"on an appeal the Board had the obligation to exercise its independent judgment". The Board had general jurisdiction in municipal matters, as well as over provincially-regulated railways and public utilities (other than matters that are within the jurisdiction of the Ontario Energy Board). It had been conferred further powers under the Railways Act, the Municipal Act, 2001 the City of Toronto Act, 2006, the Planning Act and the Ontario Heritage Act. Procedure Hearings Before reaching a decision, the OMB conducted hearings, which were in oral, electronic or written form. Where a matter to be heard was expected to be long or complex, involving many issues, parties and types of evidence, the Board normally held a prehearing to help organize proceedings for subsequent hearings, which included identification of issues to be considered at such hearings. The Board expected parties who placed an issue on the Issue List to call a case in support of that issue. The Board could award costs against parties who opposed successful applicants, but only when it was requested to do so. Decisions The Archives of Ontario holds some past OMB decisions, but the collection is limited to the years 19061991 (but certain records in that period have been previously destroyed). The OMB makes the following jurisprudence available online: Decisions from 2001 to the present. Orders from January 21, 2013, to the present. Carswell publishes Ontario Municipal Board Reports, which is available in law libraries, as well as online at Westlaw. Decisions are also available online at LexisNexis. Criticism The jurisdiction the Board could exercise was extremely broad in scope, and a Royal Commission inquiry headed by James McRuer reported in 1971 that it was impossible to catalogue all the powers that the Board possessed at that time, although thirty principal Acts were identified. However, an extraordinary provision of the OMB Act allowed for investigation and determination of any matter, where provision was made for it under the letters patent of any corporation formed under Ontario law. Another provision of the OMB Act, allowing the Board to require or prohibit the performance of any matter under any Act or agreement, was considered to be "an absurdly broad power and in its breadth it is unconstitutional". The Board tended to subordinate both provincial and local policies to those of its own making, which successive governments effectively transformed into a policy "of overseeing municipal activities without direct provincial involvement".