By Tyler Marr

Fixing things ‘a way of life’ for Repair Café volunteers

Mar 3, 2018 | 2:27 PM

Steve Lawrence holds a bottle of glue in one hand the shard of a porcelain dish in the other. He uses a knife to scrape and smooth the chipped edge. He meticulously applies the glue, grabs a shred of tape and attaches the shard to the rest of the dish.

“And it’s fixed,” he exclaimed.

He next reaches for a set of kitchen knives and an electric sharpener. 

“Once we get this knife sharper fixed, we can sharpen these knives,” he said as he wondered over to another table and set down the appliance for repair.

Lawrence was manning the general adhesive and miscellaneous repair table at Prince Albert’s Repair Café. A vase, a set of wooden candles and a watch sat beside his overflowing toolbox. He was one of four ‘fixers’ assisting residents in the repair of everything from a coffee pot to an electric drill and digital camera at the initial event Saturday at the Margo Fournier Centre.

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“For me, fixing things is just a way of life,” he said. “I look round my house end there is nothing I haven’t modified or fixed and it has saved me thousands of dollars over the years.”

Modern household items, Lawrence said, are not nearly as durable as they once were. He said the café lends the opportunity to breathe new life into everyday objects.

“Sometimes you just have to take it apart and see if it is a loose wire or fuse or something, and maybe that is all it needs.”

Repair Cafés first started in the Netherlands in 2009, before spreading through Europe and the rest of the world. In Canada, repair cafes exist in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Red Deer and Victoria.  It is an international movement designed to reduce waste from municipal landfills. The local café is the first in Saskatchewan. 

As to the café’s benefit to Prince Albert, besides promoting community building and recycling by encouraging residents to fix their household items, Lawrence pointed towards cost savings.

“We need start getting the idea across to people that it is not a bad thing to fix things,” he said. “If you got money to spend on groceries instead of something else that is going to break, well, you are ahead of the game.”

While this was the first weekend for the event, organizers hope to grow the scope of repair tables in the future. They have expressed interest in operating the café on the first Saturday of each month, but with patrons lined up in the snow thirty minutes before opening Saturday, they are optimistic they will achieve their goal.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr