Canada. Department of the Secretary of State for the Provinces

Primary Agency

Canada. Department of the Secretary of State for the Provinces

• Canada. Dept of the Secretary of State for the Provinces

1867-1873

In the reorganization of the Cabinet which confederation made necessary, two new secretarial offices were created - Secretary of State for the Provinces, and Secretary of State of Canada. Staff for the office of the Secretary of State for the Provinces was drawn from the Canada West Branch of the former Provincial Secretary's Office, while the Canada East Branch provided the personnel for the Department of Secretary of State of Canada.

Following the surrender of Rupert's Land by the Hudson's Bay Company to the new Dominion of Canada in 1869 and the subsequent passing of the Manitoba Act in 1870 (33 Vic., c. 3), the federal government, in 1872, devised the Dominion Lands Act (35 Vic., c. 23) as a means by which this vast new territory in the northwest would be administered and gradually brought into confederation. The Department of Secretary of State for the Provinces was originally designated as the federal department charged with administering this act, however, the following year, in 1873, Parliament abolished the Department and created an entirely new department, the Department of the Interior (36 Vic., c. 4), to take over this responsibility. This move effectively placed, within the jurisdiction of a single government department, all federal administrative duties for all unpatent lands west of the Manitoba/Ontario border, for all Ordnance and Admiralty Lands across the Dominion, for all Indian lands, and for all public lands not specifically under the mandate of the Departments of Public Works or Militia and Defence.

At the time of its inception, the office of Secretary of State for the Provinces was assigned only the duty of conducting official correspondence between the federal Government and the provinces. In 1872, the Department was designated as the federal agency responsible for administering the Dominion Lands Act.

For the duration of its existence the Department of Secretary of State for the Provinces rested not upon a statutory basis but only on the Order in Council of July 1, 1867, which appointed Adams George Archibald to the office (P.C. 2, 1867).
An attempt was made in 1870 to provide statutory authorization for the Department but although the bill was passed in the Senate, it was withdrawn after one reading in the House of Commons and was never re-introduced.

Canada. Dept of the Interior (1873-1936)

Provincial Secretary (Province of Canada)

GA 2

Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan

Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan

Rules for Archival Description (RAD)

Finale

Geheel

Authority record created on 2008-03-04. Approved 2012-03-06. Last modified on 2017-11-29.

• Engels

• Latijn

CAIN Entry No. 40153 Secretary of State for the Provinces fonds
CAIN Entry No. 40165 Department of the Interior fonds