Definitions

1   In this Act:

"company" includes a corporation and its successors and assignees, and a person, partnership or association of persons, and their heirs, personal representatives and assignees;

"industrial plant" includes a factory or industry, and all works, plants and processes incidental to it;

"ore reduction works" includes mines, smelters, ore roasters, ore concentrators and metal refineries, and all works, plants and processes incidental to them;

"owner" means a person registered in the records of a land title office as owner of land or of a charge on land, whether entitled to it in the person's own right or in a representative capacity or otherwise, and includes a registered owner, and, in respect of Crown land, includes a purchaser, a homesteader and the government.

Agreement for compensation for damage to land

2   (1) A company owning or operating an ore reduction works or industrial plant, or proposing to acquire or operate an ore reduction works or industrial plant, may make an agreement with the owner of any land for payment of compensation to the owner for any damage or injury resulting or likely to result to the land, or in respect of its present or future use, from the operation of the ore reduction works or industrial plant.

(2) Subject to the approval of the Lieutenant Governor in Council, the minister or the minister responsible for the administration of the Ministry of Forests and Range Act may enter into an agreement on behalf of the government for the purposes of this section.

(3) The agreement must describe the land affected, and, if it so states, binds and has effect to the benefit of the heirs, personal representatives, successors and assignees of the parties to it.

(4) The agreement may relate not only to an ore reduction works or industrial plant then in operation, but may also relate to any ore reduction works or industrial plant to be established later within a specified area, even though the land on which the ore reduction works or industrial plant is later operated is not at the time owned or leased by the company making the compensation.

(5) An original of the agreement, with proof of its proper execution, must be registered in the land title office for the district where the land is located and the registrar must endorse the records accordingly.

(6) The payment of compensation under the terms of an agreement under this section is a complete answer to any action for damages or for an injunction brought in respect of any matter for which compensation has been paid.

Arbitration if parties cannot agree

3   (1) If the company cannot agree with the owner of the land about making an agreement and setting compensation under section 2, the company may apply to the Supreme Court.

(2) An application under subsection (1) must be commenced at a registry of the Supreme Court located in the judicial district where the land or any part of the land is located.

(3) The petition commencing an application under subsection (1) must state the nature and extent of the rights sought to be acquired or the relief sought, together with a statement of the facts as the court may require.

(4) The court may order that the question of the amount of compensation to be paid be decided by the court as a single arbitrator under the Arbitration Act.

(5) The order must state the names of the respective parties and the nature and extent of the rights sought to be acquired and the relief sought, and may contain provisions the court considers reasonable and expedient.

(6) The award setting the compensation to be paid may be registered in the land title office for the district in which the land affected is located and, when registered, binds and takes effect to the benefit of the heirs, personal representatives, successors and assignees of the parties.

(7) The award and the payment of compensation under it have the same effect respectively as if the award were an agreement made between the parties for the payment of compensation under section 2.

(8) This section does not apply to land owned by the government.