In Ryan Thornley’s current position as owner and operator of RLT Design, Construction & Development he has found a place where the lessons learned from starting at the bottom and working through various positions (mostly in the ICI construction industry) up to running and overseeing job sites that allowed him to be a part of Canadian History, can be applied to a new way of doing things based on the traditions of old.

After parting ways with Covertite Ryan spent some time figuring out what to do and how to do it and by taking a step back from being the “man in charge” he was able to start looking into how to make his dream of developing properties a reality. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about it before but that it had seemed more like a retirement plan than a career.

That part of the story starts more recently in 2020 while continuing a career as a ICI roofer. At this time the plan was to go back to school and get the missing certification for transfer into an office position at a general contracting company. As enjoyable as the return to school in the winter of 2021 had been, it reiterated Mr. Thornley wasn’t a fan of standardized learning. It also proved to him that he was going to be a lifelong learner; taking classes as the need and desire arose. Another key piece of information he was lucky enough to glimpse from his term back at Algonquin College was the fact that there was a way to become a certified designer without obtaining an architectural degree. This led him to participate in the BCIN program and achieve the ability to design and inspect housing units, at this time he only registered for the design ability because he wanted to spend his time concentrating on figuring out new ways to reduce construction cost, time to build and efficiency.

Earlier on in his career, first as a certified journeyperson and later as a site supervisor, he had some tough lessons to learn about management style. As a journeyperson it was his job to help train apprentices while conducting a variety of duties from the installation of materials to setting up job sites and conducting safety talks. Furthermore as a foreman and supervisor his duties increased to include safety, documentation, chair meetings, conduct investigations and manage resources such as material and labor. By expecting results, rewarding hard work and treating knowledge as something to be shared he was able to create effective, efficient and generally pleasant work environments that individuals wanted to be a part of.

Finally in one of his briefest but most memorable roles as an instructor he had the challenge of designing and creating a program for those who were interested in obtaining their Interprovincial Certification as a Roofer. As a trade this is actually quite complicated and intricate due to the nature of waterproofing vs damp proofing and air/vapor barriers. Not only are there many types of membranes to choose from but there are also environmental, thermal and combustibility issues that you need to be aware of as well. As far as he was last able to discern, the program was still being used, updated he would hope..…it has been nearly a decade since the original was written.

It is Ryan’s dream to one day have an animal reserve or sanctuary but he is ecstatic to be challenged by and a part of solving the current issues facing housing today.