The title and boundaries of New Brunswick highways
Abstract
This report is a study of certain aspects of the policy and law pertaining to highways as it affects the title and boundaries of New Brunswick highways.
A substantial review of the historical background of the nature of highways and their creation both in law and in substance is presented as essential to the understanding of the development of highways and the laws that governed them.
It is the basic difference of the legal concept of a common or public highway in contrast to the statutory definition of a highway under the present Highway Act that provides the basis for this report.
The discussions of the methods of establishing and creating each type of highway and the law pertaining to the proper opening and closing of these highways provide an understanding of their differences and how these differences have contributed to the present status of New Brunswick highways today.
An analysis of several typical sections of existing highways, with regard to title and boundary, will indicate to a certain extent, the complexity of the problem of determining what actually are the limits of a highway and what degree of title to the lands is actually held by Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of New Brunswick as represented by the Minister of Transportation.
The conclusions and recommendations resulting from this study could provide the terms of reference for a Committee to study this problem in much greater detail and make recommendations to the Provincial Cabinet regarding legislation to properly resolve the existing situation in both an equitable and economic manner.