Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:

1 Chapter 184 of the Acts of 1909, An Act Respecting "The Victorian Order of Nurses for Canada", is amended by

(a) renumbering Section 1 as 1B; and

(b) adding immediately before Section 1B the following Sections:

1 This Act may be cited as the Victorian Order of Nurses Act.

1A In this Act, "local association" means a branch.

2 Section 4 of Chapter 184 is repealed and the following Section substituted:

4 (1) Each local association of The Victorian Order of Nurses, other than a local association to which subsection (5) applies, that was, immediately before the coming into force of this Act, a body corporate is continued as a body corporate under the same name as it had immediately prior to the coming into force of this Act and the membership of the body corporate consists of each person who is a member of the board of management as long as that person is a member of the board of management of the local association.

(2) Each local association of The Victorian Order of Nurses that is established on or after the coming into force of this Section is a body corporate and shall be known as "The Local Association of the Victorian Order of Nurses for ............." and the membership of the body corporate consists of each person who is a member of the board of management of the local association.

(3) For the purpose of subsection (4), a special resolution of a corporation is a resolution passed by not less than three fourths of the members of that corporation who are entitled to vote as are present in person or by proxy, where proxies are allowed, at a meeting of the members of the corporation of which written notice specifying the intention to propose the resolution as a special resolution has been given in the manner provided by the by-laws of the corporation.

(4) Each local association that is a corporation to which subsection (1) or (2) applies may

(a) exercise the powers given to the board of management of the local association by the Charter set out in the Schedule to this Act;

(b) acquire and take by purchase, donation, devise, bequest or otherwise real property and personal property, and hold, enjoy, sell, exchange, lease, let, improve and develop the same, and erect and maintain buildings and structures;

(c) contract and be contracted with and sue or be sued in its corporate name;

(d) use its funds and property for the attainment of its objects and purposes;

(e) borrow, raise and secure the payment of money in such manner as it thinks fit and, with the sanction of a special resolution, issue debentures or mortgage its real property to secure the payment of money borrowed by it;

(f) subject to its by-laws, draw, make, accept, endorse, discount, execute and issue promissory notes, bills of exchange and other negotiable or transferable instruments;

(g) subject to the Charter set out in the Schedule to this Act, make by-laws not inconsistent with this Act for the conduct and management of its activities and affairs;

(h) if authorized by special resolution, subscribe to or become a member of any other society or association, whether incorporated or not, whose objects are in whole or in part similar to its own objects;

(i) do all such other acts and things as are incidental or conducive to or consequential upon the exercise of its powers or the attainment of its objects.

(5) Notwithstanding subsection 3(2) of the Societies Act, that Act is and is deemed to have permitted the incorporation, prior to the coming into force of this Section, of a local association pursuant to that Act and, for greater certainty, a local association to which this subsection applies is a society incorporated pursuant to the Societies Act and, without restricting the generality of the foregoing, has all the powers set out in Section 10 of that Act.

3 This Act does not affect the rights acquired by any person from a judgment or an order of a court given or made in litigation or proceedings commenced prior to November 26, 1996.