48 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



Art. 543. To open, enclose, embellish, improve and maintain, 

 at the costs and charges of the corporation, squares, parks, or public 

 places, of a nature to conduce to the health and well-being of the 

 inhabitants of the municipality. 



The Public Health Act of Saskatchewan very wisely 



Sfl.skd.tc h 6 W3.ii 



provides that when regulations of the Bureau of Public 

 Health are in force they override and supersede any municipal by- 

 laws; hence the regulations regarding the sanitary provisions to be 

 observed in the control and arrangement of tenement houses, under 

 date of January 29, 1910, are in force in that province. They are 

 in advance of the regulations of some of the other provinces in that 

 they provide that, where a tenement is erected, it shall occupy not 

 more than eighty per cent, of the total area of the lot. But if such 

 building is bounded on three sides by streets or lanes, ninety per 

 cent, may be built on. This is certainly a move in the right direction, 

 but does not go far enough. The minimum height of room used as 

 sleeping apartments is placed at eight feet with provision for a 

 minimum air space of 500 cubic feet for each occupant. Windows 

 must open to the external air and their area shall not be less than 

 twelve square feet. 



Another excellent clause in the Regulations under the Public 

 Health Act is as follows: 



" Any building or part of any building used as a dwelling 

 place which, by reason of its condition, either from lack of 

 sufficient accommodation, want of repair, filthy keeping, 

 damp site, faulty drains, or want of sanitary plumbing therein, 

 has, in the judgment of the medical health officer or com- 

 missioner, become unfit for human habitation, shall be so 

 declared and placarded as 'unsanitary and unfit for habita- 

 tion.' 



" Such placard shall not be removed without the consent 

 of the medical health officer or the commissioner, and not 

 until such dwelling place has been so altered, cleaned or re- 

 paired as shall make it fit for habitation, and to the satisfac- 

 tion of the above mentioned officials. 



" Any cellar, basement or part thereof, or any house or 

 building used for human habitation which is found to be 

 damp or moist by reason of soakage through wall, defective 

 water pipes, sewer or drain pipes, cisterns, wells, gutters, rain 

 spouts, or from any cause whatever shall be deemed a 

 nuisance." 



In this connection, Dr. M. M. Seymour, Commissioner of Pub- 

 lic Health states: " Placarding of the premises has been done, with 



