Powers of Authority – Conservation Act

Powers of authorities

    21.  (1)  For the purposes of accomplishing its objects, an authority has power,

    (a)   to study and investigate the watershed and to determine a program whereby the natural resources of the watershed may be conserved, restored, developed and managed;

    (b)   for any purpose necessary to any project under consideration or undertaken by the authority, to enter into and upon any land and survey and take levels of it and make such borings or sink such trial pits as the authority considers necessary;

     (c)   to acquire by purchase, lease or otherwise and to expropriate any land that it may require, and, subject to subsection (2), to sell, lease or otherwise dispose of land so acquired;

    (d)   despite subsection (2), to lease for a term of five years or less land acquired by the authority;

     (e)   to purchase or acquire any personal property that it may require and sell or otherwise deal therewith;

     (f)   to enter into agreements for the purchase of materials, employment of labour and other purposes as may be necessary for the due carrying out of any project;

     (g)   to enter into agreements with owners of private lands to facilitate the due carrying out of any project;

    (h)   to determine the proportion of the total benefit afforded to all the participating municipalities that is afforded to each of them;

      (i)   to erect works and structures and create reservoirs by the construction of dams or otherwise;

     (j)   to control the flow of surface waters in order to prevent floods or pollution or to reduce the adverse effects thereof;

    (k)   to alter the course of any river, canal, brook, stream or watercourse, and divert or alter, as well temporarily as permanently, the course of any river, stream, road, street or way, or raise or sink its level in order to carry it over or under, on the level of or by the side of any work built or to be built by the authority, and to divert or alter the position of any water-pipe, gas-pipe, sewer, drain or any telegraph, telephone or electric wire or pole;

      (l)   to use lands that are owned or controlled by the authority for purposes, not inconsistent with its objects, as it considers proper;

   (m)   to use lands owned or controlled by the authority for park or other recreational purposes, and to erect, or permit to be erected, buildings, booths and facilities for such purposes and to make charges for admission thereto and the use thereof;

(n) to collaborate and enter into agreements with ministries and agencies of government, municipal councils and local boards and other organizations;

(o) to plant and produce trees on Crown lands with the consent of the Minister, and on other lands with the consent of the owner, for any purpose;

(p) to cause research to be done;

(q) generally to do all such acts as are necessary for the due carrying out of any project. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.27, s. 21; 1996, c. 1, Sched. M, s. 44 (1, 2); 1998, c. 18, Sched. I, s. 11.