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Weekly UpdatesThunder Bay Testing and Engineering Ltd. (TBT Engineering) is widening its scope of services as a multi-disciplinary civil engineering firm.
To TBT Engineering president Rob Frenette, if their established engineering survey department represents the company's cornerstone, the new legal survey division is the next logical stepping stone.
Launched and certified in 2008, TBT Surveyors Inc. is a subsidiary of TBT Engineering,(Thunder Bay Test and Engineering Ltd.) provides a new service of land surveying services for both the public and private sectors in northwestern Ontario. Initiated in April 2008, the new spinoff firm received its Certificate of Authorization from the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors in June.
Frenette said the firm has always sought ways to diversify its core business. Their staff of 40 professional and technical staff have conducted geotechnical engineering, material testing and inspection consulting work across northwestern Ontario for 41 years.
The new department handles severances, boundary retracements, surveyors' real property reports, easements, highway right-of-ways, mining claims, and just about any kind of private or Crown land registry reporting work. With a history of working with clients, mostly in the institutional (government), commercial and industrial sectors, the new department enhances their reach into residential development. Not only was it an opportunity to deliver a greater package of services, but also to generate some much-needed competition in northwestern Ontario.
Once there were four private practices in Thunder Bay offering legal survey services. But mergers and acquisitions have reduced it to one Toronto-based firm. There was a similar monopoly, by another company, covering the rest of the region.
"We thought we'd stir it up a bit and put a third name in the mix," said Frenette.
"Whenever you see a business opportunity where there's a sole service provider, you have to question the viability. Is there a reason why there's no competition? Is there not enough work?"
A key linchpin was recruiting respected surveyor Dave Kovacs from the Ministry of Transportation last year and installing him as manager of legal surveys in the Surveys and Plans section. Considering TBT has had to subcontract out their legal survey work for subdivision projects, it just made sense to have some in-house capacity.
They convinced Kovacs, a licensed land surveyor in the MTO's geomatics division in Thunder Bay to make the switch. He heads up a department of four new employees, supplemented by six others from TBTs engineering survey department. The parent company's already close relationship with the MTO--their single largest client--has grown even tighter. A big plum was landing a two-year legal and engineering surveys retainment assignment last summer from MTO, geared to handling engineering-related assignments on the ministry's small value projects.
On the web: www.tbte.ca
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