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In This Volume

  • 29 In an enactment:
  • “acquire” means to obtain by any method and includes accept, receive, purchase, be vested with, lease, take possession, control or occupation of, and agree to do any of those things, but does not include expropriate;
  • “affidavit” or “oath” includes an affirmation, a statutory declaration, or a solemn declaration made under the Evidence Act, or under the Canada Evidence Act; and the word “swear” includes solemnly declare or affirm;
  • “British Columbia land surveyor” means a person entitled to practise as a land surveyor under the Land Surveyors Act;
    • [“calendar year”, see “year”]
    • [“Canada”, see “government of Canada”]
  • “corporation” means an incorporated association, company, society, municipality or other incorporated body, where and however incorporated, and includes a corporation sole other than Her Majesty or the Lieutenant Governor;
  • “county” means a county constituted and defined in the County Boundary Act;
  • “Court of Appeal” means the court continued by the Court of Appeal Act;
    • [“Crown, the”, see “Her Majesty”]
  • “deliver”, with reference to a notice or other document, includes mail to or leave with a person, or deposit in a person’s mailbox or receptacle at the person’s residence or place of business;
  • “dispose” means to transfer by any method and includes assign, give, sell, grant, charge, convey, bequeath, devise, lease, divest, release and agree to do any of those things;
  • “Executive Council” means the Executive Council appointed under the Constitution Act;
  • “Gazette” means The British Columbia Gazette published under the Queen’s Printer Act;
  • “government” or “government of British Columbia” means Her Majesty in right of British Columbia;
  • “government agent” means a person appointed under the Public Service Act as a government agent;
  • “government of Canada” or “Canada” means Her Majesty in right of Canada or Canada, as the context requires;
  • “Her Majesty”, “His Majesty”, “the Queen”, “the King”, “the Crown” or “the Sovereign” means the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, Canada, and Her other realms and territories, and Head of the Commonwealth;
  • “holiday” includes
  • (a) Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday,
  • (b) Canada Day, Victoria Day, British Columbia Day, Labour Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Remembrance Day, Family Day and New Year’s Day,
  • (c) December 26, and
  • (d) a day set by the Parliament of Canada or by the Legislature, or appointed by proclamation of the Governor General or the Lieutenant Governor, to be observed as a day of general prayer or mourning, a day of public rejoicing or thanksgiving, a day for celebrating the birthday of the reigning Sovereign, or as a public holiday;
  • “judicial district” means a judicial district defined in the Supreme Court Act;
  • “justice” means a justice of the peace and includes a judicial justice or a judge of the Provincial Court;
  • “land” includes any interest in land, including any right, title or estate in it of any tenure, with all buildings and houses, unless there are words to exclude buildings and houses, or to restrict the meaning;
  • “land title legislation”, prior to October 31, 1979 means the Land Registry Act and after October 30, 1979 means the Land Title Act;
  • “mail” refers to the deposit of the matter to which the context applies in the Canada Post Office at any place in Canada, postage prepaid, for transmission by post, and includes deliver;
  • “may” is to be construed as permissive and empowering;
  • “minister” means that member of the Executive Council charged by order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council with the administration of the enactment;
  • “minor” means a person under the age of majority;
  • “month” means a period calculated from a day in one month to a day numerically corresponding to that day in the following month, less one day;
  • “municipality” means, as applicable,
  • (a) the corporation into which the residents of an area are incorporated as a municipality under the Local Government Act, the Vancouver Charter or any other Act, or
  • (b) the geographic area of a municipal corporation;
  • “must” is to be construed as imperative;
  • “newspaper”, in a provision requiring publication in a newspaper, means a printed publication in sheet form, intended for general circulation, published regularly at intervals of not longer than a week, consisting in great part of news of current events of general interest;
    • [“oath”, see “affidavit”]
  • “peace officer” includes
  • (a) a mayor, sheriff and sheriff’s officer,
  • (b) a warden, correctional officer, and any other officer or permanent employee of a penitentiary, prison, correctional centre or youth custody centre, and
  • (c) a police officer, police constable, constable or other person employed for the preservation and maintenance of the public peace;
  • “person” includes a corporation, partnership or party, and the personal or other legal representatives of a person to whom the context can apply according to law;
  • “personal representative” includes an executor of a will and an administrator with or without will annexed of an estate, and, if a personal representative is also a trustee of part or all of the estate, includes the personal representative and trustee;
  • “prescribed” means prescribed by regulation;
  • “property” includes any right, title, interest, estate or claim to or in property;
  • “Province” means the Province of British Columbia or Her Majesty in right of British Columbia as the context requires;
  • “province”, when used as meaning a part of Canada, includes the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut;
  • “Provincial Court” means the Provincial Court of British Columbia;
  • “Provincial Treasurer” or “Treasurer” means the Minister of Finance and includes the Deputy Minister of Finance;
  • “Provincial Treasury” or “Treasury” means the Ministry of Finance constituted under the Financial Administration Act;
    • [“Queen, the”, see “Her Majesty”]
  • “Railway Belt” means the land on the mainland of British Columbia expressed to be granted to Canada by section 2 of chapter 14 of the Statutes of British Columbia, 1884;
  • “record” includes books, documents, maps, drawings, photographs, letters, vouchers, papers and any other thing on which information is recorded or stored by any means whether graphic, electronic, mechanical or otherwise;
  • “regional district” means a regional district as defined in the Local Government Act;
  • “registered mail” includes certified mail;
  • “Registrar of Titles” or “registrar” means the registrar of a land title district appointed to that office under the Land Title Act;
  • “right” includes a power, authority, privilege and licence;
  • “Rules of Court”, when used in relation to a court, means rules made under
  • (a) the Court Rules Act, or
  • (b) under any other enactment that empowers the making of rules governing practice and procedure in that court;
  • “rural area” means territory that is not in a municipality;
  • “school district” means a school district as defined in the School Act;
  • “security” includes a security as defined in the Securities Act;
  • “shall” is to be construed as imperative;
  • “Supreme Court” means the Supreme Court of British Columbia;
  • “Surveyor General” or “Surveyor General of British Columbia” means the Surveyor General appointed under the Land Title and Survey Authority Act;
    • [“swear”, see “affidavit”]
  • “will” means a will as defined in the Wills, Estates and Succession Act;
  • “words” includes figures, punctuation marks, and typographical, monetary and mathematical symbols;
  • “writing”, “written”, or a term of similar import includes words printed, typewritten, painted, engraved, lithographed, photographed or represented or reproduced by any mode of representing or reproducing words in visible form;
  • “year” means any period of 12 consecutive months; but a reference to a “calendar year” means a period of 12 consecutive months beginning on January 1, and a reference by number to a dominical year means a period of 12 consecutive months beginning on January 1 of that dominical year.

1979-206-29; 1981-15-111, proclaimed effective November 26, 1981; 1987-25-104, effective June 1, 1988 (B.C. Reg. 172/88); 1989-22-13; 1989-40-116;1989-47-372; 1990-33-4, effective December 10, 1990 (B.C. Reg. 465/90); 1992-59-53; 1992-55-6, effective January 22, 1993 (B.C. Reg. 23/93); 1993-55-14; 1994-34-41, effective July 15, 1994 (B.C. Reg. 236/94); 1998-9-101, effective December 31, 1998 (B.C. Reg. 473/98); 1999-12-10, effective November 15, 1999 (B.C. Reg. 233/99); 1999-15-13; 2000-7-191; 1999-31-16, effective April 18, 2001; 2003-52-131, effective January 1, 2004 (B.C. Reg. 465/2003); 2003-70-203, effective March 24, 2004 (B.C. Reg. 64/2004); 2003-85-63, effective April 1, 2004 (B.C. Reg. 139/2004); 2003-54-27, effective April 1, 2004 (B.C. Reg. 11/2004); 2004-23-20; 2004-48-134, effective December 31, 2004 (B.C. Reg. 597/2004); 2004-66-55, effective January 20, 2005 (B.C. Reg. 16/2005; B.C. Reg. 335/2006; 2008-42-21, effective April 1, 2008; 2009-22-52; 2011-24-8, effective August 1, 2012 (B.C. Reg. 121/2012); 2012-24-4; 2009-13-225(b), effective March 31, 2014 (B.C. Reg. 148/2013); 2015-23-70; 2017-10-61, Sch. 2; 2023-4-4.

These excerpts from s. 29 are relevant to sections of the Acts cited in this Manual.

His Majesty King Charles III automatically became Sovereign of Canada upon the passing of his predecessor, Queen Elizabeth II, on September 8, 2022. Many federal and British Columbia statutes, as well as registered interests in British Columbia land in favour of the Crown, refer to “Her Majesty the Queen [in right of the Province of British Columbia]”. Since s. 35(1) of the Interpretation Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-21 and s. 29 of the Interpretation Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 238 allow for the terms “Her Majesty”, “His Majesty”, “the Queen”, “the King”, and “the Crown” to be used interchangeably, existing references to “Her Majesty” in legislation as well as in the British Columbia land title office need not be revised to “His Majesty”. However, it is recommended that land title office instruments submitted for registration after September 8, 2022 refer to the Crown as “The Crown in right of British Columbia”.

See also the “Practice” annotation at s. 150 of the Land Title Act at “150 Particulars as to witness and parties to instrument” in chapter 10.