A word from the Surveyor General of Canada Lands

Table of Contents

• Survey Instructions Home
• Part B - Agreements

  • B1 - Interdepartmental Agreements

    • B1-1 - Interdepartmental Agreement re Description of Canada Lands, 1955 (Excluding Indian Lands)
    • B1-2 - Interdepartmental Agreement with the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development re Land Transactions on Reserve Lands, 2009
  • B2 - Intergovernmental Agreements

    • B2-1 - Intergovernmental Agreement with British Columbia Respecting Legal Surveys of Highways Through Indian Reserves and Sechelt Lands and Lands Being Transferred to Canada, 2003
    • B2-2 - Intergovernmental Agreement with the Province of Alberta re Town of Banff Incorporation Agreement, 1989
• Part C - Administrative Requirements

  • C1 - General Requirements and Procedures for Surveys
  • C2 - Surveys in the Northwest Territories
  • C3 - Surveys in Yukon
  • C4 - Surveys Offshore
  • C5 - Surveys of Indian Lands
  • C6 - Surveys of Lands Administered by Parks Canada
• Part D - Survey Standards

  • D1 - Official Surveys
  • D2 - Explanatory Plans
  • D3 - Strata Surveys
  • D4 - Condominium Surveys
  • D5 - Registration and Land Use Area Plans
  • D6 - Oil and Gas Surveys in Indian Reserves
  • D7 - Oil and Gas Surveys in the Territories and Offshore
  • D8 - Mineral Claim Surveys in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut
  • D9 - Mineral Claim Surveys in Yukon
  • D10 - Field Monitoring of Exterior Boundaries and Interior Frameworks
  • D11 - Boundary Maintenance
  • D12 - Control Surveys
  • D13 - Basemapping
  • D14 - Land Descriptions
  • D15 - Survey Reports
  • D16 - As-built Surveys
  • D17 - Guidelines for the preparation of Legal Description Reports for the Individual First Nation Agreement under the First Nations Land Management Act
• Part E - Appendices

  • E1 - Glossary
  • E2 - Legal Principles for Surveys of Canada Lands
  • E3 - Guidelines for the Preparation of Plans
  • E4 - Accuracy Standard for Legal Surveys
  • E5 - Digital Spatial File Specifications
  • E6 - Instructions for Preparation of Compiled Plans of Consolidations of Yukon Titled Land

Welcome to the General Instructions for Surveys of Canada Lands Web site. This site provides online access to current and historical general instructions of the Surveyor General of Canada Lands. We intend to make it a valuable and accessible resource for everyone interested in the administrative and survey requirements for surveys of Canada Lands.

This site features:

• the General Instructions for Surveys of Canada Lands, e-Edition. It is an improved online version and replaces the Manual of Instructions for the Survey of Canada Lands – Third Edition (effective April 1, 2004);
• links to Federal and Territorial legislation sites for direct access to current legislative requirements that affect surveys on Canada Lands;
• the historical general instructions of the Surveyor General of Canada Lands as published in the first to third editions of the Manual of Instructions for the Survey of Canada Lands; and
• the historical general instructions of the Surveyor General of Dominion Lands as published in the first to tenth editions of the Manual of Instructions for the Survey of Dominion Lands.

The e-Edition has many advantages over its predecessors. It is a dynamic and flexible tool whose sections may be amended in a more timely manner without going through the lengthy printing and production stages that were required to revise previous publications. Now, following consultations with the various stakeholders, specific portions of the e-Edition will be updated and the amendments made official by a directive under my signature.

The e-Edition preserves the five sections–Parts A to E–of the Third Edition. Part A provides access to excerpts of federal and territorial legislation that may have a bearing on legal surveys of Canada Lands. The access is provided through hyperlinks made directly to the Justice Canada or territorial legislation Web sites. An advantage over previous publications is that the hyperlinks provide access to current information on the laws and regulations in effect. In addition, a search engine has been added to the functionalities of this Web site to assist users in determining which statutes, regulations, agreements and instructions may apply to survey operations in a given geographic area.

Parts B to E are derived from the previous edition and converted to HTML format. Part B contains excerpts of interdepartmental and intergovernmental agreements affecting the management of lands and surveys. Part C outlines general administrative requirements and procedures for conducting legal surveys on Canada Lands. Part D contains the standards for surveys and survey-related products and services. These instructions are issued under the authority of the Canada Lands Surveys Act. Part E consists of the appendices.

The Web site is also appealing on account of its historical research capabilities. Past publications (1871 to 2003), and their amendments, are available in various digital formats and may be accessed through the "Historical Publications" part of our Web site. As amendments to the e-Edition are made, the amended sections will be indexed and accessible to everyone thus providing access to all historical general instructions in effect for any given time period.

The objectives of these instructions remain always to ensure the lawful, clear and unambiguous demarcation, depiction and description of land parcels and their boundaries, while developing the site into a flexible tool that accommodates the needs of its clients and ensures maximum harmonization with local survey practices.

I invite your comments, which are essential for the constant improvement of this new edition.

Peter J. Sullivan, CLS, ALS, MBA
Surveyor General of Canada Lands,
Director, Surveyor General Branch, Geomatics Canada,
Natural Resources Canada
Ottawa, Ontario