Turnbull Excavating celebrates 40 years

Editor’s note: This is an update from a story written 15 years ago on Turnbull Excavating’s 25^th anniversary.

Estevan – Forty years ago, Ed Turnbull started out with a Bobcat and a dump truck, doing landscaping. From that humble beginning, and through several very tough years, Estevan-based Turnbull Excavating has grown substantially.  The company celebrated 40 years in business this spring.

Turnbull Excavating will be holding a celebration of its 40 years in business on Friday, April 10 at its shop located 110 Frontier Street, on the east side of Estevan. It’s just behind Finning Caterpillar, and under the large transmission lines. Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

It’s now a multi-generational business, with Tyson Turnbull running the operation now.

Ed Turnbull’s father used to run the local Imperial Oil bulk fuel operation in Estevan. Ed began working for the family firm after school, and stayed for eight years. However, the loss of a key contract in 1986 meant the small company had to downsize. He had been doing landscape work for a year to that point on the side. “There was more opportunity in the construction business than bulk petroleum,” he said. “Our hands were pretty much tied for expansion. When we lost the mine contract, we really only had work for one truck. It was more important for the other worker with a big family to support to keep his job.”

With that, Turnbull decided to strike out on his own in 1985.

“I’d been doing landscaping when I was working with him. When I left, I started on the construction side,” he recalled. Small contractors were the clientele.

Ed was originally partners with his late brother Garry for the first few years, before eventually buying him out. Garry stayed on for seven years after that, but later took a job in the oilpatch.

“We got on steady with ASL Paving. We did a lot for them, and learned a lot, about base work and compaction,” he added.

 

Rough start

The first few years were rough – hanging on by the skin of your teeth rough.

“Things were so tough in our first year. There was no snow in the first year.” That meant no snow clearing, and no winter revenue.

It made for a depressing winter. They desperately needed to do repairs on their equipment, but had no money to do it with. “That was about the only thing we could do – sweep the floor. We didn’t know what spring would be like,” said Turnbull.

Spring turned out to be a slow start. “What are we going to do?” Garry asked his brother.

“Get in the truck with me, we’re going for a ride,” Ed responded.

They drove around from construction site to construction site, offering their services. In a few hours, they had lined up two days of work. “After that, it took off,” he said.

“We were at the point where it was go to work or have to borrow money to operate, and there wasn’t a banker around that would lend to us, because we didn’t have any receivables.”

“We started with Bobcat and a dump truck. We expanded and bought a second Bobcat and a second dump truck. We needed more capacity on the loading end, and in 1987, we purchased a loader from Case Power and Equipment,” he explained.

 

There was one problem. They had no money. “Case had a program on new equipment where you could finance your down payment over six months,” noted Ed. It was a big purchase for the fledgling company – $54,000, and those initial payments were $2,400 a month.

They delivered the loader and the next day, the salesman came along to sign the agreement. However, Turnbull was driving truck for someone else at the time, and couldn’t get away from it, so the salesman had to hop in for the ride. “The finance agreement was signed at the corner of 2^nd Street and 8^th Avenue,” he recalled.

The loader was a big help. “At that point, I was able to dig basements, and do bigger jobs. It worked out quite well.”

 

To this point, they only had three staff, the two Turnbull brothers, and Terry Schwartz, employee No. 1. “He’s still with us today. He’s an operator/driver,” said Tyson.

 

Current long-time staffers include:

Terry Schwartz – 40 years

Glen Buettner- 37 years

Clarence Molyneaux- 27 years

Tyson Turnbull – 20 years

Brenda Turnbull – 16 years

Bryan Yergens – 15 years

 

 

Early projects

“We were fortunate enough to go into business at a time when the Rafferty Dam and Shand Power station were built.”

Those two projects, plus riprap work at the Mainprize causeway, kept them afloat.

The Mainprize work was brutally hard on their equipment, but it was welcome work. “We loaded rock from a farmer’s field, which was a really tough job. We’d work all week, and braced it up and weld iron into the floor [of the box] on the weekend,” Turnbull said.

Those three projects got them on their feet.

However, over the years, there never seems to have been a time when they were flush. “We’ve never had money in the bank. We’ve been trying to keep up with the times as we expanded. Once in a while, we’d buy a new piece [of equipment],” he said.

Turnbull Motor Sports

The lack of snow made the winters tough, but in 1989, there was a change. “It actually snowed that winter, and there was no one in the snowmobile repair business,” Ed said. He had four full time employees, including some talented, experienced repair people. They were put to work fixing snow machines.

He was offered a Polaris dealership, and initially turned them down, then reconsidered. That led to the birth of Turnbull Motor Sports, which would become an RV dealer. The shop they had at the time is where this newspaper is now printed today.

By 1995, he wanted out, but it took five years to sell Turnbull Motor Sports.

Backhoe and concrete

The next big step on the excavating side was a backhoe. There were several other companies in town doing similar dirt work, and they all had backhoes, giving them the ability to do sewer and water work. Developers wanted the same company to dig basements and install the sewer and waterlines, not just dig the basement.

“We were getting into trouble with basements, because we didn’t sell concrete. There was only one concrete operation in town,” said Ed.

That led to the 1990 purchase of a mobile mixer, essentially a small concrete plant on wheels, able to do small batches with minimal wastage.

“The customers like them,” he said. “They’re very convenient for home owners and remote jobs. You pour what you need, shut it off and go home, only charging for what he uses. They work quite well for small jobs.”

 

Expansion

At this stage, they started getting into bigger equipment, adding an excavator. The fleet has since grown to include numerous equipment. They are now up over 100 units.

They are now in their seventh shop, having moved into their current home on the east side of Estevan 15 years ago. The east side of Estevan was better positioned for much of their hauling, avoiding having to drive through the downtown with semis. “We’re really on the wrong side of town,” Ed said, back in 2011, of their west-side location.

The oilpatch has become a part of their business. “Mostly sand and gravel, site and lease cleanups,” Ed said, adding they also do some contaminated soil hauling.

Around 2011, Turnbull Excavating completed their Certificate of Recognition (COR).

The big oil downturn of late 2014 hurt, however, as the Bakken Boom ended. “Since the boom, it’s been crawling back above water,’ Ed said.

Racing

If there’s one fixture at the Estevan Motor Speedway, it’s the Turnbull name. Ed, and then his sons Tyson and Aaron, have all spent many years behind the wheels of race cars, and each have accrued a fair bit of time in the winners circle. The company has also been a long-time supporter of racing in Estevan.

 

Recent years

In more recent years, the company began the transition to the next generation of management.

Tyson started working for the company right out of high school, starting as a skidsteer operator.

Tyson remained with the company. Six years ago, Tyson took the ownership stake in the company, beginning buying out his father. Ed spends some time down south in the winter, but still watches the crusher from time to time and is often around the shop.

Ed noted Tyson’s been “moving it forward.”

Katy, Tyson’s wife, said, “Ed is still very much apart of the company. Tyson runs the day-to-day operations and over sees all the jobs, goes to the meetings for jobs, quotes, etc. He’s even able to get in equipment or run a dump truck every now and then, which is really his favorite pastime.”

Katy added, “It’s also nice that we know Ed isn’t going anywhere, because he has decades of knowledge that will always be needed.”

The company has grown substantially. In the summer and fall of 2025, the company took on one of its biggest projects, acting as the lead subcontractor doing the aggregate supply that year for the new SaskPower Tableland Switchyard, west of Estevan, a project whose value is roughly two-thirds of a billion dollars. The Turnbulls called in every available truck in the area to haul aggregate to the site.

Turnbull Excavating’s fleet has grown to over 100 units, from concrete mixers to dirt moving equipment to trucks. They operate the only CSA-rated redi-mix plant in the Estevan area. The company now has two crusher spreads. And Tyson said they expect delivery of their first concert pumper truck soon. It’s a brand-new Sany unit, with a 32 metre reach. “We’ll be able to do the complete concrete job,” Tyson said. That includes larger shop floors.

Ed noted that having their own pumper means they will no longer have to rely on someone else’s timetable.

One project Ed is particularly proud of is the downtown revitalization project for the City of Estevan. They worked under ASL Paving and did most of the work on the two year project.

“Thank you to our customers and employees” Ed and Tyson said in conclusion.