by Rick Hargraves

After more than 150 years of hard copy survey plan submissions to the registries in British Columbia, a significant milestone was realized in 2006. The submission of electronic survey plans became a reality on July 24 when amendments to the Land Act, Land Title Act, Land Survey Act and the Land Surveyors Act came into force. The amendments allow legal survey plans to be submitted through the Electronic Filing System of the Land Title and Survey Authority of B.C. This business improvement is in keeping with the Authority’s goal of enhancing client services through electronic technology.

The first release of the Digital Survey Plan system allows for the submission of an electronic survey plan (in PDF format), together with associated signatory documents of surveys prepared pursuant to the Land Act, Petroleum and Natural Gas Act, Mineral Tenure Act and the Coal Act. We are pleased to see that the land surveying community is using this new technology. From the “red hot” oil and gas sector we have received a significant number of well site plans in electronic format. Early in 2007, we expect to be in a full production pilot for electronic plans prepared under the Land Title Act.

There are several key benefits to the use of electronic survey plans. Firstly, plans no longer need to be drafted onto a mylar sheet. Secondly, the plan does not need to be physically sent to all the owners and consenting signatories for signatures. Consenting signatories to survey plans will not sign the face of the mylar plan as in the past, but will sign a separate document. This allows signatures to be acquired concurrently, rather than one after the other. Instead of shipping a survey plan around the country or the world, an electronic plan fully protected by a digital signature can be sent to several locations at the same time for review and sign off. Furthermore, the traditional registration set of plans does not have to be physically delivered for deposit at the registries. Once all the consents have been assembled, an electronic plan application and the electronic plan may be submitted through EFS. The provisions applicable to electronic plan applications and electronic plans can be found under Division 2.1 of Part 10.1 of the Land Title Act.

From the Authority’s perspective, it is more efficient for the staff to review and confirm plans that are submitted electronically and then automatically push them through the system to the electronic database for customer retrieval. Unlike hard copy plans, electronic plans do not need to be scanned into the image database. The automated flow of electronic plans will result in a better image being made available for customer retrieval purposes.

While submission of electronic survey plans is completely voluntary, we expect the cost and time saving benefits of these types of plans will help drive usage of this new technology. So far, that seems to be the case.

The Authority has successfully used its electronic filing system for the submission of land title documents and, as such, has paved the way for smooth integration of electronic survey plans. The combination of electronic documents and survey plans provide the foundation for further electronic service enhancements by the Authority.

The Land Title and Survey Authority of B.C. is a not-for-profit, non-share capital corporation responsible for managing, operating and maintaining British Columbia’s land title and land survey systems.

Rick Hargraves, BCLS, Surveyor General and Director

This article was published in the December 2006 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2006, all rights reserved.