Councillor Corner – Fall 2019

Calvin Bourassa SLS, P. Surv., CLS Councillor

Summer is coming to an end and with it comes the end of the camping and fishing season.  I was fortunate to spend some quality time this summer doing just that with family and friends, and for the most part enjoyed some excellent weather.  There were some windy, rainy days and sometimes the fish were not always cooperative, but the rain also helped to reduce the forest fires this year.  As of the beginning of September there had only been 231 fires in the province compared to the 5 year average of 434 fires.

I took the opportunity this summer to visit the SLSA museum in the Town of Battleford, with my wife and grandkids.  I found it interesting to look at the equipment on display, the biographies, and the freshly dug pits, trenches and mounds.  I may have found it a little more interesting than my wife and grandkids did, but they enjoyed the visit as well.  I would like to thank everyone who helped get the museum setup and open for this summer, a lot of work was done in a short amount of time.  The pits and mound looked impressive.  I have had the task of refreshing some pits and mounds in my career and I know it is not easy work for those of us not used to it.  Having these freshly constructed monuments will help the public, and surveyors today, get a real appreciation of how these monuments looked when they were constructed.  I look forward to making this an annual trip as the museum will continue to improve over the next few years.  I would also encourage everyone to take time to visit and support our museum.

With summer ending my favourite season is about to begin, hunting season.  I spend my time hunting in the provincial forest in the Hudson Bay area, and while hunting in the forest is not always as productive as hunting in the grainland, I enjoy the quiet walks through the forest and enjoying nature.  As a surveyor I also I find myself looking for evidence of past occupation and development and one day I expect during my wandering I may happen upon a survey monument, but it hasn’t happened yet.

I have always enjoyed surveying in northern Saskatchewan, working in places where not too many people have been before.  Finding undisturbed survey monuments close to the condition they were when they were originally placed, is always interesting to me, thinking about the survey crew that was here one hundred years ago constructing the monument.  My first northern opportunity was to survey the northern road into Stony Rapids, through the Chicken I.R., with Wilf Peters.  It was cold and hard work, cutting line and placing monuments in the forest, but I gained a real appreciation for the quiet and the beauty of undisturbed nature.  After that experience I have always looked forward to the next opportunity to get out into the bush.  I have worked on a mine exploration project at the south end of Wollaston Lake, surveyed the boundaries of the Prince Albert National Park, surveyed large TLE parcels of land near Patuanak and retraced most of the township fabric around Makwa Lake, near Loon Lake.  I look forward to my next opportunity to come across a near perfect survey monument, that has been seldomly visited, in the forest and appreciating the work that was done when it was originally placed.

This is my second year as a Councillor and after enjoying my time last year, I am looking forward to the work this year.  I would encourage everyone to serve a term on our Council to get a real appreciation of the work that takes place to keep our Association current and relevant as technology evolves and government policies change.  I do hope to one day have the opportunity to serve as vice-president, and then president or our Association, and continue the hard work our current and past-presidents have done on behalf of the profession and its members.

Calvin Bourassa