The Boeing-Canada A-213 Totem was a Canadian single-engine pusher monoplane flying boat intended for forestry and fisheries patrols as well as a light utility transport for the British Columbia coastline, where there are few flat places for runways, and waterways are plentiful.

[3] Indeed, previous Boeing flying boats used wood extensively in the hull, and the 40H-4 used welded steel tubes for its fuselage structure.

Instead, its tumblehome and heavy external ribs on the hull showed a strong Saunders-Roe influence, which is unsurprising given the Chief Engineer's background.

[4] The wings were built around two spruce spars, with ribs and leading and trailing edges in spot welded chromium-molybdenum alloy (chrome-moly) steel, all covered in fabric sealed and tightened with aircraft dope.

The high mounted elevators, fin and rudder were like the ribs, made up from spot welded chrome-moly steel, covered in fabric.

[5] The Totem was not the first aircraft to visit Banff though, as they were preceded by a Norman Thompson N.T.2B flying boat operated by the Rocky Mountain Aviation Transport Company between 1921 and 1924.

[5] Holland was notified in August that the Totem had been sold and to make haste back to Vancouver to transfer the airplane to the new owner.