Soaring Ambitions: A Rural Newfoundland & Labrador Civil Engineering Firm Harnesses Drones to Foster Young Talent

As a civil engineering firm, using innovative drone and digital mapping technologies, Aguathuna Drafting and Consulting (ADC) in Western Newfoundland & Labrador, started out with only one very simple piece of equipment — a pencil.

“Everything just started from basically us using a pencil and developing our business plan. And with our loan, we took that pencil, and we turned it into drone equipment, surveying equipment, computers and to a staff of ten,” said Jamie Goosney, the Co-Owner and manager of ADC.

While experience and planning set the business off on a good path, Jamie also credits following their interests and being open to opportunities for propelling the business to where it is now.

“I think our strength is the fact that we are open-minded, that we're not afraid to take on challenges,” Jamie said.

Jamie and his wife, business partner, Denise Snow-Goosney, had been working all over North America and decided they wanted to return home to the Stephenville area.

Denise was on the board of a local church that was facing erosion problems. Jamie and Denise volunteered to lend Jamie’s engineering background to the cause and found their first opportunity to use drones in a professional application.

When Jamie was having trouble getting the detailed data he needed, he decided to buy his first small drone and use photogrammetry to extract 3D information from photographs. This allowed him to map out the whole area and design a stone cap to solve the problem.

From there, they were able to pursue a new process that Jamie had once seen at a seminar, where two professors at McGill University had used drones to identify waterline breaks around Montreal over two years.

"If an underground water line would break, then it would change the temperatures around it in the soil, and you should see it on the surface," Jamie said.

It turned a process that would otherwise take days, into simply a matter of hours.

“Our passion was basically helping out with water issues that are developing because of climate change, for local communities," Jamie said.

They began working more and continued saying yes to worthy causes and helping where they could. It was while working on a project to help with the homeless youth in Stephenville, that Jamie and Denise decided to step up the business. The business had started snowballing, and they were hiring more people to help.

“It was around that time that we were saying, ‘well this is getting serious, we need to talk to somebody,’ and that's when we decided — on advice from our friend — to go and talk to CBDC,” Jamie said.

They went into the Community Business Development Corporation (CBDC) Long Range in Stephenville and received much more than just a loan.

“CBDC was very vital to our existence, actually,” Denise said. “Just being able to reach out to them any time we need assistance or advice really meant a lot and still means a lot today.”

Aside from helping with their business plan, training, and the loan, the Goosney’s felt their local CBDC was truly invested in the success of their business.

“We felt like we were part of CBDC,” Jamie said. “I think that's the big difference between CBDC and other institutions.”

Because of this relationship, Aguathuna Drafting and Consulting has gone on to unexpected opportunities and growing a large team. Even as an Indigenous-owned company, they did not set out to hire anyone other than the best candidates, which ended up being predominately Indigenous, female, and young.

Jamie suspects they may have the youngest engineering team in western Newfoundland & Labrador, and potentially all of Newfoundland & Labrador.

“We're proud of the fact that we have a young staff,” Jamie said. “We're proud of that because they are learning and there are times now where we have had staff here for only a year and they are showing me things, which is refreshing. Which you want, because these are the people that will take over the business at some point.”