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THE ASSOCIATION OF CANADA LANDS SURVEYORS

2014-2015 ANNUAL REPORT

Photo by: Tim Janzen

December 29th

, 2015

Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 ACLS COUNCIL .............................................................................................................. 2 STAFF ............................................................................................................................. 2 MEMBERSHIP, COMMISSIONS, LICENCES AND PERMITS ....................................... 2

1. MEMBERSHIP ...................................................................................................... 2 2. COMMISSIONS .................................................................................................... 3 3. LICENCES AND PERMITS ................................................................................... 3 4. CANDIDATES ....................................................................................................... 3

COMMITTEES AND TASK FORCES.............................................................................. 3 CERTIFICATION OF HYDROGRAPHIC SURVEYORS ................................................. 3 AMENDMENTS TO THE CLS LEGISLATION ................................................................ 4 CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ......................................................... 4 GEOED DISTANCE LEARNING PORTAL .......................................................................... 5 PLAN REVIEW CHECKLIST ........................................................................................... 6 DAVID THOMPSON NATIONAL GEOMATICS AWARDS .............................................. 6 NATIONAL SURVEYORS’ CONFERENCE .................................................................... 9 CANADIAN BOARD OF EXAMINERS FOR PROFESSIONAL SURVEYORS (CBEPS) 9 MARINE CADASTRE .................................................................................................... 10 IMPORTANCE OF CANADA’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ............................................ 10 RELATIONSHIP WITH NRCAN’S SGB ........................................................................ 11 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 11

Association of Canada Land Surveyors Report for the year 2014-2015

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ASSOCIATION OF CANADA LANDS SURVEYORS

ANNUAL REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDING ON MAY 14th, 2015

INTRODUCTION

The Association of Canada Lands Surveyors (ACLS) is a national self-regulating professional association. It has 609 members located across Canada (and the world) who have expertise in surveying, photogrammetry, remote sensing, geodesy, hydrography, and land information systems. Licensed Canada Lands Surveyors (CLS) are the only ones authorized by the Canada Lands Surveyors’ Act to perform cadastral surveying on Canada Lands, which are formed by the offshore area that is not under provincial jurisdiction, all lands in the three Territories, Aboriginal Reserves and Federal Parks. Canada Lands Surveyors are the experts in spatial positioning and property rights systems by providing:

Advice and consultation on surveying, boundary matters, mapping, land registrations, land information systems, photogrammetric surveys, hydrographic surveys, remote sensing applications, and implementation of geographic information systems

Property surveys, land descriptions, and construction surveys

General advice and consultation on all land administration and land management matters.

The CLS is the key player in the Canada Lands Surveys System which provides the framework for the identification, documentation, registration, and protection of land interests which impact economic growth, social and cultural preservation, and environmental protection by:

Providing certainty and stability

Increasing investment in property and resource exploration

Increasing access to capital

Improving land markets

Providing a base for taxation aiding self-sufficiency

Reducing disputes

Increasing employment opportunities

Supporting self-governance

Assisting in environmental management

Aiding land use planning and control

Supporting community development particularly on Reserves with regards to homeownership

Supporting economic development by 3rd party providers and leaseholders’ interests on Reserve.


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ACLS COUNCIL

The leadership of the Association is provided by a Council which is a mix of elected and appointed individuals from across the country. The ACLS Council for the 2014-2015 term was formed by the following people:

Council’s priorities in the last year were the following:

Add more distance learning courses to the GeoEd portal for ACLS members and other surveyors across Canada.

Update the CLS candidate study material.

Work in collaboration with the Surveyor General Branch of Natural Resources Canada to revamp the MyCLSS system (see section on Plan Review Checklist) in order to increase its functionality, improve the user experience, and allow for filling electronic copies of survey documents.

Draft proposed amendments to the Canada Lands Surveyors’ Act and the Canada Lands Surveyors’ Regulations to improve the ACLS Complaints and Discipline process and be compliant with the Agreement on Internal Trade in Canada.

Continue work on improving the proposed ACLS Hydrographic Surveying Certification Program in order to be compliant with the requirements of the International Board on Standards of Competence of Hydrographic Surveyors and Nautical Cartographers.

STAFF

The Association of Canada Lands Surveyors staff is composed of four full time employees and one part time contractual position led by Jean-Claude Tétreault, CLS, a.-g., MBA, Executive Director and Registrar.

MEMBERSHIP, COMMISSIONS, LICENCES AND PERMITS

1. MEMBERSHIP On May 14th, 2015 the Association membership stood at a total of 609, which included 458 regular members, 6 honorary life members, 81 retired members, 4 associate members, 59 student members, and 1 honorary member. Since the year 2000, the Association’s membership increased on average at a rate of 2.1% per year up to 2010. In 2011 and 2012, membership numbers reached a plateau and since 2013, totals are dwindling slightly indicating that the demographic issue that has been hitting most of the profession for the last 10 years is now affecting the ACLS.

POSITION NAME HOME

President Gord Stark Winnipeg, Manitoba

Past President Estelle Moisan Québec City, Québec

Vice President J. Anne Cole Sudbury, Ontario

3rd

Year Councillor Tania Bigstone Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

2nd

Year Councillor Joe Iles Whitehorse, Yukon

1st Year Councillor Cameron Twa Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

Appointed by Minister Geoffrey Connolly Cornwall, Prince Edward Island

Appointed by Minister Zakary Hargrove Clearview, New Brunswick

Surveyor General Peter Sullivan Edmonton, Alberta


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2. COMMISSIONS Five new commissions have been presented since May 14th, 2014.

3. LICENCES AND PERMITS On May 14th, 2015, 363 ACLS regular members held a valid license to practice and 171 firms held a valid permit.

4. CANDIDATES

Twenty six individuals were admitted as new candidates for a Canada Lands Surveyor Commission between May 14th, 2014 and May 14th, 2015. At present there are 129 CLS candidates registered with the ACLS Board of Examiners.

COMMITTEES AND TASK FORCES

In addition to its statutory committees who manage critical tasks such as entry to the profession and our complaints and discipline process, the ACLS counts on twelve committees of volunteers who perform the bulk of the work for the Association in respect to liaison with aboriginal organisations, CPD of membership, offshore challenges, professional standards, and public awareness to name a few.

CERTIFICATION OF HYDROGRAPHIC SURVEYORS

The Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will have to depend on private industry to help in the survey and charting of the high-risk areas of the Arctic. The ACLS has been aware of a need for capacity building in the field of hydrography for a long time and has been working on building a program for the certification of hydrographic surveyors since 2002. Once implemented, the program will assure CHS that industry contractors have the competencies to fulfill their obligations to the benefit of all Canadians. After many years of gathering support from learning institutions, government, and industry, the ACLS provided a submission to the FIG/IHO/ICA International Board on Standards of Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors and Nautical Cartographers (IBSC) in January 2014 for accreditation of the ACLS program under the international standards. Hydrographic certification is necessary in order to:

Provide a formally recognized and structured career path for hydrographic surveyors, particularly for those in the private sector.

Establish an expectation of expertise and competency.

Provide a catalyst to encourage Canadian academia to seek international accreditation of their hydrographic training programs.

Reduce the risk associated with unqualified and inexperienced persons providing hydrographic services to the public.

Accommodate the increased level of responsibility bestowed upon hydrographic surveyors.

The ACLS, being a national, bi-lingual, self-regulated, non-governmental, professional organization which holds jurisdiction over offshore Canada Lands has the capacity to provide an effective administrative and regulatory framework to support a national certification model.


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The ACLS program did not obtain international accreditation in 2014, but the IBSC did encourage the ACLS to go ahead with implementing the program and provided very constructive feedback to improve it. A special ACLS task force has been working since the summer of 2014 to improve the ACLS program to meet IBSC requirements and develop an implementation plan. The ACLS is planning on presenting a new submission to the IBSC by end of the year 2015.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CLS LEGISLATION

The Association and its various committees have been working diligently since 2009 to review labour mobility, improve the complaints and disciplinary process, and enable the transfer of electronic documents in a secure environment. This work has required the Association to review its enabling legislation, regulations and by-laws to ensure that the regulatory framework is streamlined and updated to meet today’s policies and standards in administrative law. As a result, the ACLS will approach the Minister of Natural Resources in 2016 to:

review and amend if required section 52 of the CLS Act and section 26 of the CLS Regulations to ensure that the Act and Regulations are in harmony with the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) and the Mutual Recognition Agreement signed by the ACLS and all other Canadian surveying associations in 2012;

propose changes to the Complaints and Discipline process in the CLS Act and Regulations to: allow for mediation as an extra avenue to resolve problems; empower the Discipline Committee to compel witnesses to testify; open discipline hearings to the public for transparency; and empower the Council to limit a member’s practice until a decision is rendered by the Discipline Committee, to protect the public interest; and

approve amendments to the CLS Regulations to allow electronic documents and the use of secure digital signatures by surveyors to certify their documents.

The Bylaws and Legislation Committee is closely working with the Surveyor General Branch staff to produce a final draft of the proposed amendments to the CLS regulations. The revisions will enable electronic signatures for legal survey plans and are to be presented at the upcoming ACLS Annual General Meeting in May of 2016. The new process will allow the surveyors to submit electronic survey documents in MyCLSS.

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The ACLS introduced mandatory Continuing Professional Development (MCPD) on January 1, 2011 to fulfill its role of making sure that its members are current in their knowledge and skills in their particular fields. To keep track of CPD activities, ACLS members have to enter information on their learning activities into a web based database system which is monitored by the ACLS staff to verify that the minimum requirements are met to maintain their licence to practice. The ACLS MCPD tracking system is very popular with other surveying association for its ease of use by participants. So much so that the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors has adopted the ACLS system and made some minor modifications in line with their specific requirements. The Association of British Columbia Land Surveyors decided on another approach. Since many of the its members are also ACLS members, why not allow its members to enter information on CPD activities only once and data would be accessible by both the ACLS and ABCLS,


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eliminating individuals having to enter data twice? So in 2016, one MCPD Tracking System will be available on GeoEd (see next section) for use by ABCLS and ACLS members. Our hope is to eventually have one national tracking system for all surveyors in Canada.

GEOED DISTANCE LEARNING PORTAL

Recognizing the geographically diverse nature of our membership, the ACLS is enhancing the delivery of CPD through distance learning initiatives. This includes courses offered through partnership with sister associations, academic institutions and all available through the GeoEd portal. GeoEd is a collaborative initiative that seeks to include all provincial and federal surveying associations in Canada to promote accessible continuing professional development. The initiative was conceived and developed by the ACLS for the benefit of all surveyors in Canada. ACLS continues to maintain the portal in what will hopefully become a cooperative effort to share resources and expertise towards the development of national learning. Other surveying associations have joined GeoEd as registered providers as well as private enterprises. The GeoEd portal is currently being filled by on-line courses on a variety of topics that are available at a click of the mouse. At this time, 65 courses are available on GeoEd from only 23 courses last year, a jump of 183%. These courses consist of live, interactive webinars, but most courses are fully self-study with recorded video and other digital materials. Surveyors are able to sign up for any course and complete it at their leisure.

Screenshot of the front page of GeoEd

The ACLS decided to go to the next level by building a fully functional learning management system to improve the learners experience in addition to allowing for testing. GeoEd is well on its way to becoming the tool that surveyors across Canada will use to make educational opportunities as easy and accessible as possible. Please visit GeoEd at: www.geoed.ca.

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PLAN REVIEW CHECKLIST

The MyCLSS website which contains the ACLS electronic plan review checklist has been in operation since August 1st, 2011. The use of the system is mandatory for ACLS licence holders in the performance of surveys on Canada Lands and private lands in the three territories. The MyCLSS website includes on-line tools for requesting survey instructions, completing a customized checklist for most Survey Documents that are prepared for submission to the Surveyor General, and updating contact information for use by the ACLS and the Surveyor General Branch. The MyCLSS website also has links to all the common sites that would typically be used during the course of preparing a Survey Document for submission to the Surveyor General, making it a convenient single resource site for Canada Lands Surveyors and their staff. This system simplifies and streamlines the submission and review process for CLS plans and provides the Association with more effective tools to support their quality control activities and practice review processes. SGB studies have shown that the MyCLSS system decreased the number of rejected plans significantly and shortened the average time required to register a survey plan by half. In 2015, working closely with the SGB staff, we proceeded with a revamp of the MyCLSS system. The new MyCLSS Version 2.0 will provide some added functionality and user friendliness. In addition, the new interface was developed to support the submission of digitally signed survey documents, once the regulatory framework is in place and the regulatory process approved. MyCLSS Version 2.0 will be launched in January 2016. To access the website please visit www.myclss.ca

DAVID THOMPSON NATIONAL GEOMATICS AWARDS

The Association of Canada Lands Surveyors and Professional Surveyors Canada are proud to announce the winners of the eighth annual David Thompson Awards! The awards were presented during the National Surveyors’ Conference in Winnipeg on May 14, 2015. The David Thompson National Geomatics Awards are presented for excellence in the profession of surveying in three categories:

“Innovation in Geomatics” recognizes a project that involved the most innovation, such as using never or seldom used technology to solve a survey problem.

“Contribution to Society” recognizes a project that has the most positive impact on society, such as important involvement in new infrastructure in developing countries, major contribution in cases of natural disasters, or technological transfer or capacity building in less fortunate communities. (No entries this year)

“Challenging Applications in Cadastral Surveying” recognizes a project that applied cadastral surveying methods and technology to solve the most challenging technical problem.

http://www.myclss.ca/


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Innovation in Geomatics In the category Innovation in Geomatics, the winner was Dave Gurnsey from Altus Geomatics LP for the project entitled “Altus Adventurer – Sonar Jet Boat”. Due to concern for safety when surveying waterbodies by boat, Altus Geomatics developed a remotely-controlled sonar jet boat purpose-designed for waterbody surveys. This sonar jet boat is able to be controlled by an on-shore operator from up to 76 metres away and is powerful enough to withstand extreme weather and water conditions, including powerful currents. It is designed to work independently without the need of a chase boat and for ease of use

assembling, operating, and transporting. Runner up for this award was Leighton Greenstein from Altus Geomatics LP for “Data Integrity App”, developing an app for pipeline construction projects where survey field crews could collect and query vast amounts of data about pipes, welds, foreign crossings, and other systems. Also runner up for this award was Peter Mueller from the City of Surrey for “Creation of a Road Tenure Layer in a Municipal GIS”, a project to create a GIS map that held detailed information on all individual road parcels in the city of Surrey. Challenging Applications in Cadastral Surveying

In the category Challenging Applications in Cadastral Surveying, the winners were Douglas Dodge from Exton and Dodge for the project entitled “Survey of Lots 4 to 149, Nesuch IR3 and Lots 1 to 35, Mount Currie IR 8, BC” and Varick Ollerhead from Ollerhead and Associates for the project entitled “Winter Survey of NU/NWT Border”. Both are pictured left with their awards. “Survey of Lots 4 to 149, Nesuch IR3 and Lots 1 to 35, Mount Currie IR 8, BC” meant that Douglas Dodge had to survey a contentious portion of land to resolve the issue between the province of British Columbia and the Lil’wat Nation. Research revealed that a previous survey done in 1949 had been mathematically incorrect and resulted in all subsequent plans being unreliable. Using aerial photography from 1946 and 1950, he and his team were able to recreate the physical evidence at the time of the survey and resolve the original error.

Douglas Dodge, left, and Varick Ollerhead, right, holding their David

Thompson Award plaques


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Varick Ollerhead’s project “Winter Survey of NU/NWT Border” (shown right) focused on the logistical challenges of surveying and placing monuments along a stretch of 329kms of the Nunavut/Northwest Territories border in weather of -40°C. Pre-planning meant that his team was able to place up to 17 control points a day at pre-planned locations. Using the weather to his advantage, he created force centered control points by drilling holes, using water and 1 metre threaded rods which instantly froze in place. A close runner up for this award was Joe Iles from the Challenger Geomatics for “Carcross Tagish First Nation Land Claim parcel R-12A – ‘Montana Mountain’”, a project that required the retracement of 23km of the British Yukon Railway Company R/W which needed careful research to discover lost or damage monuments.

The Association of Canada Lands Surveyors (ACLS) introduced the David Thompson National Geomatics Awards Program in cooperation with all professional surveying associations across Canada through Professional Surveyors Canada (PSC). The David Thompson National Geomatics Awards Program is open to all commissioned surveyors who are members of a Canadian surveying association, submitting projects that have been completed within the last three years. The deadline for submissions is Thursday, March 31, 2016.

For more details on the David Thompson National Geomatics Awards Program, please visit: http://davidthompsonawards.ca/home/

http://davidthompsonawards.ca/home/


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NATIONAL SURVEYORS’ CONFERENCE The latest National Surveyors’ Conference was held from May 12th to 14th, 2015 in Winnipeg, Manitoba which was the third Conference held in partnership with Professional Surveyors Canada. The Conference was a success with over 100 delegates attending. The following Council was confirmed at the AGM:

POSITION NAME HOME

President J. Anne Cole Sudbury, Ontario

Past President Gord Stark Starbuck, Manitoba

Vice President Tania Bigstone Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

3rd Year Councillor Joe Iles Whitehorse, Yukon

2nd Year Councillor Cameron Twa Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

1st Year Councillor Dominique Fecteau Mont-Tremblant, Québec

Appointed by Minister Geoffrey Connolly Cornwall, Prince Edward Island

Appointed by Minister Zakary Hargrove Clearview, New Brunswick

Surveyor General Peter Sullivan Edmonton, Alberta

ACLS 2015-2016 Council. Left to right: Joe Iles, Dominique Fecteau, Cameron Twa, J. Anne Cole, Peter Sullivan,

Tania Bigstone, Geoffrey Connolly, and Gord Stark

Next year’s conference will be held in Edmonton, Alberta from May 4th to 6th, 2016 at the Sutton Place Hotel.

CANADIAN BOARD OF EXAMINERS FOR PROFESSIONAL SURVEYORS (CBEPS)

The ACLS continues to provide the administration and registrar services for the Canadian Board of Examiners for Professional Surveyors. The ACLS has a strong core competency in the fields of candidate management and examinations and wants to continue to make these resources available to the whole surveying community.


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MARINE CADASTRE

A marine cadastre is “A marine information system, encompassing both the nature and spatial extent of interests and property rights, with respect to ownership and various rights and responsibilities in the marine jurisdiction.” (Nichols, S. et al, 2000) In 2015, an article was published by the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) on the implementation of a marine cadastre in Israel. More and more countries have discovered the benefits of a marine property rights information system and have gone ahead with their own infrastructure. It’s about time for Canada to take advantage of this powerful management tool by implementing a marine cadastre as soon as possible. The ACLS is ready to assist the Federal Government in moving forward on this front. Canada’s oceans face unique and challenging environmental threats. Receding ice in the Arctic, rising sea levels, man-made pollution, declining stocks of fish – and many other challenges - all require comprehensive solutions, but those solutions are difficult to find unless there is a comprehensive catalogue of rights and responsibilities for our ocean territory. Further, the potential for environmental catastrophe in the marine environment is getting larger every day. Some estimates suggest that 25 – 50% of the world’s yet-to-be-discovered hydrocarbon energy resources exist above the 60 degree latitude line. Canada’s oceans hold tremendous opportunity for renewable energy development and many other mineral resource opportunities. With only a small percentage of Canada’s ocean territories mapped and analyzed, it is impossible for the government of Canada or any authority to appropriately manage, implement, or enforce policy. Canada’s sovereign claims over the continental shelf that extends beyond the 200nM limit of our territory cannot be supported unless we, as a nation, very carefully and accurately map these territories and, in turn, appropriately manage that territory just as we do our land-based resources. ACLS members play a fundamental role in building the framework to support stewardship of Canada’s resources. The ACLS believes that it is in the best interest of all Canadians to have a marine cadastre in place to better manage Canada’s offshore zone that is an integrated system of registries that would allow for the systematic public recording of all recognized legal rights, responsibilities, and restrictions related to the ocean space. In the 2014 Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, it was stated “…. many high-risk areas in the Canadian Arctic are inadequately surveyed and charted, and that capacity for work is limited”. A marine cadastre backed up by base mapping from more complete navigational chart coverage will support initiatives to protect marine and coastal areas, support ocean science and monitoring programs, improve marine safety, and address the environmental, social, and economic issues of sustainable development.

IMPORTANCE OF CANADA’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Our members are highly trained and interact regularly with Canada’s Indigenous peoples in the provision of land survey services, professional support, and advice. These services form the essential foundation required for improving and advancing infrastructure, planning, and development on their lands. The Prime Minister has identified the importance of Canada’s relationship with our Indigenous Peoples. ACLS shares this recognition and is committed to collaborating with Indigenous Peoples, Natural Resources Canada, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, and all


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participants in the land management process towards effective systems that support issues most important to Indigenous Peoples, particularly in the areas of community and economic development. The ACLS has active committees composed of ACLS members, staff from the Surveyor General Branch of Natural Resources Canada and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, as well as key individuals from the National Aboriginal Land Managers Association, the First Nations Land Management Resource Centre, and the Canadian Institute of Planners. The committees serve to educate ACLS members, facilitate discussion with government departments and various Indigenous groups and organizations, assist in development of learning tools and encourage formation of partnerships by recognizing and respecting the current needs and future requirements for effective land management.

RELATIONSHIP WITH NRCAN’S SGB

ACLS’s relationship with the Surveyor General Branch (SGB) continues to be a close and valued partnership. In this past year both parties have worked closely on a specific project: the Plan Review Checklist (MyCLSS) which is quite a challenge, but is a tribute to our strong, constructive relationship. The ACLS and SGB continue to set the groundwork for the evolution of the Canada Lands Survey System into the foundation for a truly integrated property rights infrastructure for Canada Lands. Eleven Surveyor General Branch employees are active in various ACLS committees.

CONCLUSION

The ACLS continues to be a leading organisation in the Canadian geomatics community and is grateful to its many volunteers who are really the backbone of this association. Canada Lands Surveyors (CLS) in government and the private sector are responsible for building and maintaining a reliable survey system on Canada Lands and private lands in the territories which is a critical element of a strong property rights system. Without a strong property rights system, there cannot be economic growth. Survey and registration systems provide the necessary framework for the identification, documentation, registration, and protection of land interests. This in turn provides security of land tenure and enables efficient markets for land transfers by specifying the rights and obligations of owners and investors in the land. On First Nations reserves especially, surveys are necessary for resource management and planning as well as social and cultural preservation. This enables accurate definitions of the land to be used to build a strong property rights infrastructure which creates the basis for sustainable development. Our members are proud of this responsibility and have met the challenge since 1874.