N.S. customers paid thousands for windows that were never installed. Now, there's hope
CBC
When Fred Dill and his wife, Frances, handed $5,200 over to Alweather Windows and Doors, the transaction was anything but casual.
Both retired, they spent several weeks over two summers picking strawberries and blueberries to help save up for the needed upgrades to their home. Last December, they paid, up front, half the total cost of six windows and one door to the company's Berwick, N.S., location.
"I was just told it would take 10 to 12 weeks for delivery for the windows and that we would be first on the list for instalment around the first of May," said Fred Dill.
But that day never came. To his surprise, Alweather closed all six locations in Nova Scotia and P.E.I. on April 1, citing "restructuring."
CBC News has spoken with four other Alweather customers who also paid deposits.
Dill assumed his hard-earned money was gone until this week, when Canadian Choice Windows and Doors announced it's moving into all Maritime locations previously occupied by Alweather.
Charles Mamye, general manager of Canadian Choice in Eastern Canada, confirmed to CBC his company is not "taking over" operations. Rather, he said they took over the building leases from the landlord.
The company, which has several locations in Ontario and Western Canada, had been looking to expand east.
"It just made it a little bit easier for us to kind of move into the market," said Mamye. "Whereas if we were starting right from scratch, we'd have to try and find buildings, get them configured properly, hire and train staff that may or may not have window and door selling experience, that type of thing. So it was just a good opportunity."
On Feb. 10, 2023, Alweather Windows and Doors, under its umbrella company The Accurate Group, filed an application in Manitoba court for supervised restructuring proceedings.
In an emailed statement, former owner Stephen Segal said his company and associated entities have "operated in good faith" and "to the maximum benefit of all creditors (including customers) and under the monitoring of the Court Appointed Monitor."
"As I am not a Director or Shareholder of the Purchaser, I have no additional information on the current status of Alweather," Segal said in a statement.
While Canadian Choice has not been involved in the legal proceedings, Mamye said his company is committed to honouring all deposits customers have made to Alweather with proof of a receipt.
He said he's already hired 20 former staff members of Alweather, and many of them have strong opinions on how to treat customers who were left in the dark.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.