LITTLE CURRENT—One family’s dream of having a Little Current restaurant, specializing in home-cooked meals and thin crust pizza, has been dashed because they couldn’t afford to keep up with their Hydro One bill payments.
On January 20, at 8:03 am, the hydro was shut off at Luc’s Pizza and Eatery located on Highway 6 in Little Current. The restaurant had opened its doors for business last June 4 and quickly earned a reputation for affordable home cooking and delicious pizza.
Proprietor Luc Noel admitted that the cost of starting up for he and his wife Karen was overwhelming with the couple agreeing to a Hydro One payment plan which meant paying the cost of their monthly bill, which typically averaged around $1,200, plus a $1,500 payment, each month. As of their last bill, Luc’s Pizza and Eatery owed a total of $11,000 to Hydro One.
“Last month, I was short $100 on my payment and when you default on a payment plan they demand all the payment,” Mr. Noel explained. Unable to come up with the minimum $8,000 asked of them, the Noel family had to make the heartbreaking decision to close the restaurant.
“For us, it’s over—we’re done,” he told The Expositor. “We had to throw a bunch of food out, so we won’t be re-opening.”
Mr. Noel said that a representative of Hydro One did call the Noel home, leaving a message that they would like to come up with a resolution, but Mr. Noel did not return the call. “By then it was too late,” he said.
The couple says their biggest worry is having staff go without pay. A minimum payroll period would come in at about $1,900, he said. “That’s $1,900 out of the economy from lost wages. We never missed payroll.”
“The government is chasing business away,” Mr. Noel added. “You can’t catch a break with the government.”
He said that he and his wife have worked the past eight months with no pay with Karen also keeping an almost full-time job at the Manor. “We could barely keep the house going,” he lamented.
“We’d rather lick our wounds than go further in debt,” Mr. Noel continued. “I think the government doesn’t want small business.”
As for next steps, Mr. Noel said he will be seeking full-time employment immediately.
“Right now, this is something we just have to swallow—everything is in mid-air right now,” he added.
Mr. Noel said he received a concerned phone call from Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Michael Mantha and the two were scheduled to meet yesterday, Tuesday.
