What you should know about the Ontario Surveys Act

The Act establishes that no survey of land for the purpose of defining, locating or describing any line, boundary or corner of a parcel of land is valid unless made by a surveyor or under the personal supervision of a surveyor. Moreover, every surveyor shall make and preserve exact and regular field notes of all his surveys and shall keep a proper record and index of all such notes.

In an article in the Ontario Land Surveyor, Bryan Ballantyne mentioned that "the earliest statute relating to land surveys in the Province of Quebec (which included present-day Ontario) was "An Ordinance Concerning Land Surveyors and the Admeasurement of Lands", enacted in 1785. It came at a time when that area of Quebec east of the Ottawa River was being opened up to United Empire Loyalists from the United States. The first aim of the government was to settle the im migrants on the land as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Many of the Ordinance’s ten sections are reflected in some way in our present Surveys Act because they deal with the testing of instruments, with the oaths and financial securities of the surveyor and his assistants, with survey records, and with the necessity for, and sanctity of, boundary markers."

"If the 1785 Ordinance was the god parent of the present Surveys Act, then its grandparent was born in 1798, when "An Act to ascertain and establish on a permanent footing the Boundary Lines of the different Townships of the Province" was enacted in Upper Canada. It gave explicit instructions that stone monuments or monuments of other durable material were to be placed at the township comers and at the ends of the concession lines."

"The statute of 1798 had an interesting origin. The Township of Kingston was laid out in 1783 as the first township in Upper Canada. The 1798 legislation was necessary to assist surveyors in resolving boundary disputes, in the absence of a solid base of legal precedents on which to base a decision."

- Surveyor Responsibilities: defines duties of Ontario Land Surveyors, including accuracy in property boundaries and record-keeping.

- Government Authority: gives the government (specifically the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry) authority to appoint surveyors for public works and land division.

- Standards and Regulations: establishes standards for surveys, plans, and monument marking.

- Dispute Resolution: provides mechanisms for resolving disputes over boundaries, including surveyor tribunals and court involvement. 

The Act ensures precise land measurement and boundary delineation.

Landowners affected by infrastructure projects and/or facing expropriation often wonder if a surveyor may access private property without permission. Scargall Owen-King LLP Lawyers find that the simple answer is yes.

In Ontario, the Surveys Act allows licensed surveyors and persons in the surveyor's employ to enter onto private lands to carry out survey works. However, a surveyor may be liable for any damage caused to the property while carrying out investigative activities. Section 6(1) the Act states that when it comes to the "right to enter land or buildings, a surveyor or a person in the surveyor’s employ while making a survey may at any time enter and pass over the land of any person, or at any time suitable to the occupant of a building enter the building, and do any act thereon or therein for any purpose of the survey, but the surveyor is liable for any damage occasioned thereby." Moreover, the legislation provides that landowners cannot obstruct a surveyor from entering the property. Section 6(2) of the Act provides that an owner can be fined up to $100 for obstructing a surveyor from entering the property: "Offence for obstructing: every person who interferes with or obstructs a surveyor or a person in the surveyor’s employ in the exercise of any of the powers conferred by subsection 1 is guilty of an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine of not more than $100." To minimize intrusion, owners may consider speaking with the expropriating authority or responsible government agency to request advance notice, or to seek specific times for surveyors to enter the property.

Note that the Ontario Boundaries Act process is the commonly used form when private landowners are unable to agree on the true location on the ground of their common boundary. The Surveys Act process itself is largely reserved for matters initiated by a municipality (the exception being in relation to unorganized territories). 
Given that the Boundaries Act is far broader in its application, it can be (and most often is) initiated by private landowners. 
A precondition of the Surveys Act is that there must be a "disputed or lost line, boundary or corner." Under the Boundaries Act, there must be "doubt as to the true location on the ground of any boundary and parcel."

Buzro Law states that when deciding between utilizing the Surveys Act as opposed to the Boundaries Act, a municipality is likely to fund significant cost recovery differences: under the Surveys Act, the municipality can levy the cost against the affected landowners; under the Boundaries Act, to the extent that an application is made by a municipality in relation to the location of a road, the municipality is prohibited from levying the landowners. 

If it can be used, the Surveys Act sees the Minister of Natural Resources hire the surveyor. This allows municipal leaders to stay above the fray and remain neutral. A great deal of (warranted, I might add) emotion is involved with land rights, especially among warring and well heeled property owners. 

Surveyors

The members of the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors (AOLS) are likely to be a good resource for you on this topic. The Association was established in 1892. It is a self-governing association, responsible for the licensing and governance of professional land surveyors under the authority of the Surveyors Act. Learn more about it at AOLS.org.