Report of Research, Field Investigation and Survey of Robert D ...

His response follows:
C
Extinguishment of Geographics
C.1 Section 9 of the Surveys Act... provides that “every line, boundary and corner establsihed
by an original survey and shown on the original plan thereof is a true and unalterable line,
boundary or corner, as the case may be”; this includes both rectilinear and natural boundaries
shown on the original plans.
C.2 Boundaries are created by common law by division of title. The effect of Section 9 is the
statutory recognition of the original survey lot lines as boundaries by virtue of the official plans
in spite of the fact that division of title has not yet occurred, but was only contemplated.
(Footnote 1: This is the reason for annulment of official township surveys where the Ministry of
Natural Resources deems it necessary to extinguish geographics created by the Crown
acceptance of original township plans.)
C.3 Section 9 has also been interpreted as statutory authority for the fixing of the position of
rectilinear lot lines that, again, were contemplated to mark future divisions of title. This
interpretation does not effect a statutory change to common law; it is simply a codification of the
common law as it always was. The codification also confirms the common law regarding the
status of natural boundaries, including the ambulatory nature of a water’s edge title limit.
C.4 The Rowntree decision confirmed that the natural boundary of Lot 18, Concession 11,
Tiny Township, is the ambulatory water’s edge of Nottawasaga Bay of Lake Huron. By
extension, the same principle applies to Lot 18 in Concession 8 of Tiny Township. Lands above
the water’s edge form part of Lot 18, Concession 8; lands below the water’s edge form part of
the bed of Lake Huron, which (adjoining to Lot 18, Concession 8) is unsurveyed and unalienated
Crown land.
C.5 Consequently, when the water ambulates westerly due to lower water levels or alluvial
accretion, the upland riparian geographic entities - specific to the subject site, being Lot 18,
Concession 8, and any riparian Plan 773 subdivision lots - increase in area, and the additional
land takes on the same legal characteristics as the uplands to which it attaches. (For example,
see Eliason v. Registrar, North Alberta Land Registration district and others, as noted in Section
58 of the CED).
C.6 By corollary, when the water ambulates easterly due to higher water levels, Lot 18,
Concession 8, and the adjoining original road allowances are thereby restricted to only the
portion remaining above the water’s edge. Any lands below the water’s edge that were part of
the Tiny Township geographics become part of the Provinces unsurveyed and unalienated lands,
taking on the legal characteristics of the bed of the lake.
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