I am licensed in Washington State, but not in BC. I have been asked to provide some topographic mapping to a Seattle based Architectural firm for a home site in BC. Boundary and some preliminary topo work was done by a previous surveyor. I would not be doing any boundary work. In fact, I may not even tie into any of the already surveyed property markers, though I might.
So I have a couple of questions. First and most important, will this be considered a type of survey work that requires a licensed BC surveyor? I have looked around at the Surveyor Generals rules and didn't see anything pertaining to topographic work, but I could have missed it.
Second, and assuming that the answer to the first is that I'm OK to do the work, For the type of work I am doing, the ability to set some GPS reference markers would be very helpful. I have no idea as to what correction networks are available for RTK work, and what system they utilize that would be similar to our State Plane Coordinate system. I saw some things in the surveying rules about "British Columbia Geo-Spatial Reference framework and complies with specifications set out for BC CSRS active (BCACS) and passive geodetic control systems"..whatever that is..I will try my google skills to figure it out, but thought someone here might give me a short primer.
Thanks ahead of time
OK, so I have an answer to the second question. I belong to the WSRN and they actually have a sensor in Victoria which should work just fine for my purposes. There are a couple of Canadian stations nearby, but I would have to figure out how to connect into them, so WSRN will work. I can just use WA North zone and I figure Carlson will let me make a gsf file for my work area, so good to go it seems GPS-wise though my Verizon bill might be a bit bigger than usual. I'll have to see if I have to add a country code to the dial in...not sure how that works cell modem wise.
Still, need to know if doing the work is legal in the first place!
Are you Canadian? Or do you have a work visa?
One other question you might want an answer to:
Will I have to pay duty on the equipment I bring across the border?
I believe the answer will be yes. I looked at getting my license in BC, several years ago and that was the one thing that kept me from going further.
You can always rent gear, when you get up there, though.
The guy I talked to said he knew of a Canadian surveyor that was licensed in Washington too. His main reason was; so he could do surveys in Port Roberts.
Sorry, I can't answer your question about topo work. Maybe you could give them a call...
As I understand non-boundary surveying is not licensed there, but you need work visa or be a citizen of the country to legally work there.
Yuriy Lutsyshyn, post: 451149, member: 2507 wrote: As I understand non-boundary surveying is not licensed there, but you need work visa or be a citizen of the country to legally work there.
Thanks for that. I looked that up and, well, wow, what a process. Likely puts an end to this proposition!
Firstly
Yes, you will need a work visa. If you have a two year degrees in surveying or engineering, from a certified school, then you Qualify under NAFTA as a scientific technician. Technically, the sponsor (Canadian employer) is supposed to complete a search for Canadian candidate before selecting you. You will need to fill out the paperwork, have school originals of your transcripts, and have a current passport. This will be reviewed at the border and if all goes well, you will end up with a T1 visa, good for one year,
Secondly
You do not need a BCLS if you are not tying into OR REFERENCING boundaries. You building site better not be anywhere close to municipal setbacks. Do not call property corners property corners, as without that license, they are nothing more than a found pin.
Thirdly,
WSRN will work in the Vancouver area, although the GVRD has its own network, and was free 15 years ago.....
You are going to be working in UTM zone 10.... In meters and azimuths of course. Your data rates are going to be astounding! You are better off getting a Canadian plan for a month.
And Lastly
I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the fact that you are operating outside of your area of experience. It is difficult enough for me to work in an unfamiliar county, let alone an unfamiliar nation. Also, be prepared to be completely blackballed from any assistance from any Canadian surveyors. Canadian surveyors are well known to be some of the very best in the world, and they have already lost the licensing battle on topo work and construction staking. To see Americans taking this work would make things even worse. How would you feel seeing Chinese nationals doing construction layout in Your hometown?
summerprophet, post: 451181, member: 8874 wrote: Firstly
Yes, you will need a work visa. If you have a two year degrees in surveying or engineering, from a certified school, then you Qualify under NAFTA as a scientific technician. Technically, the sponsor (Canadian employer) is supposed to complete a search for Canadian candidate before selecting you. You will need to fill out the paperwork, have school originals of your transcripts, and have a current passport. This will be reviewed at the border and if all goes well, you will end up with a T1 visa, good for one year,Secondly
You do not need a BCLS if you are not tying into OR REFERENCING boundaries. You building site better not be anywhere close to municipal setbacks. Do not call property corners property corners, as without that license, they are nothing more than a found pin.Thirdly,
WSRN will work in the Vancouver area, although the GVRD has its own network, and was free 15 years ago.....
You are going to be working in UTM zone 10.... In meters and azimuths of course. Your data rates are going to be astounding! You are better off getting a Canadian plan for a month.And Lastly
I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the fact that you are operating outside of your area of experience. It is difficult enough for me to work in an unfamiliar county, let alone an unfamiliar nation. Also, be prepared to be completely blackballed from any assistance from any Canadian surveyors. Canadian surveyors are well known to be some of the very best in the world, and they have already lost the licensing battle on topo work and construction staking. To see Americans taking this work would make things even worse. How would you feel seeing Chinese nationals doing construction layout in Your hometown?
Thanks for the reply. Based on previous comments I had figured out most of the work visa stuff as well as the process involving looking for "native" surveyors. I did not know about the NAFTA stuff though I did think about it because I am old enough to remember when that agreement was proposed and one of the arguments against it was that foreign (read Mexican) workers would be taking over jobs, and we used to joke about all the Mexican surveyors coming over the border to take my place.
As to your other comments, if I did any work, it most certainly would not be any sort of boundary work. There is an underlying survey and topo of sorts and when I looked into it, I figured I would likely locate things called out on the survey so the the client could properly place my product within the existing framework. In fact, they would be hiring a follow on surveyor to then locate some things in my work to assist them in tying it back to their boundary.
The work I contemplated was certainly not outside of my area of experience. In fact, it was issues in getting a local surveyor out to do further work that prompted their discussion with me, though what I was to deliver was information using a tool not in use by any local, or even Provincial I believe, surveyors. The information could be gathered by other means, but only at a cost that makes it prohibitive. They had used my services locally here and so were familiar with the delivered product/information, and that is what they desired and it is not something they could find in the project area. The type of work is really not dependent on knowledge of local, county, state, or in this case, Provincial surveying rules or boundary knowledge. I had no intention of taking work away from any surveyors in the 51st state, and only agreed to look into it when they informed me of the hard time they had finding any local surveyors to get the information they desired. If a Canadian surveyor came to my area with an expertise that I and other local surveyors did not possess, I would have no problem helping them out any more than I help out surveyors from other county's that come here to do some specialized work. The work I would have been doing would not have required any assistance for any other surveyors.