By Irene van der Kloet
Waskatenau’s auto repair shop recently came under new ownership. In 2021, Louis and Bethany Turenne purchased the building where the previous auto shop in Waskatenau was located. About four months ago, they started their business. Louis is a journeyman welder, and up until the start of this business, he had worked in Fort McMurray for fourteen years. Bethany was always a stay-at-home mom. Louis now works as a journeyman apprentice in his own business with a fully certified journeyman mechanic as an employee. “He is very mechanically inclined, has always repaired our own vehicles, and enjoys what he does. He enjoys tires, is a tire tech, and it’s going very well. We are thrilled with the support from our community. The community is from Smoky Lake to Thorhild to Lamont,” Bethany explains. Louis does tires, maintenance, and oil changes, and the mechanic does all the repairs. “We do brakes and basic mechanical, and we don’t touch engines, those we send off to a specialty shop. But we’ll do drive shafts and the sorts as well”. Louis is the mechanic, and Bethany works at the front and does all the invoicing. She will be the first person customers see as they access the business. Louis is passionate about tires. “Living on a country road, we have had our fair share of flats, and not having a local tire repair shop, we felt like we had to fill that void. As far as brands go, we have all the major brands to entry-level tires,” Bethany adds. They have small farm equipment, vehicle and quad tires. Their daughter, Rebbekkah does detailing. “It has been very busy,” Bethany says, “we haven’t even started advertising; all clients came in by word-of-mouth. I wanted to figure out our invoicing and ordering systems before we got too busy, as there is a specialty software program for mechanical shops, and that was a big learning curve. We have that under control now.” They can order parts in and have basic maintenance parts available in the shop. They are so busy that they may expand by adding garage doors in the back and another hoist. There is already one hoist installed in the shop. With the projected expansion, they also may hire another mechanic. Bethany enjoys working in the shop. The couple also has a seed business, and they may set up a display in their shop in the spring. The seeds are all organic and are the standard hardy varieties that are grown in this climate. Some are produced, and some come from locally grown organic farms. They are open 9-5, Monday to Friday and located on 50th street in Waskatenau.
Really informative, keep up the good work. Thank you so much for sharing.