Message from the President

Wilfred J. Thorne
President, 2008-2009

I am pleased to represent the ANLS as president and will give it my all. The new council has accomplished our long objective of putting a full-time Executive Director in place. This will enable us to fully concentrate on all the work we need to do. Paula Baggs has moved on and we wish her luck.

Council has addressed an issue of a company allegedly practising cadastral land surveying without authorization which many members were concerned with. The issue was an advertisement in the Yellow Page Telephone Book and on Yellow Pages.ca advertising an unauthorized company as practising cadastral land surveying. This is contrary to the Land Surveyor Act. The RNC were given the file and investigated the charge but found no criminal intent. The telephone company said that it was a mistake and has cancelled the phone number and pulled the ad off their website. At the consensus of membership, ANLS ran an ad in the newspaper stating that the company in question was not authorized to practise cadastral land surveying and that the principle of that company is not a member of the ANLS. This company’s activities continue to be reviewed.

Crown Land Regulations are being reviewed. A lot of commentary was received on a draft copy when reviewed by membership. A productive meeting was held with Crown Lands which addressed many of our concerns. A RTK GPS Field Procedure called “Localization” has been submitted to Crown Lands and it is hoped to have this and the new regulations implemented this fall.

The College of the North Atlantic (CNA) proposed revamping the Geomatics Technology course from 3-years to 2-years. Memberhsip were not in favour with this and after meeting with CNA, the existing 3-year course will remain. Efforts will also be made to facilitate more credits toward students qualifying for a Land Surveyors Commission. The goal of the ANLS is to have all training required to become an ANLS available here in the province.

A 9-month Technician Program is now being proposed in addition to the 3-year program. A survey of memberhsip is underway on this course and it will be discussed at Regional meetings. Next will be a focus group meeting with interested parties such as ANLS, the Construction Association, etc and a report to CNA on the feasibility of such a course.

An invitation to consult on the rewriting of the Registry Of Deeds Act has been extended to the ANLS. The goal is to minimize the attachments to deeds and to customize it to be entered into CADO, their online registry. After consulting membership, ANLS met with Registry Of Deeds Registar and staff. We stated that ANLS wanted the Registry to require a current survey and description for all deeds of land conveyance and to require an official copy of a survey less than 10 years old to be attached not copies of copies or faxes.

There was also discussion about a land survey repository where surveys and descriptions would be input into this repository and the deed would refer to the registered Survey & Description. A brief description referencing the Surveyor’s Job number and date, etc. could be included in the deed. The link in CADO labelled “Survey/Description” would be a URL to the repository. This would eliminate the need to attach a survey and description to every deed. The registrar said it would be too costly for them create a Survey Repository. The Land Gazette was referred to them and a suggestion made to talk to Ian Edwards of IBL for a demonstration of how it works. Follow up meetings are planned to continue to review these issues.

The 2009 AGM will be held at The Wilds on Salmonear Line May 28-30, 2009. The new Executive Director will chair this event with the assistance of Rennie Wakeham. It is my honor and pleasure to serve as your President.

Thank you