P. Michael Michaud
August 10, 1957 - July 11, 2018
Mike, commissioned both as an Alberta Land Surveyor and a Canada Lands Surveyor, etched his place in Alberta’s rich survey history when he became the 11th Director of Surveys at the Government of Alberta—a position he held from 1996 to 2012. Mike had a strong affiliation with NAIT, having received his honours diploma from NAIT’s Survey Technology 3-year co-op program. He designed and taught the plan examination course for the land surveying profession at NAIT (1987 to 2002), and guest lectured at NAIT’s Faculty of Continuing Education for the GET 71 Survey Law course (2006 to 2011). During this time, he attended the University of Alberta for 3 years, enrolled in the Bachelor of Science survey science program.
As the Director of Surveys and the Alberta Boundaries Commissioner, Mike was responsible for administering the Alberta Surveys Act and the Alberta Boundaries Surveys Act. In these roles, he also ensured the establishment, preservation and maintenance of the provincial land survey system and the provincial spatial referencing system including Crown grants. He ensured the acceptance, approval, storage and distribution of activity plans related to disposition applications (leases, licences, permits) on provincial public land. And finally, he ensured the management and delivery of automated application and business systems for public land dispositions. Under his leadership, his team developed geo-referencing standards for surveys, eliminated dual plan registration, developed the Electronic Disposition System (EDS) for oil and gas dispositions, implemented LiDAR projects for wellsites, developed a web-based application for creating metadata for CAD files (SPOC), and worked with the Canadian Council on Geomatics to integrate standards for control surveys and data licensing policies and issues. Mike’s team won the gold medal Government in Technology award and he was part of the team that won the Canadian Information Productivity Award for the creation of Alberta Land Titles’ Spatial Information System (SPIN).
Mike was Director of Surveys during a time of rapid technological change. He envisioned the future of land surveying as a coordinate-based cadastre, all public lands plans on Alberta Land Titles’ Spatial Information System (SPIN) and moving from a monumented control system towards an active control system. Professional land surveyors would turn to Mike on matters concerning statutory interpretation, records of information and professional opinions. He sought quality and understood the largest part of quality was not the result of acts and regulations but rather of education, articleship, development of character and ethics of individual practitioners.
Throughout his career, he weathered stormy and contentious regulatory changes, balancing government, stakeholder and professional land surveyors’ interests with calm, focus and professionalism.
Mike was actively involved in professional activities with the Alberta Land Surveyors’ Association and the Association of Canada Lands Surveyors and authored numerous publications and presentations.
Please make your gift below. If you wish to make a gift by cheque, please make payable to NAIT Department of Advancement and indicate your gift is to be directed to the P. Michael Michaud Memorial. Please mail cheques to:
NAIT Department of Advancement
11762 106 St NW Edmonton AB T5G 2R1
Contact Erin Kuebler at 780.471.8499 or ekuebler@nait.ca with any questions.
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