Greater Toronto's Top Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 94
94
( 2025 )
SPONSOR CONTENT
Innovation and core values carry LEA into the future
V
ictoria Tousaw joined
Markham, Ont.-based
LEA Consulting Ltd. in
2021 as a biologist after
hearing about the job from a former colleague who worked there.
Four years later, she is a biologist
and geographic information
systems (GIS) specialist working
remotely from Stratford, Ont.
“My friend who was working at
LEA told me they were hiring so
I applied, and the rest is history,”
Tousaw says. “I work a split role.
I work about 70 per cent as a
biologist and the other 30 per cent
I do GIS work.”
LEA is a planning and
engineering consulting firm that
specializes in transportation
infrastructure, such as highways,
bridges and subways. The company also does planning, design
and environmental work. The firm
is 100 per cent employee-owned,
with 150 employees in the Greater
Toronto Area.
“LEA competes in the industry
with the big firms, but it has a
culture created over the past
70 years of a firm that is small
and friendly with a family
environment,” says president
Terry Wallace. “Employee
ownership and hands-on
executives are a huge factor in us
creating a place of work where our
employees thrive. Client service
and satisfaction is the other
hallmark defining LEA. We do
environmental work as well and
it’s one of the most active sectors
in the engineering industry these
days.”
Tousaw is one of many working
remotely. She works in the
fisheries field assessing fish and
fish habitats before a construction
project starts, documenting any
sensitive areas. One example
where her team really made an
impact, she notes, was the replacement of the Big Creek Bridge in
Long Point, Ont., which is along a
spit of sand on the north shore of
Lake Erie.
“There’s a lot of species at risk
in that area, and we did daily
monitoring while they were
constructing the bridge ensuring
the species were out of the way,”
Tousaw says. “We made sure none
were harmed. Also, because of the
bridge impacts, there’s a requirement for compensation habitat
construction. We oversaw that to
increase the habitat available for
species at risk.”
“Employee ownership and
hands-on executives are a
huge factor in us creating
a place of work where our
employees thrive.”
— Terry Wallace
President
LEA Consulting gives back to the local community through charity and volunteer work, championing causes
like hunger and food insecurity.
As well, she helps ensure
compliance with environmental
legislation. Interwoven is her GIS
role.
“We create maps and figures for
our reports,” says Tousaw. “Then,
as a GIS specialist, I help other
teams, for example transportation
or civil teams, to do different
geospatial analyses for their
projects.”
Wallace keeps his eye on the
big picture. “What I enjoy most is
dealing with people, solving problems and planning for the future,”
he says. “Those three things go
hand-in-hand in ensuring the next
generation is interested and invested in taking over and succeeding
the older generation. Otherwise,
the firm will cease to exist.
