When the British Columbia-Alberta Boundary Act was amended in 1932, the preamble explained the context:

WHEREAS by Order in Council P.C. 337, approved on the eighteenth day of February, 1913, an invitation was extended by the Government of the Dominion of Canada to the Governments of the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia to participate in the joint survey of the boundary line between the Province of Alberta and the Province of British Columbia; And whereas the said invitation was accepted by the Government of the Province of Alberta by Order in Council No. 534-13, approved on the sixteenth day of June, 1913, and by the Government of the Province of British Columbia by Order in Council No. 812, approved on the second day of June, 1913; And whereas by Order in Council approved on the eleventh day of July, 1913, J. N. Wallace, D.L.S., was appointed Boundary Commissioner to represent the Dominion on the joint survey of the boundary line, and whereas by Order in Council, approved on the twentieth day of September, 1915, R. W. Cautley, D.L.S., was appointed Boundary Commissioner to represent the Dominion in the place of the said J. N. Wallace; And whereas A. 0. Wheeler, B.C.L.S., as Commissioner for the Province of British Columbia, with the said J. N. Wallace, as Commissioner for the Dominion up to the twentieth day of September, 1915, and the said R. W. Cautley, as Commissioner for the Province of Alberta and, after the twentieth day of September, 1915, for the Dominion as well, did subsequently enter upon the work of the joint survey of the said boundary line and did complete the same in or about the year 1924 from the International Boundary on the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, northerly to a point on the one hundred and twentieth meridian of west longitude in or about latitude north fifty-seven degrees, twenty-six minutes, and forty and twenty-five one hundredths seconds.

— Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Act (1932; 22-23 George V., Chap. 5)

British Columbia commissioner Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] explained the necessity of the survey:

Of late years the influx of settlement into the Province of British Columbia and the rapid development of its vast natural resources have brought to the front the necessity for the delimitation of the boundary-line between this Province and the Province of Alberta.

The instructions received from the Surveyor-General of Dominion Lands set forth the following premises: …

(5) The portions of the boundary requiring first attention are: (a) The Crowsnest Pass, owing to the proximity of mining properties; (b) the Vermillion Pass, owing to the construction of the motor-road from Banff to Windermere; (c) the Howse Pass, owing to the proximity of timber claims; (d) the Kicking Horse Pass, Simpson Pass, and White man Pass, owing to their lying within or adjacent to populated areas; (e) the Athabasca Pass, which may possibly become a railway route; (f) the South Kootenay, the North Kootenay, North Fork, and Kananaskis Passes; (g) the Moose Pass, which may become of importance as a feasible route to the north via the Smoky River; and (h) the Robson Pass, which is part of the boundary of Mount Robson Park and is one of the most striking scenic centres of the mountain regions.

— Wheeler 1913

Map sheets 26 to 39, published in 1924, cover the boundary from Athabasca Pass to Intersection Mountain.