I have been assuming that each square is 6 miles X 6 miles.  This is a township in Alberta and the alignment coincides with longitude and latitude.  It is known locally as Legal Subdivisions (LSD's).  Universally this system is known as the Dominion Land Survey (DLS)

The system is of undeniable value as it allows one to pinpoint accurately the location of a parcel of land as small as 10 acres anywhere on the Dominion Grid.  Maps use a system of latitude and longitude to specify location.  Lines of latitude or parallels are evenly spaced circles running parallel to the equator.  Parallels are identified as being a certain number of degrees north or south of the equator.  Lines of longitude, or meridians are drawn so that they converge at the north and south poles of the globe.  The meridian lines are also indicated in degrees, with the line that passes through Greenwich near London England, labeled O degrees.  Meridian lines to the east of this line are labeled in degrees east longitude up to 180 degrees; Meridian lines to the west of the 0 degree line are labeled in degrees west longitude, also up to 180 degrees.  The 180 degree line passes through the Fiji Islands in the Pacific Ocean and is the International Date Line.

The grid consists of townships running east and west, and ranges running north and south.  The term township in this context refers to the strip of land between consecutive township lines which are approximately six miles apart.  Townships are numbered 1, 2, 3, and so on to the north.  Hence township 1 refers to the 6 mile strip of land that runs east and west and sits on the 49th parallel; township 2 is the 6 mile strip of land immediately north of township 1 and so on. 

Similarly, range refers to the north – south running strip of land between consecutive range lines which were also placed 6 miles apart.  The system for numbering ranges works this way.  The range immediately to the west of any meridian is range 1; the range to the west of range 1 is range 2, the range to the west of range 2 is range 3 and so on until you reach the next meridian; to the west of it, of course, the range numbers begin again at 1. 

The range and township lines present a grid of land packages which are almost square and approx 6 miles on each side.  These are the dimensions I have been assuming. 

At this point some confusion is likely to arise because each of these parcels of land is known as a “Township”.  It is possible to identify areas significantly smaller than a township within this same grid system.  A township is divided into “Sections” each more or less 1 mile square and containing about 640 acres.  Typically there are 36 sections to a township.  So it is possible that each of the squares on the maps provided are 1 mile by 1 mile.

These sections are further divided into quarter sections.  There are of course 4 to a section.  Each quarter is about 160 acres and is ½ mile by ½ mile.  So it is possible that each of the squares on the map is this dimension.

The quarter sections can be further broken down further into legal subdivisions of 40 acres each or ¼ mile by ¼ mile.

So that is my take, I could be completely wrong and it could be that the Canadian government has developed a new metric system that makes no sense and I have wasted your time.  However, the next time you are talking to a farmer or a battle weary patch hound from Alberta, you will be able to determine where he is lost anywhere on the planet within about 660 feet of his last beer.