1935 - The Old Mistrust of Ottawa

    Meanwhile, the Association and its members, like almost everyone else, could do little but wait for the clouds to lift. At the beginning of 1935, there was still no reason for optimism as far as the surveying profession was concerned, but Association affairs began to show a little more liveliness than during the previous four years.

Although there is little reference to it in the official records, the old mistrust of the Ottawa surveying fraternity that had lain dormant for several years flared up again. This was occasioned by the formation of the Canadian Institute of Surveying, which had taken place in 1934, mainly on the initiative of the Dominion Land Surveyors employed by the federal government. One of their aims was to broaden the sphere of interest of the old Dominion Land Surveyors' Association so as to embrace the new techniques of photogrammetry and aerial mapping which were then being pioneered in Canada largely by the Surveyor General's staff. The provincial associations had not been consulted about the formation of this new organization, and the older Alberta Land Surveyors, remembering that they had first mooted the idea of a national association back in 1921, took particular offence at this slight. On the day before the 1935 Annual Meeting, the Council held its usual annual meeting and agreed to recommend to the Annual Meeting that the Association's group subscription to The Canadian Surveyor be discontinued. The Annual Meeting toned this down a bit by resolving that the Secretary-Treasurer be instructed "to write to the Secretary of the newly organized Institute of Surveying, advising him that as The Canadian Surveyor is now the organ of this new organization and as this Association has no official information as to the constitution of that body, we would appreciate being informed as to its objects, constitution and by-laws before deciding whether this Association shall continue to contribute to this publication and that further contributions to this periodical be left in the hands of the incoming Council, subject to some satisfactory reply being received."

Apparently some satisfactory reply was later received and the Council decided to recommend continuance of the Association's group subscription to the magazine. However, the Annual Meeting rejected this recommendation and the feeling of disaffection for the Institute remained for several years afterwards. Although fraternal greetings continued to be formally exchanged, the Institute's efforts to sell itself and recruit members in Alberta fell on stony ground, and during the thirties, only two or three Alberta Land Surveyors took out individual Institute memberships.

In 1934, the provincial Department of Lands and Mines had issued some new regulations concerning wellsite location surveys, then almost entirely confined to the Turner Valley oil field which had' become extended by new discoveries dating from 1931. These regulations provided that such surveys were to be made by "a competent surveyor or engineer," and the few Alberta Land Surveyors who had engaged in this wellsite work had found to their sorrow that some of these surveys were being performed by men whose competence was doubtful.

The Association felt, in any case, that this terminology was altogether too vague and did not adequately protect the oil companies from the costly hazards of inaccurate work, and the 1935 Annual Meeting resolved to ask the Deputy Minister of the department that the words "competent surveyor" be struck out of the regulations and that the words "Alberta Land Surveyor" be substituted. This issue remained on the agenda for the next four years, and despite continued representations to the Department, the regulations were never changed and to this day the original wording remains.

This was but one instance of the generally indifferent attitude exhibited towards the land surveying profession by the Department of Lands and Mines during its earlier years of existence. In other matters, such as the survey of Metis settlement lands, the definition of water boundaries and the survey and registration of townsite subdivisions on Crown lands, the Association from time to time made various representations suggesting that the Department should avail itself of the services of properly qualified professional surveyors, all without effect. Later on, after some changes in departmental officialdom had taken place and the Department found itself in difficulties over some of these matters, it began to recognize that the knowledge and training possessed by the qualified land surveyor deserved some respect, and its relationship with the land surveying profession subsequently improved. But, regardless of the Depression, it became evident during the thirties that because of the Department's peculiar policies, any hopes that the Alberta Land Surveyors might have had of gaining employment as a result of the transfer of the natural resources were not to be realized and that the members of the profession could expect little help from that source in trying to keep their heads above water through those trying years.

At the 1935 meeting, the role of the Public Utilities Board in connection with the approval of subdivision plans was also discussed and found redundant, and a motion was passed proposing that since the provincial Town Planning Commission was now in existence, there was no longer any need for the Board to approve plans. This incontestable thought was duly transmitted to the proper authorities, who considered and acted upon it with all deliberate speed, and eventually about three years later, the Board ceased to stamp its approval on subdivision plans, so that only the signature of the Director of Surveys, who by that time had also become the Director of Town Planning, was needed to permit the registration of a plan.

Back - 1931-1934 - Hard Times

Forward - 1936-1939 - An All-Time Low