About Us
Each and Every Employee
Since we opened our doors for business early in 2007, each and every one of our employees strives to meet or exceed our customer’s expectations. We are constantly looking for ways to save you, our customer, both time and money. We are a local Niagara business, responding to local needs with global solutions; we are happy to answer questions about what we are doing so that you too are informed – there are no “trade secrets”.
And so, we look forward to doing business with you.
Company Bio
Erie Generator was born out of two things: Fort Erie’s Friday the 13th blizzard in October of 2006 and changes to the regulations surrounding procuring electrical inspection permits. For those of you not familiar with the Friday the 13th storm or the consequences (because it was very localized), let me briefly state the nature of the storm. A very early lake effect snow storm dumped up to 2 feet (60cm) of wet snow onto trees that had not yet dropped their leaves. Many of these heavily burdened trees had limbs broken off them, limbs that downed the power lines under them. After the snow came freezing rain: those that were not hit by downed branches were hit when the main Canadian Niagara Power lines came down as a result of ice and high winds. Many Fort Erie residents were without power for 3 or more days; some had no power for 8 days! Then, it all melted, flooding basements – even the people with battery back-up sump pumps started having problems by the second day without power – many people scrambled to try to find a generator to buy, to try to avert the flood and the associated damage.
Right around that time, new Government of Ontario regulations required that anyone who wanted to be engaged in a business doing electrical work be registered as of January 1, 2007 – the registration included a requirement for commercial liability insurance, as well as valid and current Certificates of Qualification for the trade of Electician. With the high cost of completing the registration, as an electrician who wanted to keep options open for myself and my family, I decided that I could no longer afford to do most of my electrical work as a volunteer: instead, I needed to start making money as an electrician (I have a day job that pays most of the bills). Consequently, late in 2006, Erie Generator was born. (We are registered with the Electrical Contractors Registration Agency division of the Electrical Safety Authority (ECRA/ESA) as #7003418.)
Of course, as with any business, it’s all 
about the crack team that you assemble – here is our Chief Technical Officer working at a party – go figure – some of us love our jobs way too much! So stick around and let me tell you a few things about some of the main people here.
CEO Bio
The CEO, a.k.a. “the big boss”, has been in the workforce for more than 45 years, with his entrepreneurial roots in the newpaper industry. He followed that up with a stint as a rock star, a petrolium transfer technician, a university student, a recording artist, a college student, an electrical apprentice, an industrial maintenance electrician, a post-grad student, an educator, a general contractor, a project manager, until, through a dint of corporate finangling, arrived in his current position at the top of the corporate ladder. Fortunately, the ladder is extremely short: he is also concurrently at the bottom of the corporate ladder, so the company employees don’t have to worry about there not being a line of communication open; people are heard and listened to, from the newest employee to the CEO!
Our CEO has also inspired our company motto, “do it right the first time”, by doing exactly that – not being satisfied until the job is done right from the very beginning. As a corporate leader, he is not one to sit around – he is willing and able to “show the ropes” to one and all alike, from the “probie” to the “old salt”. He is willing to go the extra mile to make sure the people he is in contact with are treated with respect and a genuine concern for their well-being.
CTO Bio
Complimenting our CEO, our Chief Technical Officer is just that: the one in charge of all things technical. From this webpage to the status of the wheelbarrow, he is the one that is responsible. Of course, like most CTO’s, he is somewhat of an information junkie, constantly researching to stay at the cutting edge of technical advancement while trying to avoid being cut by it – he says he never owned a BETA VCR, even though technically they were/are superior to the VHS VCR’s.
Our CTO arrived in the job very much like the CEO: corporate maneuvering. Fifty years ago, he began to manipulate technology, though the first experience was nearly the last; it was there that he learned his first lessons in physics, with gravity, and the conversion of kinetic energy into other forms of energy and their effect on structures giving him his early technical lessons. As a result of the ensuing two months with his jaw wired shut, he has been trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to catch up on the conversations that he missed during that time – at least, that is the excuse he uses when he is accused of talking too much … He soon followed that up with experiments using various pieces of technology, quickly learning lessons on the reasons for GFCI’s and double insulated electrical equipment. Then there were the years spent exploring the limits of traction between rubber
and various surfaces: black ice was what you got when your boot went through the frozen surface of the “crick” into the sludge below; red ice: when you wiped out on the tube during the ice storm and you got the nickname “Rudolph”; don’t ask about yellow ice (what you get when you spill gasoline into snow? Sure – that’s it ;-)).
Over the years, personal research, as well as learning from the mistakes and succeses of others, has brought him to the point where he understands what generator harmonics are, and how they relate to harmonic tuning of a stringed instrument. He also has more than a passing knowledge of computer technology and applications – he is the one that is responsible for much of the upkeep and content of this website – though he does bow to the web guru 
on some of the more arcane details of aspx and php. He also tends to give way too much detail when asked a technical question – be warned, you may get a far more detailed answer than you wanted. So, if you have any technical questions – send him a note at andrew@eriegenerator.com: he will make every attempt to respond within 24 hours of the receipt of your message.
