DST began as a branch office of Dominion Soil Investigation, an Ontario based geotechnical engineering firm established in Toronto in 1956 by Aron Bonca, a self-made entrepreneur who started his career as a driller. In 1971 a Thunder Bay branch was opened, which eventually grew to be the firm's most successful branch. In 1993 the Thunder Bay office was purchased by Mike Fabius and renamed DST Consulting Engineers. Other DST offices have since been opened in Ottawa (1994), Sudbury (1995) and finally Kenora (2001).