JSL Mechanical goes into receivership
Plumbing and heating company forced to lay off 19 workers in Yellowknife; owner calls it the end of an era
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Nineteen people are out of work and a 45-year-old Yellowknife-based company has closed its doors after being forced into receivership.
Joe Leonardis, founder of JSL Mechanical, ponders the future after his company fell into receivership earlier this week. Leonardis said the dominoes started to fall last December when he was not paid for a multi-million dollar job in Alberta. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo |
The doors of the JSL Mechanical building on Coronation Drive in the Kam Lake industrial park were padlocked by the receiver yesterday, said company founder Joe Leonardis.
Not only was JSL one of the oldest plumbing and heating businesses in the NWT, having been established in 1971, it was also one of the largest.
A sombre Leonardis said the financial domino effect began in December of last year when a company JSL had done work for did not pay. He said the close to $5 million contract in northern Alberta was connected to the oil industry.
"When they didn't pay basically the bank said you don't have the security for your loan. They wanted to get paid right away. They called in the loan," said Leonardis. "We have to wait for the courts and the lawyers to work it all out."
Leonardis said he proposed several options to the bank for paying the loan back but none was acceptable. He said he is very disappointed with the Yellowknife branch of the bank which he would not name. He said he has been doing business with them for years.
JSL expanded to Alberta some years ago, mainly because of the amount of work there and the larger work pool, Leonardis said.
He said the falling price of oil has had a devastating impact on a number of companies and now he knows exactly how those people who lost their jobs in the oil patch feel.
He said the closure means Yellowknife home and business owners will have to look elsewhere for a company that can help them when their furnaces go out and it is -40 C outside.
Leonardis came North in 1965 when he and his wife Sheila moved from northern Saskatchewan, where Joe was working as a plumber, to take a position in Deline.
The then newlyweds moved all over the North, following work with stints in Inuvik, Cambridge Bay, Fort Smith and Fort Simpson. But after the birth of their eldest child, the couple decided to settle in Yellowknife in 1969.
The first major job for Leonardis and JSL Mechanical was the RCMP building.
Since then the company has helped complete major projects such as the Fieldhouse and the Gallery Building.
In addition to building up one of Yellowknife's longest running businesses, Leonardis also took up the call of promoting the trades to young people wanting a different option than the traditional education choices available.
The Italian-born, Edmonton-raised veteran plumber sat on the GNWT's apprenticeship trades and occupations certification board and took great pride in promoting the trades.
City councillor and fellow Kam Lake businessman Niels Konge said Leonardis did a lot to help Yellowknife residents get into the trades.
"It saddens me to hear that. Joe has done a tremendous amount for apprenticeship and trades in the North," Konge said. "That's not the way anyone would want to go out."
Paul McKee had worked for JSL as a scheduler for the past two and a half years.
"It's disappointing but what can you do. Life goes on," McKee said. "I have to look forward and focus on getting a new job."
Leonardis said he wanted to thank all of the customers and clients that JSL had over the years. He added that governments have to look at what the downturn in the price of oil has done to small companies and do more to protect them.
"The big guys never lose. It's us smaller businesses that take it on the chin," he said.
