Message from the Surveyor General
Surveyor General’s Report By Cristin Schlossberger, BCLS Surveyor General of British Columbia
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all is here and it’s been a busy and interesting time in my new role as Surveyor General. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with other land surveyors at the national, regional and local levels. From attendance at the National Surveyors Conference in Halifax, to conversations at the regional group meetings, I appreciate hearing about the challenges and opportunities for the profession of land surveying.
Office. The group appreciated touring the office and hearing from one of the land title examiners about their role. Similar opportunities are available in all three offices if other regional groups are interested.
significantly since the spring, with a decrease ranging about 40-60%; this is primarily due to reductions in oil and gas related plans. Over the past year oil and gas plan numbers had been higher than normal.
This fall I participated in the travelling board trip, providing presentations to each of the regional groups. The following information primarily covers the material discussed on the board trip.
In the Spring I attended the National Surveyors Conference in Halifax. I participated in the “Evolving Boundaries of Practice” workshops following a morning of insightful, thought-provoking presentations. The following day I participated in the Canadian Council on Geomatics (CCOG) – Cadastral sub-committee meeting which was attended in part by the presidents of the associations that were present. The purpose of this meeting was to gain feedback on the workshops and to plan next steps. A report summarizing the workshops has now been published and was circulated by Professional Surveyors Canada and the ABCLS. I strongly encourage everyone to review this report.
Operations
At the Land Title Office, we also had decreases in the number of survey plans submitted. Since June we’ve had decreases in the range of 8-18% from previous year volumes. Prior to this summer’s reductions, volumes had been very consistent with the previous year.
I attended the Okanagan Mainline Regional Group spring meeting in Kamloops in May, which included a tour of the Kamloops Land Title
Staff at the LTSA have been adjusting to the new organizational structure and working with our new teams. Peter Haas and I are working in the Policy and Legal Services team and we both stay very connected into Operations. We are happy to welcome Chris Sakundiak as a Deputy Surveyor General working with Dave and Katie in Operations. It was a challenge this past summer when we were down to only two deputies in Operations but, Chris is quickly learning our processes and will help us ensure we can continue to provide quality service. Dave and Katie have been working very hard to maintain a high calibre of customer service, particularly through my transition to the role of Surveyor General. The volume of survey plans submitted to the Surveyor General has reduced
Operations has undertaken a process to start cross-training some of the land title examiners and surveyor general technologists to allow them to adjust capacity as work volumes increase or decrease in the teams and also to improve overall processes for customers. This is a gradual transition with only 4 examiners now starting to learn some of the surveyor general procedures. Additionally, the Kamloops office move has been delayed to January 2022 following concerns regarding access to records. The LTSA is establishing a Historic Records Advisory committee to provide advice regarding the preservation and accessibility of the LTSA archives, with a focus on records related to First Nations’ land claims. The records will be moving to Victoria in December 2021.
the LINK | December 2019
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