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CHAP. 1] THE DOMINION OF CANADA 
(q) The Powers of Companies 
With trade and commerce is bound up the very difficult 
question of the provincial and Dominion powers as to the 
Incorporation and regulation of companies.! 
The position of a company incorporated under provincial 
law was fully considered in the Canadian Pacific Railway 
Company v. Ottawa Fire Insurance Co? The issue there 
Was whether the defendant company was empowered to insure 
Property outside Canada, viz. in Maine, by the law of which 
State a company is given an insurable interest in property 
along its line of route, so as to enable it to insure itself for 
liability for injury to such property. It was contended that 
the contract was utterly null and void, and as the question 
Involved was one of principle, the Court had it fully argued 
by the Attorneys-General of the Dominion and of the Pro- 
Vinces. Finally three judges (Idington, Maclennan, and Duff) 
held that the company could insure property outside Canada. 
Idington J. insisted that the power rested on international 
comity alone : the province could limit the powers of a cor- 
Poration, and forbid it contracting outside ; but the province, 
if 1t merely incorporated, left its position outside to be deter- 
Mined by comity, and he could see no difference between the 
Dominion and the provinces in this regard. The other two 
Judges expressed somewhat similar views. The Chief Justice 
held otherwise ; he held, as Ministers of Justice had done? 
that extra-provincial insurance was not within the company’s 
Power, and added that the Dominion Act 4 which affected to 
allow provincial companies to do extra-provincial business 
Was ultra wires: the Parliament must create for this end 
& new corporation by itself. Davies J. held that provincial ’ 
must be read in a territorial sense, not generally as matters 
referring to the province, and that the legislation was ultra 
* For the older cases, see Lefroy, op. cit., pp. 617-44 
* (1907) 39 8. C. R. 405. 
J Provincial Legislation, 1867-95, p. 261 (Mr. Blake) ; 1896-8, pp. 17, 33 
(Bir O. Mowat); see also 1867-95, pp. 142, 492, 635, 811, 1052, 1162, 1182; 
1904-6, pp. 32 seq., 57-60. 72, 107-9, 115, 166, 176; Lefroy, op. cit. 
Pp. 638, 639. ¢ Rewised Statutes, 1906. c. 34,8. 4. 
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