BILL 4

An Act to Amend the Public Works Act

His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, enacts as follows:

1 Section 1 of the Public Works Act, chapter 108 of the Revised Statutes, 2016, is amended by repealing the definition “public work” and substituting the following:

“public work” means all lands, buildings and other structures (ouvrage public)

(a)  belonging to the Crown in right of the Province except

( i) the lands, buildings or other structures that are under the administration of a minister, other than the Minister, or under the administration of another agent of the Crown in right of the Province by another Act,

( ii) highways,

( iii) ferry wharves or bridges, and

( iv) Crown lands, buildings or other structures under the administration of the Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Development,

(b)  that are designated as public works by the Minister for the purposes of a project, and

(c)  that, despite subparagraph (a)(i), are designated as public works by the Minister under section 1.1.

2 The Act is amended by adding after section 1 the following:

Designated public works with approval

1.1 For the purposes of paragraph (c) of the definition “public work”, the Minister may designate lands, buildings or other structures as public works in the following circumstances:

(a)  the effective date of transfer of the land, building or other structure has been established; and

(b)  the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council has been obtained.

3 Section 26 of the Act is amended

(a)  in subsection (1) by striking out “$15,000” and substituting “$95,000”;

(b)  in subsection (2) by striking out “Accredited Appraiser Canadian Institute (AACI)” and substituting “Canadian Residential Appraiser (CRA) or Accredited Appraiser Canadian Institute (AACI), as applicable”.

4 Subsection 30(1) of the Act is amended

(a)  in paragraph (b) of the English version by striking out “or” at the end of the paragraph;

(b)  in paragraph (c) by striking out the period at the end of the paragraph and substituting “, or”;

(c)  by adding after paragraph (c) the following:

(d)  through the Surplus Property – Open to Offers link under the Surplus Property for Sale section on the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure website.

5 Section 30.1 of the Act is amended by adding after subsection (1) the following:

30.1( 1.1) The Minister may sell or otherwise dispose of vacant land referred to in subsection (1) through the Surplus Property – Open to Offers link under the Surplus Property for Sale section on the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure website.

6 Section 31 of the Act is repealed and the following is substituted:

31( 1) If the Minister sells public works under section 26 or 30.1, the Minister shall provide to Executive Council a report on all such sales occurring in the fiscal year in the form approved by Executive Council within six months after the end of each fiscal year.

31( 2) A report under subsection (1) shall be published in the Royal Gazette within one month after the report is accepted by Executive Council.

7 Section 34 of the Act is amended

(a)  by renumbering the section as subsection 34(1);

(b)  by adding after subsection (1) the following:

34( 2) Subsection (1) does not apply to paragraph (c) of the definition “public work” in section 1 if the public work is under the administration of the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development.