RSNL1990 CHAPTER S-4 - ST. JOHN'S MUNICIPAL COUNCIL PARKS ACT

RSNL1990 CHAPTER S-4 ST. JOHN 'S MUNICIPAL COUNCIL PARKS ACT Amended: 2017 c10 s27 CHAPTER S-4 AN ACT RESPECTING THE ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF PUBLIC PARKS BY THE ST. JOHN 'S MUNICIPAL COUNCIL Analysis 1. Short title 2. Definitions 3. Establishment of public parks 4. Financial provisions 5. Appointment of park officers 6. Boards, committees or commissions 7. Joint operation of public parks 8. Certain powers of the council 9. Regulations 10. Offences Short title 1. This Act may be cited as the St. John's Municipal Council Parks Act. 1973 No63 s1 Back to Top Definitions 2. In this Act (a) "city" means the City of St. John's as defined by the City of St. John's Act; (b) "council" means the St. John's Municipal Council as defined by the City of St. John's Act; (c) "park officer" means a park officer referred to in section 5; and (d) "public park" means a public park established under this Act. 1973 No63 s2 Back to Top Establishment of public parks 3. The council may, by gift, purchase, expropriation or otherwise, acquire lands either inside or outside the city and establish, equip and operate public parks on those lands. 1973 No63 s3 Back to Top Financial provisions 4. The council may spend out of the revenues of the city sums that may be required for the maintenance and operation of a public park and for the proper carrying out of this Act. 1973 No63 s4 Back to Top Appointment of park officers 5. (1) The council may appoint park officers for a public park, and those park officers may exercise powers and shall perform duties within the public park that are imposed upon them by this Act or the regulations or assigned to them by the council. (2) A park officer has and may exercise, within a public park, the powers possessed by or given to a member of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. (3) A park officer shall be supplied by the council with an identification card and shall, before entering upon his or her duties, take and sign, before a Provincial Court judge, the same oaths or affirmations, with the necessary changes, that are required of a member of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary under section 5 of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Act, 1992 , and those signed oaths or affirmations shall be retained by the council as part of its records. (4) Nothing in this section affects the power of the province or the Minister of Justice to provide for the performance of police duties in public parks by members of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (5) Laws in force in the province for the protection of justices in the execution of their offices, including the Justices and Public Authorities Protection Act, shall extend to a park officer appointed under subsection (1) when acting under this Act. 1973 No63 s5; 1981 c79 s8; 2017 c10 s27 Back to Top Boards, committees or commissions 6. The council may appoint those boards, committees or commissions that it considers necessary to operate, manage and control, on behalf of the council, public parks and the council may appoint different boards, committees or commissions for different public parks. 1973 No63 s6 Back to Top Joint operation of public parks 7. The council may operate a public park jointly with a person, firm, corporation, agency or service club and may receive revenue from that person, firm, corporation, agency or service club to be used in either the establishment of a public park, or for the equipping, operation or maintenance of a public park, or for the repair or construction of buildings or other erections in a public park. 1973 No63 s7 Back to Top Certain powers of the council 8. The council may (a) remove or demolish, repair, construct, maintain or equip buildings or structures in a public park; (b) close to public or private use streets, lanes or public places in a public park; (c) enter into agreement with a corporation, group or person, and upon terms and conditions that the council may consider appropriate, for the establishing of a public park and for the operation, equipping, maintenance and running of a public park; (d) exempt a public park or lands or buildings in that public park or a corporation, group or person undertaking development of a public park either on its own or jointly with the council from the application of the regulations applicable to land established as a public park under this Act, or to buildings or structures on, in or under that land; (e) subject to the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, borrow money on the credit of the city in a manner considered desirable by the council for the purpose of carrying into effect the powers vested in the council under this Act; and (f) build or have placed in a public park a building, structure, main or a matter or thing that seems appropriate to the council. 1973 No63 s8 Back to Top Regulations 9. (1) The council may make regulations (a) for the use, care, preservation and improvement of, and safety within a public park, including the rivers, lakes, trees, shrubbery and other property, amenities and things, whether animate or inanimate including the fences of and approaches to a public park; (b) designating parts of public parks in which land may be leased or occupied under a licence of occupation for private or commercial purposes, regulating the location of sites that may be occupied in that way and limiting the number of commercial resorts in each of the parts designated in that way; (c) prescribing the terms and conditions governing the cost or type of construction and the location of buildings or structures that may be erected under a lease or licence under paragraph (b); (d) for the maintenance of order and propriety in public parks; (e) for licensing and governing guides in public parks; (f) for regulating, controlling and governing, subject to laws of the province or of Canada, air, land and water traffic, including pedestrian traffic, in public parks and prohibiting the use of defined classes of aircraft, boat or land vehicles whether power-driven or not; (g) for regulating the use, setting out and extinguishment of fires in public parks; (h) for prohibiting or regulating and governing horses, dogs and other animals in public parks; (i) prescribing powers and duties for park officers; (j) prescribing the fees and rentals payable to the council for a licence, permit or lease issued or made under this Act or the regulations; (k) for the purposes of section 8; (l) delegating to a board, committee or commission appointed under section 6 its powers, functions and duties under this Act and upon those terms and conditions that the regulations may provide; and (m) generally, to give effect to the purpose of this Act, and, in respect of these matters, different regulations may be made respecting different public parks. (2) Copies of the regulations shall be displayed in and about a public park in a manner sufficient to acquaint the public with the content of the regulations. (3) A park officer, peace office or person acting under written authority of the council may expel from a public park a person whom he or she, on reasonable grounds, believes has violated or is violating the regulations. 1973 No63 s9 Back to Top Offences 10. (1) A person who fails to comply with or otherwise contravenes the regulations is guilty of an offence and is liable on summary conviction in the case of a 1st conviction to a fine not exceeding $50 and in the case of a 2nd or subsequent conviction for a similar offence to a fine not exceeding $100 and, in either case, in default of payment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months. (2) For the purpose of subsection (1), a conviction is not considered to be a 2nd or subsequent conviction unless it is in respect of an offence committed within 12 months after a prior offence, and all convictions which are not 2nd or subsequent convictions are considered 1st convictions. (3) Where a person is convicted of an offence under this Act, a Provincial Court judge may, in addition to imposing the penalty set out in this Act, order the person convicted to pay compensation which the Provincial Court judge may specify for damage or injury, caused during the commission of the offence by that person, to a public park or to property or amenities contained in a public park, and the Provincial Court judge shall have jurisdiction to make that order notwithstanding the amount of money involved. 1973 No63 s10