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Local Government in Newfoundland*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

J. C. Crosbie
J. C. Crosbie*
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University Law School
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Extract

Any study of local government in Newfoundland requires some consideration of the general historical, political, economic, and geographical background and environment which, to a great extent, have shaped its structure and dictated its peculiarities and problems.

The most startling fact about Newfoundland's local government is that apart from the capital city of St. John's, there were no local-government bodies in the island until 1938. The fisheries have been the all-important factors in the shaping of its political, economic, and social life from its discovery in 1497, determining its destiny and endowing it with its unique character.

Although various settlements were formed under a series of charters as early as the reigns of James I and Charles I, so little progress was made towards colonization that by the middle of the seventeenth century Newfoundland contained less than 2,000 inhabitants scattered along the eastern shore in tiny settlements. By that time it was considered contrary to national policy to allow fishing communities to spring up in Newfoundland or to permit seamen to winter there. The policy was formulated first on the theory that the fishing banks were “a nursery for seamen” whose return to Britain in the autumn of each year was of fundamental importance in maintaining the maritime prosperity and naval supremacy of the mother country, and second because of the influence of the West of England fishing merchants who wanted to maintain their monopoly of the fishery and resisted any attempt at colonizing Newfoundland. Thus a series of restrictive charters was issued by the Privy Council discriminating against settlers in Newfoundland. Nevertheless, by 1783, approximately 10 thousand settlers lived there, even though no indefeasible title to property existed on the island.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , August 1956 , pp. 332 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1956

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Footnotes

*

This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in Toronto, June 3, 1955.

References

1 McLintock, A. H., The Establishment of Constitutional Government in Newfoundland, 1783–1832 (London, 1941)Google Scholar, describes in detail the impact of the fisheries upon the social and political development of Newfoundland.

2 For a full description of the factors responsible for the slow development of Newfoundland's economy and governmental institutions, see generally MacKay, R. A., ed., Newfoundland: Economic, Diplomatic, and Strategic Studies (Toronto, 1946).Google Scholar

3 For its effect on the development of agriculture in Newfoundland see the Report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture (St. John's, 1955).

4 For example, in 1874, the French government refused to allow the trans-insular railroad to have a terminus on the western coast. As a result, the construction of the railroad and development of the western seaboard had to be postponed for 20 years. See McGrath, P. T., Newfoundland in 1911 (London, 1911).Google Scholar

5 Powell, C. W., “Problems Arising from Lack of Organized Municipalities in Newfoundland,” an address delivered to the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 10 3–4, 1949 Google Scholar, and published (ed. Phillip T. Clark) in the Proceedings of the First Annual Conference (1949), at p. 168.

6 This natural aversion to property taxes was strengthened by the Confederation campaigns of 1869 and 1948. In both of these campaigns it was argued that Confederation would mean municipal government, municipal government would mean property taxation, and property taxation would result, on non-payment, in fishermen's losing their boats, nets, and land.

7 For this survey of the reasons for the lack of local-government organization in Newfoundland, I have depended largely on MacKay, ed., Newfoundland, especially Part I, chap. VII.

8 Ibid., 151–2.

9 See Newfoundland Fisheries Development Committee Report (St. John's, 1953), 20–2Google Scholar, for an outline of an inshore fisherman's family income and expenditure today.

10 MacKay, , ed., Newfoundland, 203.Google Scholar

11 The Amulree Report (the Report of the Newfoundland Royal Commission) (London, 1933), 77 Google Scholar, described the Newfoundlander in these terms: “He pays no local rates or taxes for there is no local authority or direct government tax; as a rule he pays no rent for he generally owns his own house and a plot of land. Taxation is indirect and he prides himself on being free from petty exactions; money is scarce, and he would indeed prefer a crippling tariff to the painful necessity of parting with hard earned money in direct taxation, even if this meant that he would obtain his supplies at a cheaper rate. Provided that the fishing season is good and he can obtain a reasonable price for his catch, he is content, in essentials, to continue in the ways of his father. … essentially individualists, they are ready to help each other in times of distress, but, in general there is a marked absence of community spirit.”

12 Public Ledger, April 4, 1834.

13 Consolidated Statutes of Newfoundland, 1872, chap. 75, embodies the legislative provision for this system.

14 See Foran, E. B., “St. John's City: Historic Capitol of Newfoundland” in Smallwood, J. R., ed., Book of Newfoundland, II (St. John's, 1937).Google Scholar

15 Outside St. John's the R.C.M.P. provides for law enforcement under an agreement between the provincial and federal governments.

16 See the “Audited Statement of Revenue and Expenditure for the Year 1954,” published in the John's, St. Evening Telegram, 04 30, 1955.Google Scholar

17 Consolidated Statutes of Newfoundland, 1895, chap. 45.

18 The Local Roads Report, 1951–2 (St. John's 1953) and the Dept. of Public Works, Information Circular no. 2 to Local Roads Committees (unpublished), outline the nature of this scheme. The number of these committees as at March 31, 1954, was 602, with 2,500 people serving on them. In that year 449 committees were authorized to carry out programmes. The total value of works was $387,598. The Dept. of Public Works provided $222,341, and the balance of $165,297 was provided locally in donations of cash or labour.

19 The Newfoundland government announced at the 1956 session of the House of Assembly that it is discontinuing the local roads committee scheme and that henceforth local roads, outside municipalities, will be the sole responsibility of the provincial government.

20 Amulree Report, 217.

21 This is the reason suggested by Powell, , “Problems Arising from Lack of Organized Municipalities in Newfoundland,” 173.Google Scholar

22 In 1949 this Division was transferred to the provincial Department of Supply. It has been expanded as a consequence of the great increase in the number of municipalities; the growing importance of municipal affairs was reflected in the government's decision to change the Department's name in 1952 to the Department of Municipal Affairs and Supply.

23 By the end of 1954 all of the “special act” towns and rural districts had come under this new act which gave them wider powers and a more flexible choice of taxes.

24 The Local Government (Amendment) Act, 1954, s. 3, outlines the procedure that must be followed.

25 A rural district in Newfoundland consists simply of two or three contiguous communities which have amalgamated for municipal puiposes. Rural districts have exactly the same powers and duties as towns and are identical in all but name.

26 Such communities as Botwood, Port Union, Catalina, and many others have refused incorporation. The large fishing town of Bonavista was incorporated for over a year with a council functioning, but was wound up under the local government Receivership Act because of the hostility of many of the inhabitants. The fishing village of Bay de Verde was incorporated in 1950 but unfortunately most of its residents had the impression that this was just a formality required by the government before it gave the community funds to install a badly needed water system. When the council exercised its powers by passing a regulation requiring each house to have a ladder to its roof the people rose in revolt and refused to comply. The ensuing cold war between the council and people resulted in deadlock and the council has been inactive ever since.

27 Changed by the Local Government (Amendment) Act, 1954, s. 5.

28 A local improvement district has been created for Lascie to ensure control over building and other matters arising from the fact that Lascie is one of the main centres in the federal-provincial fisheries development programme. A second district has been set up for Happy Valley, near Goose Airport in Labrador, which is a squatters' village whose population is now approximately 1,000. The third district has been created for Gander where the federal Dept. of Transport has built a new townsite on land provided by the Newfoundland government.

29 In 1945 there were only 36 settlements with a population of 1,000 persons or more, and by 1951, 43 per cent of the population lived in settlements of this size. In 1945, only 100 of Newfoundland's approximately 1,300 settlements had a population of 500 or more persons.

30 See the Local Government Act, chap. 66, of the Revised Statutes of Newfoundland, 1952, s. 72.

31 This is provided for under the Local Authority (Control of Expenditure) Act, 1953.

32 The Department of Municipal Affairs and Supply employs a property appraiser whose duty it is to supervise the appraisement of property in each of the municipalities which impose a property tax, and to train local residents in assessment techniques. In this way some uniformity in assessment valuation should be achieved.

33 These are the Roman Catholic church, the Church of England, the United Church of Canada, the Salvation Army, and the Pentecostal Assembly. For a good outline of Newfoundland's, to some extent unique, educational system, see Rowe, F. W., The History of Education in Newfoundland (Toronto, 1952).Google Scholar

34 Under this act the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council may declare any area to be a school tax area and appoint a school tax authority which has the power to impose a school tax subject to provincial approval. This tax of not less than $5.00 may be imposed on owners of real property and on all persons over twenty-one residing or employed in the area. The receipts must be apportioned by the tax authority among the various local school boards in its area. Each board will receive a proportion of the receipts based on a figure found by seeing what the number of pupils registered with that board is and what percentage that number of pupils is of the total enrolment of pupils in the whole school tax authority area.

35 By the end of 1954, the provincial government had guaranteed municipal debenture issues to the amount of $5,170 thousand. The debenture issues of eleven towns have been guaranteed and the proceeds in each case been used to provide for the installation or expansion of water and sewage systems. As at the same date the total of outstanding loans made by the province to the municipalities was $225,216.35. These loans were made for such purposes as the purchase of fire tracks, a fire hall, and road building equipment, and to enable roads, water lines, and sewer systems to be constructed.

36 Taken from the “Report on Local Government” in Year-End Edition of the John's, St. Daily News, 01 31, 1954.Google Scholar

37 Newfoundland's population according to the census of 1951 was 361,415. By May, 1955, about 125 thousand, or slightly more than one-third, resided in organized municipalities, but of this number 52,873, or nearly one-half, live in the city of St. John's. Outside St. John's only 72 thousand persons live under any form of municipal government. The total area of Newfoundland is 42 thousand square miles, while the total area within municipal boundaries, including St. John's and land covered by water, is approximately 235 square miles.

38 In February, 1955, the citizens of Corner Brook Townsite, a company town controlled and run by Bowater's Pulp and Paper Mill Ltd., and of the three municipalities of Corner Brook East, Corner Brook West, and Curling, voted by plebiscite in favour of amalgamation. On January 1, 1956, a new council took office as the governing body of the second city in Newfoundland–the city of Corner Brook.