A long-time Barrie butcher has shut his doors and declared bankruptcy. He says it’s because of skyrocketing hydro costs.
On Monday, after 32 years, Lawrence Vindum closed The Butcher Shop for good. He was a month behind on rent and his last hydro bill topped in at $2,956.
“I had three employees and it really makes me sick inside that they’re out of work right before Christmas,” he says.
“Barrie MPP Anne Hoggarth and other Liberals are questioning his motives.
“There may be good reason for closing his business, but I do not think it’s Premier Wynne’s problem,” she says.”
Keee-rap.
Liberal mindset in one sentence.
I don’t know how a small butcher shop with 3 employees can have an $800 power bill let alone $2956. OK, I do know, it’s socialism.
damn near a 3000 dollar hydro bill. i will bet his shop was no more than 1200 sq feet in size. someone out there tell me just what is right, moral, rational about driving people out of business for your f ing ideology.
There was a pretty much identical story in Owen Sound a few months ago. Power bill skyrocketed due to refrigeration and freezer costs. I wonder how many altogether.
It’s not just the amount of power consumed, there is the delivery charge, meter reading charge (in which no one actually comes and reads the meter they estimate what you use based on previous readings) and a myriad of other nickel and dime fees.
This has got to stop. I have always been a peaceful man, but I am beginning to think that maybe revolution is the way to go.
The best part is that as more customers disappear, the rates for everybody else will have to go up to maintain the infrastructure.
Many utilities will let a business go for 90 days before pulling the plug…so to speak. The arrears notice at 1:10 (dated August) for the past due of $3k fits the scenario. This guy wasn’t paying his rent or utilities…it would seem as though the business had been swirling the bowl for sometime. Probably due more to the absence of suckers who go out of their way to pay $8 for ground chuck than anything else.
After 32 years I doubt very much that this butcher was an incompetent business man.
Socialism combined with the AGW fraud under the Liberals is slowly but surely killing free enterprise of all sorts in Ontario. Sadly, it probably won’t be much different under the Red Tory Brown, who loves carbon taxes.
I love hearing the hard luck Ontario stories, you got what you voted for! Same thing is happening in Alberta, a buddy of mine voted NDP, now he is complainting about his daughter living back in his basement after being laid off from a oil company.
We live in Barrie about a mile northwest of this butcher shop, located in a strip plaza on Cundles about 200 yards east of St. Vincent …spitting distance from Barrie Police HQ. He’s been our butcher since we moved to Barrie in 2005 … terrific, high quality, lean/well-trimmed meats and friendly, knowledgeable service. The store is perhaps 1000 sq. ft. in size, but of course it’s full of refrigeration units keeping the meats cool. Now we are left with the only meat sources in Barrie (with a population of about 140,000) being chain supermarkets (whose steaks ALWAYS feel like we’re chewing on a steel-belted radial tire), 2 Walmarts (tip > never buy your meat from Walmart) and a Costco (decent quality and price IF you can handle a 50-gallon drum of ground beef or a metric tonne of steaks). Similar small biz closings are just around the corner when Ontario’s $15/hr minimum wage hits in January. Ontario is economically doomed everywhere outside of Ottawa and Toronto, where obese governments are headquartered and vastly over-staffed by overpaid unionized government “workers”.
Ontario voted for the first Trudeau, and the second. Ontario voted for the first NEP, and the second. If I could live the rest of my life without suffering the cupidity of Ontario ever again, I would be happy. But, the west is too stupid to separate, or even threaten.
This butcher lives in Libtario, won’t leave, so no sympathy. The only reason the torstar would put a negative spin on it, would be to get bigger socialists elected instead of Wynne. I guess they are hoping Bob Rae will come back.
It would be helpful to have some facts about the bill in question. How many kilowatt hours were used that month and what are the major power loads in his shop. Also, what was the actual power rate and the peak load it was based on. I know power is expense in Ontario but this story seems a little odd without knowing more about his business.
Here … let me provide the official Ontario Govt. response …
“Good. Meat is murder.” “Our citizens should all eat a vegan diet.”
when there is no one left producing a profit who will they tax to pay them.
and do you think the bible thumping cons are much better? Most of the cons and their voters are as stupid as the libtards. Time to drain the swamp up here, and show the politicians and voters what real life is all about.
“when there is no one left producing a profit who will they tax to pay them. “
Ohh, then they’ll insist that you’re a “tax cheat” and assess you based on what THEY determine your income to really be, and you’d better pay up!
Those hydro numbers are not out of line I’m not too far from Barrie in a community with no natgas.
I heat my home with electric and monthly bills for the really cold months are just short $1000!
I thought the standard Liberal response would be, “It’s for the children!”
Hard to believe that there are actually people in this country that still think the government adds any value to their lives (save for the takers). Complete and utter parasites. There is literally nothing that any form of government in Canada does that could not be better accomplished by private enterprise.
Why don’t you get oil, propane or a wood stove at least to supplament?
I have a local butcher that sounds a lot like this guy. His meat is way better than any grocery store, and other than when it’s on sale at the grocery store, cheaper as well. All businesses are going to have to factor the price of power into their prices, and it’s not like they don’t all face the same problems. The price of power will drive the price of everything up. It’t the price you pay when you vote for morons.
People voted for this. People want their businesses to close, to have no heat for the winter and to have no Christmases for their kids. If they did not want it, Wynne would not be in power.
Who will they tax when the profits dry up? Property taxes. Sales taxes. Investment taxes.
Doughnut, meet hole.
I don’t think you can put oil in if it wasn’t there previously. Fairly big house, all baseboard heat and there is no duct work so propane and oil are out.
I have a small propane stove in one room in case the power goes out.
Cost has tripled in just over 10 years.
has mr butcher EVER voted lieberal? campaigned *against* them?
how many former customers voted lieberal?
mysteries of the universe . . . . . .
“It would be helpful to have some facts about the bill in question. How many kilowatt hours were used that month and what are the major power loads in his shop. Also, what was the actual power rate and the peak load it was based on. I know power is expense in Ontario but this story seems a little odd without knowing more about his business.”
Stupid response.If you really thought about it for even a nano-second you would realize that as a butcher shop ALL the meat has to be refrigerated. Refrigerators run on electricity. DUH!!!
You can buy natural gas and propane refrigerators.
and you demonstrate a lack of knowledge in heating. Just go with surface mount ducts, or boiler and rads, or convection. Yes there is some work and modification in volved, but well worth it in the long run. And yes, I’v been involved in renos were heating was part of it. Also designed and built my own system when the trades fool was way over priced
Haha, I spent 25 years in the high end residential custom building game in Toronto and I’m a Red Seal tradesman. I know exactly what I can and cant do with this place.
What I can do is sell it and get my money out. I’m sitting on a pile of dough here and have multiple offers and its not even up for sale yet.
Why would I sink a bunch of dough to upgrade the heating system when I’ll never get it back.
I can afford the heating costs, I’m just p’oed that an asswipe like Wynne has got away with sending energy costs to the moon.
Would this be a good time to remind Wynne that the only separation between 1st world countries and 3rd world countries is CHEAP, ABUNDANT electricity ? Economic suicide is easy whether through over taxation or basic utility prices……. or in the name of junk science.
Kevin, may I ask what conservative paradise that never elected libtards do you live in?
I believe I said when there is no profit left to tax, that would include all taxes because no one has any money to pay any taxes, this was not an either or statement. No property tax, no sales tax, no licence tax, etc. no money.