After being away from his hometown for a dozen years, a Kamsack man has returned to go into business as an electrician.
Chris Bear, the son of Doug and Susan of Kamsack, has begun working under the name Chris Bear Electrical Solutions.
“Anything to do with electrical, I have the solution,” said Bear who is a fully-qualified journeyman electrician holding Red Seal designation, meaning he is qualified to work Canada-wide.
Although specializing in residential needs, Bear said he is able to do not only residential service work, but farm installations as well.
“No job is too big or too small.”
After graduating from Kamsack Comprehensive Institute in 2004, Bear moved to Calgary where he worked and attended school for four years to acquire his electrician’s apprenticeship and obtained employment with Calgary’s largest residential electrical company which had obtained the contracts for 70 per cent of the city’s major builders.
“I worked on some of the children’s hospital lottery homes,” he said.
But, while working in the city, Bear said he had always missed home, so when the oil field slow down had begun to affect the housing market in Calgary, he decided he wanted to start his own electrical company at home.
He said that often when he had returned home for the holidays, he’d be pressed into doing jobs for people.
After taking a five-month back-packing holiday to Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Thailand, he returned in June to Kamsack in order to live “the simple life.” He set up a Facebook page, decided to acquire a work vehicle and began the business.
“I’ve just done my first solar installation,” he said last week, explaining that in a rural area, where power outages are common, he is having success installing natural gas smart generators.
Bear said that he charges customers a basic hourly rate, which he estimates is a bit lower than other district electricians, has a special reduced rate for seniors and is willing to respond to an emergency anytime of the day or night. He expects to work anywhere within a one-hour driving time radius of Kamsack.
A travel enthusiast, Bear has not only seen Australia and parts of Asia, he has travelled through Mexico, the USA and has seen most of Canada. He has visited Hawaii several times to see a sister who lives there.
“Scuba diving is a huge passion of mine,” he said, adding that although electricity and water are not usually done together, he is able to put the two together as recreation.
“I’m an avid outdoorsman and that’s one of the reasons why I decided to move back to Kamsack.”
