First Person: The similarities between land surveying and journalism

It was 30 degrees outside, and I was trudging through the bush, fighting off mosquitoes and flies, dressed in blue jeans, a t-shirt and steel-toed work boots. Jeremy Fleguel, my dad, and I were just north of Apsley, Ont. land surveying on a project that could not have gone worse.

Surveying is a lot like journalism. It’s a new story every day, often a new puzzle to solve and the quality of your work is of utmost importance. Someone who isn’t a practicing surveyor likely has no idea what they do and only sees the finished product. Much like in the news world.

Everything is about evidence as a surveyor. Theoretically, there are physical iron bars at nearly every corner or bend in property in the country.

Those bars often go missing. Most people don’t even know they exist, yet a surveyor’s day is doomed to be ruined when one disappears.

After traversing 1000-feet deep into the property, my dad and I arrived at the corner we had been searching for. But there was no iron bar.

Surveying isn’t as simple as walking to a destination. Surveyors use instruments that measure distance using reflective surfaces, and the instrument must know where it is.

Ideally, surveyors start the job with at least one known point, normally an iron bar identified on a survey plan. The instrument is set up on another point, which is usually a nail set by the surveyor and the distance between the two points is measured.

The surveyor will repeat this process throughout the property, setting points ahead and measuring the angle and distance.

That day, we had just done that for most of the day. We were exhausted from carrying equipment and having our blood drained by the various insects of early summer in Ontario. When we found no evidence on the northeast back corner, my dad let off a string of expletives.

“It never goes the way you think it’s going to go. Something always goes wrong,” said my dad. “If you’ve had a perfect day, you probably missed something.”

We had two options. We could calculate the bar’s location based on sketchy evidence we collected, or we could go a thousand feet further down the line to make our calculation tighter.

Some surveyors will choose the easy option because it saves time and money. If you calculate the bar and set it as is, you can cool off and move on to another job.

However, that solution pushes the problem further down the line. When the next surveyor finds a discrepancy, they have to decide whether to lose money or keep the property fabric tight.

Decisions are increasingly favouring expediency over quality, especially at larger companies.

This goes entirely against what my dad and I were taught. He learned from my late grandfather, Jack Fleguel.

“Don’t become a surveyor if you’re trying to get rich,” my grandfather often said.

He did well with his business, but he did not focus on his profit margins for one day.

Survey companies are usually owned by surveyors, but newspapers are often owned by wealthy business people. This leads them to run a newspaper like they would any other company.

Like a complicated survey job, sometimes the right option is to take an extra day and lose some profit to make sure you’re doing the job properly.

When that nightmare job in Apsley was over in done with, we felt great about ourselves as we sat exhausted and sweaty back in the light grey Tacoma work truck. Putting in the extra effort can be extremely satisfying.

I get the same feeling while reporting, spending extra time on one great story and doing a thorough job feels better than pumping out four stories in a week.

Deadlines and timelines are important, but so is enjoying the piece you write.