After graduation, he attended St. Catherines Collegiate Institute and York County Model School in Toronto.

[2] Upon graduation, Chant became a civil servant in Ottawa, working as a temporary clerk in the office of the Auditor General.

[4] In 1913 he researched and wrote a paper for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada about an unusual event, a meteor procession, that took place that year.

Chant worked with mining executive and amateur astronomer David Alexander Dunlap to promote and develop plans for a world-class observatory for Canada.

After Dunlap's death, his widow donated land for the observatory and provided financial backing for the project.