Sask. man restoring farm trucks for collectors
WATCH: Wayne Mantyka has the story about a Saskatchewan man who has built a business restoring old prairie farm trucks for collectors.
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CBC
23 minutes ago
- CBC
Family vows to rebuild generations-old car dealership gutted by fire
The fourth-generation owners of Cotrac Ford Lincoln in Dutton are vowing to rebuild and continue on the family legacy, days after a massive late night fire levelled their longtime auto dealership. "I just want everybody to know that we'll be back as soon as we can," said Jim Corneil, Cotrac's principal dealer, in an interview with CBC News on Friday alongside his wife, Trish, who is a local lawyer. "I think our community needs us to be there, you know," he continued. "We just want to rebuild and get back to business as normal, as soon as possible." As he spoke, investigators from Ontario's fire marshal's (OFM) office combed through what remained, searching for a cause to the blaze, which broke out around 10 p.m. on Wednesday. Fire crews arrived at the Currie Road property within minutes, and found the sales centre of the dealership fully engulfed in flames — the start of a blaze that would last several hours and force the temporary evacuation of some nearby residents. Jim recalled witnessing the fire's early moments. After coming back from London and dropping off his son at home, he drove into town to fill up at the gas station adjacent to the dealership. "When I turned the corner, I noticed smoke in the building," he said. "By the time I wheeled into the dealership and got to the front of the building … the fire department was coming up already." The couple could only watch as the dealership went up in smoke — a place steeped in decades of Corneil family history, and a place where Jim spent his formative years learning the trade. Jim's great-grandfather opened a dealership on the site in the 1930s. Its current name, Cotrac, is a portmanteau of Corneil Tractors, which the business sold for a period before pivoting back to cars. "I was standing there watching it burn. I don't mean to sound selfish, (but) people are just like, 'you know, It's just stuff.' It's like, yeah … but it still hurts," Trish said tearfully. "The loss wasn't just stuff. It was a whole family legacy. It was a whole lifestyle." Four new cars in the showroom were lost in the fire, along with business awards, mementos and other priceless memorabilia collected over the decades. A 1930 Ford Model A belonging to Jim's father, Phil, who previously ran the business and still works there, was also lost to the flames. More than 50 firefighters from Dutton Dunwich, Central Elgin, Southwold and West Elgin helped battle the raging fire, said Barry Gregory, Dutton Dunwich's deputy fire chief. Crews found heavy smoke throughout and intense heat at the front of the business, along with some fire on the main floor that was quickly extinguished. Upstairs, however, they found intense heat and smoke that was "unbearable," Gregory said. "Something was already deep-seated going on. At that point, the ceiling was starting to give away, it was dropping onto them, so we evacuated everybody out. It was shortly after that it breached the roof." High flames, wind and drifting embers led to the evacuation of an apartment building and several houses on nearby Centre Street. Residents were allowed to return around 5 a.m. Wednesday. Gregory says one firefighter from West Lorne suffered a shoulder injury and took on some smoke during the incident, and was taken to hospital by paramedics and discharged soon after. Currie Road has been closed through Dutton's core since the fire happened to protect the scene for OFM's investigation, and the road will stay that way until they're done on site, Gregory said. Jim suspects the fire originated in the oldest part of the building on the second floor, above the showroom, and may have been electrical in nature. However, he stresses he's waiting for official confirmation from investigators. A damage estimate was not immediately available, but both Jim and Gregory think it will likely be in the millions. The couple has been overwhelmed by the support they've received, and Trish says customers from outside Dutton have driven to the community just to show their encouragement. "We've had people offer money," she adds. "One customer jokingly, the other day, he goes, 'I got $200,000 in the bank. You're welcome to it, Jim, because I'm just gonna spend it at your place anyway.'" The family is determined to reopen, and Jim says they're looking at finding a potential temporary spot as they deal with insurance and everything else that comes with running a dealership. "We don't have the paperwork to even sell vehicles right this second," he said. "Hopefully next week we can get replacement keys, replacement ownerships so we can get back to selling." Looking into the future, the couple says their teenage son, Jake, who works at the shop, has expressed interest in following in Jim and Phil's footsteps. "We were talking about the rebuild and what that's going to look like. I said, 'a lot of that's going to depend on whether you're going to be the next person to take it over." "Oh, hell yeah, Mom," Trish recalled him saying. "That's the reason why we're not going to skimp on the new build, because I'm going to get it up and running, and I'm going to make lots of money."
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Cars sucked into sinkhole in Alberta
A gaping sinkhole in a Leduc apartment parking lot swallowed up two vehicles on Thursday. CTV News Edmonton's Miriam Valdes-Carletti has the story.
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
No deal, higher tariffs: A new reality
No one is surprised U.S. president Donald Trump hiked tariffs on all Canadian goods not covered by the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement from 25 to 35 percent. 'We hopefully will get to a point where Canada, the U.S. will have a solid trading relationship that is terror free,' Mayor Drew Dilkens told CTV News. Ryan Donally concurred. 'A huge and very important relationship that needs to be ironed out between Canada and the U.S.,' he said. The President of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce said the uncertainty is keeping the auto industry from business as usual. 'Nobody's moving forward because they don't know what the pricing is going to be,' Donally noted. 'They don't know who's going to be incurring any of these costs and as a result it's affecting Windsor greatly.' Dilkens pointed out the volatility is surfacing in the auto sector. 'You see Stellantis reporting billion-dollar quarterly losses, and the rest of the OEMs aren't far behind. That is just the signal that the pressure is building,' he said. Dilkens warned that if the auto sector hits a tipping point, production cutbacks could happen, or the costs will be passed on to the consumers on both sides of the border. 'The U.S. has 4.2 per cent unemployment that by all economic standards is full employment in an economy. Where are they getting the people even if they can repatriate all the factories? We have to find a pathway that allows us both to win.' Unifor Local 444 President James Stewart feels if the Canadian government had locked into an agreement similar to the one the U.S. brokered with the E.U., the writing would have been on the wall for the Assembly Plant. 'If we get locked into a bad deal long term, it is much worse than not having a deal, getting these 35 per cent tariffs in place,' he said. 'There's no way Stellantis, for example, here in Windsor, would pay a 15 per cent tariff. If you're talking billions of dollars a year, there's no way they could sustain that long term.' He said the Detroit three, including Stellantis in Windsor, are breaking down the thousands of parts and providing proof they are compliant to the U.S., in order to lower tariffs as much as possible. In the meantime, the last two months have been a rollercoaster, according to Stewart, with layoff weeks, smooth shifting weeks, and overtime opportunities at the Assembly Plant. He said the government needs to leverage Canada's position as an important trade partner. 'The importance of what's happening on a national level and this trade agreement is more vital, I think, than most people realize,' Stewart said. Donally is hopeful a good deal is within reach. 'Our economies are extremely tied together, so if it means that it takes a little bit more time to get a great deal for Canada, I very much support that. I'm sure our businesses also agree,' he said.
