In an editorial yesterday, I indicated that after weeks of trying, we had failed to get any response from Canadian Tire about what’s going on with the Fort Frances store that was closed due to a fire on Dec. 18, 2025.
As fate would have it, the Times received a reply about an hour after yesterday’s paper was put to bed from a communications manager at Canadian Tire head office.
“The store is temporarily closed while we complete required cleaning, safety checks, and remediation work,” the company said.
“Inventory is being assessed and restored as appropriate. We are following all proper protocols and expect to reopen by the end of February.”
It’s not much that we didn’t already know, but now we have a ballpark answer that pretty much aligns with what we expected (possibly a little earlier than our educated guess, if it meets that deadline).
We stand by our editorial comment that reaching out earlier with a more fulsome answer and timeline for reopening could have helped Canadian Tire magnify its reputation as a member of our close-knit business community.
But we also appreciate the company’s response (although it came three weeks after the request was made) and are hopeful that we will see the store up and running on the company’s timeline.
