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Canada: Greenhouse owners slowly recovering after hydro bill fiasco

Rex Ge is overwhelmed by people's generosity. So far, it's kept him from losing his Smithville greenhouse business after a missed electricity bill last winter took him to the brink of ruin.

Ge, 59, has partially recovered — physically and financially — after friends, neighbours and even strangers raised funds and committed other acts of kindness that enabled him to reopen in May to sell flowers, plants and the large variety of garden statues he makes himself.

"Luckily I had a good community to help me keep the business going," he says.

But Ge, who broke his leg on the ice from the burst water pipes in the greenhouse and required surgery, is far from out of the woods. He says he's only been able to fix up less than a quarter of the space to have it ready for next year.

Close friend Laura Fevez, who set up a gofundme account for him, "was hoping we'd have a booming year for him. It hasn't been."

Fevez, like many others in the community, is incensed at Niagara Peninsula Energy Inc. (NPE) for disconnecting the electricity to Ge's greenhouse because the $364 bill that came due while he was in China had not been paid.

"I'm going to push again (to fundraise and put pressure on NPE through the province to compensate Ge) or he won't survive," she said.

Click here to read the complete article at www.thespec.com.
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