Lord Atkin:-

This is an appeal from the Supreme Court on a reference by the Governor-General in Council dated 5th November 1935, raising the question whether the Natural Products Marketing Act 1934, as amended by the Natural Products Marketing Act Amendment Act 1935, is ultra vires of the Parliament of Canada. The Supreme Court unanimously answered the question in the affirmative. The Act consists of two parts. The first provides for the establishment of a Dominion Marketing Board whose powers include powers to regulate the time and place at which and the agency through which natural products to which an approved scheme relates shall be marketed and to determine the manner of distribution and the quantity, quality, grade or class of the product that shall be marketed by any person at any time and to prohibit the marketing of any of the regulated products of any grade, quality or class.

There are other regulatory powers which need not be further specified. A scheme to regulate the marketing of a natural product is initiated by a representative number of persons engaged in the production or marketing of the natural product.

It can be referred by the appropriate Minister to the Board, an