Fort Frances Canadian Tire re-opened Monday about two and a half months after the closed following a break in and arson at the King’s Highway store.
Following a cheque presentation to Riverside Health Care’s Lights, Camera, Diagnosis campaign, owner John Malgo discussed the complicated issues surrounding the restoration process.
“It’s been a long haul,” Malgo said.
“The staff have done an absolutely amazing job, and not just our staff we had people from all over the province, all over Canada, it’s been a massive effort. I think by the time everything’s said and done it’s been over 66,000 man hours.”
The team also had help from local contractors who were vital to the effort as well, Malgo says.
“Help came from unsuspected places, whether that was Armstrong helping us move something when we didn’t have a loader, or Daryl’s team coming in and doing an amazing job keeping everyone safe, moving the snow. Mark Caron’s team coming in when we needed them, Jamie’s (Davis of JD Plumbing) coming in when we needed them sometimes on short notice. Some of the trades weren’t the best organized so we’d be in the middle of a job and need an electrician. I’d reach out to Mark and he would have someone here as if by magic. The team here locally, the team across Canada, help from the states, corporate support, it’s been amazing.”
Following the fire, the store had to be thoroughly cleaned with much of the stock removed from shelves and loaded into the many trailers on the lot but ultimately the store remains essentially the same as it was following last year’s renovation.
“It took us three months to put it back exactly how we did the project last year,” Malgo said.
“It’s only cleaner. Everything is back exactly where it was, but it’s cleaner.”
Malgo said he didn’t really understand the extent of the operation required to get the store back to habitability until things were underway.
“They even disconnected the HVAC units and changed, not just the filters, but the insulation inside of the HVAC units, like the scope blew my mind,” he said.
“There was stuff that they thought of that I would have never in a million years even considered. So this building has been gone over with a fine tooth comb. There were samples that got sent off daily to come back to ensure that the area that was cleaned and was up to spec like it blew my mind, the amount of work that went into this project.”
Malgo says response from the public to the re-opening has been enormously positive.
“[People are] ecstatic, from my standpoint, it’s nice to see how much the town missed us. You’re doing all this work and stuff and then you even before we’ve reopened, I might be shopping at Safeway or somewhere else in town and people say ‘keep up the good work, we can’t wait for you to get open.’ Those little bits of encouragement meant a lot,” Malgo said.
“I know my team felt the same as well. Some days it was a lot of long hours and the end wasn’t quite in sight. But we had supportive comments. People were messaging [Store manager Jordan Marsh] on social media, saying ‘keep up the good work,’ ‘can’t wait for you to open’ that kind of stuff. That little bit of support kind of made it all worthwhile.”
While Canadian Tire essentially looks the same as pre-fire, the Mark’s clothing store attached to Canadian Tire is under different ownership and is taking the opportunity to make some upgrades and refresh the store. Malgo said he thinks the store may be able to re-open next week.
