Repair bills from the cluster of wind storms that pummeled southern Ontario and western Quebec in May are now over $1 billion, and with contractors stretched thin the recovery will last well into next summer. As recovery crews face another colossal restoration job in the aftermath of post-tropical storm Fiona in the Atlantic provinces, the contractors who step in when Mother Nature lays down her wrath cannot keep up.
Kyle Douglas, a co-owner at the recovery contracting firm CRCS DKI in Oshawa, Ont., fit an interview into his day this week in between meetings about whether he had crews or equipment he could send to Atlantic Canada, and negotiations with a company that specializes in booking accommodation and travel for disaster recovery workers….