PSC and Consulting Surveyors National (CSN), our sister organisation in Australia, have set up a quarterly online cultural exchange. Topics will vary but will be relevant to the professional survey industry in both countries. The first exchange is scheduled for September and the topic will be determined shortly.

If you are a current member of PSC and are interested in participating, please contact Michael Thompson for more information. Thank you to members who have already expressed an interest.

PSC et Consulting Surveyors National (CSN), une organisation sœur en Australie, ont mis en place un programme d’échange culturel en ligne trimestriel. Différents sujets seront abordés mais ils présenteront tous un intérêt pour l’industrie des arpenteurs-géomètres professionnels dans les deux pays. Le premier échange est prévu pour septembre et le sujet abordé sera déterminé sous peu.

Si vous êtes actuellement membre de GPC et que vous aimeriez y participer, veuillez communiquer avec Michael Thompson pour plus d’information. Merci aux membres qui ont déjà manifesté un intérêt.

PSC has begun the strategic planning process for the period of 2021-2023. This will be the first strategic plan completed by PSC under our current branding.

Kick-off meetings were held in June with our consultant McLaughlin & Associates, who was selected during an RFP process. McLaughlin conducted an online survey end July / early August where a link to the survey was sent to current PSC members. McLaughlin received excellent feedback with over 100 responses.

Next steps are consultation interviews with key stakeholders, followed by two workshops in September, and draft strategic plans in October and November.

GPC a commencé le processus de planification stratégique pour la période 2021-2023. Il s’agira du premier plan stratégique réalisé par GPC sous notre marque actuelle.

Des réunions de lancement ont eu lieu en juin avec notre conseiller McLaughlin & Associates, qui a été sélectionné dans le cadre d’un processus de demande de propositions. McLaughlin a mené un sondage en ligne à la fin de juillet / au début d’août, un lien vers le sondage ayant été envoyé aux membres actuels de GPC. La rétroaction reçue par McLaughlin a été excellente avec plus de 100 réponses.

Les prochaines étapes consisteront en des entrevues de consultation auprès d’intervenants clés, suivies de deux ateliers en septembre, et de projets de plan stratégique en octobre et en novembre.

A message from the University of New Brunswick

In response to the current Covid-19 situation, we have resolved to make all UNB Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering courses remotely available for the 2020-2021 academic year, spanning September 2020 to May 2021.

As our program is fully accredited by CBEPS, some combinations of our courses may be useful for any members or their employees seeking exemptions for certain CBEPS syllabus items or seeking professional upgrading. The online/remote offering this coming year may provide a flexible way for them to obtain these exemptions, from a world class institution, without having to move all the way to Fredericton to take the courses. Indeed, the online format even allows courses to be taken while working.

Robbie Kingdon

Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering

University of New Brunswick

P.O. Box 4400

Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3

Please note the new website address: unb.ca/fredericton/engineering/depts/gge/index.html

All Fall 2020 courses will be offered completely online this year at York University, Ontario. A decision on Winter 2021 courses is pending, but most courses will be offered in at least a blended format, if not fully online.

General information:

Karishma Karim

Undergraduate Program Assistant

Inquiries about specific course content:

Sunil Bisnath

Undergraduate Program Director

Gallagher, our insurance broker for the PSC Professional Liability Insurance Program, invites all to Gallagher Talks, a complimentary virtual event on September 15.

Bringing together our industry experts for one full day of 30-45 minute fast-paced talks, Gallagher will be sharing insight on the latest trends impacting the insurance marketplace in Canada. Learn about strategies and best practices you can take back to your organization.

Some of the topics you’ll get to hear about include:

For more topics and session descriptions, check out the Agenda.

The Boundary Point

The Importance of the Land Titles Clarification Act and Eliminating Racism

Volume 8, Issue 8, August 2020

By Four Point Learning

In this issue we consider a decision made by a court in Nova Scotia that set aside a refusal by an administrative decision maker to recognize a claim to registered title to a parcel of land because (at least ostensibly), the applicant had not made out proof of adverse possession for the requisite 20 years.

Read the complete article here.

The Boundary Point is published by Four Point Learning as a free monthly e-newsletter, providing case comments of decisions involving some issue or aspect of property title and boundary law in Canada.

National Society of Professional Surveyors

Based on his experience as a Certified Landscape Architect, Steve Allison provides a strategy for use by Surveyors in identifying the various species of trees, and tips related to variations within species. Listen here

Toronto Star column by Aaron & Aaron

In February, 2020, Mohammad Jafar Haghollahi and Parvaneh Yaghoubi signed an agreement to buy a property on Lockwood Circle, in Newmarket, from Gregory and Tara Butt. The contract price was $1,755,000 with a $75,000 deposit.

The property, a two-storey home with five bedrooms and five bathrooms, a pool, cabana and above-ground hot tub, has a title subject to two usage rights, or easements, sanitary and storm sewer access by the town of Newmarket.

A standard title clause in the agreement said title had to be clear except for easements that included drainage, storm and sanitary sewers. Read more

CTV News

BALTIMORE -- A natural gas explosion destroyed three row houses in Baltimore on Monday, killing a woman and trapping other people in the wreckage. At least two people were hospitalized with serious injuries, firefighters said.

At least three dozen firefighters converged on the disaster scene, where the natural gas explosion reduced to the homes to piles of rubble and pieces of debris. A fourth house in the row was partly destroyed, and the neighbourhood was strewn with glass from shattered windows. Read more

Radio-Canada

Une énorme explosion a complètement détruit trois maisons en rangée à Baltimore, lundi, tuant une personne et en blessant plusieurs autres, a déclaré le service des incendies de la ville. Au moins une personne a été faite prisonnière des décombres, selon les pompiers.

Plus de 30 pompiers ont convergé vers la scène de la catastrophe, où l'explosion, due à du gaz naturel, a réduit les maisons en un tas de débris. Une quatrième maison de rangée a été partiellement détruite, et le quartier a été jonché de verre provenant de fenêtres brisées par le souffle de l'explosion. Lire plus

Q98.5 Townsquare Media, Inc.

A man in Maine is not happy about with his neighbors or their garage that overhangs on his property.

Gabriel and Tracy Brawn loved their neighbors Steve and Theresa Ritter, who were the ideal neighbors. When Steve passed away in 2016, Theresa moved and began renting the property. The string of renters were not as nice to live next to.

At one point, the Brawns tried to purchase the property so they could end the headache, but didn't prevail. Read more

TV 6

An Upper Peninsula bald eagle launched an airborne attack on a drone operated by a Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) pilot last month, tearing off a propeller and sending the aircraft to the bottom of Lake Michigan. Read more

Rome Sentinel

A free statewide summer program to provide students with opportunities for outdoor learning while also practicing social distancing was announced by the New York State Association of Professional Land Surveyors (NYSAPLS).

The land surveying program will challenge students to use math and science skills while getting outdoors and staying safe, said NYSAPLS. Read more

Penticton Herald

There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight to negotiations between senior governments and local First Nations regarding a new national park reserve in the South Okanagan-Similkameen.

In an update on the project Wednesday, Parks Canada explained how meetings have carried on through the pandemic as the sides work to reach an establishment agreement that sets out how the groups would co-operatively manage the 27,000-hectare park. Read more

University of Toronto

It’s hard to imagine that the hardscrabble days of the Klondike Gold Rush gave anyone much to smile about, let alone laugh. But one University of Toronto historian has found that humour in fact played an important role in helping people weather tough times on the Yukon-Alaska frontier.

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Petrakos’ study, “Humor and Social Boundary Making on the Alaska-Yukon Border, 1886-1896,” will be published in a forthcoming edition of Studies in American Humor. Read more

Point of Beginning POB - POB Editorial Advisory Board

Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln laid the groundwork for land surveying to be warmly accepted as one of our nation’s oldest practices — sweet with tradition and as American as apple pie.

Lately, though, whenever survey work leans too hard on geospatial technology, old-timers will use those famous figureheads to bemoan the days of real surveying, when everything done was down to earth.

Those were real surveyors, they say. Read more

Geospatial World

The European GNSS Agency (GSA), together with the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors (CLGE), has launched the Geomatics on the Move 2020 competition. The competition aims to foster the use of EU satellite programmes Galileo, EGNOS and Copernicus among students, young professionals, entrepreneurs and small and mid-sized businesses (SMEs). It is expected that it will help in creating innovative geomatics applications and solutions across all over Europe. The deadline for submission of ideas is October 16,2020.

The new Geomatics on the Move Prize Contest targets applications that integrate the use of additional technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, as well as supplementary remote sensing data sources like drones. Solutions animated through mobile phone applications or other easy-to-use platforms are also welcome. Read more

Directions Magazine

Details of a new depth map of the Arctic Ocean have been published in the Nature Journal Scientific Data. The new portrayal of the Arctic Ocean floor is in the form of a digital gridded database and comprises Version 4.0 of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO).

The gridded compilation has been completed under the auspices of the Regional Center for the Arctic and North Pacific Ocean of The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project. This Regional Center is one of four Seabed 2030 centers covering the world ocean and is run jointly by Stockholm University and the University of New Hampshire. Scientists and map-makers from 15 countries participated in the work, including all circum-Arctic nations. Read more

Insider Media Limited

Ward Williams Associates (WWA), a property and construction consultancy which has worked on a number of prominent projects, has become the world’s first chartered surveyor to certify as a B Corporation.

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The B Corp certification reinforces WWA's commitments to uphold the highest standards of financial, environmental and social principles. Read more

Commercial UAV News

With the ability to perform land surveys, photogrammetry, 3D mapping, topographic surveying, and more, drones have become one of the primary tools for GIS professionals to do their jobs. Last month, Commercial UAV News held a 5 Things You Need to Know About Surveying with a Drone webinar with a group of surveying experts to learn what they think about surveying with drones from choosing the right hardware, provider, and software for the job to delivering a high-quality product. Read more

c|net

Something was clearly going wrong down at Twitter HQ in July when dozens of celebrity Twitter accounts started promoting a Bitcoin scam. By the end of the month, Twitter said some employees had fallen for a scam and unwittingly helped hackers gain access to sensitive login credentials.. Read more

Please contact Ria van der Veen, Executive Assistant & Registrar for ad specifications and rates. Horizon is distributed to over 2500 readers.

Pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez communiquer avec Ria van der Veen, Adjointe exécutive, Registraire. Horizon est distribué à plus de 2 500 lecteurs.