Recently we have updated two Land Titles & Surveys Procedures Manuals to reduce the amount of time required for survey plan registration at Alberta Land Titles.

The first procedure manual update was made to SUR 1 - Examination of Plans. 

Issue - Plans of surveys are being submitted to Land Titles & Surveys (LTS) containing an extensive number of blanks that are required to be filled in by the Survey Tech after registration of the survey plan. This process amounts to a substantial amount of extra time spent per plan, depending on the number of blanks required to be filled.

Land Titles Manual Procedural Change - S.24.  Unregistered Survey Plans - Unregistered survey plans may be shown on a plan of survey. However, plan blanks (except for unregistered subdivision plans) are not allowed and must be referenced via a symbol in the legend or abbreviation. 

Solution – All future plans will not be allowed to contain R/W plan blanks required to be filled in by the Survey Tech after plan registration. There, however, is still an option to show unregistered plans on the plan of survey by using a reference with a blank in the legend and an abbreviation/symbol. The survey tech upon registering said plan will then fill in the blank located in the legend, which still ensures unregistered plans are properly denoted on the plan of survey while vastly reducing the workload required to register a plan.

Note – An exception will be made specifically for unlabeled subdivision plan numbers shown on plans of surveys, as the extra time spent labeling these historically has been less detrimental to registration times. Should this be of concern for a specific plan of survey, the ALS may be asked to reduce the number of blanks shown on the plan.

The second procedure manual update was made to SUR 2 – Examination of Subdivision Plans.

Issue – Currently tables of coordinates are being submitted to LTS that includes additional coordinates unrelated to the plan being registered. Each table of coordinate should only list the monuments found/to be placed/placed related to that specific plan as a coordinate should only be created on one instrument. 

Land Titles Manual Procedural Change - S.5.  The table of coordinates shall only list coordinates for survey control markers or monuments shown on the plan of survey. All point numbers listed, must correspond to a point contained within the plan of survey being registered.

Solution – After policy implementation all table of coordinates containing coordinates for monuments not shown on the plan of survey being registered will no longer be allowed. All extra coordinates must be removed.

As we understand that survey plans are prepared well in advance of the submission to Alberta Land Titles, we will be allowing for a grandfathering period. Any plans received on or after April 14, 2025, will be subject to these changes.

Thank you for your assistance regarding this matter.

Kevin Chan, ALS
Survey Manager
Land Titles and Surveys