History

Cansel was founded in 1966, as Canadian Survey Equipment Ltd., by Stan Jackson and Albert Weiss. With no customers and few contracts in the Vancouver market, they rented a shop in Burnaby, BC, bought a lathe for $2,000 and first made their mark in the business by repairing equipment faster than anyone else. The young company managed to generate about $100 in total revenues in its first month of business.

Cansel expanded quickly from only a repair shop to a distributor of survey equipment. In 1978, Cansel began its expansion beyond BC by opening an office in Calgary, then a year later in Edmonton. In the early 1980s, Cansel expanded operations rapidly in Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. A maritime location was added in the 1990s, making Cansel a true coast-to-coast operation.

Cansel is now the largest distributor of land-based positioning systems in North America and a market leader, with nine locations across Canada and over 100 employees. The company name was legally changed to Cansel Survey Equipment Inc. in 2002.