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22. The process for initial leasing of land could be shortened at the district level by altering the
provision of circular No. 1 to allow a subcommittee of the council to act finally in approving a lease
without requiring the matter to go before the full council. A special lands subcommittee should be
created for this purpose. The powers of the subcommittee and the criteria that they are to use in
approving an application should be set out in law, possibly as part of a revision of the Conversion Act.
This is very necessary in light of very infrequent meeting of the full council, only 3-4
time a year in many rural districts.
23. The master map now maintained in Folios in the Lands Department should be turned over to the
Survey Department so that checking the parcel for conflicting allocations and numbering the parcel
could be done as one process.
At present, the file goes to Folios to be checked for conflicts, then to Surveys for a
number, then back to Folios for that number to be recorded. It seems that this could
be done in a single step in Surveys.
24. Offers in principle should be eliminated. A final offer should be made initially, to be accepted by
payment of fees.
At present, the Lands Department sends out an offer in principle wherever planning
permission is required and does not send a final offer until permission has been
obtained. It is not clear why this is necessary. This process may have been based in
the notion that the development conditions could not be agreed upon until planning
consent was required, but if development conditions are dropped or made more
general in nature, as is recommended here, this is not a factor.
25. The process could be further expedited by making the final offer the lease itself. On its return,
signed by the applicant, with the necessary fees, it could be signed by the commissioner, registered,
and sent back to the applicant with the title deed in one mailing.
Currently, once the offer is sent and accepted, a lease is sent to the applicant to sign
and return, and then once it is registered, a title deed is prepared and sent to the
applicant. The process seems unusually cumbersome. If it is legally required by any
act or received law, then this should be amended.
26. Personnel, vehicles, and budget now devoted by the Ministry of Agriculture to the preparation of
sketch maps to support applications for leasehold should be transferred to the provincial offices of the
MOL. Serious consideration should be given to transferring to the MOL the entire Land Use Planning
operation from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Evaluation Section of the Housing Conglomerate.
There is little sense in this work remaining within another ministry. But if the
personnel and responsibility for the work is to be transferred, it is essential that the
vehicles and budget for salaries and fuel be transferred at the same time.
27. Rural councils and municipal councils should be made responsible for the collection of all grounds
rents in towns and on State Lands and should be able to retain a portion of those rents, perhaps half,
for local development projects in return for providing this service. It would also be useful to explore