Letter to the Editor

The apartment building where I live in Kimberley recently had a new furnace installed and about four months ago a plumber showed up to look at the job and in the process a deep freeze was unplugged and all of the contents were lost. My neighbour, a senior who owned it, called the plumber and asked him to help her clean the freezer out (she has mobility challenges) and asked for $100 to help restock her freezer, which he said he would do.

We received a notice from the plumber saying that the heat would be turned off in the building for up to nine days as he was installing the furnace. I called him and left a message that I was concerned about an essential service being cut off as my 84-year-old neighbour had just been released from East Kootenay Regional Hospital emergency room with pneumonia and we’d just had our first frost in Kimberley.

He replied, “I’m a good guy with a plumbing and heating business, just trying to do a job.” I asked then why he not helped my senior neighbour or gave her the token $100 for the food he ruined and not taken responsibility for.

The plumber has been at the building every day for three weeks and the senior has asked him for her $100 several times which is very uncomfortable for her and is causing her increasing stress. He replies, “I will bring it tomorrow” and doesn’t; he makes more in one hour than her entire weeks food budget.

I am writing this letter to advocate for my neighbour in hopes this will encourage the plumber to give the senior a minimum of $500 for restocking her deep freeze for the undue stress his behaviour has caused her.

Audry Lochrie,

Kimberley

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