1975 - The Erosion of the Surveyors' Position

    On April 16, 1975, Jack Holloway passed away. Later that year, several Alberta Land Surveyors would come together to form the J.H. Holloway Scholarship Foundation.

In his address to the membership at the 1975 Annual General Meeting, President Watson lamented the erosion of the professional surveyors’ position in society. He said that surveyors are actively promoting the use of the coordinate system, which would certainly facilitate databanks and little black boxes, and yet surveyors were not moving forward to keep control of the surveying profession that will make use these facilities.

The membership considered seven recommendations at the 1975 Annual General Meeting. All but the recommendation to amend the recommended minimum fees were defeated. Although the recommendations were defeated, a number of them were later adopted by the profession. They included a recommendation to amend the Surveys Act which would have meant that surveyors would have to be on the ground only at "material times.” Other defeated recommendations included: a requirement to have one named and registered Alberta Land Surveyor responsible to see that a head or branch office adheres to the Code of Ethics; a recommendation to compile pertinent information for guidelines for Building Location Certificates; a recommendation that only those persons eligible for certification in the Alberta Society of Survey Technicians and Technologists be deemed competent to perform their duties.

 

Back - 1974 - Charging Articling Students

Forward - 1976 - Continuing and Unremitting Pressure