Strathearn Heights Disastrophe

A timeline

march 18, 2026

The power goes out in several buildings, and remains off overnight. EPCOR is called to the site, and remains there until well past midnight. No resolution is reached, and a supervisor is overheard saying to his coworker, "I've never seen anything like this in my life."Due to a lack of information and growing concern for the food in their fridges etc, some of the tenants in the affected buildings plug their appliances into the still-powered vehicle outlets.

March 19, 2026

Front office offers the use of the washroom facilities in one of Strathearn's show suites, as these buildings are boiler heated, and being without power for long enough means no hot water.Tenants begin receiving phone calls/emails well into the evening that somebody is on their way to the site to set up generators.Power remains off well past midnight.

march 20, 2026

A generator is up and running by morning. Tenants are informed that it will remain in place until the original issue is resolved, "and that looks like next week sometime".EPCOR was on-site this morning, and were again unable to identify or rectify the issue causing the outage at this time. The plan is for them to return after the weekend, and the issue has been escalated to another one of their departments.

March 21, 2026

Generator shuts down. It appears that it had not been refueled or supplied with DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid).Someone is called upon to come and top up the fuel, and it is back up and running by the end of the day.

march 23, 2026

Strathearn's site supervisor asks the tenants to unplug their appliances from the vehicle outlets, since the generator is "fully powering the affected suites", and that City of Edmonton inspectors had asked them to remove all extension cords across the common areas and sidewalks.

March 25, 2026

Generator shuts off around 9:30PM.Power is restored by morning.

April 1, 2026

Strathearn Heights states that they "have been actively coordinating with the appropriate utility providers [...etc]", and that they have "identified a possible solution that will allow us to transition away from generator power and restore service more quickly".As of yet, they have been unable to give the tenants any information on what that possible solution is, or provide a date as to when it will be implemented.

April 4, 2026

Power goes off around 2:00PM; the employee that arrives to add fuel to the generator said that they put the pump in, and the generator had shut off.Since it is a long weekend, nobody is working at the front office; several tenants email/call to try and figure out what is happening.Power is restored around 3:30PM.

April 6, 2026

Generator powers off around 10:00AM, and power is restored around 11:00AM.Tenants receive an email around 4:30PM from the front office:The generator that was set up initially is "actually rated for much more power usage than [all the affected buildings combined] are using", and a smaller one will be set up the following day."There is a good chance that we will require the generator for awhile longer."

April 7, 2026

The planned power outage for the generator switch-over lasts from around 11:00AM to around 1:00PM.

BONUS

March 23, 2026
A water main breaks in the back alley behind the construction site; water is shut off for buildings 39 - 48.EPCOR brings in a water cart for the affected tenants. The break is repaired in approximately a day.October 10, 2025
A gravel truck associated with the partial repaving of the rear parking lot backs into and shears off an electrical pole. The driver then attempts to drive forward with the power lines tangled on the vehicle, further damaging them. The power is out for the surrounding area overnight and into the following day.The contractor that was hired believed that it was acceptable to leave their employee to work alone, in a large vehicle, without a spotter. This employee then exited their vehicle next to a downed power line, which shows that this contractor does not keep their employees informed and safe in regards to dangerous work environments.

TODAY

As of today, 3 buildings in Strathearn Heights are still powered by a generator.EPCOR sent a bill for "electricity delivered" to the affected tenants for the period that the generator has been up and running.A mass email from Strathearn Heights is sent out on May 25, 2026 encouraging tenants to pay their bill as usual in anticipation of a refund/credit at some undefined later date.The affected tenants do not feel that it is fair to be forced to pay a bill that they did not incur.

Electric Bill Blues

EPCOR sends everyone in Strathearn Heights their monthly utility bill. This includes the tenants whose buildings are currently being powered by a generator.When tenants call to speak to someone about how they could possibly be receiving a bill for electricity delivered, nobody in EPCOR's billing department had any idea that there was a generator set up at all. Employees asked questions like "how do you know your building is hooked up to a generator?" and "who told you that you were disconnected from the main electrical grid?", and asserted that because (according to their systems) the meters were receiving power, that they were hooked up to the electrical grid.Further investigation reveals that EPCOR's systems do not have the ability to differentiate between power coming from the electrical circuit or from an outside source. If this is the case, why were the affected meters not removed at the outset of the outage, as opposed to May 19, 2026, in order to prevent this issue in the first place?EPCOR also asserts that they have not completed any recent electricity work in the Strathearn area. The new question on everyone's minds is,"When was the last time any significant underground infrastructure maintenance or rehabilitation occurred in the area surrounding the Strathearn Heights Apartments?"

Infrastructure Maintenance

According to EPCOR, when it comes to the maintenance and repair of underground utility infrastructure,"Property owners of Multi-family Unit (MFU) sites own and are responsible for the underground utility service cables on their property and any maintenance and repairs that are needed. For developments such as Strathearn Heights Apartments, this can mean that EPCOR's support is sometimes necessary when a property manager is completing upgrades, maintenance or repairs to power infrastructure on the private side."This is consistent with previous communication from them wherein they stated that "There is no repair to be completed by EPCOR, as the faulted cable is on private property."The family that built the Strathearn Heights Apartments is the same one that owns it today. The owner has declined to provide an answer to the question of when the last time underground infrastructure maintenance occcured.

Built in 1951, The Strathearn Heights Apartments are over 75 years old.

Considered at the time to be the largest apartment project of the time in Edmonton's history, the Strathearn Heights Apartments consist of just over 50 buildings of walk-up apartments.

_{More to come...}

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