WHEREAS the Land Title and Survey Authority of BC has the authority to adjust the natural boundary of water courses in the province, which have been established by legal survey plan; AND WHEREAS the interests of local governments may be impacted by changes in the natural boundary of a water course within their jurisdiction; however they are not automatically notified when an application for a natural boundary adjustment has been submitted to the Authority: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of British Columbia Municipalities request that the Land Title and Survey Authority of BC establish a process to refer any application for a natural boundary adjustment to the local government within whose jurisdiction the property lies for comment, and that local government comments be considered by the Surveyor Generals office when adjudicating the application.
Ministry of Agriculture and Lands The Land Title and Survey Authority LTSA is a fully independent agency whose actions are governed by its Board of Directors. The Surveyor Generals role under the Land Title Act as a statutory decision maker is to confirm the effects of natural processes on property boundaries; it is not a planning or public policy decision role. Two years ago, the Government of British Columbia Government determined that the LTSA would be more effective if it were not directly under the control of the Government, so that it could base its decisions on criteria established between the LTSA and its clients. The Surveyor General, along with the Registrar of the Association of BC Land Surveyors, recently met with the Regional District of Central Kootenay RDCK to review the process for confirming changes in property boundaries that might arise through natural accretions. The basis for this discussion is that a landowner has common-law right to own accreted lands and statutory right under the Land Title Act to have their boundaries adjusted to reflect these natural changes. Three specific actions came out of this meeting: - LTSA has agreed to institute a pilot project with the RDCK to include its comments on applications for accretion requests; - LTSA has agreed to provide some guidance to the RDCK staff within this review process; and - LTSA is adjusting the information available on its website respecting accretion applications to note that notice of accretion applications will be provided to those local governments who have requested the Surveyor General Division to send notification of such applications on a routine basis.
BC LAND TITLE SURVEY AUTHORITY Under section 94 of the Land Title Act, the Surveyor General is responsible to adjudicate applications from land owners to clarify natural boundaries between upland owners and the provincial Crown owner of the bed of the adjacent body of water. There are basically two types of situations which would give rise to such applications; one deals with lawfully accreted lands and the second involves corrections to natural boundaries that have been depicted in error on an existing survey plan. It is important to note in each case the purpose of an application under section 94 would be to legitimize and upgrade the title to reflect what is rightfully owned by an upland owner. It is the practice of the LTSA to refer every application under section 94 to the Crown, as the owner of the bed of the adjacent body of water. This referral to the Crown is done by providing the application for review and comment to the appropriate regional office of the Integrated Land Management Bureau ILMB of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. In conducting their public policy analysis of the application, the Crown consults with existing tenure holders and others with an interest in the property, including local government. In addition to the referral to the Crown, this office has a long standing policy of inviting any local or regional government to have their name added to the referral list for these types of applications. Current practice indicates that some local governments do not favour routine referral of this type of application, particularly as ILMB normally alerts local government of affected tenure or significant issues as part of their routine procedure.