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Authority record
Corporate body

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) was created on April 1, 2005 when the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development (RWED) split to create ENR and the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI). RWED transferred the responsibilities of environmental protection, energy management, wildlife management and forest management to the newly formed ENR.

Four divisions of the Department functioned with few changes from 2005-2011. These divisions included Corporate Management, Environment, Forest Management and Wildlife. In addition, ENR is responsible for a secretariat function to assist with the implementation of the NWT Protected Areas Strategy (PAS) in partnership with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) and Aboriginal, environmental and industry organizations.

Corporate Management’s functions include the policy, legislation and communications (PLC) unit and corporate shared services, which includes finance and administration, informatics, and the NWT Geomatics Centre.
Environment division’s functions include program management, environmental protection and energy management (working with Arctic Energy Alliance). Forest Management division’s functions include program management, fire suppression and forest resources. Wildlife Management division’s functions include wildlife management and protected areas until 2010-2011 when Corporate Management hived off the responsibility for Land and Water (and later environmental assessment and monitoring), later creating it as its own division in preparation for devolution of responsibilities from the federal government on April 1, 2014.

Corporate body

The federal Department of the Interior was established on May 3, 1873, absorbing some of the functions of the former Department of the Secretary of State for the Provinces. The department was established to administer and develop the newly acquired territories in the West. It included a Surveys Branch, which was responsible for surveying and mapping and in 1922 a Northwest Territories and Yukon Branch was organized to administer the northern territories. The Surveys Branch was renamed the Technical Branch in 1883, and in 1890 the Topographical Surveys Branch. On June 23, 1936, the Department of the Interior amalgamated with the Department of Mines and the Department of Immigration and Colonization to form a new Department of Mines and Resources.

Corporate body

The federal Department of Mines and Resources was established on June 23, 1936 with the amalgamation of the Department of Mines, Department of the Interior, and the Department of Immigration and Colonization. The new department was divided into five branches: Mines and Geology; Lands, Parks, and Forests; Indian Affairs; Immigration; and Surveys and Engineering. In 1950, the name was changed to the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys with some of the department's functions absorbed by the newly created Department of Resources and Development.

Russell, John
Person

John Russell, known as Jack, was born in Digby, Nova Scotia, June 28, 1886. By 1910, he established a homestead in Hope, British Columbia but abandoned homesteading to become a surveyor. Between 1914 and 1930, he worked as a Dominion Land Surveyor, surveying northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. In the early 1930s, Russell returned to Nova Scotia and worked for the Highways Department doing road surveys. He married twice but had no children. It is believed he died in 1962.

Merrill, Curtis
Person

Curtis Leroy Merrill was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, on April 20, 1917. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelor of Arts in Geology, and was a pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Merrill took part in two Canadian Expeditions to the Arctic Islands, and was a member of the 1949 Foxe Basin Expedition.

In 1952, Merrill began working for the Defense Research Board. In 1954, he was seconded to the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources to head a survey team which was sent to the Mackenzie Delta to find a location suitable for a new town site to replace Aklavik. The survey crew commenced work in March 1954 and focused their efforts upon three possible locations, the Husky site located at Husky Channel, East 3 and East 4. East 3, which was renamed Inuvik in 1957, was eventually chosen as the location of the new town site. Merrill led the project until 1956 when he was appointed District Administrator of the Mackenzie District and was transferred to Fort Smith. Merrill was transferred to Ottawa in 1963.

Curtis married Mary and they had six children: David, Bill, Robert (Bob), Greg, and Janice. After being transferred to Ottawa, the family lived near Wakefield, Quebec, and then along the Gatineau River. Curtis Merrill retired from the federal government in the late 1970s. In the mid to late 1990s, Curtis and Mary moved to Deep River, Ontario. Curtis Merrill died on September 22, 2010.

Corporate body

On January 20, 1950 the federal Department of Mines and Resources was dissolved and three new departments were created: Resources and Development; Citizenship and Immigration; and the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys. The name changed again on October 19, 1966 to the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources.

Carroll, John
Person

John Carroll was an engineer who surveyed the north in 1938 to establish astronomical fixes and set survey monuments to aerial photographic mapping. Among the sites he visited was Franklin's winter camp at Fort Enterprise.

Anderson-Thomson, John
Person

John Anderson Thomson was born on April 30, 1900 in Glengairn, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He served in the Royal Flying Corps. during World War I, joining in 1917 at the age of 16. After being wounded and spending time in recovery, John immigrated to Canada in 1920, settling in Unity, Saskatchewan. He spent the next several years farming sheep and teaching school. In 1926, John returned to Scotland and married Janet Paterson, from Braemar, who had been born June 18, 1902. The Thomsons returned to Saskatchewan after their marriage. In the 1930s, John attended the University of Saskatchewan and in 1934 was a student assistant with the Geological Survey of Canada in the Arctic. In 1936, he graduated with a degree in geological engineering. John worked at the De Santis Gold Mine in Timmins, Ontario from 1937 to 1941 as geologist, mine engineer, and mine superintendent. From 1941 to 1942 he was Chief Engineer at Delnite Gold Mine, also in Timmins.
John served as an RCAF navigation instructor in Manitoba during WWII, from 1942 to 1944. On April 6, 1944, while still in uniform, he arrived in the north, employed by the General Engineering Company of Canada as a field engineer and geologist. Janet followed soon after. General Engineering had a contract to evaluate the mining properties of Yellowknife Gold Mines and Yellowknife Bear Mines. By 1946, General Engineering was no longer active in Yellowknife, but John decided to stay, gaining a contract with Negus Mines. Together with J. A. Buchanan, Dominion Land Surveyor (DLS) of Edmonton, he formed Thomson & Buchanan Engineers, Geologists and Surveyors. John articled under Buchanan and earned his own DLS commission in 1956. John also filled in as Mine Superintendent at Negus in 1949 when the regular superintendent was on leave.
John’s surveying and geological investigation work took him all over the Northwest Territories and what became Nunavut, to mining claims, communities, and larger centres such as Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Hay River, Iqaluit, and Yellowknife. His work included water and sewer main layouts, roads, power line rights-of-way, lot and block surveys, site certificates, legal mineral claim surveys, and surveys for mining companies. John undertook many significant surveys over the years, including surveying the power line from the Discovery Mine to Bluefish Hydro, laying out the route of the Mackenzie Highway proposed by the Federal Government in 1947 and suggesting a better route, doing DEW line surveys and laying out airstrips in 1954, finding river crossings for a pipeline from Alaska to Alberta in 1969 (not constructed), surveying a pipeline from Norman Wells to Zama pipeline in 1979, and surveying and investigating the Slave River as part of a hydro feasibility study.
When John broke his knee-cap in the spring of 1958 and was unable to do fieldwork for the rest of the season, he took the opportunity to teach geology and surveying at the University of Saskatchewan. From 1958 to 1966, John spent summers doing field work in the north and winters teaching in Saskatoon and drafting plans. This winter/summer transition led to the Anderson-Thomson being the first travellers on the unfinished highway between Fort Providence and Yellowknife when they left too late in the season to bring their vehicle back to Yellowknife by ice road.
John Anderson-Thomson’s business was run under the banner of “Thomson and Buchanan” for a number of years, then as “John Anderson-Thomson”, and “John Anderson-Thomson Engineering & Surveying Ltd.” as of April 30, 1976. After working in cooperation with Underwood McLellan Associates, out of Edmonton, for a few years in the late 1970s, John Anderson-Thomson officially sold his business to them as of December 31, 1981 and retired from official practice in 1982, although he remained on retainer as a consultant. The name of the Yellowknife business became Thomson Underwood McLellan Surveys Ltd.
John was involved with a number of organizations and had many interests outside of his business. The Yellowknife Branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy was established at the Anderson-Thomson house in 1945. John was also a member of the Saskatchewan Land Surveyors’ Association, Canadian Institute of Surveying, Association of Professional Engineers of Saskatchewan, and Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of the NWT. John received a Canadian Engineers’ Gold Medal Award from the Canadian Association of Professional Engineers in 1983.
In 1952, John assumed command of the No. 7 Company Canadian Rangers, on the request of the Governor General, Lord Alexander of Tunis. The Rangers participated in Exercise Bulldog III, a scenario to defend Yellowknife, in 1954, with great success. In 1954, he was appointed as Magistrate and Justice of the Peace, a position he held for the next 22 years. He earned himself the reputation of being a “hanging judge”, but received a special award from the RCMP at the end of his service. In 1959, John was invited to join the Royal Commission to determine the route for the Great Slave Lake railway from Pine Point to the current end of steel in Alberta. One of three commissioners, his minority report in favour of the western route, managed to convince Prime Minister Diefenbaker.
John also had a founding role in the layout of the Yellowknife Golf Course in 1947 and was a member for several years. He was also enjoyed shooting and curling.
Janet Anderson-Thomson was also influential, assisting John in his work, designing the NWT tartan, and accompanying the junior and senior choirs at Holy Trinity Anglican Church. Avid supporters of the NWT Pipe Band, the Anderson-Thomsons were given honourary membership in 1979. John and Janet were also joint recipients of the Commissioner’s Award for public service in the NWT in 1975.
Janet Anderson-Thomson died 1983. John passed away two years later on September 15, 1985 at his daughter’s home in Ontario. Their two daughters, Mary and Myrtle were each already married and had families of their own in Ontario.