[ad_1]
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THESE SALTWIRE VIDEOS
When Ajay Pilania woke on Feb. 18, 2022, he had a lot to be thankful for.
After seven years of red tape and denied visa applications, he was a business owner in Antigonish County.
His wife, Usha, and daughter, Aaryaka, had come from India to live with him above their Ultramar station and his son, Aaryaveer, would arrive in the fall.
The Pilanias were fitting into West River, a community that welcomed a young family who had saved its only gas station and store.
That morning his wife looked out the window and saw a hole in the ground.
Their 15,000-litre underground Fiberglass diesel tank had collapsed.
The insurance company attributed the collapse to “subsidence” and claimed their policy doesn’t cover geological activity.
This is the story of how just the sort of family of entrepreneurial immigrants Nova Scotia has sought, came.
How they arrived just in time to lose a game of geological musical chairs no-one knew was being played.
And how they’re being left with the bill anyway.
Peaceful namesake
In 1086, a surveyor for King William 1 walked into Foston, Lincolnshire, and recorded 64 households, 12 villagers, six small-land holders, 43 freemen and 100 acres of meadow.
When, during a break from his computer engineering studies, Ajay Pilania walked its streets more than 900 years later, the English hamlet was roughly the same size and many of the same stones remained stacked.
It was so foreign from his home in Faridabad, India – with 7,400 souls per square kilometew and all the clamour that accompanies being the world’s eighth fastest growing city.
Foston made Pilania think of quiet and peace.
It’s a name he’s carried with him.
Back home in Faridabad he named his sheet metal dye manufacturing company Foston.
“All the pollution and the corruption there, It’s too much when you have kids,” said Pilania.
Inspired by friends who had emigrated to Canada, he applied for a business investment visa and was denied.
Then he applied for a tourist visa to British Columbia and was denied.
Then to Manitoba… and was denied.
Finally, in 2018, he was sponsored by Nova Scotia under the entrepreneur stream.
It required him to invest at least $150,000 of his own money to purchase or start a business in Nova Scotia that he would actively manage.
He figured a gas station would fit – it would have established customers and a track-record of business in a community.
But there was only one gas station for sale in Nova Scotia in 2020 – the Ultramar in West River, Antigonish County.
Pilania arrived in Nova Scotia in March, 2020, a day before COVID-19 pushed the province into lockdown..
“It was an uncertain time for everyone,” said Pilania.
“I’d come so far to do something; all those years trying to get here and settle down with my family. So I wasn’t going to give up.”
That family was still in India.
The borders were closed and business was at a relative standstill.
Pilania pushed on, bought the Ultramar in September 2020 and renamed it Foston Gas Station Ltd.
Usha and Aaryaka came the following April (his son, Aaryaveer came later).
The children enrolled in school, their English improved, business started picking up and then on Feb 18, 2022, the hole appeared.
The hole
A technician came that afternoon.
Vacuum trucks came and sucked the fuel from the underground tank.
While a comparison of what was in the diesel tank to what was removed showed they must have gotten nearly all of it, there remained the likelihood that some had leaked.
Concerns with how the sinkhole could have affected the other underground tanks for gasoline meant Pilania couldn’t use them anymore, either.
So now not only did he have an environmental liability, he couldn’t sell fuel to keep the business going.
“I asked Ultramar but they said they couldn’t help me,” said Pilania of establishing a temporary setup with above-ground tanks.
Then came the letter from Totten Insurance Group.
“We refer you to section B. Excluded Perils clause m) which states this form does not insure against loss or damage caused directly or indirectly; by snowslide, landslide, subsidence or other earth movement … Our investigation revealed this loss occurred due to a sinkhole (land subsidence). As such we find Excluded Peril m. applies which bars coverage under this form.”
Replacing the damaged infrastructure would cost about $350,000.
Cleaning up the site itself comes with a cost that can only be determined when the ground is dug up and the extent of any fuel spread is ascertained.
An environmental consultant placed monitoring wells around the site.
Side business
In the meantime, Pilania had a family to feed and payments to make.
He refused to allow his Canadian dream to collapse.
He started a side business detailing cars and changing tires. He learned to undercoat vehicles to prevent rust. Pilania worked 12-hour days, seven days a week.
A young employee set up a GoFundMe that raised $3,500 from local donations.
“It wasn’t even the money, it was the feelings behind it,” said Pilania.
“The community wanted us to be here. I was so stressed out and they kept giving me positive thoughts. It gave me strength to keep going.”
He found a new company – Gulf – that came through with a temporary above-ground tank and a small loan that would allow him to start selling regular-grade gasoline again.
To be viable attracting traffic from Highway 7 where it passes his door, he will need to replace his underground tanks so he can sell multiple grades of gas and diesel again.
“I get that I’m a business and that cost is mine,” said Pilania of replacing the tanks.
“I’m not looking for anything free. I just need a low-interest loan to replace my tanks. The sinkhole wasn’t my fault. I think it’s fair to ask for support cleaning up whatever’s there.”
A report from his environmental consultant on the spill’s likely extent will come next month.
No government help
From government agencies he got compassion but no financial help.
He met with representatives of the Municipality of Antigonish County, the Department of Environment and Climate Change, Business Development Bank of Canada and Antigonish MLA Michelle Thompson’s office.
“The owner’s consultant is currently working to determine the state of the contamination and we are expecting a report from the owner’s consultant in April as part of the contaminated sites process that the property is under,” reads a written response from the Department of Environment and Climate Change to Chronicle Herald questions.
“ECC does not have any programs that assist with the cost of clean up – the property owner is typically responsible for this cost. As for what his insurance company said, we cannot comment on this as this is a civil issue between the landowner and the insurance company.”
The Pilanias are holding on.
In his little office last Friday, Ajay took a call from a worm farmer about a delivery that’ll come just before trout season opens in April.
Then he spoke about the schools in Antigonish and how good the teachers have been working with his children as they adapt to a new language and culture.
“I wish I had more time to give them,” he said of balancing his family with the demands of work.
Asked what the future held for Foston Gas Station Ltd, he said, “If I gave up easy, we never would have made it to Canada.”
[ad_2]
Source link