Profile: Rocky’s Plumbing and Heating

Dedicated to the North for 40 years

The candles on the 40th birthday cake for Rocky’s Plumbing and Heating will be lit this year, but there won’t be much time to celebrate. As one of the main ‘go-to’ places for plumbing and heating services in the Beaufort-Delta Region of the Northwest Territories, they’ll be too busy operating their wholesale outlet, responding to emergencies, and providing service to their wide ranging clients. 

Since 1976, Rocky’s Plumbing has been providing residential and commercial plumbing and heating services, doing light industrial work, and running a wholesale outlet in Inuvik that offers everything including the kitchen sink (over 30 kinds in fact) and a complete line of plumbing, heating and ventilation products – water heaters, duct work, furnaces, registers, propane and natural gas appliances and more. Originally opened by Rocky Lemieux, son Mario purchased the business from his father in 1995, along with co-owner Wally Wolfe. Mario has been the sole owner since 2005 and continues to be guided by his father’s values to operate a strong and successful Northern business. 

“As a small business, we take pride in doing the best work we can, and knowing the people we work for. To still be in business after 40 years we know we’re doing something right, and doing right by our customers and that’s always been our goal,” says Mario. “The majority of our staff have been here an extremely long time, and their service is appreciated to no end. Even though nobody’s perfect, my staff have been through it all thick and thin and are pretty darn close to perfect.” 

Even with rising heating and power costs throughout the North translating to higher operating expenses, Rocky’s Plumbing works to ensure those rising costs aren’t passed on to customers. 

“People are already paying enough for heat and power, so we needed to change on the inside to become more efficient, to streamline, and to make it less expensive for us to do the same job,” says Mario. “It’s hard in -40 when the truck doesn’t start, things are breaking, but we are taking the extra time to do things efficiently so we stay profitable and keep our customers happy and coming back.”

It’s this ability to roll with the punches that keeps Rocky’s Plumbing in business, but they won’t be changing too much. Mario has found a formula that works and he’s sticking with it.

“We’ve been the same size and offered the same services for decades. We provide an honest, quality service to the community and surrounding area and the fact that we’ve done this for 40 years is a testament to the people we serve here. They are the ones keeping us in business and why we are here,” he says. “This isn’t just a job, I take it personally, and we all take a lot of pride in being there to help people.” 

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