase of farm implements, machinery, live stock, fishing and other equipment, seed grain and materials to be used in native handicrafts and to expend and loan money for the carrying out of co-operative projects on behalf of the Indians. All expenditures made under such advances shall be made under regulations established from time to time by the Governor in Council and shall be accounted for in the like manner as other public moneys. Any moneys received by the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs from the Indian Bands, group or groups of Indians, individual Indians or co-operative projects, for aid furnished under the provisions of this section shall be remitted by him to the Minister of Finance in repayment of such advances. The amount of outstanding advances to the said Superintendent General including all amounts owing by the Indian Bands, group or groups of Indians, individual Indians or outstanding on co-operative projects shall at no time exceed the sum of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

(2) The Superintendent General shall annually prepare a report with regard to loans made under the provisions of subsection one of this section, during the preceding calendar year, and such report shall be laid before parliament within fifteen days or, if parliament is not then sitting, within fifteen days after the beginning of the next session.@