1. This Act may be cited as the Stamp Act.

2. In this Act

3. The Lieutenant-Governor in Council shall assume control of the fees payable under the enactments specified in the Schedule and shall have absolute control and management of them.

4. The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may by order in Council, direct stamps to be prepared for the purposes of this Act, and those stamps shall be of the same kind but of different denominations as convenience or the amount of the fees by this Act required to be paid in stamps may require.

5. The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may direct the design and form, and the colour of the stamps, and the different denominations of the stamps, to be issued, and may alter or change them.

6. The stamps shall be used instead of and in payment of the fees payable under the Acts mentioned in the Schedule and of other fees that are due, charged, levied or imposed upon an instrument under a law in force in the province or which may become due under an Act of the Legislature or otherwise, except fees under

7. The fees ordered to be paid in this Act by stamps shall be paid by affixing a stamp of the value of the amount of the fee to the instrument in respect of which that fee is due, charged, levied or imposed.

8. Where a search is required to be made or a matter or thing to be done, in respect of which a fee is payable, and where it has not been customary to use a written or printed document or paper which could be stamped, the person requiring that search to be made or matter or thing to be done shall apply to the proper officer by a note or memorandum, that shall be stamped with stamps to the amount of the fee.

9. An officer of a public department shall not file, receive, issue or deliver in or out of his or her department, an instrument in respect of which a fee is payable, unless it has been 1st stamped with stamps to the amount of that fee.

10. Money shall not be paid to or received by a clerk or officer of a court, or an officer of a public department, for a fee due in respect of an instrument for or in respect of which that fee is payable, charged, levied or imposed.

11. An instrument upon which a fee is due to the Crown, and which is not stamped, shall be invalid.

12. A sheriff or other officer or person shall not serve or execute or act upon an instrument upon which a fee or charge is due to the Crown, and which is not stamped under this Act, and a service, execution or proceeding made, taken, had or done in respect of that instrument shall be void and recompense shall not be allowed for it.

13. An instrument, upon or in respect of which a fee is due to the Crown, shall not be received or acted upon by a court or other authority, or by a clerk or officer, until stamped with stamps to the amount of that fee.

14. An instrument that has been stamped for 1 purpose shall not be considered as stamped for another purpose in case another fee or charge is due on it for another or further use of that instrument.

15. Where, in a court of civil jurisdiction, or before an arbitrator or referee, an action, matter or proceeding is pending in respect of which, or of a step or proceeding where a fee is payable, and that fee has not been paid by the affixing of a stamp to the instrument in respect of which that fee is payable, notice shall be taken by the court, judge, arbitrator or referee of the omission or insufficiency of that stamp, and a further proceeding shall not be had or taken, although no exception is taken to that omission or insufficiency by the parties, until that instrument has been stamped.

16. A party to an action, matter or proceeding in which an instrument is offered in evidence that ought to be but is not stamped, may apply to the Trial Division or a judge of the Trial Division for leave to have that instrument stamped, and where this Act has not been knowingly and wilfully violated, leave shall be granted for the stamping of that instrument with stamps to the amount of the fee due on them and to an additional amount that may be considered reasonable by the court or judge.

17. The affixing of a stamp to an instrument under section 16 shall have the same effect as if the instrument had been stamped in the 1st instance.

18. (1) Where an officer inspecting offices under the authority of an order of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, finds an instrument which should have been stamped to be unstamped or insufficiently stamped, he or she may require the clerk, or officer who had the duty of seeing that the instrument was properly stamped, to affix to that instrument a stamp to an amount sufficient to make up the deficiency.

19. Where a stamp has been, under this Act, affixed to an instrument, it shall be the duty of the officer who issues or receives that instrument immediately, upon the issue or receipt of that instrument, to cancel it by perforation or in a manner which the Lieutenant-Governor in Council may direct.

20. The Minister of Finance shall obtain stamps for the purposes of this Act, and he or she shall keep an account of the numbers, denomination and amount of them, and of the dates at which they are obtained and delivered.

21. The Minister of Finance may allow to a person, who takes at one time stamps to the amount of $5 or over, a discount not exceeding 5%.

22. (1) The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may make regulations for an allowance for stamps issued under this Act

23. A person who knowingly issues or receives, obtains or delivers an instrument, without a stamp for the amount of the fee payable on it being 1st affixed to it, is, subject, for the 1st offence, to a fine not exceeding $10, for the 2nd offence, to a fine not exceeding $50, and for the 3rd and subsequent offences, to a fine of $200; and, in default of payment of those fines, shall be subject to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 1 month for the 1st offence, 3 months for the 2nd offence, and 1 year for the 3rd and subsequent offences.

24. (1) A clerk or officer receiving or delivering an instrument, who fails or omits to cancel a stamp in the manner and at the time provided in this Act, shall be subject to a fine not exceeding $20, and, in default of payment, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 2 months.

25. (1) The Minister of Finance may grant a licence to a person to deal in stamps for the purposes of this Act at a place to be named in the licence.

26. Where a person who is not licensed to sell and distribute stamps deals in stamps without being licensed, or at a house, shop or place not specified in his or her licence, he or she shall, for each offence, incur a fine of $50.

27. It shall be lawful for the Minister of Finance to issue to a person or corporation or a department or officer of the public service a licence to use a machine of a type approved by the minister for the purpose of stamping, printing or impressing upon a document a stamp similar to an ordinary adhesive revenue stamp such as is provided for under this Act.

28. A machine for which a licence is granted shall be constructed so that it will calculate the value of the stamps printed or impressed by that machine, and so that the calculating mechanism can be sealed by an official of the Department of Finance and cannot be altered or tampered with without the breaking of that seal.

29. The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may make regulations

30. Where under this Act or another Act relating to the affixing of stamps for revenue purposes other than postage stamps it is required that adhesive stamps be affixed, an impression in the nature of a stamp made by a machine approved and licensed under this Act shall be considered equivalent to the affixing of an adhesive stamp of the same value.

31. Discount allowable under section 21 of this Act shall be allowable in connection with the use of stamping machines.

32. The powers of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council under section 22 of this Act shall extend, upon terms and conditions that the Lieutenant-Governor in Council thinks appropriate, to the case of a person who in the use of a machine has inadvertently impressed stamps of greater value than are necessary and who satisfies the minister as to the facts.

33. Fines imposed by this Act may be recovered before a Provincial Court judge at the instance of the Attorney General, and shall be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the uses of the province.

34. A person who