Dominion Lands Act

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The Dominion Lands Act (short for An Act Respecting the Public Lands of the Dominion) was an 1872 Canadian law that aimed to encourage the settlement of Canada's prairie provinces. It was closely based on the United States Homestead Act, setting the parameters within which western land could be settled and its natural resources developed. Canada thus invited mass settlement by European and American pioneers.

The act sold 160 acres (65 ha) for the extremely low price of $10 to any male farmer who agreed to cultivate at least 40 acres (16.25 ha) and build a permanent dwelling within three years. This condition of proving up the homestead was instituted to prevent speculators from gaining control of the land. The same agreement did not apply to female farmers who had to pay up to $5000 for the same amount of land.

The act also launched the Dominion Lands Survey, which laid the framework for layout of the prairie provinces that persists to this day.

An important difference between the Canadian and U.S. systems was that the Canadian system allowed the farmers to buy a neighbouring lot for the same $10 registration fee. This allowed most farms to quickly double in size. This was especially important in the southern Palliser's Triangle area of the prairies, which was very arid. There it is all but impossible to have a functional farm on only 160 acres (0.65 km²), but it can be managed with 320. Canadian agriculture was consequently more successful than U.S. agriculture in this region.^{[citation needed]}

The success of the Dominion Lands Act overall is, however, questionable. Large-scale immigration to the prairies did not begin until 1896, immigrants generally preferring to live in the U.S. due to a protracted recession in Canada that shortly followed Confederation. Also, the first version of the act limited the free land to areas more than 20 miles (32 km) from a railway, much of the land closer generally having been granted to the railways at the time of construction to assist financing. Since it was all but impossible to farm wheat profitably if you had to drive it over 20 miles (32 km) by wagon, this was a major discouragement. Farmers could buy land within the 20 mi (32 km) zone, but at the price of $2.50 per acre ($6.20/ha). In 1879 the exclusion zone was shrunk to only 10 miles (16 km) from the tracks. In 1882 it was finally eliminated. Some historians also argue that the system encouraged premature settlement of the West and that many farms were started that went on to fail.

Less than half the arable land in the West was ever open to farmers. The Canadian Pacific Railway owned about half the land. The Hudson's Bay Company, which had once owned the entire prairies, still kept about 10 per cent of the land, and other areas were set aside for schools and government buildings.

The act went through many changes and amendments and was finally done away with in 1918 when a new system was set up designed to help World War I veterans settle more easily. Overall about 478 000 square kilometres of land were virtually given away by the government under the Dominion Lands Act.