NSC 2017: Contribution of Surveyors to the Development of Canada

Product Description

Presented on March 1st, 2017 by Brian Ballantyne

Land surveying matters to Canada.  The Royal Proclamation of 1763 set out the relationship between surveying, Indigenous peoples and the Crown; the Durham Report of1839 observed that surveys provide “security of property in land.”  Surveying – whether individuals, infrastructure, innovation, ideas, ideals or imagination – has shaped and continues to shape Canada. To wit, negotiating the Quebec-New York boundary (1760s); building inter-provincial railways and inventing time-zones (1870s); irrigating and retaining watercourses in the public interest (1890s); defining land use planning as a discipline (1910s); using bornage/Boundaries Act to resolve boundary disputes (1950s); establishing land entitlement and claim parcels (1970s); using field-notes as evidence of ecosystems (since 1790s); and reconciling all Canadians with the land over the next generation.