CHAPTER IX 



Provincial Planning and Development Legislation 



A draft Planning and Development Act. The term "town planning'' 

 Planning in Britain. Planning not an end in itself. Need of 

 legislation. Boundaries of development schemes. Co-operation 

 between provincial governments and municipalities. Why rural 

 and urban development should be dealt with in one measure. 

 Details of remedies reserved for subsequent report. General objects 

 of development schemes. The principal contents of development 

 schemes in rural areas. Summary of leading features of planning 

 and development legislation. 



A DRAFT PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT ACT 



PERHAPS the most important work which has been started in 

 the Dominion with regard to land development is in connection 

 with the promotion of planning and development legislation 

 and schemes under the somewhat misleading title of "town planning." 

 This matter has been the subject of close study by a branch of the 

 Commission of Conservation for the past two and one-half years. Ever 

 since the Commission took up the consideration of public health work 

 it has consistently advocated a change in the methods of planning and 

 laying out land. 



The draft Planning and Development Act, which has been pre- 

 pared by the Commission, is continually being improved and widened 

 in its scope to meet new conditions and to make it more workable 

 and effective in the light of experience which has been gained. Under 

 the name "Town Planning Acts" there are good measures already in 

 force in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Alberta and Manitoba. Some 

 of these acts need revision to make them more effective, but without 

 revision they could be used by the Provincial governments of the above 

 provinces, acting in concert with the municipalities, to prepare both 

 rural and urban development schemes. The Nova Scotia Act is the 

 most advanced and complete of any statute dealing with this ques- 

 tion, especially in regard to the provisions relating to rural develop- 

 ment. The novelty of this kind of legislation means that it will be 

 some time before it can be properly understood and that frequent 



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