This First Person piece was written by Stephen Douglas, who lives in Vancouver. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
On an eerily quiet stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway in Ontario, somewhere between Thunder Bay and Dryden, sits a plain-looking station. No fancy canopy, no LED signage. But it’s the first break from white spruce and jack pine along the highway in close to an hour and my gas is running low, so I pull in.
Broken asphalt. Two diesel pumps and two regular gasoline pumps. The building is in need of new siding and there’s not another soul in sight. I eye it all warily before stepping out from my hatchback, loaded with all the belongings I’m bringing from Toronto to my new home in Vancouver.
I’m mid-way, with 2,000 more kilometres to go over the days ahead. It feels good to get the blood flowing through my legs again. I allow myself a little back stretch against the curve of the car door. Ah, the sun’s warmth softens the tension I have been holding from focusing on the highway’s many dips and bends all this distance. An 18-wheeler roars past, bellowing up dust. OK, time to gas up and forge onward.
Douglas relocated from Toronto to Vancouver with all his belongings in this 2016 Volkswagen Golf. (Submitted by Stephen Douglas)
“Please fill up then come inside to pay,” a hand-scrawled sign reads.
There’s no card scanner here. I lift the nozzle and flip up the lever. The pump whirrs in that familiar way, but there are no numbers appearing on the display. I’m confused. I place the nozzle into the filler and squeeze. I can feel gas running through it, but still, nothing on the display. My mind straddles two thoughts at once; keep filling, which I am doing by default, and pay whatever after, or stop, go inside to let someone know there is a problem with the pump. Well, after 20 seconds of second-guessing, I stop, pull the nozzle out and hang it back on the pump.
I open a creaky little door and am greeted by a smile from a petite woman behind a counter. “Hello,” she tilts her head with a question mark. Is she Indian? Pakistani? I’m embarrassed that I can’t tell the difference.
“I’m sorry. I was trying to fill up but the pump wasn’t working properly. It didn’t display anything.”
She said nothing, waiting for me to clarify.
“I mean, I don’t know how much I have filled up.”
“It says nothing on the pump? Did you flip the lever up?”
I explain that I could feel that some gas was flowing through the hose, but the display hadn’t changed. I hope I’m making sense.
She checks her register. The last reading was $108.48. My car wouldn’t take that much even if it was empty. Anxiety creeps into my mind. Does she think I’m trying to get away without paying?
“Well, that was someone else. Twenty minutes ago. That’s not you.”
I’m relieved. But what now?
A man appears from the back room. Overhearing us, he looks both puzzled and concerned. “Can you show me?” he asks.
“Yes. Please.”
Deepak Marwaha didn’t allow Douglas to pay for the food he bought at the gas station. (Submitted by Deepak Marwaha)
We step back outside. He looks at the pump, back at me, back at the pump again.
“May I?” he asks, lifting the nozzle from the pump.
I nod. He switches the lever on. I hear the pump whirr back into action and, to my dismay, the display lights up: 0.00 litres, $0.00.
I must appear some kind of fool.
He inserts the nozzle into the filler and runs it until it clicks off. It only took $7.88 worth.
“It’s full.”
“I know, but you see, I ran it before I came in. I only stopped because I thought there was a problem with the pump.”
“Strange. How much do you think you filled?”
“It wasn’t empty, perhaps two-thirds of a tank.”
“Well, we added $7 here.” I note that he rounded down. “So pay me whatever you feel is the correct total, but no more.”
I pay him a few dollars more than I think the true total might be, erring on the side of honouring his trust in me.
“Would you like a coffee?” he adds, pointing to the small restaurant. I notice for the first time a little sign on the window reading, “Restaurant Canadian Punjabi style.“
Douglas had Punjabi food at the gas station near Lake of the Woods, Ont. (Submitted by Deepak Marwaha)
“Actually, yes, I could use a cup to keep me alert on the drive.”
“It’s a long haul,” he agrees. I guess that is true of everyone driving this highway.
“Again, I’m very sorry for your difficulty. Thank you for filling up here.”
He is sincere in his courtesy, of course, but seems to be expressing something else. Gratitude for something bigger than my patronage, but what?
I grab a table and sit down to rest for a bit. Then I notice the floral decorations around the room. They put some thought into cheering up their customers. The coffee tastes better than I expected from a service station diner. A ramp is being built to the washroom and repair tools are out. They’re fixing things up and putting their effort into offering comfort food to South Asian commercial rig drivers, a steady stream of whom come and go while I linger. They come for the thali. I try a plate. It’s good!
As I prepare to pay at the cash, the man and the woman are waiting together for me.
She holds her hand up when I offer my card. “We could not see the readout,” he explains, “but we can tell from the difference in volume pumped, you purchased $5 less fuel than you believed. So, please, if you are OK with this, there is no charge for your breakfast.”
I know the plate I ordered was worth well beyond $10. They are being kind.
I leave both lighter and more hopeful about our future as a nation. All it took was a family fixing up a station more than 50 kilometres from the nearest town, creating a little oasis in the middle of the boreal forest for truckers who criss-cross the Canadian Shield with appliances and lumber and other essential goods that we take for granted.
Beyond that utility, though, there is something about them that makes me smile. Something in their thoughtful decoration, in their selfless service, in their joy, their gentleness, their desire to be accountable. It feels like it is one thing altogether, though I don’t quite know what to call it.
Sometimes the best things about people don’t fit neatly into labels.
Somewhere between Winnipeg and Regina, a day after my stop at his station, it crossed my mind to write this story down. I reached out to Deepak, the owner, to ensure I had his permission. He agreed, but again in the humblest terms he added that he was just doing his job.
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Demands for government intervention in Air Canada labour talks could negatively affect airline competition in Canada, the CEO of travel company Transat AT Inc. said.
“The extension of such an extraordinary intervention to Air Canada would be an undeniable competitive advantage to the detriment of other Canadian airlines,” Annick Guérard told analysts on an earnings conference call on Thursday.
“The time and urgency is now. It is time to restore healthy competition in Canada,” she added.
Air Canada has asked the federal government to be ready to intervene and request arbitration as early as this weekend to avoid disruptions.
Comments on the potential Air Canada pilot strike or lock out came as Transat reported third-quarter financial results.
Guérard recalled Transat’s labour negotiations with its flight attendants earlier this year, which the company said it handled without asking for government intervention.
The airline’s 2,100 flight attendants voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate and twice rejected tentative deals before approving a new collective agreement in late February.
As the collective agreement for Air Transat pilots ends in June next year, Guérard anticipates similar pressure to increase overall wages as seen in Air Canada’s negotiations, but reckons it will come out “as a win, win, win deal.”
“The pilots are preparing on their side, we are preparing on our side and we’re confident that we’re going to come up with a reasonable deal,” she told analysts when asked about the upcoming negotiations.
The parent company of Air Transat reported it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31. The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
It attributed reduced revenues to lower airline unit revenues, competition, industry-wide overcapacity and economic uncertainty.
Air Transat is also among the airlines facing challenges related to the recall of Pratt & Whitney turbofan jet engines for inspection and repair.
The recall has so far grounded six aircraft, Guérard said on the call.
“We have agreed to financial compensation for grounded aircraft during the 2023-2024 period,” she said. “Alongside this financial compensation, Pratt & Whitney will provide us with two additional spare engines, which we intend to monetize through a sell and lease back transaction.”
Looking ahead, the CEO said she expects consumer demand to remain somewhat uncertain amid high interest rates.
“We are currently seeing ongoing pricing pressure extending into the winter season,” she added. Air Transat is not planning on adding additional aircraft next year but anticipates stability.
“(2025) for us will be much more stable than 2024 in terms of fleet movements and operation, and this will definitely have a positive effect on cost and customer satisfaction as well,” the CEO told analysts.
“We are more and more moving away from all the disruption that we had to go through early in 2024,” she added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
