Gym owner left in the dark after power cut to unsafe building
The owner of a downtown gym says his business is out of thousands of dollars after his landlord failed to act on City of Winnipeg warnings and power was cut to the building.
"It's been very damaging for our business," said Ryan Sourisseau, owner of the Snap Fitness location on Portage Avenue.
"It damages our credibility because we don't know if people are thinking this is due to us."
Snap Fitness, along with five offices at 323 Portage Ave. — including a Winnipeg Regional Health Authority office and a law centre for victims of domestic violence — were without power for more than a week.
Electricity was turned on Thursday night to the four-storey building after an inspector confirmed its owner, Bernard Cheater, had repaired his high-voltage transformer vault.
Sourisseau alleges Cheater was given 60 days notice before the power was shutdown and yet he failed to make necessary repairs to the concrete electrical room in his basement.
The gym owner estimates he lost between $50,000 and $60,000 in refunded memberships and other costs related to the unexpected closure.
Sourisseau, who said he is pursuing legal action against Cheater, does not blame the City of Winnipeg or Manitoba Hydro, but believes they could have worked better with his landlord to compel him to fix his electrical room before tenants had to suffer the consequences of inaction.
"Some landlords, they're very busy, they get a notice, it goes to the bottom of the pile," he said.
A risk of fire and explosion
The violations that went unfixed for months were serious enough to put public safety at risk, according to the city.
A letter sent to the landlord by the City of Winnipeg dated Aug. 31 — provided to CBC by an employee of Cheater — said after inspecting the transformer vault, the city determined it was deteriorating and posed a risk of "fire and explosion."
The violations represented "a danger to both the public, Manitoba Hydro personnel and to the occupants of the building," a city electrical inspector wrote. The letter also referenced an earlier order to comply issued July 6 that went unheeded.
But Cheater said he delayed fixing the room because he believed Hydro should pay for the work. He said the safety issues in his vault can be traced back to an explosion three years ago which he alleges was caused by Manitoba Hydro workers.
"I shouldn't have to repair the building. I didn't cause the trouble," he said.
Landlord says he feels 'helpless'
The 2014 blast created cracks in the vault's walls and ceiling and ultimately created the unsafe situation — chunks of concrete became loose and at risk of falling on the powerful transformer below, potentially triggering another blast, Cheater said.
"They just hammered me and they got away with it," he said. "I really feel absolutely helpless."
Cheater said he still believes the damage caused by the initial blast — which he pegs at about $70,000 — coupled with the lost rent from this month due to the power outage should be covered by Hydro. He said he is also looking at legal action.
"It's really sad that they caused damage to a building and I have no recourse … there's nothing I can do other than sue them," said Cheater.
This week's fix to his transformer vault is only a temporary one, Cheater said, because the transformer contains Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), a carcinogen. The transformer will have to be moved outside to a cement pad in the coming years, he added.
Cheater said he will be obligated to cover that cost or risk seeing power cut to his building once again.
The City of Winnipeg's electrical bylaw holds landlords responsible for maintaining electrical installations. When electrical installations, like vaults, are unsafe, the bylaw demands landlords take "all necessary action" immediately to ensure they are repaired.
