Douglas Arnel Bouck

CLS, ALS, SLS
Commission #235
(1981.07.06)

Douglas Arnel Bouck was born on a 160 acre mixed dairy farm approximately five miles north of Iroquois, Ontario in 1945. He went to a one room school house near the farm for his first seven years of public school. In 1958 the family moved 18 miles north to Winchester Ontario. There Doug completed public and high school.

In 1968 he obtained a diploma in Civil Technology from Eastern Ontario Institute of Technology [EOIT]. EOIT is now Algonquin College. A summer job in 1967 with Energy Mines and Resources [EMR] saw Doug helping John Quincy OLS with field surveys on Indian Reserves in Ontario. This was Doug's introduction to land surveying.

Upon graduation from EOIT Doug joined the Legal Surveys Division of EMR as a survey technologist. He entered public service with the expectation of working in the survey records area of LSD. That changed within a few weeks and he soon found himself on a train to Punnichy Saskatchewan to help Ed Zeldenrust, SLS with survey field work on a number of Indian Reserves. This was the first time he had been “way out west” and immediately fell in love with the prairies.

For the next few years, as had been the policy since dirt was invented, LSD survey crews would leave Ottawa after the May long weekend and travel to all parts of Canada where surveys of Crown Canada Lands were needed. After returning in the fall, survey plans would be prepared from the field work done that summer. In the summer of 1969 Doug was with Tom Holt ALS, DLS, SLS in the Yukon and Alberta. In 1970 he was in Ontario with Bill Stretton, OLS and in 1971 and 1972 accompanied Gord Olsson DLS, ALS to Alberta.

In the fall of 1972 Doug and family were moved to Edmonton, Alberta as part of a new decentralization policy and he became part of the first LSD Regional Office in that province. On 21st April 1972, Doug received his first land survey commission – his Dominion Land Surveyor Commission - # 0932. On 10th December 1975, Alberta Land Survey Commission # 379 was presented to him.

In August of 1979, Ed Zeldenrust, the Regional Surveyor with EMR in Saskatchewan, was transferred to LSD headquarters in Ottawa and Doug took over the Saskatchewan Regional Office in down town Regina. On July 6th 1984 his third survey commission was received from the Saskatchewan Land Surveyors Association - # 235. Doug served on several SLSA committees and was President of the Association in 1995 – 1996.

EMR changed its name to Natural Resources Canada in the 1990's and Regional Offices were changed to Client Liaison Units. The Regina office peaked at twelve full time/casual employees during Doug's tenure. He retired from NRCan in November of 2003. By that time much of the production work involved with Canada Lands surveys had been transferred to the Edmonton office. Liaison with clients and investigating survey requests became the norm.

Doug spent 35 ½ years with the same federal government department. He assumed retirement status with the SLSA on January 15th 2005. He and his wife Elaine have two children - Stacey and Greg. In a very busy retirement, Doug continues to be the Editor of the SLSA's quarterly journal [The SLSA Corner Post], helps a friend with his farming operation in the spring and fall, and builds the odd piece of furniture in his shop.

(See also biography on Alberta Land Surveyors Association web site.)