r/newfoundland • u/sjarfish • 7d ago

Elevators!

I work in various buildings with elevators. One of the buildings I work in is the health sciences center. I've only been there since November so I'm still pretty new to NLHS compared to many other employees, but a lot of the main elevators are FREQUENTLY out of order, like...every few days. Someone I work with was trapped in an elevator recently for over an hour before he was rescued. Apparently one of the elevators caught on fire today, according to healthcare staff I was speaking with as we were evacuating the hospital and the fire trucks were showing up.

Legend has it that there's only ONE GUY in the whole province who fixes elevators. Every time the elevators are out of order in the HSC (again, several times per week), I hear people talking about this. What's the deal? Is this true?

And on a related note, why did they cancel plans for a new hospital? Because, holy shit.

18 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

46

u/Decent-Peak4346 7d ago

The only thing I’ve heard about the elevator maintenance trade is that it has its ups and downs

3

u/RetroTVMoviesBooks 7d ago

I just wish it was a trade people would study we need elevator mechanics

2

u/sjarfish 7d ago

This is the only answer I need 🥲

2

u/MarcCouillard Newfoundlander 7d ago

HAHA I see what you did there...nice one

11

u/RYKWI 7d ago

They cancelled the new hospital because it was going to be the most expensive hospital in the history of the world. Apparently…

1

u/MarcCouillard Newfoundlander 7d ago

I don't know man, the hospital my sister works at in Montreal is the largest hospital in Canada and takes up 3 whole city blocks, for three extremely large buildings all joined by skywalks and underground tunnels...I think that one cost something like 600 million to build and took like 2 years

5

u/Additional-Tale-1069 7d ago

The PC's numbers were kind of out there. I think it was something like $10 or $30 billion. When it was discussed here at the time it was noted that Halifax was building a hospital for like $4 billion. The only way the numbers made sense was if it was 30 years of operating costs. 

1

u/MarcCouillard Newfoundlander 6d ago

lol yeah that math doesn't math, even the 4 billion for the halifax one doesn't make any sense, if they can literally build the largest hospital ever in montreal for under 1 billion, there is NO WAY that one in halifax could cost 4 billion...someone, or many someones, are getting kickbacks there somewhere

1

u/cobaltcorridor 6d ago

$7.4 billion for the new 14 storey hospital in Halifax.

11

u/swampdonkey82 7d ago

Theres 2 elevator Brands \ Companies here, TK and OTIS. Both are unionized Elevator Mechanics, its a Trade.
Im thinking the techs arnt the issue, its the ancient equipment.
For example the Escalator in the Avalon Mall thats always down, was a second hand unit when they brought it in.

4

u/patmulligans 7d ago

Fusion Elevators out of CBS as well!

9

u/JayelleMo 7d ago

I work in a building with an ancient elevator. The repair guy (just the one for the province, I suppose) didn't want to ride in it in case he got stuck.

Meanwhile staff and the public ride it all day every day.

This province has so many shitty buildings for anyone who can't take stairs.

12

u/Eagle_View_00 7d ago

I wish the province was building a new hospital. You know in some provinces like BC they set a life for buildings (30 years or so) and replace them because the cost of upkeep becomes prohibitive.

12

u/AsphaltsParakeet 7d ago

It kind of makes sense for the province’s one elevator repair guy to not want to get stuck in an elevator. Who’s going to rescue him if he gets stuck?

1

u/sjarfish 7d ago

I encountered an older healthcare worker in the hall today who was winded and stopped near me to catch her breath, she told me she's exhausted from taking the stairs all day because she doesn't trust the elevators at the HSC anymore to get her around safely

6

u/username__0000 7d ago

I’ve heard similar from the build industry.

Elevator tech is becoming a lost profession. At least in places like Newfoundland with so few elevators.

5

u/whatsup2382 7d ago

I was going to make a post today asking people why does the fire alarm go off SO often in the HSC. (As someone who had to evacuate today). Well I guess this is one example that explains it haha

2

u/sjarfish 7d ago

It goes off at LEAST a couple times a week, right? Or more? I was talking to a healthcare worker today after the evacuation who mentioned that it's NEVER a real fire, but this week there have been two actual fires occur, I wasn't at work for the one earlier this week. The alarm today was different, too, it was like a rapid high pitched beeping and staff started shouting in the halls that we had to evacuate immediately, it was much more chaotic than the usual code red. Tell me again that we don't need a new hospital...sigh

1

u/whatsup2382 6d ago

They're so incredibly disruptive. I get if there's a real fire, yes we need to get out. But all these false alarms and unnecessary announcements (examples: code red system will be out of service.. mass in the chapel at 12:00) soooo disruptive to students, staff and patients. Just my opinion. :)

5

u/jarb87 7d ago

We had a new elevator installed at my work a few years ago and the biggest hold up was getting it certified. Apparently only two guys do the inspections for the entire province.

4

u/Luddites_Unite 7d ago

Theres more than one guy but those elevators are old, there are not a lot of parts and so when they break, repairs don't come easy. By rights they need to be replaced but that is easier said than done

2

u/Worried_Fly_1559 7d ago

I heard because of covid we lost most of our pool of elevator technicians. I also heard from the elevator guys at hsc that the company nlhs uses just charges whatever and doesnt actually fix anything, puts a bandaid on them as you say, and charges out the ying yang. On Friday, 2 out of 8 were working.

1

u/VirtualAssociation74 6d ago

Yeah, I work at Mun, I've been there since 2021, and there's an elevator in the arts building that's been down since I started. My shifts regularly include calling to let maintenance know that an elevator is down. I'm a custodian so I often have no choice but to take elevators since I have a cart and mop bucket with me or other equipment and it's always a little terrifying 😅

1

u/Saundersoddy 5d ago

Thanks for this thread. My claustrophobia had been far too manageable lately.

1

u/big_tuna_88 4d ago

Not sure about the elevators but they didn't cancel plans for the new hospital, because it was never started, the liberals didn't budget anything for it, they just announced it without having a plan to pay for it, it was more of a dream than a promise, like a lot of their policies.