38 CANADA - INSURANCE AND THRIFT 



b) Qualification for Insurance. 



It is the municipalities who are insured under the Act. Any muni- 

 cipality in Saskatchewan may benefit by its provisions, and therefore enter 

 the sphere of the Commission; but such participation is in every case entire- 

 ly voluntary. The council of a nmnicipality may at any meeting held 

 between i August and i October in any year resolve to submit to the elec- 

 tors at the next ensuing annual election a by-law of a stipulated form em- 

 powering the municipality to insure under the Act. This will receive its first 

 and second reading only in response to a demand made before i Novem- 

 ber in any year, in a petition signed by at least 25 per cent, of the resident 

 ratepayers of the municipality ; on receipt of which the council will put the 

 by-law to the vote as soon as possible. 



The right to vote on the by-law belongs to persons owning or occupying 

 or having an interest in lands within the municipaHty not exempted 

 from payment of the insurance tax. 



The voting is by ballot and votes are recorded on especially provided 

 forms. If the majority of voters assent to the by-law it is finally passed 

 on 10 January next after the poU ; and within the month two copies of 

 it, and a certified statement as to the number of votes recorded for and 

 against it, are sent to the minister. It is vahd from the day on which a 

 notice of the minister's approval of it appears in the Saskatchewan Gazette 

 and the minister immediately informs the Hail Insurance Commission that 

 it is in force. 



c) Assessment of Premiums. 



Subsequently the secretary-treasurer of the municipal council is 

 obliged to publish before i May in every year and in two successive weekly 

 issues of a local newspaper an intimation, according to a prescribed form, 

 that the lands of the municipality are liable to assessment under the Act. 

 Lands held under a grazing lease from the Dominion of Canada and lands 

 within any hamlet are exempt ; and exemption for the current year ma}' be 

 claimed for lands belonging to certain specified categories. Claims for 

 exemption are made to the municipal council before i June, and if success- 

 ful are sent by the council to the Commission, who may cancel the 

 exemption. 



All non-exempted lands of a municipalitj' which has come under the 

 Act are liable to be assessed by the Commission at the rate of four cents 

 an acre. The full amount of the rate, less the cost of printing the special 

 hail insurance tax notice and charges connected with remittance, is sent 

 by the municipality to the Commission. The risks are thus shared e jually 

 by all the mimicipalities under the Act, a circumstance which gives this 

 system of insurance its truly co-operative character. 



