Canada Post disruption: Alert Level: MEDIUM

Due to the Canada Post strike action with national overtime ban, customers are advised that mail applications may be subject to delays. LTSA offers online resources and electronic filing services to access front counter services. You may wish to consult a lawyer or notary to complete any filings.

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Front Counters Open By Appointment Only Alert Level: LOW

Please be aware that LTSA’s Land Title Office front counters are open 9 am – 3 pm, Monday to Friday by appointment only. Many common transactions are now available online. To book an in-person visit, contact 1-877-577-LTSA (5872) .

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LTSASurveyor General’s Report: ABCLS AGM 2025

Surveyor General’s Report: ABCLS AGM 2025

Surveyor General Report to ABCLS, April 2025

By Cristin Schlossberger, BCLS

It’s a pleasure to present this year’s Surveyor General Report, reflecting on key developments, initiatives and ongoing activities of the Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia (LTSA).

LTSA Operations and Organizational Updates

I begin by acknowledging the continued excellence in service delivery by our operations team. Thanks to Deputy Surveyors General Dave Swaile, Katie Hannah and Chris Sakundiak. Also thanks to Deputy Surveyor General and Senior Policy Analyst Peter Haas along with Policy and Program Analyst Tobin Pope, for continuing to progress our policy work on several ambitious initiatives.

This January marked the LTSA’s 20th anniversary. We’ve come a long way in that time with modernization of systems and practices and we continue to adapt and advance with society’s needs. Today we have one of the most modern systems in the world, and I would like to express my thanks to BC land surveyors for contributing to certainty in our title and survey systems and your willingness to adapt to changes coming from our advancements. Since the beginning, we have involved land surveyors in determining our priorities and helping to ensure that we move forward in an informed way, and we will continue to focus on engagement and collaboration.

Further details on our upcoming three-year planned activities can be found in the LTSA’s Business Plan, recently posted online.

The LTSA Board continues to be chaired by Rob Simmons and co-chaired by Bronwyn Denton. I would like to thank the ABCLS-nominated LTSA Board members, BJ Houghton and Bronwyn Denton for their continued service.

Renovations are underway at the Victoria LTSA office to reduce our physical footprint. This does not affect access to the records and there will be no changes to the records vault itself.

Land Title and Surveyor General Operations

In 2024, land title transaction volumes were lower than average, but early 2025 has shown signs of recovery in response to interest rate reductions. Uncertainty remains regarding the economic impact of tariffs. Plan submissions to the Land Title Office increased by 1% over the previous fiscal year and turnaround times averaged 3.2 days.

Surveyor General Operations has remained below our target turnaround times for processing applications, plans and Crown grants. We saw an increase in Crown grants and a decrease in both plans and applications submitted to the Surveyor General

The volume of work related to First Nation agreements remains high and is expected to grow with the ratification of treaties. Surveyor General staff provide survey-related advice, issue instructions and review and approve legal survey plans to ensure clarity and certainty in the boundaries of lands transferred to First Nations.

This past year we conducted research to proactively identify Crown grants containing discriminatory covenants. Through the efforts of our operations staff, we have now amended all the identified Crown grants by removing the discriminating terms through Ministerial Orders; resulting in the striking of the covenants from the corresponding land title records. Through an OCR scan of all grants in the province, we believe we’ve now removed all discriminatory covenants that originated from Crown grants. This is a small sub-set of all the discriminatory covenants that have been registered on titles by other means, as most did not originate from Crown grants. While these covenants are void and of no effect the LTSA is undertaking efforts to find and strike these covenants, utilizing technology to help identify offensive records.

Recent policy updates include:

  • Two new Circular Letters: one on the Haida Nation Recognition Act and another clarifying s.56(2)(c) of the Land Act.
  • Updated Directions to Land Surveyors to include practice guidance for SurveyHub submissions and new policy for Surveyor General approval of plans of Crown land being deposited in the land title register.
  • A new Direction outlining the process to follow for notice and consent when a land title plan is amended after receiving Surveyor General’s approval.

Boundary Commission Activities

In 2024, the Boundary Commission contracted an inspection survey along the BC/Alberta boundary, covering 80 monuments along the 120th meridian. Restoration of damaged monuments will likely begin in 2026. Priorities for this upcoming survey season were discussed at the Spring Boundary Commission meeting and more information will be shared once the RFP is posted.

ParcelMap BC Operations

ParcelMap BC (PMBC) successfully migrated to Esri’s ArcGIS Pro platform, modernizing the system and enabling enhanced capabilities. This required significant operational changes, which led to a temporary increase in turn-around times and a posting plan backlog.

The PMBC team is actively working to reduce turnaround times to our target of two days and address the posting plan backlog.

We continue to work on various projects to enhance the ParcelMap BC fabric, including working with Ministry of Transportation and Transit on the roads project. In addition, we are collaborating with Natural Resources Canada on creating consistency between spatial representations of external Indian Reserve boundaries. Geometry for reserves is now sourced directly from NRCan.

Datum Modernization

We continue to partner with GeoBC to facilitate the transition to modern vertical and horizontal datums. We’re entering the final year of fieldwork to improve the accuracy of physical control monument coordinates, and it’s anticipated that GeoBC will adopt the new vertical and horizontal datums in 2030.

The MASCOT database, which supports a network of over 60,000 survey control monuments is being replaced by GeoNetBC. GeoNetBC offers a modern, user-friendly experience, improves operational efficiency, and aligns with Natural Resources Canada’s best practices. It is currently in final testing, with a soft launch scheduled for April 30, 2025.

During the soft launch, MASCOT will be view-only while updates occur in GeoNetBC. We encourage you to explore the new system and send feedback to GeoBCinfo@gov.bc.ca with “GeoNetBC Feedback” in the subject line.

First Nations Land Governance Registry

The LTSA is actively supporting the Lands Advisory Board and the First Nation Land Management Resource Centre in developing a First Nations Land Governance Registry. This system will support First Nations operating under a Land Code, by providing reliable and trustworthy registration of interests in land. Our role includes providing advice, building the registry, and sustaining the technology once the registry is operational. Initial operating capacity is anticipated in this fiscal year.

Verified Transaction Initiative

We are working with stakeholders in the real estate transaction workflow to address risks of fraud and cybercrime. The Verified Transaction Initiative will introduce digital credentials for property owners to securely connect a verified person to their interest in land. It also includes enhanced digital verification for the professionals involved in a real estate transaction.

You can expect to hear more about this initiative in the coming year as we start to engage with the ABCLS about potential enhancements to digital verification for land surveyors.

Application Platform Modernization

A significant focus for the LTSA is the continued reinvestment and strengthening of the core systems, supporting the efficiency of the land title and survey systems. Part of this is ensuring that the systems are adaptable for the future, through modernizing the LTSA’s application platform. In addition, we have initiated improvements to LTSA accounts, with changes already being implemented for our Explorer customers and improvements for Enterprise customers are underway.

SurveyHub

SurveyHub, our pre-submission plan workspace, is fully operational and increasingly used by land surveyors. It provides a unified platform for assembling survey plans, datasets and forms, and introduces enhancements to assist in accurate and consistent data entry, reducing submission errors. Mandatory use for Surveyor General submissions will begin this Fall, and at that time the CLRS form will no longer be available as an offline PDF form. Offline land title forms (SPC and DSPL) will also be phased out in the future.

If you haven’t tried SurveyHub, I encourage you to do so and visit the LTSA booth to speak with Paul and Peter. Training webinars and help materials are provided for land surveyors and their staff to familiarize themselves with the functions of SurveyHub and are available on help.ltsa.ca.

Thank you to the Land Surveyors Advisory Task Force and pilot participants for your feedback throughout the planning and build of SurveyHub.

Disaster Recovery

 We have published a report on actions taken after the Lytton wildfire to support efficient and consistent boundary re-establishment to support recovery. This report shares lessons learned to assist in future recovery situations, it is available on the LTSA website.

The Province is currently seeking public feedback on an Intentions Paper, outlining a proposed approach for boundary re-establishment after an earthquake. Feedback is open until April 21 on the govTogetherBC website. Last week, I held a virtual session to provide an overview of the proposed approach, and to answer questions. Thank you to those of you who participated in our early focus group – your input was critical in our planning process.

Thank you to all BC land surveyors for your dedication and commitment to quality surveys. Your work remains foundational to the integrity and trust in BC’s land title and survey system.