Electrical engineer Peter Laski opened his shop in New Toronto in 1985 and his is now the longest-serving auto mechanic shop having served the community for 35-years.

Laski has seen changes in technology over the decades that helped to revolutionize vehicles and make them more efficient, cleaner and complex to repair.

“I have taken hundreds of different courses over the years to keep up,” he says. “Many cars now are controlled by computers.”

His Minute Muffler & Brake Shop has been located for more than three decades at 3090 Lake Shore Blvd. W., near Fourteenth Street.

He remembers the simpler pre-virus days when the community was busy from manufacturing activity taking place at the former Goodyear Tire plant, Anaconda Steel, Campbell Soup and others now gone.

“We were busy back in those days,” Laski recalls. “All those people were our customers and they all had cars.”

He says there was a lot of work back then and housing and other items were affordable.

Many businesses suffered after the plants closed. He is glad that he stuck it out and says the area is on a rebound.

“Right now the area is improving,” he says. “We have more construction taking place and more people moving in.”

His busy shop is thriving with regular customers who keep returning because of the good and affordable service he provides in repairing their vehicles.

It has been a long and satisfying journey for Laski, a father of one, who was sponsored to Canada from Poland by a Mississauga church in 1982.

He pretty well arrived with the clothes on his back, his trade as an engineer and willingness to work long and hard.

His busy Minute Muffler & Brake shop, provides top service and can be reached at 416-251-2203 or minuteautoservices.com