Covering all of the electronic bases

Not too long ago, the independent retailer seemed endangered. Unable to compete with the purchasing power and supply of national chains, the mom-and-pop shop seemed destined for the dust heap.

In retail, however, everything is cyclical.

Waterloo Regional Electronics (WRE) is a single store in downtown Elmira, located in the lower level of the Elmira Shopping Village, selling electronics, including iPods and digital camera accessories, memory sticks and cards, AV and computer essentials, headphones, batteries and off lease HP computers and laptops.

It’s a family-run business operated by Peter Collins.

“Mostly we are retail electronics and we have most of the accessories people would need to get there stuff working or keep it going or to hook it up differently to make it do other functions,” said Collins. “Generally someone will walk in with a camera or recorder and they have lost or don’t have the cable to hook it up to the computer, and I will have what they need.”

For every convenience electronic devices bring us, there is an equal and opposite frustration when they slow down or lose capacity – Collins offers service and upgrades to computers. He’s capable of adding memory, installing new DVD drives, and increasing the speed of older computers by cleaning up programs and removing some viruses.

“I am not a technician; if someone comes in with a computer after they spilled a beverage into it I will refer them elsewhere – that is not what I do” said Collins.

Collins has 35 years experience in electronic retail: he began working for Radio Shack in 1976 and stayed with the company until a year and half ago.

“It was a major change and since I have been doing it all my life; I decided to reinvent the electronic store,” he said. “The main thing is I have learned to deal with people’s needs in electronics and come up with a variety of solutions even if it is not within my store.”

Collins has taken a different approach when setting up his storefront, creating a customer-friendly and enticing environment as opposed to a dark and overly jammed store, as is sometimes the case in the industry.

“I am use to being in an electronic store where it is congested and not really customer friendly – I wanted to change that with this store,” he said.

The store boasts 1,400 square feet and is very open with a lot of floor room available for Collins to set up his product gondolas, which are on wheels allowing him to float the store to re-merchandise it without having to tear the store apart.

Setting up shop in Elmira was a no-brainer for Collins, who no longer wanted to commute to work outside of town and saw the need for an electronic store in the area.

“I live in Elmira and I have never liked commuting to work, even when I worked at the Conestoga Mall, plus there is no place in Elmira or St. Jacobs or even Waterloo to really get your electronics; I feel there is a demand for a store like this. There is no local supply of the items I sell.”

With a hardware store next door and a vacuum store around the corner, Collins jokes that the area is slowly becoming the tech corner of Elmira.

“I had a ham radio operator in recently and they liked having the local access to switches and fuses, not necessarily exciting stuff but important stuff,” he said. “I have had feedback from customers telling me my prices are good and reasonable. I offer very good value and I am less expensive than the big box stores but my first focus is service and good value.”

Collins is looking to build a foundation before he expands to other products, saying even though he has the experience it takes time to grow a business.

Not one to turn his back on older sometimes outdated devices, Collins offers turntables, phone cords, and tape deck cleaners as well as his more state-of-the-art gadgets.

“I care to have the products that customers want. Some of the items may be a bit old school but I want to make sure I have what any customer may need. Today you can hook up a turntable to a stereo or listen to it through a computer. Once it is hooked to a computer, people are able to burn a CD or dump it into a MP3 player,” said Collins. “People have collections of records or tapes and don’t want to rebuild the collection these devices help them with that and I know how to help people set them up.”

Coming up with a name for the store, WRE, Collins wanted something that implied the area the store was located in and items for sale.

“The store is in the Waterloo Region selling electronics and we are regional in respect that we are in a small community – even though Elmira sometimes feel like a village it really is a part of the bigger Waterloo Region area and customers coming here come from all over. It has been an under-serviced retail environment.”

The store is open from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday thru Wednesday, staying open until 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.

MCC looks to combine administration

In a bid to improve their capability of providing aid both at home and abroad, the Mennonite Central Committee has unveiled an ambitious expansion plan for their Ontario headquarters, located at 50 Kent St. in Kitchener.

Set to break ground next fall, the project has been in the works since 2007 when the MCC wanted to renovate its boardroom, but decided it needed to go further than that.

The plan is to bring their current thrift shops located at 50 Bridgeport Rd. E. in Waterloo and 335 Lancaster St. W. under one roof, along with a branch of the Mennonite Savings and Credit Union (MSCU), an office of the Mennonite World Conference, an office of the
Mennonite Foundation of Canada, as well as the Mennonite Church of Eastern Canada.

In order to accommodate all those agencies and to allow some space for further growth in the future, the building itself needed to expand, said the executive director of MCC Ontario.

“We think this will strengthen everybody and create some efficiencies of a single boardroom, single lunchroom, and a whole number of things that rather than having three or four of, we’ll have one of,” said Rick Cober Bauman.

They must raise $4 million in capital and $12 million in total to expand their operations, with hopes of completion by 2013 to coincide with their 50th anniversary in Ontario.

He also said by having more services available under one roof, they can grow their customer base by making people more aware of the various services available. Someone may come to the thrift shop for a pair of jeans, he said, but then realize that they can open an account with the MSCU.

It will also give employees at the office a chance to reconnect with the main reason why they work for MCC – to make a difference in people’s day-to-day lives.

“We think that it will, in a good way, blur the lines between administrative and program work, so that rather than having an administrative centre that’s separate from what’s going on down on the ground, we’ll be in a much more action-based and active place.”

The new layout, set to be about 50,000 square feet, will have a thrift shop, credit union and expanded warehouse on the main floor, with the second floor devoted to office space. The Waterloo Region School Board has also agreed to sell about two acres of adjacent land to MCC to allow them to remain on the property.

Cober Bauman said that thrift really was the backbone of MCC, and in Ontario alone the organizations 14 shops bring in about $2 million in net revenue – $500,000 of that from Elmira alone.

To date the MCC has collected about $1.2 million of the required $4 million, and a large chunk of that was through the MSCU, which donated $500,000 to the expansion project in the form of a gift.

Cober Bauman said it is critical that the MCC collects these funds in a way that does not interrupt their work both in Canada and abroad, such as helping disaster victims recover by sending medical and supply kits to Iraq, Kenya, Pakistan and Haiti, among others.

“It’s very important that we do not in any way reduce or harm our program work in order to build the building,” said Cober Bauman. “It has to go up with no interruption to quality or quantity of the programs that we do here in Ontario or for our international work.”

That is why the MCC is so grateful for the contribution from the MSCU, and added that their new partnership will help strengthen both organizations.

“The credit union is a good financial partner for the kind of work that we do, which is about community development and we are a good partner for them because we help them spread the message that they’re a credit union committed to social justice and peace values, just like MCC.”

For the MSCU, which now operates eight branches across Ontario, the donation was just their way of giving back to the organization that helped them get their start back in 1964.

The credit union received its very first deposit from the MCC at 50 Kent St. that year, and so this partnership also has historical significance for the two groups.

“MCC also gave us space and leant us their staff until we had our own paid staff, so this is perhaps a complete coming around,” said Brent Zorgdrager, chief executive officer of MSCU.

“It makes complete sense, we had the resources available and MCC needed them, so we were in the position at this time to be the giver, and they were in the position of the receiver.”

He also added that because the two groups share a similar philosophy of providing hands-on help to those who need it, the decision to give some help to the MCC and reduce the burden moving forward was an easy one.

“Mennonite’s are big on mutual aid and helping each other when the need arises.”

To make a pledge or donation, or to learn more about their expansion plans, contact Dan Driedger, resource development director for MCC Ontario at 519-745-8458 or 1-800-313-6226.

FIT changes have green sector in limbo

On Monday, Dalton McGuinty’s government confirmed what many in the renewable sector knew was coming: a review of the province’s lucrative feed-in-tariff (FIT) and microFIT program that rewards those who produce renewable energy with premium prices.

Energy Minister Chris Bentley announced that the review would be led by deputy minister Fareed Amin in conjunction with the Ontario Power Authority. Aside from reassessing the program rates, Bentley also confirmed that the review would consider new technology and fuel sources not included under the current plan.

“We’ve had an enormously successful start to the FIT program,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

“We signed contracts for enough green energy to power 1.2 million homes and those contracts have already generated or will generate 20,000 direct or indirect jobs.”

Under the review, any FIT contracts signed prior to Aug. 31 and any microFIT projects in the application phase before that date, will not be affected by the new prices.

Bentley said the review was planned when the FIT program was first introduced back in 2009, and is designed to increase efficiencies and balance costs across the whole sector.

“We want to ensure that we continue to grow green energy sources and jobs, and get those at the right price. That’s what this review will enable us to do,” he said, adding that he did not know what the new prices could be.

Bentley would also not go so far as to confirm that a drop in premiums paid to those generating the power would necessarily lead to a drop in prices paid by consumers.

“They’re related, but one does not necessarily lead directly to the other.”

Under the old program, solar projects could net a return of up to 80.2 cents per kWh, wind saw returns of 13.5 cents per kWh, and biogas projects could be paid up to 19.5 cents per kWh. The FIT program applied to commercial projects while the microFIT projects were those on residential properties.

The program was a contentious one during the recent provincial election, and PC leader Tim Hudak pledged to scrap it, calling it “unsustainable” for ratepayers across the province who couldn’t afford the subsidies.

Critics have also blasted the program in recent months by saying that despite the fact that costs to install and operate solar systems have dropped dramatically, the amount being paid by the government for each kilowatt of energy  has not.

Bentley said that this review was another step in the natural progression of the green energy program in Ontario, and that these sorts of reviews were common across Europe, which has a longer history with renewable energy, and would help bring prices more in step with the true costs of producing the energy.

He also said he doesn’t think the review, which isn’t expected to be complete for at least a couple of months, would lead to stagnation or concern in the renewable sector.

“That’s why the review has been directed to find the right price,” he said. “We’re trying to get the right balance.”

What does this review mean for companies in Waterloo Region? As anyone who has driven along the countryside can tell you, renewable energy – in particular solar and wind – has become very popular as homeowners and businesses looked to cash in on the high prices paid out by the government in an effort to get the green energy sector off the ground during the uncertain economic climate of 2009.

Elmira Stove Works made the move to begin designing and assembling fixed ground-mount and roof-mount solar units ranging from 10 kilowatts up to 500 kilowatts in the middle of 2010.

Since then, the cost of building and installing the units has dropped due to more manufacturers and more efficient production methods, and the company said that the incentive prices paid by the government through FIT or microFIT need to be adjusted as well to reflect that reduction.

“It’s almost too good of an investment now and the government was not planning on having the rate of returns to be as high as they are at this point,” said vice-president Brian Hendrick, who estimated that some of the packages they sell have fallen by up to 20 per cent in price.

He said that the difference in price for the energy produced should be made up by the less costly systems, meaning that renewable will remain a good investment.

Good investment or not, some installers are unhappy with the way the review was handled by the government. Jim Bolger, one of the partners in Waterloo Energy Products in Maryhill who specializes in solar as well as geo-thermal energy, said it should have been dealt with much differently.

“I’m disappointed to a certain regard with the lag to get the review done,” he said. “I anticipated that some of the consulting process would have been a work in progress.”

Bolger fears that the public will shy away from renewable energy until they know for sure what the new rates are going to be and what the new program will look like, and that could mean two to three months of lost or reduced business for his company.

“The delays to do this process, which could have been done ahead of time, will adversely affect contractors in this province for sure,” he said.

Rather than announcing the cutoff date for the contracts under the old program after that date had passed, which the government did by announcing the Aug. 31 deadline on Oct. 31, Bolger suggested that they could have been conducting the review process earlier and made an announcement ahead of time in order to provide customers with a clearer idea of when the deadline for the old pricing would be, and to give a better idea of what the new prices will be.

“There has been a substantial investment in the manufacturing side (of solar power) in the province, and this really puts that sector in limbo.”

Yet as a distributor of geothermal systems, he is also optimistic that the energy source could be included under the government’s green energy plan, though there are challenges with that as well, he said.

Since geothermal does not produce electricity, but instead reduces consumption, it does not fit under the current pricing scheme that rewards energy production and not energy conservation.

That would have to be changed, he said.

“Conservation can easily be quantified and tracked, and it’s just as valuable to reduce energy as it is to produce it,” he said.

“If you reduce enough of the demand for kilowatt hours, then it alleviates the need to expand the grid, which comes at a significant capital cost.”

While both Bolger and Hendrick have concerns that the lag between the end of Aug. 31 and the announcement of the new FIT program – whenever that might be – could have a negative impact on their business, Hendrick is confident that it will only be a blip in the long-term success of Ontario’s green energy economy and should not take the wind out of the province’s renewable energy sails.

What’s more, Hendrick said the drop in prices should lend more credibility to the program and more credence to its stability in the future.

“It might be more acceptable to some of the naysayers of the program (if premiums drop).

“(The government) have their finger on the pulse of the industry and they won’t reduce prices to a number where people just throw up their arms and say ‘Ok, I’m out, this doesn’t make any sense”.

And for Bentley, who’s only been on the energy file for about two weeks after taking over from Brad Duguid, he reaffirmed the Liberal party’s commitment to the green energy act, the green economy, and following through on their pledge to shut down the province’s coal plants by 2014.

“We have done a lot of work in the past eight years modernizing a transmission system that didn’t have the attention it needed before, building a lot of new generation, launching and building a green energy economy.

“A lot of work has gone on and some important decisions will be made over the next several years.”

In St. Jacobs, the future is now

Jamie Evans approaches a monitor in the corner of the room. It looks like a big-screen television, but it’s clear that there is something very different about it.

He taps the screen with his right index finger, and suddenly a three-dimensional image of the Earth appears on the screen. He taps the screen again and it zooms in on the United States.

The first-year computer science student at the University of Waterloo then places his two index fingers on the screen, and magically starts manipulating the image and zooming in until a clear view of the Empire State building appears, along with the myriad of other buildings and streets within the New York landscape.

It sounds like something from the future, but instead of science fiction this is science fact.

“It’s very futuristic, its cutting edge, and we’re trying to get this kind of technology into a lot of places so people can interact with it,” he says.

Evans was referring to the brand new FELT Lab, unveiled at Quarry Integrated Communications in St. Jacobs on Wednesday evening, where he and several other students were on hand to demonstrate how they are working on developing the technology of tomorrow.

FELT Lab is a state-of-the-art digital media laboratory that is teaching the next generation of
technological entrepreneurs how to design, build and commercialize interactive displays that not only meet but anticipate real-world needs. The lab got its name because its home at Quarry was once an old felt manufacturing facility.

The University of Waterloo’s Research Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP) in conjunction with founding partners Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc., Intel Corporation, and Quarry, describe the lab as a “digital sandbox for serious play,” which involves gathering together some of the best minds in the academic, political, business and technological spheres to make technology more easily accessible.

Back to the screen operated by Evans, the technology was developed by a Toronto-based company called GestureTek and uses imbedded infrared cameras to “see” your fingers as you touch the screen, allowing the operator to manipulate the content with just a few finger swipes.

By changing the angle of the cameras, the user can also interact with the display without even touching the monitor.

And while the technology sounds perfect for the latest videogame or movie, it can be applied to many real-world situations as well, said Evans.

He said a company like Grand River Transit would benefit greatly from the equipment. Instead of having all of their schedules and routes on one display that cycles through in a given timeframe, Evans said he could design an application that would make finding the time and schedules of a certain bus route that much easier.

“Someone could then walk up to the screen and see the schedules, where it’s going, what the times are, and interact smoothly and quickly.”

Just a few steps away from Evans is another University of Waterloo student using a similar technology. Kelly White is a second-year student enrolled in a relatively new course called knowledge integration, an interdisciplinary course that is part of the faculty of the environment.

He is using a device similar to the screen used by Evans, only this one is called a GestureTek Cube.

It is a portable display system that projects an image onto the floor, and as he walks over it, the image interacts with his footsteps, leaving either ripples in a pond or causing fireworks to explode wherever his feet touch.

The software judges where your feet land by measuring interference with light, similar to how Evans’ screen judged where your fingers were by measuring where they interfered with the infrared camera.

White said that the technology had enormous potential in the advertising world because it could be installed in malls or in concourses and would create much more public interaction with a specific brand.

“If I’m walking and I notice my feet are interacting with an image on the floor, I’m much more likely to stop than if I see just an image on the wall,” he said.

The technology could also have practical applications in a hospital, for example, to help those requiring physical therapy to work on their walking skills in a more interactive and fun way.

All those involved in the project are excited about the possibilities and believe the lab will strengthen Waterloo Region’s reputation as a national innovation corridor. It will provide a venue for students at the University of Waterloo to gain intensive, hands-on experience that involves taking an idea from conception to creation.

“The future belongs to those who can combine design thinking with technological innovation and business entrepreneurship,” said Dave Goodwin, a professor at the Canadian Centre of Arts and Technology at the University of Waterloo and the founder of REAP.

“This is REAP’s mission: to provide University of Waterloo students with leading-edge technologies, research funding, industry mentors, and real market opportunities, and then to support them as they commercialize their innovative ideas.”

The students gave the new space rave reviews as well.

“I find it’s great because we can be here and ask ‘how will this idea work?’ and walk 10 feet to the other side of the lab and work on other projects at the same time,” said Evans.

“It’s really nice and a great work environment as well. It’s relaxed and has a real technology feel to it.”

To learn more about REAP or the FELT lab, visit http://uwreap.com/felt.

Organic farming makes dollars and sense

The government of Canada last week announced an investment of nearly $4 million for the University of Guelph to study and develop on-farm tools to help farmers mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

The university plans to use the investment to conduct a project that will focus on livestock and cropping production systems, and will examine new and refined beneficial management practices that will enhance the dairy sector through improved feeding strategies, resulting in better economic returns.

At Mapleton Organics, owner Martin de Groot has been implementing cleaner and organic strategies for the last 22 years on his farm.

Located at 8548 Wellington Road in Moorefield, the organic farm looks like a small quaint farm from the roadside but one should never judge a book by its cover.

When de Groot made the switch from conventional to organic farming more than two decades ago, he realized that he was not a commodity producer but a food producer.

“We as farmers are partly responsible for the health of our population,” said de Groot.

“As a farmer I believe if you start at the bottom with healthy soils that will produce healthy feed, which produces healthy animals, which makes healthy food for people.”

De Groot became concerned about the impact of conventional farming and how it affected
his family’s health, the environment, the community, the welfare of the animals, and the health of his consumers.

“The bottom line is that in conventional agriculture we are still putting more energy into the system than comes out in the amount of food,” he said. “Anywhere from three to 10 calories goes into the food system production and only one calorie of food coming out.

That has worked for the last 50 years because energy was extremely cheap. But we are slowly running out of fossil fuels and this system of putting more energy into production of food is totally unsustainable.”

The farm has 600 acres where they grow all the food for the animals and grow some crops for human consumption, including spelt, soy beans, potatoes and corn.

All the animals and products, including organic ice cream, are raised and made on the farm.

That includes 70 milking cows, pigs and chickens for meat, which are sold at the farm’s store.

All the feed for the animals is grown on the farm, which means de Groot does not have to buy any extra feed – in essence, he’s created a self-sustaining system. In that vein, since all the animals produce manure he simply composts it and puts it back into the fields.

The farm uses a seven-year crop rotation to maintain the fertility of the fields: only once in seven years does the same crop come back to the same field, which helps with disease control.

“In conventional agriculture, Mother Nature is seen as our biggest enemy that we have to compete with. I don’t believe that. We are all apart of nature and we need it to feed us and nourish us,” said de Groot.

Organic farming is 35 to 45 per cent more efficient as it uses less energy per calorie of food produced than conventional farming, he explained.

“We use fossil fuels to make fertilizers and chemicals, and this causes greenhouse gases and contributes to global warming. I am not claiming that the organic movement has all the answers but we are definitely trying to address those issues by creating a more sustainable food system. Part of that is energy consumption because we do not use an artificial fertilizers or chemicals, especially the nitrogen fertilizers that take so much energy. Every
kilogram of nitrogen is equivalent of one litre of diesel fuel.”

When de Groot started organic farming he was ridiculed, as people thought it was a fad and it would simply disappear in time. He was told by experts in the government and at the University of Guelph it would not last. Now those same people are singing a different tune as they see organic becoming the fastest-growing sector in both retail and in farming, growing every year by 20 per cent.

“We are here to stay,” said de Groot. “A good per cent of the population wants to know where their food is produced, how it is produced and by whom because they don’t trust the system. For a lot of people that come here I am farmer Martin that people trust to produce good food for them and they can put a face to the food they eat.”

A few years ago de Groot’s daughter Arwa joined the farm as the special events director, organizing school tours to teach the young kids where the food really comes from, how it is produced and what is involved.

“It is shocking to see how far people in the cities are removed from the food system, for them there is nothing behind the supermarket,” said de Groot.

The farm also uses solar panels to supply the farm with hot water, which is used in abundance to clean the milk lines and equipment. They have also planted switch grass for fuel-pellets to replace the oil that is now used to feed the furnace in the greenhouse, as well as canola for bio-diesel to run the tractors.

“Eventually we would like to make this farm totally independent of outside energy and put up a wind turbine and more solar panels for electricity and become a net exporter of energy instead of an importer,” he said.

To coincide with National Organic Week,  the farm is taking part today (Saturday) in the Take a Bite Out of Climate Change Bus Tour hosted by the Canadian Organic Growers to highlight the climate change mitigating potential of local organic food and farming.

New faces for longtime dental practice

After more than 40 years in business, Dr. Gregory Mason became a household name in Elmira. The dentist earned a reputation as a good doctor and caring man in the community.

On Aug. 22, his office changed hands from Mason to Dr. Anh Le and Dr. Linda Vo, a husband and wife team who have spent the past few years working in Kitchener-Waterloo and who were looking for their own practice.

They say that Mason’s tradition of exceptional care and community-oriented dentistry will not change under their watch.

“I believe he was one of the first ever to open an office here in town and he has been providing excellent service to the community for over 40 years,” said Le. “Everyone knows who Dr. Mason is; he’s famous within the community.”

The couple first contacted Mason about acquiring the office through a private sale last March, and Mason – who was considering retirement at the time – agreed to meet with the couple to discuss the possibility of selling it.

Vo said they were humbled when he decided to transfer ownership to them.

“The first time he met us, he said this was like his baby because he built it from scratch and he wanted to find the right people to continue it on,” she said, adding that the market for established dentist practices is definitely a sellers market and that sellers can afford to be choosy on who they sell to, and the couple is honoured he chose to sell to them.

“It’s a compliment to us that he let us have his practice.”

For now the couple will continue to commute from their home in Mississaugua, but they are already planning on buying a home in Waterloo Region so they can be closer to the community they serve.

They said they love the atmosphere of the small-town setting and the slower pace of the rural neighborhood.

“We’ve always been big-city people, but we’ve never wanted to work in the big city,” said Vo.

“We find the people that live in the smaller communities have a personality that we like. We like the pace of life here.”

They have retained all of the staff, 10 employees in total, and praised Mason’s training. They wanted to keep the jobs in the community, and strive to make all staff and patients feel like part of a family.

They have a vision for the future of the practice in mind already, one that includes updated technology and equipment, and they also want to keep more of their procedures like root canals in-house, rather than referring patients to outside specialists.

Mason will even be staying on for a couple of days of work per month to treat patients who require braces.

Vo has been a practicing dentist since 2001 when she graduated from the University of Toronto, but the profession is a relatively new one to Le. He worked for many years in the hi-tech industry before deciding to go to dental school. He graduated from the University of Montreal in 2008 and honed his skills in New York City for a couple of years after that before returning to Canada.

The couple is also excited to work together – despite some concerns from their friends and colleagues.

“They’ve been saying working with your wife can be a little bit tougher,” laughed Le, “but so far we’ve had a very good relationship because we compliment each other.

“She loves to see children and kids and they love her, but I tend to do a little bit more complicated procedures such as root canals and extractions.”

As for daily oral care, Le said the simplest thing anyone can do to avoid seeing the dentist for more than their regular checkup is to brush twice a day and floss at least once.

Typically everyone should see a dentist once every six to nine months, with a thorough examination done every three years to examine the neck, jaw and other soft tissue, searching for cancer or other problems.

“It’s not just about teeth nowadays but general oral health because your mouth affects everything,” said Vo.

The couple welcomes established customers and new ones alike to come and check out their office, located at 77 Arthur St. S.

Every new client will also receive a one-on-one consultation with their dentist so they have a better understanding of the type of care they require, and to have a better idea of what their teeth and oral history is like.

“We believe that everyone has different needs. We cannot do mass dentistry,” said Le. “Different people have different needs, so we have a questionnaire and interview each other. The patient will interview the dentist and the dentist will interview the patient to see if we have a match in the treatment.”

There’s clean and then there’s his kind of clean

As of August, the Canadian unemployment rate was hovering around seven per cent, and the prospect of a weakened global economy has led to uncertainty in both national and international markets.

The recession is far from over, and many are still struggling to find new work or to make ends meet.

It’s been said that recessions do create one thing, however, and that’s entrepreneurs. This is certainly true of Kevin Hotradat, an Elmira resident who was trained at Conestoga College and worked for seven years as a machinist in Waterloo before everyone at the company was laid off last year.

Faced with unemployment, the 27-year-old decided to go into business for himself and returned to one of his earliest passions as a child: cars. To that end, Hotradat opened an auto detailing shop called Car Spa Elmira, located at 20A Arthur St.

“Oh yeah, I love cars, trucks, bikes, boats. I just like nice cars, I always have since I was a little kid,” said Hotradat while sitting in his office, a poster of exotic cars stuck to the wall behind him.

“I’ve always liked cars. And I like them clean.”

He said that while things started slowly for him early this year, washing only about two cars a day, business has really picked up in the past few months. He is now up to about 12 or 13 cars a day, and a waiting list of about a dozen more cars sits on his desk.

His packages range from $20 for a basic cleaning that includes an exterior wash and chamois dry, all the way up to interior shampooing of the seats and carpets, scotch guard protection and even paint-sealing wax that lasts about eight months.

“When it rains the water just falls off of it,” he smiled.

Hotradat has had a lot of repeat customers, and he has also benefitted from a lot of word-of-mouth business as well as some special offers. When he was first starting out he also posted a deal on the website Wag Jag and on Kijiji offering a $160 dollar cleaning service for just $49.00.

“We sold over 570 vouchers, which was over $20,000, in the first three days,” he laughed.

“It was crazy.”

On busier days he also gets a lot of help from his family. His father, Jerry, and father-in-law Mike McAllister offer their services as well. Hotradat ran a restaurant with his father in downtown Kitchener before they ran into problems with the landlord and had to close it down.

“It’s nice to be working together again. He’ll work all day then come here and slave-drive it,” said Hotradat of his father, who has a full-time job in a machine shop.

Hotradat says that customers coming to him instead of going to a drive-through car wash or a self-wash station will be impressed with his attention to detail and the ways he can dig into all the little nooks and crannies to get that last bit of dirt out.

“Some people will say to me they think their car is clean, but when I get a look at it, it’s definitely not my clean.”

Despite his passion for the work, he does admit that the job isn’t the most glamorous. From leaves and bark to pet hair three inches thick, Hotradat has seen it all, adding that minivans are the worst for messes. He can spend anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours cleaning one car if it really needs it.

“The back corners and underneath the edges and by the cup holders [are the worst]. You’ve got kids spilling stuff down the sides all the time,” he said.

“Corrosion around the shifters, melted chocolate in the cup holders, it just get’s really bad.

I’ve even seen condoms in cars. It’s gross.”

Despite the messes he faces on a daily basis, it’s definitely worth the hard work he said.

“I just like to see satisfied customers. The reaction on their faces when they can’t believe something could get that clean.

“It comes in looking like a disaster and they love it, so it makes me feel good.”

For more information or to book an appointment, visit his website at www.carspaelmira.ca where you can get more information on available packages, prices, and specials.

The shop is open from Tuesday to Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

After 30 years, it’s a well-oiled machine

Like most car owners, you likely have a fall checklist of things that you need to do to get your car road-ready before the snow flies.

Snow tires? Check. Washer fluid? Check. Emergency roadside kit? Double check.

One item that likely isn’t on your list, but really ought to be according to Gary Hoffman, is an underbody oil spray to prevent rusting.

“It coats everything and repels the water and keeps the salt out and it creeps into all the nooks and crannies,” said Hoffman, the owner of Hoffman Auto Oiling Ltd. He moved his business to Elmira during the last winter season but says that this time of year is the best time for drivers to consider his service.

The oil is specially-designed and includes wax to prevent it from dripping too much, and he uses compressed air and oil heated to about 180 degrees to evenly spray the underside and door sections of the vehicles to keep the rust out.

“You need heat and oxygen to create rust, so what the oil actually does is it seals everything up and it repels the salt and the moisture in the wintertime.”

One particularly vulnerable spot for vehicles is the bottoms of the doors. Water gets into that area when it rains or snows, and never gets completely dried out, which can eventually lead to rust. While most new cars contain a significant amount of plastic that can’t rust, the bulk of cars continues to be comprised of metal parts, and “metal still rusts,” he smiled.

For the best results customers should get their cars treated while they’re still new, and to do it once every year depending on the number of kilometres they put on it, because the oil does eventually get washed away by rain, snow and the car wash.

“And you know, once you get a little bit of rust, it just grows from there,” he said.

Hoffman has more than 30 years of experience treating cars. He started back in 1979 on his family’s farm near Waterloo with his brother, Mark. The two of them worked together for about five years before Hoffman decided to rent some more space in town.

He found a spot on Northfield Drive and stayed there until last December, when he moved his business to 20A Arthur St. N. in Elmira. He now has one car lift and about 2,400 square feet of space.

He hasn’t always made a career out of crawling under other people’s cars, though. For years he worked in construction, but said the lack of jobs in the fall and winter required him to branch out and be a little more entrepreneurial so he could pay the bills.

Nowadays he even has to hire someone to work Saturday’s in October and November because of the extra rush. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes to complete the work on one vehicle, depending on the size and the amount of spraying that is required.

“By November it’s a zoo. I could use two hoists,” he laughed.

Most of his business has come through word-of-mouth, and he has retained a loyal customer base throughout his career. He has even begun to see grandchildren of his earliest customers come to him with their new cars.

There is a growing concern among new car owners that spraying the underside of their vehicles with oil is bad for them because dealerships scare them into thinking it will interfere with the anti-lock brakes or the sensors, but Hoffman says that is simply not true and is merely aimed at promoting their own brand of undercoating – which can cost up to 10 times what Hoffman charges.

“If a dealer can sell an undercoating job for $800 or $900 that pretty much doubles what they will make on that car. Prices of cars have come down over the years and the profit margin isn’t there as much,” he said.

His prices range from $65 to $85, a fraction of the cost at a dealership.

The past 30 years has seen very little change in the industry, he said, but he notes that he has to take extra precautions from an environmental standpoint.

All of the oil that he uses is recycled and he has to ensure that he uses only the right amount of oil in each job.

“There’s a fine line between spraying the right amount of oil. If you spray too much it just comes off, and so you just spray enough so it covers and creeps into all the nooks and crannies.”

New studio brings yoga to Wellesley

The word yoga means “union” in Sanskrit, the language of ancient India where yoga originated.

Garry and Dawn Malo, owners of the Pfeifer Gallery at 3706 Nafziger Road in Wellesley, are looking to bring a little union to the people of the area as they open a yoga studio above their gallery.

With instructors Kate Stevely and Chantel Franklin, the studio will be offering different styles and levels of the exercise.

Stevely, who began teaching classes in September at the studio, has been an instructor for more than 35 years and offers hatha yoga, a more flexible yoga style that is easier for basic or first-time yoga enthusiasts.

Traditional hatha yoga is a holistic yogic path, including disciplines, physical postures, purification procedures, poses, breathing, and meditation.

“The hatha yoga predominantly practiced in the West consists of mostly physical postures understood as physical exercises. It is also recognized as a stress-reducing practice,” said Stevely. “It is challenging enough for a fairly usual cross section of people but not too challenging.”

Stevely has seen a large range of ages attending her night sessions from teenagers to 70 year olds, with a few men taking on the flexible poses.

“In North America yoga is decidedly skewed towards women but if you go back to India where it all started women were not allowed to practice yoga. Yoga was for the householder and not for women, who were at one time just considered to be like a piece of furniture,” said Stevely.

Franklin will be offering both an introductory yoga class that has a slow pace and modified poses and will also offer a vinyasa flow class for more experienced students.

The word vinyasa means “breath-synchronized movement” and the yoga teacher will instruct students to move from one pose to the next on an inhale or an exhale. The style is smooth and poses run together and become like a dance.

“It’s for more experienced students who know the flow and poses. My stuff has a bit more gymnastic feel, but I have not had anyone break their hips just yet,” she quipped.

Franklin will begin teaching regular classes in October.

Reaction to the studio has been quite positive according to the instructors who said their students leave feeling relaxed.

“I have students tell me they are loving the session and a lot of locals in town are happy to know that there is something close, nearby that they can go to and don’t have to drive into Stratford or Kitchener or Waterloo.”

Classes with Franklin will be running Thursday nights starting at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday morning at 10 a.m., both classes with run for 75 minutes.

Stevely runs her classes back-to-back on Wednesday nights starting at 6 p.m. and another at 7:30 p.m. for the hour and half.

Benefits from doing yoga are well documented and range from more flexibility and improved circulation but there are subtle benefits like calmness and a better out look on life and people are finding it to be a great substitute for medicinal drugs.

“I have been working with a young man who was addicted to pain killers and I see him once a week and the rest of the time he does it on his own and now he no longer takes a single drug for his back pain after being reliant on them for six years,” said Stevely. “I also have another student who had a knee brace
for 20 years and now she no longer uses it.”

People with joint issues can build up their muscles in a good and flexible way around the joints. A lot of conventional exercise can build muscles too tight and too short and yoga tends to build muscles long, loose and secure.

“I personally started yoga when I was 15 because it was either that or live with a back brace for the rest of my life. I had to basically teach myself so I went to the library in Stratford, which had one book on the subject back then, and learned all the moves,” said Stevely.

Franklin said when a person practices yoga they are connecting their mind and body together.

“You being to think about things like what am I eating and what kind of chemicals are in my shampoo, soaps and cosmetics, stuff we truly do not need, “ she said. “ It starts with the downward dog and leads to you looking at the world completely different.”

Yoga gives a person a wider range of motion, said Franklin, adding for her it is a balance not just physically but also mentally and it helps with everything and brings a new out look to life.

“When people think about yoga they think about laying on the mat doing poses but that is only one part of what yoga really is, it changes the way you live your life, the way you approach things. It gives you strength both in body, mind and heart. It has changed my world.”

For the Malos, opening a yoga studio fit into their current lifestyle as both have recently become vegetarians and are very active and into the fitness trend.

“Yoga just fit into our lifestyle,” said Garry. “We had the space and knew that we wanted to do something with it and decided a yoga studio would work best.”

From a business standpoint, Wellesley is a pretty low traffic village so putting in another retail shop did not make sense for the Malos.

“We have been operating our framing studio for years and have made a name for ourselves. We just wanted the space above the gallery to be used as a studio, and yoga made perfect sense.”

The Malos are hoping to include more yoga classes and perhaps some martial arts of kids and belly dancing class to their studio.

“If this yoga studio catches on we can always expand if we need to as we have another studio space next to this one,” said Garry.

Food event a boon for farmers, restaurants

Food connoisseurs will be heading to Riverside Meadows Park along the banks of the Conestogo River in St. Jacobs this Sunday afternoon to sample a variety of appetizers prepared by some of Waterloo Region’s finest chefs.

The eighth annual Taste Local! Taste Fresh! event will also showcase food grown in the area by pairing 20 chefs with 20 farmers, offering the public an opportunity to sample fresh local food and farm products.

“The event showcases a large gamut of fresh products from produce to eggs and various meats,” said the event’s coordinator, Anna Contini of Foodlink Waterloo Region. “It’s all about featuring what we have in our own backyard and educating the public about it as well as making connections between farmers, chefs and consumers.”

Along with giving local farmers and chefs a platform to show off their products and skills, there are quite a few economic benefits for those involved. For the local food producer it’s a way of making more connections with restaurants while chefs become more visible in a community, said Contini.

“It allows members of the public to see what is available locally and the fact that they can purchase the food through farm gate and various other outlets in the area helps smaller local farms,” said Contini. “It’s a marketing opportunity for both the restaurant and the farmers.”

All participating farmers are featured in Foodlink’s Buy Local! Buy Fresh! map where buying local food directly from the farmer supports the region’s economy and farming community by allowing farmers to sell directly and reap the rewards without having to pay a number of middlemen.

For the chefs and restaurants participating in the event, being able to feature local foods on their menus have become a marketable feature and a selling point to customers who want to know where their food has come from.

“Participants are able to chat with the chefs and farmers during the event and can create a connection which may lead to that person seeking out more food from local farmers or restaurants,” said Contini.

Farmers are having difficulties in today’s economy but by putting a spotlight on local foods and educating the public about what is available in the Waterloo Region, it sets in the “consumers minds and opens their eyes to all the possible local foods,” she added.

Loel and Phyllis Penner from OK Egg Farms, located north of Elmira, are one of the 20 participating farms in the showcase this year. The farm has been paired with Erin Helwig, the executive chef at the Stone Crock and St. Jacobs Grill.

Having participated in the annual event before, the Penners are aware of the benefits the showcase may bring.

“The event exposes local farms to the public and helps farms gain new clients as restaurants in the area find and try out your product,” said Loel.

The egg farm has managed to gain clients from the showcase while also promoting its name to the general public.

“It’s a good event because we can interact with the public who are interested in the food and where it comes from as people are looking more and more for local produce,” said Loel. “While they interact with the farmers and learn how the farmers take care of their product, how fresh it is and the quality of the food impresses customers and they begin to use your product. It is very beneficial.”

For Helwig the event is geared for showing off what smaller farms may offer restaurants as a way of local food.

“For us the event is fun and promotional. It’s great to be paired with the local farms in the communities that are trying to get their products out there,” she said. “It’s nice for the small farms to get their names out there and be noticed, they are working their little hearts out to get their product out there and it’s nice for us to be able to showcase it.”

Helwig said restaurants do benefit from the event but those located in tourist areas, like her restaurant, have a rather difficult time pinpointing the exact number that return for more after the day’s affair.

“It’s exciting to see what is out there and the event helps one find some great farms with in your local realm. We all know the big farms and companies out there that supply restaurants with product but it is nice to actually have the local farmer come to you.”

Helwig finds using local farms products in her restaurants pleases her customers.

“It’s great for us to say on Saturday mornings that we are using 100 per cent pure maple syrup and it was just made down the road,” she said. “The customers definitely appreciate us using local farms as there are not a lot of restaurants that have bragging rights like that.”

Taste Local! Taste Fresh! is a fundraiser for Foodlink Waterloo Region, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising the profile of our local harvest.

Last year the event sold out drawing approximately 500 guests and organizers expect this year’s event to be sold out as well.