Pipeline News North

32530

Northern British Columbia and Alberta's Oil and Gas Industry

Vol. 2 Issue 6 • dIst: 20,325 JuNe/JulY • 2012 • FreeNorth

in this issue:• HudsoN’s Hope

- small towN buzzINg wItH

eNergY• gold

aNNIVersarY - 50 Years oF

oIlmeN’s golF• tHe race Is

oN - caNada Faces stIFF

competItIoN IN lNg market

2 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH JUNE 29 2012

PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION - HAPPENINGS

If you thought Fort St. John was unusually quiet on Sunday, June 10, that’s probably because a good portion of the city’s population spent the day recovering from the four-day long 50th Annual Oilmen’s Golf Tournament that wrapped up the previous night.

To mark the tournament’s fiftieth anniversary, the Fort St. John Petroleum Association went all out this year to put on an event to remember.

“It was the biggest budget that we’ve ever ran for the event for sure,” said the Oilmen’s golf tournament chairman Lee Hartman, who added that the committee began organizing the major event last fall.

“Giving away a driver for entering this year got nothing but good comments from all the golfers, and the amount and quality of prizes were phenomenal.”

Aside from the Nike drivers given to each golfer, other prizes ranged from trips to Hawaii, golf clubs, cash and even chances to win a 2012 Chevrolet Corvette and a 2012 Ford Mustang if you managed to get a hole-in-one (which, unfortunately, no one did).

The torrential rain the region had seen on the preceding Tuesday and Wednes-day managed to leave the area for the start of the tournament on Thursday, June 7, although the practice day on Wednesday, June 6 had to be cancelled.

“It was as good as we could’ve hoped for,” Hartman said about the weather. “The forecast going into it wasn’t looking good at all. Wednesday practice we lost out and the course was closed, but we didn’t interrupt any of the play.”

Except for a few scattered showers on Friday and Saturday, the weather at Lakepoint Golf & Country Club was ideal for the golfers. Light winds and sunshine dominated the tournament and despite a few leftover puddles on some of the fairways, participants overall said the conditions were good, especially since last year there was snow on the golf course.

From Thursday to Saturday morning, Lakepoint saw 304 golfers in 18 different sponsored flights vying for winners from 5:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., followed by a fun best-ball tournament Saturday afternoon to complete the tournament por-tion of the event. There were plenty of jovial golfers each day, who enjoyed the light-hearted competition and the socializing that came with the tournament.

“A lot of the guys come to visit and socialize,” Hartman said. “It’s not about winning or losing the golf game. It’s a pretty laid back, social event.”

Other big hits for the event was the entertainment, which the Petroleum Association ensured was some of the best on the continent.

“It was very good,” Hartman said. “Our comedian on Thursday, they really

liked him and the band [on Saturday] was crazy. It went until 2 o’clock in the morning, and people were still dancing. Over the last 20 years the dance has always been done by 10:30, so everything went well that way.”

The difference this year was that the committee brought in an award-winning cover band from San Diego called Liquid Blue. Their range of music varied from Fifties hits to popular modern music that had people dancing Saturday night into the early morning hours on Sunday.

After months of planning, the 50th Annual Oilmen’s Golf Tournament was a four-day event that many people will remember for the rest of their lives.

“A big thank you to the local sponsors and people who helped put it on, and the committee for doing a good job,” Hartman said.

“We got nothing but good comments.”

The Fort St. John Petroleum Association congratulates 2012 Oilman of the Year Darwin Pimm and 2012 Ivor Miller Award recipient Mike Kosick. Thank you for your contributions to the club and the community over the years.

KATIE MAXIMICKSTAFF WRITER

Petroleum Association President Tyler Kosick (middle) presented the Ivor Miller Award to Mike Kosick (left) and the Oilman of the Year Award to Darwin Pimm (right) on Saturday, June 9.

JUNE 29 2012 PIPELINE NEWS NORTH • 3

28231

8 Hudson’s Hope - Small town buzzing with energy

12 Foreign missions at the

Global Petroleum Show

16 Gold anniversary - 50 years

of Oilmen’s golf

industry news

community

environment

careers & training

special feature

5 Fight for fair airfares in Fort

St. John

6 Third Fort St. John Energy

Expo a modest success

10 Canadian LNG and post-

nuclear Japan

22 Shell donates school zone

speed signs in Fort St. John

20 Shelling Out - Shell

announces grant recipients

26 New grad goes job hunting at Global Petroleum Show29 Cenovus shows young trades people their future

industry newstHe race Is oNCanada facing stiff competition in battle for Asian LNG marketjames watermanPipeline News North

Canada is running a tough race against other natural gas producing countries to supply the Asian market with fuel.

That was the message from Brit-ish Columbia’s Minister of Energy and Mines Rich Coleman when he took the podium at the Fort St. John Energy Expo dinner on Wednesday, May 23 to discuss his government’s commitment to the burgeoning lique-fied natural gas (LNG) industry in the province.

“British Columbia is actually on the cusp,” said Coleman.

He was referring to the huge re-sources to be found in the tight gas and shale gas plays of Northeast B.C. and the developing projects to export LNG from Kitimat, B.C. that are being led by key industry players such as Shell Canada and Apache Corporation, but also the obstacles that stand in the way in terms of building pipeline capacity and im-proving energy infrastructure.

“Those are global players,” said Coleman, referring specifically to the LNG Canada project involving Shell, Mitsubishi Corporation, PetroChina Company and Korea Gas Corpora-tion (KOGAS), adding that they can “do remarkable things for B.C.”

However, he also noted that the province requires 25 per cent more electricity than currently available to ensure that it can power the LNG projects, particularly since LNG Canada alone could use all of the electricity produced by BC Hydro’s controversial Site C hydroelectric project, if both projects move for-ward.

“That is our global advantage,” said Coleman. “Because we have power. We’re lucky.”

Coleman also remarked that Shell likes the “green” aspect of the hydro-electricity that currently powers B.C., while also alluding to the potential use of natural gas to generate elec-tricity for the region of the Horn River Basin shale gas play in the area around Fort Nelson.

“[We need to] get it done for the future of British Columbians,” he concluded.

“Shell’s the world’s biggest player in LNG,” said Andrew Bell, the host of Commodities, Market Call and The Pitch on the Business News Network (BNN), during his presenta-tion at the dinner.

Bell remarked that the “massive” LNG Canada project would process an impressive 2.0 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas per day, which is much larger than most LNG projects proposed to date.

He also pointed to the fact that Shell, as an international company, is working on LNG projects outside of Canada as well, which is an intriguing facet of the race for the Asian market.

For example, Shell announced that they would move forward on their plan to build a floating LNG facility on May 20, 2011. The ship, known as the Prelude FLNG Project, is expected to produce 3.6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG, primarily for the Asian market, using resources from the Browse Basin of Australia.

Australia is one of Canada’s chief competitors.

“They pretty well dwarf the oil sands in terms of development,” Bell said of the land down under.

“Big rival for Canada right now,” he added.

Following the presentations, Geoff Morrison, B.C. Operations Manager with the Canadian Association of

Petroleum Producers (CAPP), told Pipeline News North that Australia is Canada’s “most parallel competitor.”

“The things that Canada has to offer are likely there in the Australia, too,” he added, noting that those attributes go beyond the rich supply of natural gas.

“The great thing about Canada is [that] we do have a stability of gov-ernment,” said Morrison, describing the Canadian advantage.

“That certainty is attractive to investors,” he continued. “We’ve got a good regulatory system – really, I think, the best in North America, both in B.C. and in Alberta, and other jurisdictions. And I think that’s also attractive.

“I think investors look at places that are good today and they go, ‘Will that be a good place to have my investment tied up in five, ten, fifty years?’ And I think that’s where Canada and B.C. excel, that ability to provide that certainty. Having said that, there are still a lot of infra-structure issues to get over to get gas to the coast in sufficient quanti-ties. There is some question about power – how will B.C. and Canada and companies arrive at a solution to what looks like a problem today? I have no doubt they will, but it cer-tainly isn’t going to happen automati-cally. So, it’s going to require some work.”

Obviously, it isn’t a two horse race between Canada and Australia either.

“The Russians own the natural gas market right now,” said Bell.

Bell also indicated, however, that Russia is unlikely to take a signifi-cant chunk of the Chinese market.

“China is the big importer,” he said, noting that Japan and South Korea are also high on that list,

continued pg 17


eNergetIc educatIoN

Arras students get a jolt of Energy in Action

industry newscommunity

james watermanPipeline News North

It isn’t likely that many people in Calgary have heard of Devereax Elementary School in the small community of Arras, just west of Dawson Creek, British Columbia, but that didn’t stop the folks from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and a handful of their member companies from stop-ping by last week.

The reason for their visit was Energy in Action, a CAPP program that travels across Western Canada every spring to teach elementary school students about energy, natu-ral resources and sustainability.

“Energy in Action likes to come to the Northeast B.C. region,” said Kim Gray of CAPP.

Last year, the program made stops in Dawson Creek and Farm-ington.

“We have a really good relation-ship with School District 59,” Gray continued. “Their facilities crew has been out today to prep this site. We’ve worked with them for the past two or three years and they’ve been instrumental in making these projects work. So, because of our relationship with SD59, I think that it was just a great opportunity for us to get out to Devereaux and to bring a program here.”

The day began in the classroom with the students learning about re-newable and nonrenewable natural resources with Inside Education.

“We had fun in the classroom by growing a forest in the classroom,” said Rachel Hofman, a natural resources educator with Inside Edu-cation. “And we looked at what trees need to live.

“And we looked at the process of hydraulic fracturing,” she continued. “And then we finished up the presen-tation with stewardship. So, we re-ally focused on how the kids can be stewards of their natural resources and what they can do in their every day lives to take care of their natural resources and the environment.”

Hofman and her colleague also shared the stage with Andrew Stiles, a bird expert from Calgary, who taught the students about the wildlife

that might be using the bird boxes they built later in the morning.

Stiles was impressed with the diversity of habitat and associated bird species in the neighbourhood of the school.

“Having him there [is] a re-ally good addition,” Hofman said of Stiles, “because he talks about birds and how kids can be stewards of birds and bird habitat and things like that. And so I think it’s a really good complement.

“They were fantastic kids,” she added. “We had so much fun.”

Principal Wanda McIntyre thought Energy in Action was a perfect fit for reinforcing the values that the school is trying to impress upon its students.

“What we want to create is critical thinkers,” she said. “And that’s what we value in our students. And so when you’re dealing with any ideas or concepts or situations or issues, we want them to have a perspec-tive – many perspectives – on it. So, that’s the way we’re viewing this. It’s like an opportunity to meet some new people and to have their per-spective presented to the kids.”

McIntyre was impressed with Inside Education as well.

“The teachers are excellent teach-ers,” she raved. “And they have the kids engaged in a way that keeps them on task and interested in the topics, which are hard topics.

“These kids care very much about the earth,” she continued. “And it seems like there’s a lot of anxiety with kids around the things that they see happening. And so to have them get some answers or some infor-mation shared, then we take that information and we do with it what we want after.”

The students at Devereaux El-ementary have shown their passion for environmental protection through recycling at school and develop-ing initiatives such as their litterless lunch.

“They’re thinking always about how we’re going to reduce and not be such consumers,” said McIntyre.

“What we want [is for] the kids to realize that there’s ways that you can balance,” she continued. “Just to let them know that there are people

with different wants and needs than they have, too. And then how do we all balance that? And what is best for the earth? What is best for the com-munity? And sometimes it takes a lot of hard discussions, but the main thing is that you’re knowledgeable.”

The students are very aware of energy sector activity, said McIntyre, because of pipelines running through their property and the presence of other exploration and development infrastructure in their community.

“They’ve got concerns [and] they’re very open and honest about [them],” she added.

That is largely why McIntyre felt Energy in Action wasn’t just a learn-ing opportunity for the students, but also an opportunity for the energy company representatives to learn from the students.

“The kids understand more than adults think,” she said. “They’re just not able to communicate it as clearly. But their fear is that they have to take care of the earth and they feel like maybe not such a good job has been done or is being done.”

Encana’s Brian Lieverse saw plen-ty of value in talking to the children about natural resources and their concerns about their development.

“If you aren’t learning something from these kids, then you’re not pay-ing attention.,” said Lieverse. “So, it was great to talk to them, great to get some of their feedback and what they see our industry is about.

“Any time we’re talking to the com-munity, whether it’s kids or adults, we should always be taking some-thing back,” he continued.

“Things that they like about what we’re doing. Maybe things that we need to do a better job of. We can always communicate better with the communities. So, this was a good chance for us to talk to the young people, because they’re a reflection, quite often, of what the community thinks. They’re so open. They’re always willing to tell you what they think.”

Encana was just one of eight energy sector companies that par-ticipated in the event at Devereaux Elementary, a group that also in-cluded Murphy Oil, ARC Resources,

continued pg 24

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FIgHtINg For FaIr FaresFort St. John energy sector could

benefit from competitive air travel rates

Number oNe prIorItYB.C. government launches air monitoring program in South Peace


A new battle in the perennial war against exorbitant Air Canada airfares began dur-ing the first day of the Fort St. John Energy Expo on Wednesday, May 23.

Darren Thomson of the Fort St. John Airport Services Development Committee set up shop at the trade show to launch a letter writing campaign to express the air travel concerns of Fort St. John residents to the airline.

“What we’re here doing today is [gathering] signatures on letters so that we can provide those to Air Canada to highlight the concerns we have in our community for the rates that they charge for flying to Vancouver,” said Thomson.

“Or flying to any destination from here,” he added. “Their tier structure is such that it gets out of hand very quickly with the rates they charge.”

Thomson continued to explain that rate structure.

“If the wind is blowing in the right direc-

tion on the right day, and all the stars are in alignment, we can get a round trip to Vancouver for $534 before taxes,” he said.

“However, if anything is not perfect in that arrangement, and the plane is start-ing to get beyond a certain percentage full, it jumps to as high as $2444 to get Vancouver, return, before taxes. So, we can end up with a flight that costs nearly $2800, once that’s all said and done, just to fly down to Vancouver.”

Indeed, Thomson had a copy of an in-voice for ticket purchased online through Air Canada that told that exact story. Additionally, that ticket was for a business trip taken by a Northern Health employ-ee, which means that that price was paid with tax dollars.

The Airport Services Development Committee chose to bring that message to the Energy Expo because it is a situ-ation that affects the local oil and gas industry considerably, particularly when it is trying to attract skilled labour from other parts of the country.

“They have to bring them from other communities,” said Thomson. “From Van-couver. From Calgary. Edmonton. Even from the east coast of the country. And one of the things they have to deal with in hiring these people and in trying to attract them is the cost... to get them home to their families.

“These individuals, in most cases, have to pay out of their own pocket to go home,” he continued. “And when they see the price of airfares out of here, some of them decide not to come here and work because they can’t get home easily enough.”

The prices can also be a concern for

companies that have to fly their local employees to Calgary or Vancouver for business reasons.

“Some of those larger oil companies, they have their own planes,” said Thom-son. “And some of them have had them for a long time. Several have had to add planes so that they can service even just their corporate staff – their corporate executives – to get in and out as well. So, that has impacted them for sure. Some of them aren’t doing the kind of travel-ing that they would like to be able to do because there... isn’t capacity up here or [the cost is too high]. Some of these companies are... buying 50 to 100 flight passes at a time. And they want to get the best value that they can for that as well.”

Thomson had 65 signed letters by the midpoint of the second day of the Expo, but that isn’t the only reason he has to believe that change is on the way.

“The Airport Services Development Committee put together a brochure – a document – that was sent to the airlines in North America, both commercial and charter, in order to tell them about Fort St. John, show them the stats here, what the feel in the community is around air travel, and where they will go to in order to catch an economical flight,” he said. “And as a result of that, there has been some interest expressed by several dif-ferent airlines. And it’s just interest at this point.

“We know that WestJet is buying a smaller aircraft to service markets such as Fort St. John. But they’re going to be a little coy in how they respond to that until the planes are in their hands and they set the routing.”

Darren Thomson of the Fort St. John Airport Services Development Committee was asking visitors and exhibitors at the Fort St. John Energy Expo to sign a letter to Air Canada highlighting concerns about high airfares.

JAMES WATERMAN PHOTO


Air quality was identified as a key health concern for residents of northeast British Columbia during the first phase of the Prov-ince’s assessment of health risks that could potentially arise from oil and natural gas exploration and development in the region.

As a result, the Ministry of Environ-ment is leading a three-year air monitor-ing program in the South Peace that will focus on hydrogen sulphide (H2S), sul-phur dioxide (SO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Particulate matter, ozone and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) will also fall under the umbrella of the study.

“Our intention is to establish a more comprehensive monitoring network in the Peace Region that includes a combination of fixed monitoring stations and temporary sites, as well as passive monitors to ad-dress residents’ concerns about air quality,” said Minister of Environment Terry Lake.

The first year of the program will involve the immediate establishment of monitoring stations in a pair of rural loca-tions deemed to be priorities, probably two of Rolla, Tomslake, Groundbirch and Farmington.

Information obtained through the pro-gram will be made available to the public.

“Our government agrees that it’s im-portant that the public receive open and

transparent access to information that could affect their health,” Lake added. “This new program is a great example of how government and industry can work together to ensure public health and the environment are protected.”

That collaboration includes sharing the $550,000 cost of the first year of the pro-gram between the Province, the BC Oil and Gas Commission (OGC) and mem-ber companies of the Canadian Associa-tion of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).

Dawson Creek mayor Mike Bernier is pleased the program is starting in his neck of the woods.

“The South Peace is so active right now – right now it’s one of the more ac-

tive places in the province – and so right now they’re looking at starting with this pilot project, putting out some of these air monitoring systems, which, of course, as a community and as a region down here, we welcome,” he said.

“We’re happy about this,” he continued. “I guess it’s better late than never, so to speak. I mean, the last thing we want to do is [do this] ten years down the road, after you find out there’s a whole bunch of people sick. We’d rather know now if there are health concerns that can be addressed.

“Even better, maybe there are no health concerns, and it can put minds at ease.”

industry news


You’re sitting in an office across from a mortgage loans officer. It could be in a bank, a credit union, or another lender. You’ve signed all the papers for your mortgage.

Now comes a question that you haven’t thought about: “Would you like to have mortgage life insurance?”

“What’s that?” you ask.

“If you die, the mortgage life insurance will pay off your mortgage so your spouse or family doesn’t have to worry about it.”

You, like many others, are tempted to respond, “Where do I sign?”

But wait a minute! Think about what you’re getting before you put your name on that mortgage life insurance application.

Put yourself in charge

The primary difference between a life insurance policy and mortgage life insurance from a mortgage lender is control. With a life insurance policy that you own, you decide who the beneficiary will be; with mortgage life insurance, the financial institution is the beneficiary and gets all of the death benefit.

With life insurance, your beneficiary chooses how to spend the tax-free death benefit from your life insurance policy. That could be to pay down the mortgage or other debts, invest rather than pay off a low-interest mortgage, cover living expenses, or make important purchases. These options don’t exist when your mortgage lender controls the proceeds.

Many homeowners don’t realize that mortgage life insurance is actually

decreasing term insurance. The amount you owe on your mortgage goes down as you make payments on the principal. At the same time, the death benefit of the mortgage life insurance goes down by the same amount. But your mortgage life insurance premiums stay the same, so you’re actually getting less coverage for your money every time you make a mortgage payment.

Here’s another point worth considering. Many homeowners will change mortgage lenders during the time they’re paying off their home, especially if they can get a lower interest rate somewhere else. If you take your mortgage to another company, in most cases, you lose your mortgage insurance and have to apply again at the new company.

In short, you lose control, value, and flexibility when you sign for mortgage life insurance with your mortgage lender.

An alternative to consider

Using an individual life insurance policy to protect your mortgage offers numerous advantages. It’s important to note the difference between an individual and group insurance policy. With mortgage life insurance, you’re a member of a group -- a collection of people who have mortgage debt with the same lender. The lender or insurer may cancel a group policy at any time, and that means you could lose your coverage.

With an individual life insurance policy, you’re in control, so you’re the only person who can cancel or alter your policy.

Another benefit if you choose the life insurance route: the value of the death benefit doesn’t decrease as you make mortgage payments. A life

insurance policy with a face value of $100,000 will be worth that much as long as you make the premium payments.

Control leads to flexibility

If you have a life insurance policy to protect your mortgage, and a better mortgage rate exists at another company, you can transfer your mortgage to that company knowing your insurance remains in force. You don’t need to re-apply. You’re protected from the danger of not qualifying for a new life insurance policy if your health changes.

If price is a concern, be sure to consider all your options and what value you get for your money. Depending on the policyholder’s age and the amount of the insurance policy, individual life insurance may be cheaper than the lender’s mortgage life insurance. It’s worth talking to an advisor to see how the policies compare.

Articles supporting mortgage insurance rather than a policy to protect your mortgage have indicated the lender probably won’t ask you to fill out a medical questionnaire. If you’re applying for a large mortgage, however, banks in particular will likely demand that you fill out a more detailed health application, and perhaps ask for a blood or urine sample. Usually the more detailed medical information required by insurance companies actually protects you. In short, these articles often fail to explain the benefits of value, control, flexibility, and security when an individual life insurance policy covers mortgage debt.

Submitted by: First Choice Insurance & Investment Services Inc. © Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, 2011

BENEFIT FACTS Make the best choice for your mortgage protection

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The advisors at First Choice Insurance & Investment Services Inc. are contracted with Sun Life Financial Distributers (Canada) Inc. a member of the Sun Life Financial group of companies. © Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, 2011.

32441

a modest successThird Fort St. John Energy Expo a step in the right direction


When Energy Services BC (ESBC) began plan-ning the third annual Fort St. John Energy Expo, their goal was to unite local service providers with the real decision-makers from oil companies based in Calgary in a way that no trade show had done previously.

Although the event was not a total success in those terms, Art Jarvis, Executive Director South for ESBC, suggested that it was a positive step in the right direc-tion.

“It’s just a networking opportunity between the service sector and the producers that are working in our area, specifically from Calgary,” said Jarvis.

“And so what we needed to achieve [was to] get the right people from Calgary, meaning operations per-sonnel such as drilling superintendents, completions managers, get them up here so that they can meet face to face with the … service sector [companies] that do their work or can provide the equipment to do their work up here.”

Jarvis was pleased with the participation by compa-

nies such as Progress Energy Resources, who had production foreman Lee Wizniuk in their contingent, and Shell Canada, whose team included a completions superintendent.

“I like the Expo,” said Wizniuk. “It gets our name out. It lets everybody in the industry know who we are, what we’re about, what we’re doing. So, it’s a good deal.

“We’re all trying to do the same thing.”The participation by Progress and Shell was not unex-

pected, as both companies are currently quite active in the Montney natural gas play of the Fort St. John area. However, Devon Energy, a company that isn’t very busy in the region at the moment, also had a booth at the Expo.

“Devon didn’t bring anybody from Calgary, but they are not doing the exploration and expansions that Shell and Progress are doing,” said Jarvis. “They did bring all their key people from the local branch that do make the decisions. They basically are doing maintenance to their wells here. And so these people are ones that are doing work – they are the right guys to talk to.

“Until they start doing some of those big projects,” he added. “And when they decide to branch into the bigger

projects, then it will be necessary to talk to the Calgary engineers. But right now they did provide the local engineers and production foreman, the superintendent. I think they did a good job of representing themselves here.”

Much of the feedback from the exhibitors has been positive.

“The only legitimate complaint that I’ve heard about the whole Expo is there wasn’t enough people out of Calgary that they have to actually talk to,” said Jarvis, noting that oil companies from Calgary who chose not to attend also missed an opportunity to get a firsthand look at some of the newest and most innovative heavy equip-ment in the industry.

“We have some unique equipment here that they don’t have in the rest of the world,” he added. “So, we can provide that to oil and gas companies right here.

“The people who did come from Calgary and got to see that equipment, they can say, ‘Well, you know, there’s a real investment here in the community to build specialized equipment to do what we need done.’”

“It’s been a great experience,” said Scott Hendrick-son, a corporate accounts manager with service pro-

industry news

vider Clean Harbors.“We’ve met a lot of contacts here, both

existing contacts and we’ve made some new ones. It’s been an excellent show in the sense that there’s a lot of the [explo-ration and production] companies, as well as the service companies.”

Hendrickson remarked that he met industry people from Calgary during the Expo whom he had only previously communicated with via telephone or email, despite the fact that he is based in Calgary as well.

“There have been other shows that I haven’t found as valuable as this one,” he added.

The value for Hendrickson wasn’t solely about talking to the producer com-panies, but also about talking to other service providers.

“Some of them are competitors, but some of them are people we work with as well,” he said. “So, it’s great to get to-gether with those guys and to determine what’s worked well on projects we’ve worked on together in the past and may-be how we can work together on future projects to benefit multiple companies.”

Daryl Hosker, President of Cancor Rathole in Fort St. John, was slightly less impressed.

“There was a lack of Calgary custom-ers,” he said.

That certainly wasn’t due to a lack of effort on the part of the local service sec-tor, according to Hosker.

“A lot of time was put into bugging CAPP (Canadian Association of Petro-leum Producers) about getting those types up here,” he added.

“It’s a point that was raised to us,” said Geoff Morrison, B.C. Operations Man-ager with CAPP.

“And we sent that message out to our members and stressed that… point,” he continued. “At the end of the day, CAPP can encourage our members to do those things, and they’ll act individually to do what they think is best for their company. But I understand that perspective. And the point of this is to get new relations with decision-makers in the business.

“So, we’re moving toward that as best we can. And I still call this a success, the event, and we’ll continue to participate in the future.”

Morrison admitted that finding the best timing for an event that brings the pro-ducers and service providers together in one place can be challenging, noting that the two sides often operate on different timelines.

“It is tough to find time in the immedi-ate future when you’re thinking about six or seven or eight months further down the road,” he said of the producers. “So, I don’t know the answer [as to] how we square that. I mean, there’s probably an MBA student out there somewhere study-ing this.

“CAPP’s going to continue trying to narrow that gap as best we can,” he added. “And every year we’ll make an improvement on that, hopefully.”

Jarvis felt the timing issue was allevi-ated by moving the event from the fall to the spring.

“The turnout is so good even though we just had an expo about eight months

ago,” he said.“This is good timing because it’s a bit

of a relaxed time for a lot of people,” he continued, suggesting that ESBC will continue to hold the Expo in the spring.

“I mean, certainly, in the service sector, we’re not doing much here until the bans come off [the roads]. So, I’m sure that Calgary is in planning stages right now, but they’re probably a lot easier to get out of the office and get up here now than they are after the operations get going and they’re dealing with day to day… issues.”

Morrison also indicated that it can be difficult to gauge the success of such an event, as it can’t really be measured in terms of deals signed.

“Those things don’t happen in a… timeframe around a trade show,” he said. “But those relationships – and the mar-ketplace is the same as any relationship – they develop and they mature and they evolve over time.”

That is one area where Hosker and Morrison appear to see eye to eye.

“If you think, coming into this, that you’re going to come out of this with a bunch of work, and that’s what you’re going to focus on, than you’re a terribly naïve businessperson,” said Hosker.

“[It should be] an extremely small percentage of your advertising time,” he added.

Regardless of what happens at the Energy Expo, said Hosker, it is neces-sary for local service providers to travel to Calgary to meet with the energy sector decision-makers one-on-one.

“It’s our job to sell,” he said. “Not nec-essarily their job to learn.”

However, it seems that learning is also the job of the service provider when the plans of producer companies not current-ly busy in the region remain uncertain.

“How do you get yourself prepared as a service provider for the company that will be here in the future in the sense that they have land today, but they aren’t active in it?” said Morrison. “And that’s a new business development problem.

“It’s an industry that has, I think, ben-efited from not having to do a lot of new business development,” he continued. “Because you’re always busy.”

Still, it is important to fight the image of complacency.

Even though Cancor Rathole has enjoyed steady work and solid relation-ships with the industry players operating in the region, Hosker continues to attend trade shows such as the Energy Expo to show that his company isn’t becoming complacent.

He looks back to a few years ago when the industry was really booming in North-east B.C. and many service providers stopped attending trade shows.

“They just thought, ‘Hey, we’re busy. We’re wide open. Why would I spend the money to go to the show and have a booth? We don’t need the work. We’re flat out as it is.’ That was their attitude, which is a wrong attitude. But that was an attitude that I heard,” said Hosker.

“Things will slow down,” he continued. “So, when they slow down, you’re still there. I didn’t quit going to Calgary and doing my three [or] four weeks a year in

a [public relations] stance just because, well, we’re wide open, we really can’t handle any more work. But you still go see all those people. Because it will change. So, when it changes, then you better be ready.”

Hosker suggested that it is also impor-tant to keep demonstrating to the industry that contractors based in Fort St. John are ready to do their work.

“What they do [is] they come, they look, they see, and then they get im-pressed and realize what is here,” he said of oil company representatives visit-ing the Expo.

The word then circulates through the company that there are local contractors ready and able to do the work.

“There’s been a huge push over the years, which is great on the oil company, to use local,” Hosker continued.

“It’s a big push from [the smaller] to the bigger companies to really push using local or giving local contractors the op-portunity. We’re kind of succeeding. So, that’s why five years ago [or] ten years ago, this [kind of trade show] was a lot more critical than it is today, because more are being utilized.”

ESBC is trying to grow the employment of local contractors with their BC Based Business Certificate program that they launched last year.

“The BC Based Business Certificate program is really getting some good trac-tion with more of the oil companies,” said Jarvis.

“Last year, Shell had just come on-board, and they do walk the walk besides talk the talk. They make sure that they push that BC Based Business Certificate program on their local contractors. When they brought an engineering firm to do their facilities, they made sure that the engineering firm talked to us first – talked to Energy Services BC first – to see who was locally based here.

“And there’s a few other oil companies that are very excited about using this as a way of procurement, as a way of decid-ing who gets first opportunity.”

ESBC met with Minister of Energy and Mines Rich Coleman during the Energy

Expo to discuss the program.“He had his question and answer pe-

riod with us so he could understand the program,” said Jarvis.

“I think he’s going to help us. What we need is their representation too, so that each time he talks to an oil company, he can bring up Energy Services BC and the BC Based Business Certificate program. And the exposure that way is going to de-velop it further and create an importance in other producers’ minds too.”

Jarvis suggested that ESBC will double their efforts to promote the Energy Expo in Calgary for next year.

“Bigger lobbying in Calgary,” he said. “When we go back … to Calgary and talk to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and let them know how our event was structured and what they could have attended, the ones that didn’t attend, and the results of it all, I think that next year we’re planning on having more par-ticipation from Calgary at a higher level.”

Jarvis believes that word will get around that those who didn’t attend lost an opportunity to meet with B.C.’s Minis-ter of Energy and Mines Rich Coleman and Prince George-Peace River MP Bob Zimmer and hear their views on the oil and gas industry in the province.

“I would have liked to have seen more oil company personnel attend those speeches,” he said.

That type of opportunity should be a selling point for the next Expo.

“We don’t get to hear that level of government come here and speak at any other event,” added Jarvis.

Hosker discussed another option with ESBC President Dave Turchanski during the Expo. His idea involves moving the Expo back and forth between Fort St. John and Calgary.

“Take it down to them next year,” he explained. “Bring it back the next year. Alternate back and forth, taking this show to the customers.

“Costs more money for the local con-tractors to go down there and do that,” he added, “but [there] can be a lot bigger return. So, then it’s not more expensive, because you did better.”

Art Jarvis (right), Executive Director South for Energy Services BC, talks business with exhibitors at the Fort St. John Energy Expo.




special feature

Not so sleepY small towN buzzINg wItH eNergY


Deep in the Peace River Valley of Northeast British Columbia, not far from the bustling oil and gas industry cities of Dawson Creek and Fort St. John, there is a picturesque little hamlet known as the Land of Dinosaurs and Dams, a moniker that only alludes to the energy humming just below its quiet surface.

That community is Hudson’s Hope.It is perhaps best known for the ancient

fossils on display at the Hudson’s Hope Museum and the rushing waters of the Peace River that inspired the construc-tion of the Peace Canyon Dam and the W.A.C. Bennett Dam, the energy infra-structure that has given the village its reputation as a BC Hydro town.

However, that isn’t really the case anymore.

“Everybody used to call us that sleepy little town in the valley,” said Mayor Karen Anderson, taking a break from her cook-ing duties during the community pancake breakfast at the Bullhead Mountain Curl-ing Club.

“And it was,” she continued. “I mean, our housing starts were virtually nil over the years. We never had any multiple family dwellings other than the two row

houses that were built here in the sixties – early sixties – for the construction of the dam. But one of them was still owned by BC Hydro. So, it was just [for] their employees only.

“Now, we’re looking at more of a growth and a rebirth out here.”

Anderson noted that the growth is obvi-ous even just when driving through town.

Hudson’s Hope now has the first apart-ment building in its long history. One new hotel is under construction, while another is already up and running. The first day of Local Government Awareness Week also coincided with the grand opening of their new water treatment plant.

The facility – which had actually been online for ten days prior to the official opening – replaces the old water treat-ment system that had been in use for about fifty years. It includes a switch from chlorine gas to sodium hypochlorite and a combination of two sand filters, a coarse filter and a fine filter that actually uses more effective crushed ceramic instead of real sand. A coagulation process will also be used to remove solid particles from the water at times when the Peace River – the water source for Hudson’s Hope – has higher than normal turbidity, particu-larly during summer rainstorms.

The total cost of the project was $1.46

million and the Province contributed $973,333 in the form of a grant, while the remainder was funded by capital money that Hudson’s Hope had in reserve.

“The need for that plant was identi-fied probably ten years ago or more,” said Anderson. “And we went through a couple of changes in staff. So, it would just about get to fruition, and then we had a change in staff. And then [there] was also the problem of ... what was the best way to go.”

The district had first considered a mem-brane water treatment plant, but the cost was too high.

It was decided that a new water treat-ment facility was necessary when the discovery of trace amounts of harmful contaminants in the water sparked fears of repeating the tragic events following the contamination of the water supply in Walkerton, Ontario in 2000.

“And so it was really a health issue [that] was the biggest thing,” said Ander-son, adding that the existing facility was “very outdated.”

Peace River North MLA Pat Pimm described the old system as a “disaster” when he addressed the district council and the handful of Hudson’s Hope resi-dents who attended the ribbon cutting.

“[Clean water is] the right of every com-

munity,” he said.The new plant is located near the

corner of Dudley Drive and Kyllo Street, which is a residential area of the com-munity. Citizens had expressed a desire that the facility blend in with those sur-roundings. Consequently, the system is enclosed in a fairly typical house-style building and the lawn will be landscaped with new grass and flowers.

However, if BC Hydro’s Site C hydro-electric project is approved, the plant will have to be relocated.

“I’m pretty excited that it’s finally on-line,” said Anderson.

“You get a sense of accomplishment that we’ve done something for the com-munity.”

It was also a necessary addition to the town considering the anticipated growth.

Not surprisingly, natural resource industry activity is spurring that growth in Hudson’s Hope, but what may be a surprise is that BC Hydro is no longer leading the way.

The sectors that are now becoming the big drivers are the oil and gas, and mining industries.

A pair of mining operations have been showing considerable interest in local resources over the past few years, includ-ing the Canadian branch of Chinese


28392

company Kailuan Dehua.“They’re just on the verge of looking at

their bulk permitting sample,” said Ander-son. “So, if that bulk permitting sample gets approved, and we’re just waiting any day for that, that will bring in, right away, about forty-some employees, just to do that bulk sampling.

“That’s 100,000 tonnes of coal that will come out for a bulk sampling.”

Anderson recently received word that another mining company, Cardero, is currently moving forward on the environ-mental assessment for their project.

“Do we sit and wait for them to say [they’re] moving into our community?” said Anderson.

“We have to be proactive, get out there, and do some of this building so that we’re ready for them when they come.”

Presently, the population of Hudson’s Hope is just over 1000 people, but Ander-son said that number could easily double if just one of those mines is built.

Additionally, natural gas exploration and production is already making its mark in the area, not only in nearby Fort St. John, but also just outside of Hud-son’s Hope.

“We’ve been active in Farrell Creek for a few years now,” said David Markham, team lead for stakeholder relations for Talisman’s operations in the Montney tight gas play, discussing his company’s presence in the Hudson’s Hope region.

“Talisman is the big player here,” added Anderson, noting that the com-pany is becoming a very strong supporter of the community as well.

That support has included leading the team of energy sector volunteers at the first Energy in Action event ever held at Hudson’s Hope School on Wednesday, May 30.

Energy in Action is a Canadian As-sociation of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) program that travels to elementary schools in areas of oil and gas industry operations to teach the students about topics ranging from renewable and non-renewable resources to hydrau-lic fracturing, as well as the basics of energy, conservation and environmental stewardship.

The latter featured a class with Calgary-based bird expert Andrew Stiles and the construction of bird boxes to cre-

ate new homes for local species during the Hudson’s Hope stop.

“This is our first time doing this here in Hudson’s Hope,” said Kim Gray of CAPP. “It’s really awesome that we’ve gotten so much company support.”

Talisman was joined at Hudson’s Hope School by Canbriam Energy, Champion Technologies, Tervita, Golder Associates, Suncor and ConocoPhillips.

“Hudson’s Hope is a really unique little community,” Gray continued. “And we’re really excited to enhance the outdoor classroom and… teach the students about birds and the bird habitat. And build more bird boxes.”

Hudson’s Hope School Principal The-resa Dantuma was thrilled to be included in the Energy in Action schedule this year.

“I think it means an awful lot of excite-ment,” said Dantuma. “[The students are] getting the opportunity to create some-thing that, before, just seemed to be a dream. They’re learning all kinds of skills [and] information.

“It’s just exciting that there’s just so much participation, so much excitement,” she added.

“It’s awesome.”

Susan Stark, a 42-year resident of Hudson’s Hope just beginning her first term as a school board trustee with School District 60, was “very impressed” by the content of the classroom session delivered by Inside Education as well as the interaction between those teachers and the students.

Stark also emphasized the importance of the collaboration between the various groups involved in delivering Energy in Action.

“We sometimes only get one side of things,” she said. “And I think it’s very key to have the children be exposed to a whole learning situation like this.”

“It’s a partnership,” added Paul Per-kins.

Perkins has been with Talisman at their Fort St. John office for about four years, frequently traveling to Hudson’s Hope as per his stakeholder relations role with the company.

“To have a successful partnership,” he continued, “you need to understand each other and to move forward on that. And part of that is this relationship that we’re building right now. They’re always ongoing. And in this case, we’re working with the school. So, it will be the kids, but

it’s also the teachers, it’s the residents of Hudson’s Hope.”

Perkins explained that Talisman sought to build a good relationship with Hud-son’s Hope from the moment they first set foot in the Farrell Creek area, an effort that has involved regular visits with the mayor and the district council, as well as open houses that allow residents to talk to company representatives about the development.

“We were proactive,” he said.Talisman held their latest open house

at the Hudson’s Hope Community Hall on Wednesday, June 13, just two days after a community open house with natural gas processing and transmission com-pany Spectra Energy.

“We have a long tradition of conducting open houses in conjunction with the com-munities so that we can inform them of the development activity,” said Markham.

“More importantly,” he continued, “to have personnel from Talisman available to answer any questions and respond to any concerns that community members may have.”

Energy in Action acknowledges that children also have concerns – even fears – when it comes to oil and gas industry activity where they live.

“Everybody has that natural fear until it’s explained,” said Perkins.

“Here’s an opportunity to take a look at some of the things that are happen-ing in the area, whether it’s wind farms, whether it’s hydroelectric, whether it’s oil and gas development, or even forestry,” he added.

“All natural resource development.”“If there are questions or concerns

about development, this is a good place to voice those questions to the compa-nies that are here,” said Gray.

“This is a collaborative effort,” she continued. “And that’s what’s so unique about this program, is that everybody’s here at once. It’s not just one company. It’s not just one community investment agenda. It’s everybody here working together.

“It’s important to connect the communi-ty here to the faces of industry to ensure that they create those solid relationships. So when there are questions in the fu-ture, they know who to contact.”

Hudson’s Hope residents and district councillors, along with mayor Karen Anderson, tour the community’s new water treatment facility. It is just one of a number of new additions to the burgeoning resource town.

JAMES WATERMAN PHOTOS

continued pg 25


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IN tHe eNergY mIXWhere does Canadian LNG fit in post-nuclear Japan?


When a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan on March 11, 2011, it drastically altered the energy landscape of the Asian nation.

Ocean water from the consequent tsunami deluged the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, instigating a nuclear disaster that has resulted in the shutdown of fifty operational nuclear facilities and a switch to fossil fuels such as coal and oil to satisfy the electricity demand.

There is apparently no guarantee that any or all of those nuclear reactors will come back online.

It is a situation that could prove advantageous for a Canadian natural gas industry trying hard to secure Pacific Rim customers for its substantial shale and tight gas resources in Alberta and British Columbia.

“The nuclear disaster has caused them to look at other fuels and natural gas is probably the one that is top of mind,” said David Pryce, vice president of operations with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).

“We’ve got a significant growth in gas availability in the world,” he continued. “And B.C. is positioned to play a

huge part in that with their Horn [River Basin] and Mont-ney plays, and the LNG (liquefied natural gas) projects.”

LNG is the hot topic of the day with major companies Apache, Encana and EOG Resources working toward completing their Kitimat LNG export facility by 2015 and Shell Canada partnering with PetroChina Company, Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation to develop their LNG Canada project.

China is the most frequently mentioned destination for the fuel, but other potential markets in Asia include Korea, Vietnam and Japan.

Interestingly, Japan is already the largest importer of LNG in the world, but they don’t presently buy any of that product from Canada.

The B.C. government is clearly trying to reverse that trend with the emphasis on LNG exports in their Natural Gas Strategy launched this past winter.

“We are aggressively promoting our LNG potential,” said a Ministry of Energy and Mines spokesperson.

“We have reached out to investors and continue to build strong relationships in Asia, including a recent trade mission to Japan, Korea and the Philippines by our Premier Christy Clark.”

“Japan was one of the pioneers of LNG, especially LNG imports,” said Peter Tertzakian, chief energy econo-mist at ARC Financial.

“They put in a policy to get rid of their power generation from oil and replace a significant portion of their growth fraction using LNG, but they also built more nukes and they used more coal at that time,” he continued.

“Their overall energy consumption, like most western countries or westernized countries, has been flat over the last fifteen years. Or flat even to declining. So, their LNG consumption was pretty steady. Now, it’s set to grow.

“How that nuclear fraction is going to be replaced between coal and natural gas… and some renewables is what I don’t know. We need to find that out. But I suspect that half to two-thirds would be natural gas. And poten-tially more over time.”

“The challenge we’ve got is to think and act strategi-cally and move quickly,” said Pryce. “Because countries like Australia are doing the same thing. Countries like Qatar are doing the same thing.

“As we look at the marketplace for Canadian gas and look at the fact that the traditional marketplace in the [United States] is being well supplied by the new shale

industry news


gas plays in the U.S., we need to be looking into Japan and, quite frankly, the rest of Asia as we look to grow that pro-duction in B.C. and realize the benefits of that resource.

“We need to access those Asian markets.”

Tertzakian suggested that Australia is Canada’s chief competition for supplying Japan – and the rest of Asia – with LNG, while the U.S. is now the number one nat-ural gas producer in the world, ahead of Russia, after years of being a net importer with Canada as one of its suppliers.

“It’s not only proximity,” Tertzakian said of Australia’s potential advantage in the LNG marketplace.

“I think it’s that they are able to bring large quantities of their natural gas to market quickly. They have a longer his-tory of supplying those Asian markets than the Canadians do. So, they’ve been very aggressive and successful at it.”

The Japanese demand for LNG seems to be a difficult quantity to measure.

Paul Summerville, a professor in the Peter B. Gustavson School of Busi-ness at the University of Victoria, who spent fifteen years in Japan in addition to studying Japanese energy policy as a graduate student, said that Japan’s en-ergy needs haven’t changed since their oil crisis of 1973.

“It can only cover its own oil use about one or two per cent,” Summerville said of Japan. “So, 98 per cent of its oil use is imported. And that’s why they made the big shift to nuclear.”

That occurred shortly after the oil crisis.“Japan did a number of things that

really helped it in the second oil crisis in the early eighties,” he continued.

“First of all, it moved away from energy in-tensive industries. The aluminium [industry] – it actually regulated it out of existence.

“From that time, Japan’s been leading edge in terms of trying to reduce energy use.”

Summerville said that Japanese for-eign policy is often driven by its depen-dence on foreign sources of energy.

It actually shows up in their foreign aid commitments.

“A lot of Japan’s foreign aid was around creating safe transportation lanes from the Middle East to Japan by invest-ing in all the countries along the Indian Ocean,” Summerville explained.

“Japan’s resource scarcity,” he con-tinued, “has had a big impact on the structure of the economy [and] on its foreign policy.”

That is one reason Summerville thinks Japan should “come to their senses” and fire up their nuclear reactors again.

“And that’s probably not going to hap-pen,” he added.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda began urging the nation to accept plans to restart the two Ohi nuclear plant reactors – the first reactors ready for ac-tion since all the plants were shut down for maintenance and the development of new safety guidelines – amid public concerns that poor government oversight contributed to the disaster.

It was reported on June 15 that the mayor of Ohi had given his approval, but it is still a divisive issue throughout the country.

Summerville is supportive of nuclear

energy in Japan.“Nuclear energy, actually, if you look

at it, is one of the least bad options we have,” he opined, suggesting that Fuku-shima was an isolated incident.

“Everything worked fine except a bat-tery blew up because of the water that went in and took out a reserve battery,” said Summerville.

“I think there’s a very strong argument for nuclear,” he continued. “The better ar-gument is to use tax incentives to make it less and less economical to use carbon fuels. I’m in favour of a carbon tax.”

The differences between Canada and Japan make the two nations a natural fit when it comes to trading oil and gas resources, according to Summerville.

“Resource scarcity has a defining im-pact,” Summerville said of Japan, also not-ing that Canada is a “resource rich” nation.

“Canada’s got an abundance of resourc-es, which has an enormous impact on its economics and its politics,” he continued.

“And it’s the reverse for Japan – it’s resource scarce. It’s the world’s third largest economy … and it doesn’t have any resources. Not surprisingly, it has a huge impact.”

If Japan is going to move away from nuclear, said Summerville, natural gas is an obvious alternative, largely due to the price.

“I think the first instinct is always to look at the cost,” he added. “And with fracking and the shale gas resources that are being found all around the world, making a bet on something that’s cheaper and also has the benefit of be-ing more environmentally friendly is kind of a win-win.

“If you’re a country and you’re making a decision about energy use, cost always comes first, which, of course, is why there should be a carbon tax. Because, if you tax carbon, then you’ll change the incentive to use it.”

Tertzakian explained that price and the abundance of Canadian resources aren’t the only reason to expect Japan will be knocking on Canada’s door to ask for natu-ral gas as he discussed the investments of Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi and Toyota Tsusho in Canadian plays.

“That’s kind of the logical choice from a number of dimensions,” said Tertzakian.

“The geographical dimension,” he continued. “The polar route from the west coast of B.C. to Japan is not as far as you think for tankers from Kitimat to Tokyo or the [other] big Japanese ports. If you look on a globe, it’s not as far as you think. And the comparable distance to our nearest competitor in that space would be Australia.

“We have very attractive qualities that the Japanese and others like. Politically stable. Rule of law. Low level of corrup-tion. Accepted business protocols and rules. And it’s a free market where they can come in and joint venture with com-panies, buy companies, and so on, which is what they have been doing.”

Tertzakian pointed to two deals involv-ing Japanese companies and Canadian natural gas major Encana – the $2.9 billion partnership with Mitsubishi to develop Encana’s Cutbank Ridge as-sets and Toyota Tsusho’s $600 million investment in Encana’s coalbed methane operations – as indicators of Japan’s

growing interest in Canadian resources.Both deals came shortly after the demise

of Encana’s planned partnership with Pet-roChina to develop Cutbank Ridge.

“The PetroChina deal was cooked up be-fore the Japanese tragedy,” said Tertzakian.

“And so, post Japanese tragedy, the Japanese started to get much more aggressive, not only in Canada, but else-where, trying to secure energy supplies. And it’s not only natural gas, but natural gas is definitely the favoured commodity, because oil has also got its issues with the sanctions on Iran, and the Japanese are major importers of Iranian oil.

“The Japanese definitely have shown, historically, they’re very disciplined in their energy policies and very proactive and visionary,” he continued.

“This is all part of a global strategy to diversify their energy needs and to rebal-ance their energy needs away from some of the more volatile or environmentally sensitive commodities.

“It’s a theme in either already indus-trialized or industrializing countries to try and diversify their energy needs to more politically stable countries where there’s free markets and rule of law,” he concluded, adding that those factors are likely a “higher level impetus than just the nuclear disaster.”

Even if growing Japanese demand is expanding the market for natural gas, the international competition to supply the market remains tight.

Besides, the Japanese component is a small piece of the puzzle.

“It’s not just about Japan replacing its nuclear,” said Pryce. “It’s Asia and India and all those developing countries grow-ing their demand dramatically.

“I think the Chinese demand is growing something like five per cent a year,” he continued.

The demand is already so great that a five per cent increase is substantial.

“The opportunity is there,” said Pryce. “You don’t want to be the last one through the gates, though, in terms of ac-cessing the market. Because you will get perhaps better commodity prices early on and perhaps better longer term contracts in that regard.”

That is a bigger issue for nations than it is for international companies such as Royal Dutch Shell that are looking at exporting natural gas from both Canada and Australia to Asia.

“All these companies have a global network of gas assets,” said Tertzakian.

“Adding Canada into that is just an-other node in a global web,” he added. “But it’s a very attractive node.”

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special featureForeIgN mIssIoNsGlobal players descend on energy sector

trade show with clear goals in mindjames watermanPipeline News North

Even the most casual observer of the oil and industry would probably expect China to make their presence felt in a big way at the Global Petroleum Show (GPS) that took place in Calgary, Alberta on June 12-14.

After all, Canadian efforts to satisfy the Chinese demand for energy is a hot topic and China is becoming a significant investor in the Canadian industry.

And the Asian nation didn’t disappoint, as they had two enormous pavilions full of companies based in that country at the show.

But they weren’t alone either.“Ontario has a lot of manufacturing

capability and certainly the capacity to supply some of the needs that Alberta requires, especially with the oil and gas sector,” said Steven Matheson from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Develop-ment and Trade.

Matheson is the project lead for an entity known as Energy Connections-Oil Sands.

“We do have many companies who are in the traditional supply side, such as pressure vessels, heat exchangers, pip-ing, tubing and a variety of structural steel components that would be required for… the needs of the Alberta marketplace,” he added.

Since the manufacturing sector in On-tario, including the automotive sector, fell on hard times during the recent economic downturn, companies that traditionally produced automotive parts made the switch to manufacturing parts for the type of heavy equipment used in the oil sands.

“I think that’s the sort of thing we do encourage,” said Matheson.

“Those will be internal changes to our Ontario economy,” he continued.

“So, moving away from the traditional automotive sector where perhaps there is a little more… cyclicality to it. And they’re looking for new markets and new opportunities.

“There has been a shift in Ontario. We’ve noticed that.”

Matheson noted that it is imperative for companies based in Ontario to carefully examine the marketplace in Alberta.

“And position themselves for an oppor-tunity to supply both goods and services here,” he added.

“And it may be something that they’re not currently producing, or they’re not currently in that marketplace, but there is a void in that marketplace for a higher need for additional volume. They may be able to move into that marketplace.”

According to Matheson, one of the big-gest obstacles facing Ontario companies trying to take advantage of those supply chain opportunities is successfully forging relationships in Alberta.

“Companies who are looking to do business here need to understand that it is very much a relationship-based oppor-tunity and that they need to have some sort of a presence in Alberta,” he said.

“It’s very difficult to carry on a good relationship and [have] a thorough understanding of what the market needs are unless you do have some feet on the ground here. So, whether it’s through some sort of a supply chain management, a distributorship, a partnership, some-body that is here to set up a regional of-fice here so that you can be in touch with the opportunity, I think that’s very critical.”

Two other provinces, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, also sent delegations to GPS, but for much differ-ent reasons.

“We’re here at the Global Petroleum Show to talk about some of the opportu-nities happening in Newfoundland and Labrador, particularly on the offshore oil side,” said Darin Steeves, director of Business Investment with Innovation, Business and Rural Development in New-foundland and Labrador.

“There’s a lot of exploration going on,” he added. “A lot of drilling. Our next big project is called Hebron, which will be coming onstream in 2017.”

Nova Scotia was similarly trying to pro-

mote offshore exploration and production opportunities.

“We’ve had a play fairway analysis that has been done in the last couple of years that seems to have regenerated inter-est in Nova Scotia offshore,” said Scott Weldon, a petroleum geologist with Nova Scotia’s energy ministry, noting that Shell Canada has already committed $980 mil-lion to four parcels in that area.

“It’s an area that’s very underexplored,” he continued.

“The Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board has put out a call for bids that’s due in November for another eleven par-cels in the offshore. And we’re hoping to say that we get some sort of similar bids to the one that Shell’s already made.

“Basically, we’re trying to see if there’s anybody around who doesn’t know, and we want to let them know that it’s going

on.”Weldon said that he had several

conversations with representatives from junior companies during the show.

“Those are the type of companies that would be more interested in the onshore,” he added.

Newfoundland and Labrador was also eager to discuss the changing landscape in what has historically been a have-not province.

“The fact [is] that we’ve struck offshore oil and there’s a tremendous amount of wealth being created now in the province, and with that comes opportunities” said Steeves.

“So,” he continued, “we’re trying to talk about what the opportunities are and build capabilities and obviously to create jobs within Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Europe was also well represented at

David Rennie of Scottish Enterprise and Raymond McGovern of Scottish Development International discussed trade and investment opportunities involving Canada and Scotland during their visit to the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary this June.



GPS by countries with a history of oil and gas industry activity, including Scotland and France, the home of multinational heavyweight Total.

“Total is making huge investments in the oil sands,” said trade commissioner Stephane Blajberg, noting that the French oil company is also a supporter of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline project that would ship oil sands bitumen to the West Coast for export to Pacific Rim markets.

“They are a strategic partner of Suncor on different projects as well,” Blajberg continued. “Total is a big player now in Alberta. So we have a lot of French suppli-ers to the oil and gas industry.

“Big companies. Small businesses.”Blajberg noted that a number of those suppliers are

currently operating in Canada.“But our role as a trade commission is to help small

businesses, newcomers to settle down here in Canada or in Alberta and to help them to do business here,” he said,

commenting on the interesting mix of oil and gas companies, engineering firms and small suppliers that comprise the French energy sector.

“In Alberta, we would like to promote those businesses as much as possible.”

According to Blajberg, participation in GPS in Calgary is also to address a need to promote Alberta to French companies, largely because of a lack of understanding or knowledge regarding the oil sands.

Offshore oil, as tends to be the case in Europe, has been the bread and butter of the French sector.

“We have a lot to offer as well on the onshore market,” said Blajberg. “But more on conventional oil. But now because of Total, because those small businesses can see that Total is making huge investments here, they are starting to be very interested in the oil sands.

“For some of them, it’s not a big shift to go from offshore to onshore. So, it’s still the same business for some parts.”

Blajberg believes French firms can contribute a great deal to the environmental side of the business in Alberta.

“For example, water treatments,” he said.“The message we pass along to the French compa-

nies most of the time is we tell them there is a lot to do in regards to environments. And it’s true. Because each time we bring with us a company which is able to bring something new in regards to environment, they usually have a big success here.”

Scotland sent David Rennie, director of Oil and Gas, Thermal Generation and CCS (carbon capture and stor-age) with the government funded economic development agency Scottish Enterprise, and Raymond McGovern, Senior Vice President for Scottish Development Interna-tional (SDI) in Canada.

SDI is the international branch of Scottish Enterprise.“We established our operations in Canada in Febru-

ary of last year,” said McGovern. “We have a base in Toronto and just recently we set up our second office in Calgary.

“Our job in various overseas markets is about fa-cilitating trade and investment,” he continued. “So, encouraging investment in Scotland from Canada and also encouraging a trade in Scottish companies into the market here.”

McGovern explained that there are approximately 5000 jobs in Scotland that are supported by investment from Canada, a significant portion of that investment coming from Alberta.

“If we can grow that investment,” he said, “then we’ll be addressing some of our targets as an organization. We want to bring more jobs and investment into Scot-land. We also, specifically from an oil and gas perspec-tive, have set ambitious targets to increase and drive the international sales of Scottish companies operating in the sector.

“And here in Calgary, with our base here, we’ll be looking to identify opportunities for those companies, un-derstand what those opportunities are, and then, working with colleagues in Scotland, we’ll match those opportuni-ties to the capability that exists in Scotland.”

Rennie added that oil and gas producers active in Canada – Nexen, Talisman, Canadian Natural Re-sources, Suncor – are also participating in the Scottish industry to the point that about twenty per cent of all oil and gas produced in the United Kingdom is produced by a Canadian company.

“That’s quite a big number,” said Rennie.“Part of our job, both internationally and within Scot-

land, is to nurture that relationship, work with the compa-nies to make sure they stay in Scotland,” he continued.

“[And] see if we can help with any issues that they have to encourage more investment into Scotland. And also talking about trade from Scotland to overseas markets.”

Rennie noted that Canada is Scotland’s second biggest market for their supply chain exports after the United States, accounting for about $1.5 billion per year.

“It’s comfortably our second biggest market,” he said.“There’s an historical connection between Scotland

and Canada that we should build on.”McGovern said that there are presently fourteen

Scottish companies with bases in either Calgary or Edmonton, which has been the case for a few years at this point.

“And they understand the market,” he added. “And they’re now starting to see the fruits of their labour in be-ing here and having a permanent base here.

“There are opportunities here, but in order to capital-

ize on them, they need to think about a permanent base here so that they can really get themselves known.”

Rennie sees an opportunity for Scottish companies in the changing North American landscape where low prices and a shale gas glut are spurring plants to export the resource to Asia as liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“The introduction of shale and unconventional gas… has sort of turned things around so the U.S. is now seen as an exporter rather than, a few years ago, being an importer,” he said.

“That has an impact on price. In a European context, it’s had an impact on price. Not the same as here. Gas prices are probably still higher in Europe than they are here.

“There’s some interest from Scottish companies in shale gas, unconventional gas, both in North America and in Europe,” he continued.

“There’s some interest in shale gas production in Scot-land, but primarily, I think, it’s an export activity.”

That encompasses supply chain exports of services to North America and other European jurisdictions where shale gas exploration and production may take place.

Rennie also views the oil sands as an opportunity for Scotland.

“Obviously, oil sands, particularly internationally, have a certain connotation,” he admitted.

“I think that’s fair to say. But I think one of the things we’ve learned this week is that understanding the nature of the activity, educating companies, educating our-selves, becoming more aware of what our opportunity is, what is required [is important].

“We’ve had a number of meetings this week already. And it’s become very clear that oil sands, in terms of an economic opportunity, which has to be balanced, of course, with environmental concerns, [is] a huge oppor-tunity for Scottish-based firms.”

Oscar Claros, an economist with Bolivia’s national oil company, YPFB Corporation, had similar goals as those individuals in attendance from Nova Scotia and New-foundland and Labrador.

“We’re promoting a bunch of areas for this bidding round,” said Claros, noting that it is the company’s first experience with that process. “Hopefully, we’re going to get a lot of investments to come down to our country.”

Bolivia produces almost 350,000 barrels of oil equiva-lent (boe) of natural gas, most of which is exported to Brazil and Argentina.

“Our internal consumption is really low,” said Claros.“Since 2006,” he continued, “we have a lot of invest-

ments, specifically to broaden our production capacity. Now our challenge is to get investments to expand our reserves.”

That is why they chose to attend GPS in Calgary, par-ticularly since the Bolivian industry doesn’t really have a relationship with the North American industry.

Many of the international companies operating in Bo-livia – a list that includes Brazilian Petrobras and French Total – aren’t headquartered in North America.

“Mostly people are surprised of seeing us here,” said Claros. “Most of the people don’t know about … the oil sector in Bolivia. So, we had great meetings. People asking a lot about the situation in Bolivia politically speaking, economically speaking, and, of course, the situation in the oil and gas sector.

“So, we had, I think, great results.”One nation that needs to introduction to the North

American energy sector is Korea, which was represent-ed at GPS by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).

“We’re here to facilitate international trade between Korea and Canada,” said Young Kwon, Manager of Trade Promotion with Kotra. “For this year, we set up a Korean pavilion booth and we have about eight partici-pants.”

Those eight participants didn’t include oil and gas companies such as Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS), which is investing in the Canadian energy sector, but

Visitors and exhibitors at the Global Petroleum Show stop to talk to the delegates from Korean companies and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) who had booths in the Korean Pavilion.


continued pg 26


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Education was on the menu during Enform’s Lunch & Learn session that took place at the Fort St. John Energy Expo on Wednesday, May 23.

The safety association for the Canadian upstream oil and gas industry invited Glyn Jones, a chemical engineer and industrial hygienist with EHS Partnerships, to the lunch to discuss the emerging concern of mercury exposure, which was actually a bit of a mystery to indus-try folks beforehand.

The concern stems partly from the fact that trace amounts of mercury can be found in oil and natural gas deposits in various forms, including mercury sulphide and dimethylmercury, which is quite toxic.

Companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico, which experiences relatively high levels of mercury, also work in northeast British Columbia, and they have brought their awareness of the issue to the resource plays in that region.

However, the concern is also related to the use of the Jerome 431-X Mercury Vapor Analyzer, an approximate-ly $7000 piece of equipment that can be used to detect mercury at oil and gas sites. The problem is that sulfur, which is common around oil and gas developments, can cause a false positive for mercury due to the limitations of that particular instrument.

“Every oil and gas facility is full of sulfur,” said Jones.A Lumex RA-915+ Portable Mercury Vapor Analyzer

produces more accurate readings, but can also cost as much as $25,000.

Jones acknowledged that there is the potential for mercury to be present in oil and gas production wastes known as sludges and the scales that build up on facili-ties and equipment, but the concentrations are unlikely to be harmful.

“Just because there’s mercury, doesn’t mean there’s exposure,” he added.

“The key thing is to figure out is where is the mercury.”Jones noted that the high level of exposure that would

cause acute mercury poisoning is very unlikely in the oil and gas industry. The real concern is the consequences of long-term exposure to low levels of mercury that might occur when work crews are moving from facility to facility during gas plant turnarounds.

Still, the far greater risk is exposure to benzene, a carcino-gen that is much more commonly encountered in the sector.

The problem, according to Jones, is that people tend to “teeter-totter back and forth” between fear and com-placency when it comes to these issues.

Jones emphasized the need to avoid complacency and tackle the problem, even if it may appear to be a minor one, particularly since young, pregnant women are in a high risk group for exposure to chemicals, espe-cially neurotoxins such as mercury.

The number of young women in the industrial work-force is constantly rising, said Jones.

His recommendations were to limit mercury exposure by determining the pathways of that exposure and proper use of adequate chemical protective clothing (CPC) and other health and safety equipment such as respirators.

“The goal has to be zero exposure,” added Jones.John Jochman of Tervita’s NORM Management

branch also spoke about an issue that isn’t always on the radar of those working in the oil patch: exposure to radioactive materials.

NORMs – naturally occurring radioactive materials – are simply part of the world in which we live, Jochman explained, but they can also be generated and concen-trated by oil and gas production activities.

Similar to mercury, the NORMs can also be found in sludges and scales, as heat causes them to precipitate out of fluids onto equipment.

Jochman noted that it is becoming a larger issue that demands increased awareness.

The Lunch & Learn session began with a presentation by Corinne Paul of Enform regarding their new Control-ling Chemical Hazards (CCH) guideline.

The document endorses a proactive management system approach for dealing with the risks associated with chemicals used in the industry as well those pres-ent in produced fluids.

The CCH includes colour-coded guidance sheets that clearly outline the individual responsibilities of those people involved with planning (blue), implementing those plans (red), and actually executing those plans (green).

“You need to be sure you understand your respon-sibilities,” said Paul, noting that certain responsibilities can overlap between the three categories and that one person could encompass all three categories depending

on the size of the job.An industry-wide problem has been that the workers

who actually deal with the chemicals at the execution phase often lack the knowledge of the chemicals being used and the possible consequences of exposure.

“There was a communication breakdown somewhere,” she said, adding that “communication is the foundation to controlling chemical hazards.”

Paul also remarked that work should be done at the planning stage to research less dangerous substitutes for chemicals known to the job, emphasizing the role of the planner in ensuring the health and safety of the workers executing those plans.


industry newsluNcH aNd learNEnform serves up three courses of health and safety during Fort St. John Energy Expo

Tervita’s John Jochman demonstrates the detectino of NORMS, or naturally occuring radioactive materials, during the Enform Lunch & Learn session that was held during the Fort St. John Energy Expo.



After almost a hundred years in the business of manufacturing all-weather paper products for people working in natural resource operation, Rite in the Rain is finally making a move into the oil and gas industry with materials specifi-cally for that sector.

“Jerry Darling developed Rite in the Rain in 1915,” said Becky Groves, direc-tor of sales with Rite in the Rain, describ-ing the company’s humble beginnings in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.

“The logging industry would bring their forms to Jerry Darling, he would hand dip the forms and then hang them on a clothesline and let the coating run off,” Groves explained.

“And then he would go fishing while

they were drying. And the next day, he would take them off and go through the same process. It was a small cottage industry back then. And his wife, Mary Darling, actually hand-sewed their field books.”

Groves and her colleague in business development, Rachel Johnson, were attending the Global Petroleum Show (GPS) in Calgary, Alberta from June 13-14 to tell oil and gas industry folks that story and demonstrate how Rite in the Rain could help them in their day daily operations.

“We sell to surveyors, engineers, biolo-gists, archaeologists – basically, people who work and play in the outdoors,” said Groves. “And in last two to three years, we’ve been promoting our product to the petroleum industry.”

Their products for the oil and gas industry include tally books, work safety

forms and isometric grids that have proven quite popular so far.

“And there’s a geology book that has sixteen pages of reference material in the back,” added Groves.

Groves said that Rite in the Rain have been selling their other products to the energy sector for a number of years, but they didn’t start marketing those materi-als to that industry until they attended another trade show in Calgary two years ago.

“We came up two years ago and talked to folks to find out what products they would like us to produce in addition to the ones we were currently producing,” said Groves.

The oil and gas industry is now a small but growing percentage of their business.

Obviously, a lot has changed for the company since those early days of Jerry Darling hand dipping forms into the

weatherproof coating.“The coating, prior to 2000, was a

solvent-based coating,” said Groves. “And since the year 2000, it’s a water-based coating. We’re completely environ-mentally friendly.”

Johnson indicated that natural re-source companies that have a footprint on the land like having environmentally friendly options for all aspects of the work they do.

“It’s just important nowadays to be environmentally friendly,” said Johnson.

“I think it’s important for them to use products that are environmentally friendly,” she continued.

That includes using postconsumer wastes to manufacture their products.

“We generate less than a dumpster of waste per week in our factory,” added Groves. “And we’re proud to say that we’re environmentally friendly.”

tHe rIte stuFF For tHe Job


34550

gold aNNIVersarYFort St. John Petroleum Association

celebrates 50 great years of golf

special feature


George McLeod wasn’t exactly a golfer back in 1962.

The wily oil and gas industry veteran, who even now only dusts off his clubs for a pair of tournaments every year, was just a young man working for Halliburton in those days.

And he was also one of a group of men who had been volunteering to haul sod and pick roots from the fairway at Lake Point Golf & Country Club in preparation for the first Fort St. John Petroleum As-sociation Golf Tournament.

“And so they gave us a few free games,” said McLeod. “We thought we were pretty good. And so we entered the first one.”

The conditions were unique.“We didn’t have grass greens,”

McLeod added. “It was oiled sand. And you had a bar to pull out to smooth it out to putt.”

George Soule, the founder of Peace Country Rentals, also took part in that first tournament after helping ready the course. His wife bought him a set of used clubs at a second hand store for three dollars. He used those clubs to shoot an 89. That was for nine holes.

“I’d never ever golfed before in my life, and I went out and tried to play this game,” said Soule.

“You got to improve as you go along,” he added.

Soule was driven to improve his play by watching championship rounds that have often been decided by just a single stroke.

“Those were exciting,” he said. “And instrumental in me wanting to play and play better. And I went from probably a 52 handicapper down to 14, because I wanted to be better.”

Soule has been part of all but one of the first fifty tournaments, a heart attack the only thing that could keep him from participating one year.

He has decided that he won’t be play-ing next year.

“I’m kicking 80 in the ass,” he ex-plained. “And it’s about time I made room for younger people. Because the whole object was for the young guys working in the patch to get to know the people that they work with.”

That is a common refrain among members of the older generation who have been playing in the tournament for decades. It was even announced during the tournament this year that the Petro-leum Association plans to have its first event for golfers 55 years of age and older next summer, largely to make room for younger men who want to get into the game.

“I’ve been thinking of stepping down this year,” said Jim Sodergren, who saw his first action in the tournament the year after Western Rock Bit transferred him to Fort St. John to be their new salesman in the region in 1967.

“I was only supposed to be here for two years and then out,” he said, echoing so many men who have followed their work to northeast British Columbia. “I’m still here.”

Sodergren added that his play on the course hasn’t improved over the years, but he has enjoyed the tournament since day one.

“I think it’s for the younger guys,” he continued, explaining why he won’t play in another tournament . “And it’s such a good socializing event.”

One of those younger guys is Ryan Sebastiano, a Peace Country Rentals employee who has only been golfing for five years.

This was his third competition.

“Every year, I meet probably 20 new people and have a good time with every-one,” said Sebastiano. “Everyone just has fun and is happy to be there.”

He added that there are a lot of perks to playing in the tournament, including the opportunity to win a golf cart, which he did his first year, not to mention a reason to take a break from the hectic life of the oil patch for a few days.

“There’s always something good about going in it.”

Another young golfer is Garrett Smith of V.E. Brandl, who unfortunately had to bow out of his third tournament this year after injuring his ankle on the first day.

“It’s fun,” said Smith. “We got lots of guys up here that I grew up around with my dad, friends of my dad’s, that I’ve known forever.”

He has also been able to compete against his father thanks to the tourna-ment.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Smith.“He’s much better than I am,” he

added.However, it isn’t really about the com-

petition for Smith, but about the opportu-nity to get to know the men he works with in the industry every day.

“You actually get to spend some time out of work – out of the oil patch – with them,” he said. “And drink beer and have fun. And the golfing for us is kind of secondary.”

Still, the golf itself is the source of many fond memories for longtime participants.

“I remember one time,” said Fred Hen-dricks, who played in his first tournament just a few years after the inaugural event, “Ivor Miller hit a shot on number 17, with the water hole, and the ball hit the bank, bounced out and hit a tree, and then bounced back and landed on the green. So, you see some pretty weird things.

“Some of my best times were playing in the best ball on the Saturdays, because I didn’t win too many tournaments,” he added. “But it was always fun playing in the best ball.”

Sodergren recalled another amusing incident.

One of his fellow golfers was preparing to tee off when a pair of their competitors discreetly replaced his ball with a ball bearing that they had painted white in advance.

“That club shattered into a million pieces,” Sodergren said with a laugh.

It has been that mix of competition and camaraderie that has made the annual golf tournament such a special event for its regulars.

“You make a lot of friends,” said Soule. “But even with friends, you enjoy beat-ing them. You can play cards and it’s the same thing. You may lose, but you still appreciate your opponent. And it’s no different when we play fastball. Same thing.”

“It’s quite relaxed,” added Hendricks. “There aren’t too many really, really seri-ous about [it]. I’m sure they’d like to win, but I think there’s a lot of camaraderie as a result of it. And a lot of fellows get to know other members of the Petroleum [Association] and sort of get to know their competitors and customers.

“Same thing with the bonspiel in the wintertime,” he continued. “It’s a time to just forget about work for a few days and relax and get out and have fun.”

Tyler Kosick, President of the Fort St. John Petroleum Association and another member of the younger generation of golfers, is hoping to see the tournament continue for as long as possible.

“It’s quite a prestigious event,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun. And I sure hope the club stays strong and we get another 25 years out of it.”


34549

industry news

along with Vietnam, which is starting to emerge as a big player.

“The Chinese don’t trust the Russians,” added Bell, mentioning that a natural gas pipeline connecting the two nations is improbable as a result.

Traditionally an importer of natural gas, the United States is now becoming a large exporter of the resource, while Canada is just starting to pull out of a production decline that has plagued the industry for years.

“The States produces more gas than we do,” said Bell.“We under-appreciate as Canadians the amount of re-

sources the U.S. have,” said Morrison. “We tend to think of them as our customer and not as our competitor.”

Canada tends to look at the geographic position of Kitimat in relation to Asia as an advantage, according to Morrison, but there is also a substantial natural gas sup-ply not far from the Asian market in Alaska.

“I know they’re looking at LNG as well,” he continued. “So, the competition is tighter than most people think.

“In addition, they’re competing on our own turf.”Morrison offered Eastern Canada as proof that the

market works in the sense that that region is purchasing its natural gas from the Eastern U.S. in order to save money.

“And so we’re seeing eastern markets that are tradi-tionally supplied by Western Canada being supplied by U.S. sources, too,” he said.

High pipeline tolls also play a role in Eastern Cana-dian customers choosing American gas over Western Canadian gas.

“There’s two sides of the coin though,” said Morrison. “The tolls are reflective of volumes and volumes are reflective of tolls. And it’s a bit of a chicken and egg. But when the volumes go down, the tolls go up. And that makes it less competitive again. So, it is a commercial question that needs to be resolved. And I don’t know the answer to that.”

Tolls may also rise because natural gas has to be shut-in when there isn’t a sufficient market for the resource and prices are too low to make production economical.

“When that pipe was built 40 [or] 50 years ago,” said Morrison, discussing the line that transports natural gas to Eastern Canada, “the tolls were designed in a world that didn’t imagine competition from sources to the east to any great extent or to the south. It really only imag-ined the West serving the East gas.”

Considering the challenges Canada faces as it fights for its share of the Asian LNG market, Morrison was encouraged by the speeches delivered by Coleman and Bell.

“It’s good to have the government recognize the urgency,” he said.

“Currently,” he continued, “B.C. doesn’t export any LNG to any of the current markets that are importing them. And so we’ve got to prove ourselves, that we’re reliable and affordable and we can do it. So, it was very encouraging to hear the minister talk about that.”

Coleman reiterated his government’s goal to have the province’s first LNG plant up and running in 2015 and three LNG export operations online by 2020.

“I would say the government doesn’t make commit-ments lightly,” Morrison said of those targets.

“At the end of the day,” he added, “the market and investors will decide if that’s realistic. But, again, I applaud the government for making it a priority [and] setting targets. That is useful. That’s a very useful signal to the domestic industry, to the international investment community, to future customers. That’s a very positive signal.”

Morrison simply said that “the market works” when asked if industry and government are putting too much of an emphasis on the foreign market when domestic

markets aren’t being satisfied by domestic resources.“If the economics don’t support getting it there, why

would you do that in an open trading economy?” he con-tinued. “But it may speak to the point to have a national dialogue and think about what does make sense.

“We need to be wise in the way we use our re-sources, but the reality is we’ve got ample supply to meet all of our domestic needs for the foreseeable future. And surpluses that sell abroad, that’s good for Canadians.”

The benefits include jobs and government revenues, as well as capital to improve pipeline and oil refining capacity to better supply the domestic market with petro-leum products.

“Canada does not trade very well east-west,” said Morrison, noting that Canada has traditionally traded north-south with the U.S.

“In this century,” he continued, “the world’s changing. I think there needs to be a national dialogue between the provinces, the federal government, the citizens across the nation for what makes sense. I think there is a need to have that dialogue around a national energy strategy.”

cont’d from pg 3

Australia and United States are Canada’s toughest competition in LNG market

BNN host Andrew Bell offered his perspective on Canada’s position in the fierce competition to win a piece of the global LNG market during the Fort St. John Energy Expo on May 23.



communityHoNourable meN

Old friends share the limelight on Petroleum Association awards night


The recipients of the Ivor Miller Award and the Oilman of the Year Award were quick to give credit to their families when presented with the awards on Saturday, June 9.

The awards are given to deserving members of the oil and gas community by the Fort St. John Petroleum Associa-tion during their annual Oilmen’s Golf Tournament, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary this spring.

This year, Mike Kosick won the Ivor Millar Award, while his old friend Darwin Pimm took home the Oilman of the Year Award.

When asked what it meant to them to receive the awards, both men were eager to talk about family, a word that encom-passes their wives and children, as well as their extended families in the Petro-leum Association, the oil and gas industry and the Fort St. John community.

“It was unexpected,” said Kosick. “I was awarded here a few years ago, the Oilman of the Year, and have been in-volved in this association since the early seventies. And it’s been really rewarding for us personally, family-wise, communi-ty-wise, business-wise. And it’s just an honour to be presented with this.”

Kosick enjoyed the extra honour of being presented with both awards by his

son, Tyler, the current president of the Petroleum Association.

“I’m very proud of him,” said Kosick. “Proud of my family. Proud of my wife. Because, without them, I wouldn’t be here.”

“Obviously, you get a little choked up,” Tyler said of presenting the award to his father. “It is tough.”

He also understands the role family has in allowing a man to play an im-portant part in the life of the Petroleum Association.

“You start to see the sacrifices,” said Tyler. “Not so much just for him, but my mother, which also goes for my wife now. Because, during the events, you’re up there with the microphone, and they’re sitting there by themselves. And you don’t get to enjoy the full event with them as much. So, it’s a lot of strain on both of them. But it’s a well-deserved award for him.”

Pimm has enjoyed a long relationship with the man who presented the award to him as well.

“He’s really got a lot of Mike in him,” he said. “The apple didn’t fall too far from the tree there.”

Pimm and Kosick first met when they played hockey together in the early seventies.

“I was playing some senior hockey and he was playing some commercial league hockey,” said Pimm.

“We burnt the arena down here – I think it was in 1972 or thereabouts. We had a year where we didn’t play much senior hockey. I played a year or two with Mike.

“We [had] become pretty good friends then,” he continued, “and remained good friends for a long time. And he sat on the executive of the Petroleum Association in the … eighties when I did. And he was president [and] I was vice president for many years. And we’re still good friends.”

Pimm said the honour of win-ning is really all about the men with whom he shares member-ship in the club and the men whose names are already on the trophy.

“It’s just an honour to have worked with guys for probably the best part of 35 or 40 years,” he said. “And to have your peers kind of congratulate you with a nice little trophy at the end of the day is pretty nice. And hopefully I’m not done. I think we’ve got a few years to go yet.

“It’s a great feeling to be in the compa-ny of the people that are on that trophy. And hopefully it goes on to many more really great people. Because there’s so many more in this community that you couldn’t begin to name them.”

Kosick suggested that it was extra special to win the award during the 50th Oilmen’s Golf Tournament.

“It really puts it in perspective,” he said. “Because we’ve been talking, a few of us, that [it’s time] to step aside, let the younger generation take over.”

Kosick echoed Pimm’s sentiments about the value of being recognized by the club and the community.

“We don’t do it for awards,” he said. “We’re part of the community. I’ve done all kinds of functions in this community. … Everywhere.

“And it’s just part of what we are. We were raised here. We live here. This is home here. Sure we go away now an odd few months a year. But

this is still home.“Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, the

Peace River country – that’s what it’s all about,” he continued.

“And that’s why we have such a great community in every aspect. Not just the Petroleum Association. If you lived here for lifelong, you see it [in] every part of charitable organizations. It’s about the people. And everybody contributes.

“If you were down and out in Fort St. John, you needed a hand, people will give it to you.”

Darwin Pimm (left) thanks his family, friends and colleagues after receiving the 2012 Oilman of the Year Award from the Fort St. John Petroleum Association on June 9.


Mike Kosick (right) shares a hug with his son and current Petroleum Association president Tyler Kosick after receiving the 2012 Ivor Miller Award.


“We don’t do it for

awards. We’re part of

the community.”

– Darwin Pimm,Oilman of the Year


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profilesGamajet making tank cleaning saferjames watermanPipeline News North

If Michael Delaney had his way, work-ers would never have to enter tanks to clean them ever again.

The Vice President of Business Devel-opment with Gamajet Cleaning Systems was referring to the sort of tanks common-ly used for various purposes during oil and gas industry operations. The fact is that those tanks need to cleaned, but Gama-jet can eliminate the need for workers to venture inside to do the job manually.

“The original Gamajet came out about 50 years ago,” Delaney said during his visit to the Global Petroleum Show (GPS), sharing a booth with the John Brooks Company, which offers Gamajet to the energy sector in western Canada.

“But in the last 20 years,” he continued, “what we’ve done is we’ve gone from one or two models to [where] we’re up to about 16 different models. We have models that will clean large tanks [with] a hundred foot radius to ones that will

clean a barrel. An oil barrel.”Those products are becoming widely

used in Alberta.“The big advantage… is it eliminates or

greatly reduces man entry,” said Delaney.“Especially

in oilfield,” he continued, “there can be hydrogen sulphide in there, there can be dan-gerous vapors that can knock someone out.

“It can kill somebody.”

Delaney told the story of one client company who had a crew all call in sick with blis-ters all over their bodies the day after be-ing exposed to chemicals inside a tank.

“It’s stainless steel,” he said, extolling the virtues of Gamajet.

“You put it in there. It doesn’t get sick. It doesn’t miss a spot. And it cleans the entire

tank. And even if a guy has to go in there and do a touch up or some kind of repair, by the time he’s going in there, the vapors have been knocked out, and most of the hazardous stuff has been cleaned out. So,

it makes it safer.”Delaney sug-

gested that Gama-jet also improves efficiency by turn-ing a three-person, two-hour job into a half an hour task that only requires one individual during the set-up stage.

“And while this is running,” he

said, “the guy can be setting up the next tank to be cleaned.”

It also reduces water use for cleaning by allowing companies to recycle that water as much as possible.

Gamajet cleans the tank by shoot-ing a stream of water that subsequently

cascades along the interior surface of the tank, scrubbing the walls with a force that Delaney calls impingement.

“It acts like a putty knife scraping the stuff off,” he said. “So, it’s very effec-tive, whether you’re cleaning petroleum residue or you have drilling muds at the bottom.”

Gamajet also addresses a problem that can be a serious issue for an industry with a limited workforce.

“The nice thing is it makes it a lot sim-pler and easier to clean a tank,” said Del-aney. “It doesn’t require the labour. So, there were times when people weren’t cleaning their tanks. And then they’d use them for one task and then move them to another task.

“For example, if you went from one well to another, and you had bacteria in there, you could sour that other well. And in certain areas that could be a problem. So, where you contaminate the next well and now the oil they get out of there isn’t worth as much. And it also has to be processed more.”

“It acts like a putty

knife scraping the stuff

off.”

– Michael Delaney, Gamajet


environmentsHellINg out

Shell Canada opens its pockets for environmental projects


Wolverines and wetlands were among the big winners in the second round of Shell Canada’s FuellingChange program.

Ordinary Canadians, given the power to vote on their favourite environmental projects by gassing up their vehicles at Shell filling stations across the country, selected the grant recipients to be given a share of $1 million in funding.

The Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) topped the list when it was an-nounced on May 25 that they would receive one of two $100,000 grants for their plan to gather information about wolverines in that province in the interest of protecting the elusive creature and its habitat.

“We’re ecstatic about the news,” said Doug Manzer of ACA.

ACA had been working closely with the Alberta Trappers’ Association throughout the winter to develop a protocol for collect-ing hair samples from across the province for the purpose of DNA sequencing.

The grant will immediately be used to start the next phase of the project, which includes conducting the actual DNA analysis as well as purchasing remote camera equipment.

Relatively little is known about the wolverine, said Manzer.

ACA and the Alberta Trappers’ Associa-tion will continue to collaborate to learn about distribution, habitat and behaviour, as well as identify conservation con-

cerns, thanks in large part to the Fuel-lingChange support.

The project is one component of the Wildlife Habitat Initiative in Low Distur-bance Zones (WHILDZ) initiative focusing on important wildlife habitat where human activity or disturbance is still low.

“The wolverine is an iconic species,” said Manzer, offering his perspective on why the project received so many votes.

“And I think it does represent some-thing to Canadians – maybe Canadians in particular – about wilderness. And maybe a quest to try to figure out what’s happening to wilderness.

“And so I believe that wolverines really are representative to Canadians of some-thing that Canada stands for,” he added. “And I think it really hits home with them when they feel like there’s not enough information to figure out whether or not wolverines are doing okay.”

One of the four $50,000 grants went to the BC Wildlife Federation to fund their province-wide wetland mapping and plan-ning project.

“It’s going to keep me really busy for the next few months,” said Neil Fletcher, Wetland Education Program Coordinator.

“With that funding,” he continued, “we’re purchasing an outreach trailer to educate people about wetlands. And then also we’re offering twelve free workshops around the province that trains them to use GPS technology to map wetlands and to evaluate the wetland assets.”

The outreach trailer likely won’t be on

the road until next summer, but the work-shops will get underway immediately.

“When we applied,” said Fletcher, “we said there would be a two year window for spending this funding.”

That is partly due to the large dollar value of the grant, but also because the voting only concluded on April 30 and the lucky recipients were just announced at the end of May.

“We have a lot of stuff already planned this summer,” Fletcher explained. “Some of the workshops will occur this year. But I have a feeling they do want to make a really cool outreach trailer. And just getting all the pieces together [will take time].”

BC Wildlife Federation is offering the workshops to communities where there is both an interest in learning about local wetlands and a need to do so.

“We provide training and build aware-ness about the wetlands and then try to find a number of them that we can visit,” said Fletcher.

“I’ll be using local contacts to help me navigate the area and find out where some of the ones that are important to the community are,” he added.

The organization will then train com-munities on how to get those wetlands on the BC Wetlands Atlas, an initiative of Community Mapping Network BC.

“Another component of this is working with planners – city planners and regional planners – to ensure that this information isn’t just sitting on a shelf somewhere after it’s collected,” Fletcher continued, noting the value of the collaborative effort between those planners, wetland habitat experts and local citizen groups.

“Wetlands are a tremendously valuable habitat for B.C. and it’s great to receive a grant like this to help us further its cause,” he said.

The two proj-ects that received $100,000 grants – ACA’s wolver-ine project and an initiative by Friends of the St. Clair River to re-mediate an area of concern along that Southern Ontario water-course – earned over 280,000 total votes, which accounts for about ten per cent of the all votes cast during round two.

“It was exciting to see these two proj-ects in action in the last voting days,” said Lynn Byers, Manager of Social Invest-ment with Shell.

Byers explained that Shell developed the FuellingChange program to “empower customers and let them have a say in which projects receive funding.”

The response from Canadians – over 3.1 million votes since the initial launch of

the program – has been better than the company expected.

“Judging from the level of participation by Canadians in FuellingChange,” said Byers, “Shell believes this program can help increase interest and awareness of Canadians about their environment.”

An interesting facet of the program for both Manzer and Fletcher is that it can increase that environmental awareness through projects that have a very local or regional impact, far away from the home-towns of many voters.

“I really do like the fact that people from across Canada can vote on this,” said Manzer. “And you can appeal to people that are either in Alberta or from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. So, I’m really excited about that, and the fact that so many Canadians would get onboard with a program that may not be happening in their backyard.”

Byers echoed Manzer’s assessment of the program.

“Feedback received from one of the $100,000 grant recipients [said] that Fuel-lingChange provided an avenue where smaller environmental organizations can reach out to a national audience and gain exposure, not only for their organization, but for their local environmental work,” she said.

“Almost all of them had a local focus,” Fletcher said of the projects competing in FuellingChange.

“I’d like to think that them voting for us shows that there’s a deep concern and interest in wetlands,” he added.

Fletcher recognized plenty of value in many of the other projects, too.

“I feel bad for the ones that didn’t get in, because we were all … trying to really push for our own projects,” he said. “It is

a long haul. And they all had very worthy projects.”

That competition is a good indication of the difficulty con-servation groups face when trying to secure funding for their projects.

“I think most environmental non-profits will tell you that funding can be scarce at certain

times and it is hard to find opportuni-ties to push programming forward,” said Fletcher. “And having access to funding is definitely a huge help.”

Shell will be keeping tabs on the grant recipients as they continue with their initiatives.

“All winning projects are required to send an interim report to Shell on the results of their project on year following the receipt of their grant,” said Byers.

“A final report is required within two years of receipt of the grant.”

BC Wildlife Federation intern Natashia Cox helped conduct GPS training workshops last summer that taught citizens how to map wetlands in their area. Shell’s FuellingChange funding will allow the organization to continue that work.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BC WILDLIFE FEDERATION

“Funding can be scarce

at certain times.”

– Neil Fletcher,BC Wildlife Federation


29426

communitydIggINg up tHe pastHeritage North gives Peace Region students a taste of archaeology at Doig Days


The next generation of archaeologists was given an opportunity to dig up a little piece of history and a big pile of fun.

Heritage North Consulting took a day off from per-forming archaeological assessments for companies operating in the local oil and gas industry to set up a pair of sites where Peace Region schoolchildren could search for buried treasures typical of an old First Na-tions campsite.

The pits contained bones as well as small flakes of rock and other similar artifacts that the students found by shaking the soil that they excavated from the sites through wire screens.

“It gives them an idea of what we do in reconstruct-ing old campsites when we’re in the bush,” said Keary Walde of Heritage North.

“If we find scrapers and whatnot, we can interpret what they’re doing there,” he added.

Tom Ouellette, executive director of regional op-

erations and First Nations relations with the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission (OGC), who was enjoying the day’s festivities along with the other visi-tors, also remarked on the connections between the traditional activities on display and the archaeological dig.

“Chunks of blades that they would have been using to cook or skin their hides,” said Ouellette, describing the artifacts that could be found. “Or spears and arrow-heads, as well as other tools. And pieces of tools. So, it’s not always necessarily whole artifacts. It’s chunks and pieces.

“All that stuff is recorded,” he added. “It’s all part of the history of B.C.”

Discussing the importance of teaching schoolchildren about the archaeological side of oil and gas industry activity in the region, Ouellette said that the work that has been done in the province has provided solid confir-mation of the extent to which First Nations people have been using the land for thousands of years.

“They find evidence of human use all over the place,” he said. “In the muskeg areas. On the rivers.

“It just confirms what the people have told us when we’re out talking to them,” he continued. “That they use the land today and have used it in the past and [will] continue to use it in the future. So, that’s an important component to ensuring that important sites are noted and recorded.

“There’s some science behind what they’re doing.”Ouellette mentioned an archaeological site that was

researched extensively by Heritage North and the Doig River First Nation, research that was supported by the OGC through the Science and Community Environmen-tal Knowledge Fund (SCEK).

“We do see the value in the recording of the culture,” he said, also noting the value of providing students a firsthand glimpse of that culture as well as the work that unearths these bits of its past and traditions.

The pretend excavation does have an impact on the students.

“They love the archaeological dig,” said Deborah Petuh, a Grade 4 teacher at Duncan Cran Elementary in Fort St. John, who has brought her students to the even for a number of years.

“I think it lets them get in touch with the earth instead of all the electronics that they have and all that kind of stuff,” she added.

“It’s fun to be an archaeologist because you get to find bones and spearheads and basically a lot of fossils,” said one of Petuh’s students, Ryan Hicks.

“But it’s hard to be an archaeologist because you’re always outside in the sun or in the snow,” he continued, adding that he actually enjoys working outside and that he doesn’t mind getting a little dirty.

He said that he wants to be an archaeologist now that he has participated in the dig, an urge that is well known by Tim Sanderson, one of the archaeologists at Heritage North.

“I did the same thing when I was there age,” said Sanderson. “And I think that’s probably one of the rea-sons why I’m an archaeologist. It’s just fun digging and finding stuff.”

Ouellette felt that showing children a career path that people might not always consider when they think about the energy sector was valuable, too.

“There’s a lot of different industries that support the oil and gas industry, and archaeology’s a good one,” said Ouellette, commenting that environmental assessments are another big part of industry activity in the region.

“Hopefully, it gives them some respect of the past and preserving the past,” said Walde. “And having the op-portunity to get their fingernails dirty.

“It’s like opening Christmas presents every day.”

Heritage North archaeologist Tim Sanderson helps students dig up artifacts during Doig Days. The company performs similar work for oil and gas industry clients on a regular basis.



communitytHe kIds are alrIgHtShell Canada donation buys five school

zone speed signs for Fort St. John

KateLIn DeanPipeline News North

Thanks to a $15,000 donation, five speed signs will be placed in school zones throughout the city.

“The City of Fort St. John is very concerned with safety,” said Councillor Gord Klassen. “I think it’s obvi-ous that one of the first places we can start is where our children are.”

Klassen and Shell Canada representatives based in Fort St. John were on hand outside C.M. Finch Elemen-tary School to hang the first speed sign. These signs alert drivers how fast they are going. They are wired in to the city’s electrical system and operate with LED lights.

City staff can also monitor how fast vehicles are trav-elling as they go past these signs.

“For us, Shell coming with this money and providing this opportunity has been a wonderful bonus for the

whole community,” he continued.Sam Beggs looks after Road Transport Safety for

Shell in this region. The idea for these signs began with him.

“I’ve been driving the town for six or seven years and I’ve just kind of been observing, from my own perspec-tive, what our traffic does and I feel there’s a lot of speeding in our school zones,” said Beggs. “I think these signs are behaviour shifts.”

He explained that when drivers see how fast they’re going in a very visual way, it “triggers” them to slow down.

Beggs said they originally approached the school board to put an application into Shell for the project, and then a partnership with the City was formed.

“I think it’ll be great because our kids are safe,” he said. “All of our kids walk to school, or ride their bikes to school, or come into school in some way and with slower traffic, there will be less incidents.”

While standing outside of C.M. Finch, Rej Tetrault, the senior Shell Canada representative in Fort St. John, explained that his children walk that route to school every day.

”It means an awful lot to me that that is going to be in place,” he said of the signs.

The five signs will be placed facing one direction out-side of five schools.

“The signs should all be up within the next month,” said Klassen. “We need the staffing obviously to get them all in place, but we’ve got the signs here and they’re ready to be put up, so the sooner the better.”

However, the City is hoping that another sponsor still step forward.

“This has allowed us to get one direction at each of the schools in the community; it would be great if some-one else would step up and sponsor signs so we could get both directions covered.”

Sam Beggs (left) and Rej Tetreault (middle) of Shell Canada in Fort St. John present one of five new school zone speed signs to Councillor Gord Klassen. Shell donated the money to buy the signs.

KATELIN DEAN PHOTO PHOTO


TransCanada Corporation is breaking into the burgeoning liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in British Columbia, the company announced on Tuesday, June 5.

Shell Canada and their partners, Mit-subishi Corporation, PetroChina Corpora-tion and Korea Gas Corporation (KO-GAS), have chosen the pipeline company to design, build and operate the $4 billion Coastal GasLink project that would carry Montney tight gas from Shell’s opera-tions near Dawson Creek to the proposed LNG Canada export facility on the Pacific Coast in Kitimat.

“Shell Canada is pleased to be working with a Canadian company like TransCan-ada that has a reputation for building and operating natural gas pipelines safely and

efficiently,” said a Shell spokesperson. “The Coastal GasLink pipeline project

will further contribute to the economic development opportunities LNG Canada will bring to Northern British Columbia communities, to the province and the country.”

Shell appears to be pushing hard to make their LNG dreams a reality, as this announcement comes only three weeks after they officially declared their inten-tions to move ahead with plans to con-struct their liquefaction and export facility.

Additionally, during a visit to Alberta to meet with Canadian employees on May 29, Peter Voser, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, emphasized the need to get LNG projects up and running in B.C. as quickly as possible for Canada to stay competi-tive in the growing global LNG business.

“I think it needs to get done in this

decade, certainly, and you have quite a few years of construction, because the Asia-Pacific LNG market will more or less double by 2030,” Voser said when addressing reporters during his time in Calgary.

There is considerable work to be done on the infrastructure side, as the province currently lacks pipelines to transport natu-ral gas to the coast for LNG and Coastal GasLink will have to receive regulatory approval prior to construction.

“We look forward to having open and meaningful discussions with Aboriginal communities and key stakeholder groups, including local residents, elected officials and the Government of British Columbia, where we will listen to feedback, build on the positive and seek to address any potential concerns,” said Russ Girling, president and CEO at TransCanada.

“We appreciate the confidence that Shell and its partners have placed in us to build, own and operate this natural gas pipeline in British Columbia,” he added.

“We will work collaboratively with them, Aboriginals and stakeholders as we launch into the initial phases of consulta-tion and regulatory review.”

B.C.’s Ministry of Energy and Mines was pleased to receive word of the deci-sion, but also stressed that regulatory approval is still pending.

“Good news for B.C. and the emerg-ing LNG industry,” said a ministry spokesperson.

“But, like all major development proj-ects, it will need to go through the regular environmental assessments.

“We note that the proponents have al-ready initiated planning for their application

Shell Canada picks TransCanada to build pipeline to west coast LNG project

continued pg 23


R001113646

for environmental approvals.”The 700 kilometre pipeline will have an initial capacity of 1.7 billion cubic feet (bcf)

of natural gas per day.TransCanada estimates that the three year construction project will generate be-

tween 2000 and 2500 jobs.“Coastal GasLink will add value to British Columbians, particularly Aboriginals and

communities along the conceptual route, by creating real jobs, making direct invest-ments in communities during construction and providing economic value for years to come,” said Girling.

“The potential Coastal GasLink pipeline project will allow British Columbians, and all Canadians, to benefit from the responsible development of valuable natural gas resources, and will provide access to new markets for that gas,” he continued. “The project will also create substantial employment opportunities for local, skilled labour-ers and businesses as part of our construction team.

“We know the value and benefits that strong relationships in British Columbia can bring to this project and we look forward to deepening those ties as our extensive pipeline network grows to meet market and customer needs.”

cont’d from pg 24

Pipeline construction could mean 2500 jobs for B.C.


communityDevereaux School students get a lesson

in energy and conservationHuron Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, Birchcliff Energy, ConocoPhillips and Champion Technologies.

“The eight companies that are here today have all been really involved with us from the get go in bringing people out and bringing volunteers here,” said Gray.

“It means an enormous amount to have the company involvement here.”

“Encana’s active in the area around the school,” said Lieverse, explaining his company’s reason for choosing to lead the energy sector team for the event.

“And we’d been partnering with them already a little bit on a few projects. We helped them out with some computers. And we thought it would be a great spot to do Energy in Action. It’s a great program that introduces the community to some of what our job is and what our work is out in the oil and gas industry. So, we thought this would just be a great school, a great time to partner with them.”

For Hofman, the collaboration between the school and the school district, the energy companies, CAPP and Inside Education really stood out as a positive element of the program.

“I think it’s a fantastic collaboration,” she said. “It gets the students really excited about participating in stewardship activities like in the afternoon. It gets the [industry] involved with the students that live in the com-munity. And it gets the students exposure to a presenta-tion that talks about natural resources and stewardship. So, I think on all facets it’s kind of a good situation.”

“I think it’s important for us all to work together,” added Lieverse. “Education is a big process. Developing the young minds is a big process. And it’s a chance for us to share together and to work together. It’s also a chance for us to learn from the young kids. So often we go off and we get into our own world and the big world of busi-ness and we don’t always get a chance to talk and listen to the kids. So, this is a great chance to come back and meet with the kids and listen to them and to hear what they say.”

That collaboration seems to be especially important when it comes to tackling an initiative such as building an outdoor classroom, which was one of the afternoon projects at Devereaux Elementary.

The volunteers were helping the students transplant

native trees, shrubs and flowers, as well as installing benches.

“The district has put in the funds for the cement, the manpower to put that all together,” said McIntyre, sug-gesting that the grounds maintenance staff will initially be responsible for maintaining the plants in the outdoor classroom, but that some of that work may pass onto the students when the new school year starts in Sep-tember.

McIntyre certainly believes the outdoor classroom will be a great addition to the school.

“These kids are really neat kids,” she said. “They’re outside – they want to be outside – all the time. It

doesn’t matter how cold it is.“They’re very outdoorsy kids.”Grade 6 student Faith Webster corroborated that

statement.“My favourite part has probably been building the bird-

houses,” said Webster. “And we’re going to put some up around the school. And then we can check on them and see if any birds came.

“I think it’s a really good program,” she added, “and that kids everywhere should learn it. Because energy is important and we have to learn that we have to save it. And save our planet. Because we share it with animals and other creatures.”

cont’d from pg 4

Students from Devereaux Elementary School in Arras built bird boxes and an outdoor classroom with help from volunteers from oil and gas companies operating in the area on Tuesday, May 29. It was all part of the Energy in Action program that the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers delivers to elementary school students across Western Canada every spring.


Lanny McDonald visits Fort St. John

One of the highlights of the the third Fort St. John Energy Expo held May 23-24 was a visit to the energetic city by Lanny Mc Donald. The ratired NHL great and former Calgary Flame, who now works for Flint Energy Services, entertained visitors and exhibitors with amusing anecdotes from his hockey career during the Energy Expo dinner, as well as a few other odd jobs throughout the two days of the show.

JAMES WATERMAN PHOTOS

Dantuma suggested that it is also im-portant for those students whose parents work in primary resource industries such as the oil and gas sector.

“A lot of what supports Hudson’s Hope is all of those industries that are all around us,” she said. “And a lot of these kids have parents that are working in a lot of those areas. It helps bring what is in the area… all together so they realize that it’s a viable career, but it’s a natural resource and it needs to be dealt with appropriately so that it will continue to be there.

“We need to respect what we’ve got, what we use.”

“Most of the young kids going to this school, their parents are working for BC Hydro,” added Anderson. “So, they see there’s something else out [there] besides that.”

Anderson also remarked on the partici-pation of service sector companies like Golder and Tervita as a good way of dem-onstrating the scope of the energy sector.

“It just shows that Talisman can’t operate without these other industries,” she said.

“Overall,” she added, “it’s been a great day for both the children and industry.”

Talisman also helped bring a differ-ent sort of educational experience to the students of Hudson’s Hope School by sponsoring a field trip to nearby Cameron Lake on Monday, June 4. The excursion was part of the Project Webfoot program delivered by Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) and volunteers like Chris Maun-drell, a professional biologist with Adlard Environmental in Charlie Lake.

The purpose of the session is to teach the students about wetland ecology.

“Had a couple of mallards that were nesting near the lake, as well as buffle-head on the lake,” said Maundrell, adding that the students were able to view the waterfowl through binoculars.

“And then the bug dipping,” he contin-ued. “What we did is we had them go along the lakeshore and dip for different bugs.

“And then they would take those nets back to a tub, which was [full of] clean water, and they would dump the net in.

And then they would look and see what they had actually caught. So, water boat-men, water striders, whirligigs, things like that were fairly common in the nets.

“And then we talked about the ecology, again, of wetlands and how they support wildlife. Different kinds of wildlife. Not just ducks, but ducks was the main focus.”

Maundrell is pleased that Talisman is so supportive of the initiative.

“If Talisman can continue to support it, it’s great,” he said.

Talisman has a long relationship with DUC that dates back to 2004.

“In 2011, Talisman announced a fairly significant partnership… with Ducks Un-limited where Talisman was named their national education sponsor,” Markham explained. “Part of that means that we’re able to continue to deliver Project Web-foot seminars with local schools in areas close to where we operate.

“It allows us to focus on our goal of protecting and conserving water and water ecosystems.”

Obviously, a natural gas industry pres-ence in Hudson’s Hope isn’t just about new hotels, apartment buildings and water treatment plants or fun educational experiences for local schoolchildren.

It is also about controversial issues such as the withdrawal of water from the Williston Reservoir for hydraulic fractur-ing that was approved by the provincial government last year.

Anderson chooses to look on the bright side.

“One of the big issues… was the issue of the trucks on the road,” said Anderson. “The pollution. The dust. The noise. The safety and everything. So, in a way, we got what we wanted. We got those heavy trucks off the road. It impacted some farmers or some landowners, but they were kept in the loop. And I don’t know what kind of deal that was made with them or anything, but I think they were treated fairly during the whole process.”

Additionally, the natural gas industry is about economic opportunities such as the partnership between Talisman and South African company Sasol to examine

the feasibility of building a gas-to-liquids plant at Farrell Creek that would turn natural gas to diesel and other high energy fuels.

It can also mean more local economic benefits, but there is work still to be done. For example, Hudson’s Hope presently lacks a service sector, an issue that was addressed in the new Official Community Plan (OCP) that was ratified in May.

“We designated some land for light industrial,” said Anderson.

“A lot of our lands that surround Hud-son’s Hope are agricultural reserve,” she continued. “So, that’s an issue, too, that we just didn’t have the land. We looked really hard and long at what we had. And we’ve come up with quite a bit of light in-dustrial and some heavy industrial land.”

The challenge is maintaining the image of the pretty valley town amidst industrial development.

“We’re trying to keep the integrity of the beauty of our little community here by putting some of that industrial out in the semi-rural areas where there’s nothing there,” said Anderson, noting that those areas aren’t quality agricultural land.

“You have to have buffer zones around that are treed and natural,” she added. “So, through our bylaws, we’re trying to address that situation, that they’re not just going to plunk a building down here. There’s bylaws that are going to ad-

dress what type of building you put on there. The buffer zones around it. For the neighbouring community and also for the visual impact.”

Anderson is optimistic about Hudson’s Hope’s ability to benefit from the oil and gas activity that has only just begun while staying true to itself.

“Even in talks with Talisman,” she began, “they have said, ‘If we had the resources here, we would be using [your] community more.’ They need the resources like welding trucks and stuff like that. We don’t have them.”

Such are the challenges facing a natural gas producer operating in a community without a long oil and gas industry tradition.

“Obviously, at the earlier stages of our developments, there was a lot of education about what we were do-ing and the type of oil and gas activity we were pursuing in the area,” said Markham.

“But … now there’s certainly greater familiarity with the terminology that we use and the practices that we use so that we’re able to have very good discussions about our activities and how we can work with the community effectively to mitigate any concerns.

“It’s great and it’s encouraging being part of the community’s growth and being part of the community’s success.”


special featureHudson’s Hope striving to balance picturesque

natural scenery with new industrial activitycont’d from pg 9

Hudson’s Hope students learn about hydraulic fracturing during an Energy in Action event at their school.



careers New kId IN towNGeography grad goes career shopping at Global Petroleum Show


Amid all the companies and countries looking to further their business interests in the competitive playing field of the oil and gas industry, there was one young man from Toronto who was attending the Global Petroleum Show (GPS) in Calgary simply to look for a job.

Born in Nigeria just 27 years ago, Chidi Ohineri left his home country as a teenager, eventually finding his way to Canada, where Toronto, Ontario has been his home and essentially the only part of the nation that he has ever known.

However, after graduating from the Uni-versity of Toronto with a degree in urban geography this April, he decided to hop a jet to Calgary in pursuit of a pathway into the industry in which his father, a chemi-cal engineer, has participated for about 35 years.

Ohineri’s interest is in the area of water management.

“Water management is a serious crisis,” said Ohineri, demonstrating his knowledge of issues related to agriculture in southern Ontario.

“There is a huge tension between nutrient management and water man-agement,” he added, explaining that the combined use of water for irrigation and fertilizers can negatively impact local water sources.

His interest in water issues stems from

his youth in Nigeria as well.“My first interest in this country was

based on water issues,” Ohineri said of Canada, remarking that water use has always been a hot topic in Nigeria largely because of government use of the resource.

“Our water usage focuses more on electricity,” he added.

“I came from a very huge, huge urban

community called Lagos,” Ohineri contin-ued. “It’s the biggest city in Nigeria. The same issues that we face in most of our urban cities here, [they] face [them] over there. I wanted to compare and contrast the issues.”

He had heard a bit about the water use and management issues facing the oil and gas industry in Canada prior to attending GPS mostly through his father,

but was still fascinated by the number companies providing services related to water use, as well as the products and services they do offer.

He had heard a lot about Alberta being a land of opportunity, too.

“And I figured I don’t want to hear about it, I want to see it,” said Ohineri.

“You can see the focus here is way different than in Toronto,” he added. “Toronto is very cosmopolitan. It’s based more in the finance and business.”

Ohineri knew things were vastly dif-ferent in Calgary just by looking at the buildings as traveled into the city from the airport.

“You can already see before being told they’re focusing more on energy over here.”

The new grad admitted that he did feel some trepidation as he entered the show on the morning of Tuesday, June 12.

“Coming here, I was a little intimidat-ed,” he confessed. “I can’t lie. Because I’m a newby. And I’m in search of a job. I’m in search of knowledge, too.”

Ohineri wasn’t sure who to approach at first, but quickly met people from a hand-ful of companies who provided him with a lot of valuable information.

“They actually want people who haven’t been… influenced by this industry they’re in,” he said. “They want outsiders, fresh people, who have a fresh perspective.

“I got a lot of information about what’s being offered in this province.”

Recent University of Toronto graduate Chidi Ohineri examines equipment he may one day use working in the oil and gas industry. Ohineri traveled to Calgary for the Global Petroleum Show in search of career opportunities in the energy sector.


environmental engineering firms, service providers and outfits that deal in pumps, valves and instrumentation.

“Matchmaking is our main goal,” said Kwon.

That was also the goal of the U.S. Commercial Service, according to com-mercial attache Cindy Biggs.

“The company can not only be here exhibiting and talking to potential clients, but we offer them the opportunity to achieve long term success in the Cana-dian market by identifying a joint venture partner, an agent or a distributor through our … matchmaking service,” said Biggs, explaining what the Commercial Service was offering to those American com-panies that chose be part of the U.S. pavilion at GPS.

That also included a special breakfast on the second day of the show.

“So, the Consul General, Laura Loch-man, talked about the importance of Canadian-United States trade,” said Biggs.

“I gave a presentation about doing

business in Canada. There was some-one from Suncor who talked about how Suncor does procurement. And there was a law firm who talked about how you venture into joint venture partnership, how you go about getting work permits, the legal aspects of doing business in Alberta. And then we also invite them to a VIP networking event.

“Our goal always is to strengthen bilat-eral trade,” she added. “And what we are trying to achieve at the Global Petroleum Show is to help U.S. companies that are looking to enter the Canadian market to find a partner here in Canada.”

Biggs echoed delegates from other ju-risdictions in emphasizing the importance of establishing a presence in the Alberta market.

“We know that the ticket to long term success in any international market is to have a representative in that market who can, first of all, identify opportunities sometimes months in advance of them being made known to the public and then also to be able to offer after sales sup-port,” she explained.

“It’s important for Canadians to see that

if a company is exporting their products here, they have somebody that they can go to who’s on the ground here.

“We also offer the opportunity for Cana-dian firms that want to set up operations in the United States. We have a program called SelectUSA. And that’s another opportunity that we highlight during our presence here at the show.”

Along those lines, Biggs deflected questions about the growing competition between Canada and in the U.S. in the LNG market by raving about a Beyond the Border initiative developed by Presi-dent Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper that could “ease the flow of people, information, goods and ser-vices back and for [across the border].”

She suggested that could help with labour issues facing the oil and gas industry.

“Companies are so excited about Al-berta,” Biggs concluded. “They’re always impressed with the pragmatic can-do attitude of the Albertan workforce. They’re really excited about the opportunities here.”

Another LNG competitor wasn’t quite

as diplomatic.Robert Simpson, General Manager of

GLNG Upstream Operations with Aus-tralian oil and gas company Santos, was very straightforward about his company’s goal to use GPS to recruit workers to help them complete a $16 billion project to convert coalbed methane to LNG for export to Asia.

Santos expects to be shipping LNG from that project in 2015.

“We have funds already approved and we’re about 25 to 30 per cent of the way through,” said Simpson. “What we’re doing here over the [show] is [trying] to locate talented people and offer them a challenging and rewarding job with San-tos in Australia.

“It’s always hard to get someone to move from their current country into a new country,” he continued. “But I think Australia’s got so much to offer.

“One, Australians are very similar to Canadians to a certain degree in terms of culture. The other is our environment is just so pleasant. It’s such a enjoyable place to live that most Canadians settle in very quickly into Australia.”

cont’d from pg 13

Matchmaking a key objective for international delegates at GPS


It is apparently just a video camera connected to a monitor, but it is one of the many high tech fruits of 24 years of labour by a Canadian research and development company known as INO that specializes in using light for sensing, imaging and detecting.

“Any kind of thing that you need to charac-terize – maybe fluid types, gas types, species of gas, that kind of thing – we have technology that is capable of doing that,” said Arne Dono-van, who works in business development for INO in West-ern Canada, during a stop at the Global Petroleum Show (GPS) in Calgary, Alberta on June 12-14.

The camera in question is actually a thermal imager.

“It measures heat,” Donovan ex-plained.

“If an object is alive, it’s generating heat,” he continued. “So, if you stood on front of that, all the dark spots are warm. … And the cooler spots will be lighter.”

One application of that technology is civilian search and rescue missions, but it is also similar to technology used to

detect fugitive emissions in oil and gas operations.

Donovan stressed that INO’s product is unique, however.

“This is a camera that INO has built,” he said. “We specially build a lot of differ-ent cameras for [our] clients.”

Increasingly, those clients are including companies in the energy sector.

“We’re starting to do a lot more,” said Donovan. “We’re doing some work for a company right now that I can’t di-vulge the name of. But picture building an information su-perhighway coming out of an oil well.

“This would be full of data, information related to characteristics downhole, fluid types, gas types, pressure, tempera-ture, all the vital signs that someone drilling a well would be interested in.”

INO is working on another project with a major Canadian pipeline company to measure fugitive emissions from the tur-bines that push the natural gas through their transmission networks.

Donovan describes the not-for-profit company – which is funded by the Canadian government, the Quebec government, research and develop-ment contracts and licenses to use their technology – as the research and de-velopment “back office for the Canadian industry.”

Still, it doesn’t seem to be very well known.

“I think INO is a Canadian treasure that really just started to come into its own,” said Donovan.

“Because we’ve only in the last four years … begun to market ourselves. Prior to that, we’ve been principally a research and development organiza-tion with no outbound evangelism, no outbound business development.

“We need to get the word out,” he con-tinued. “The fact of the matter is public relations or marketing is doing good work and telling the world what you do. Be-cause if you do good work and you don’t tell anybody about what you’re doing, who really cares in the end?”

That is partly why Brad Holinski has been brought into the fold.

A graduate student in the field of biomedical engineering, Holinski found a partner in INO for his work on helping pa-tients with spinal cord injuries walk again.

Holinski was impressed by the multi-disciplinary approach of the company.

“They draw on different specialties,” said Holinski.

“For instance, biomedical and electrical and chemical, and it forms an interdis-ciplinary team to kind of problem solve these group projects when INO … takes on a task.

“I kind of came onboard that way,” he continued. “And then they said they want to expand west and develop all their contacts out here. And so, hopefully, I will be able to help with that. I know a lot of research groups in Calgary-Edmonton through my work. And then, hopefully, we’ll get the word out for INO for bio-medical applications, as well as energy and oil and gas.”

A presence at GPS was part of achiev-ing that goal.

“In the oil and gas space,” said Dono-van, “we’re just starting to really test our wings here.”


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comINg INto tHeIr owNINO starting to get recognition for their contributions to research and development

Brad Holinski of INO examines a thermal image of himself projected on a screen during the Global Petroleum Show. INO built the thermal camera used to create the image.


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staFF rePOrterPipeline News North

The energy sector will have two significant holes to fill as the baby boomers start retiring, according to a Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada report that was released on May 30.

The report, Canada’s Oil and Gas Labour Market Out-look to 2015, which suggests that the Canadian oil and gas industry will have to fill at least 9,500 jobs by that year, also indicates that retirements will play a big role in creating those open slots for new workers, but will also cause a knowledge gap that will be difficult to overcome.

“We’re seeing high demand for – and reduced supply of – skilled workers in specific occupations, many of which are unique to the oil and gas industry,” said Cheryl Knight, executive director and CEO of the Petroleum HR Council.

“Retirements are the greatest cause of this growing – and alarming – skill and experience gap,” she continued. “The technical capabilities and knowledge of retiring, experi-enced workers are just not easily replaced by new entrants.”

Low natural gas prices are expected to cost the indus-try approximately three per cent of its workforce over the next three years.

However, growth in certain operations, particularly a service sector that is ex-pected to have 5,400 jobs to fill by 2015, should replace those lost jobs and actually increase hiring requirements, along with the retirements.

The depressed natural gas price environment is likely to have the biggest impact on the exploration and produc-tion side of the sector, which is anticipated to be the area where most skill and experi-ence are lost, not to mention job opportunities.

Industry-specific occupations are a key area of concern.

Conversely, there could be a 29 per cent increase in oil sands sector employment compared to 2012, which translates to about 5,850 jobs, and there could also be

an additional 530 jobs created in the pipeline sector.

Retirement of skilled and experienced personnel is an area of concern in those sec-tors as well.

“This is a complex labour story,” said Knight. “Hiring will increase, but total number of jobs will remain relatively flat. Certain sectors and opera-tions will add jobs, while oth-ers will lose some positions.

“And employee turnover is the wild card that could have recruiters working to fill

hundreds of additional job openings over the next four years.”

brIdgINg tHe gapOil and gas industry will need to fill 9500 jobs by 2015

“The technical capabilities

and knowledge of retiring,

experienced workers are

just not easily replaced.”

– Cheryl Knight,Petroleum HR Council


Young trades people attending the Skills Canada National Competition in Edmonton, Alberta this May were given a glimpse into a possible future in the oil and gas industry courtesy of Cenovus Energy.

As presenting sponsor for the event – which ran from May 13 to 16 – the Canadian oil company was invited to host a National Youth Forum, a gathering of past medal winners from each province and territory.

“Our HR folks went and chatted with them for the afternoon,” said Rita Erven, senior advisor of Community Investment with Cenovus, adding that the discussion included their reasons for pursuing their chosen professions, the barriers to success that they have experienced and how Cenovus could help them achieve their goals from their position as a “fairly signifi-cant employer.”

The company also offered a tour of their Nisku Module Yard, the site where they assemble the pipe rack and equipment modules that they use in their oil exploration and production operations in Northern Alberta.

“Our module yard employs numerous skilled trades people,” said Erven. “It just seemed like a great opportu-nity to bring them out and let them have a look at it.

It was an eye-opener for many of the young men and women.

“Some who were not from Alberta or Saskatchewan just didn’t really fathom the depth and scope of the oil and gas industry,” she added.

Erven suggested that that exposure could have as much value for the energy sector as for the National Youth Forum participants.

“We, as an oil and gas company, rely very heavily on skilled trades people, if not directly, then indirectly,” she said.

“Our company and our industry couldn’t really function without the skilled trades people we need. For example, we wouldn’t hire a culinary arts student, but we have camps that require cooks.

“Alberta, I think, has one of the highest needs when it comes to skilled trades people.”

Skills Canada CEO Shaun Thorson heard plenty of positive feedback about the National Youth Forum conver-sations.

“The young people that participated in that discussion [said] that it was excellent,” he said.

“They brought some really good points and information to the table. So, definitely a worthwhile activity and some-thing that we’re going to try to do more of with some more formalized discussion.”

Thorson also noted that the interaction between the Cenovus representatives and the young trades people was a good way to demonstrate the transferability of skills to a variety of industries.

“Something that did reinforce that there are countless careers involved in those occupations,” he said.

The individuals who will be representing Canada at the WorldSkills Competition in Leipzig, Germany next year were chosen from the competitors at the Skills Canada National Competition.

“They’re selected in a couple different ways, depend-ing on the contest area and depending on the types of projects that are done,” Thorson explained.

“In some instances, we only have post-secondary level contest areas,” he continued. “And [the] highest scoring, age-eligible postsecondary person is selected to partici-pate.

“And, in general, that’s sort of the theme throughout, is we look at the highest scoring, age-eligible person. Most of those people do come from the postsecondary level. But, in some instances, you may have someone that is successful from the secondary level.”

Although the event was a success, Skills Canada is

considering a few tweaks for next year, mostly to connect with the educators who at-tend the competition as coaches to the participants.

“Most of them will sit for each of the two days and watch their competitor and the contest,” said Thorson.

“But one thing that we’re looking at,” he continued, “is to build a parallel educa-tion program that runs along with the competition, where we could bring in some more organizations and companies to present information and talk about some of the trends in their industry. And have educators participate in that process, trying to provide them more information as to what industry’s looking for and the direction that industry’s moving in.”


seeINg tHeIr FutureCenovus offers a glimpse of the energy sector at skills competiton

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Worker shortage tops agenda during Conservative MP’s visit to Grande Prairie


Employment Insurance reform was the hot topic of discussion when Conservative MP Kellie Leitch paid a visit to Grande Prairie, Alberta on Saturday, June 16.

Leitch was a long way from her Ontario riding of Sim-coe-Grey, traveling to western Canada in her dual role as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skill Development and to the Minister of Labour to discuss facets of the Budget Implementation Act of particular interest to business owners struggling to satisfy their labour needs in a thriving resource indus-try town.

“[It] is, in fact, the Peace Country’s budget,” said Peace River MP Chris Warkentin, who joined Leitch to discuss the budget bill during her visit.

“It is something we have been begging and pleading

for,” he added. “For years and years.”Warkentin was especially enthusiastic about the

changes to EI, made partly in response to a tendency by many Canadian employers to seasonally lay off their staff, who then collect EI until the busy season starts again.

“Unfortunately, there [are] too many industries in Canada that have utilized the Employment Insurance program as a way to allow people to be outside the Workforce,” said Warkentin.

“In Canada,” he continued, “we’ve reached a critical point where we cannot afford to have people being out-side of the workforce because of the labour shortages in this country.”

The labour shortages have certainly been a problem for the oil and gas industry and the federal govern-ment is hoping that changes to the EI program will help address that issue by encouraging employers to seek

better solutions than seasonal layoffs.“When people in a place like Grande Prairie are

outside of the workforce,” said Warkentin, “not only is it costing taxpayers and employers through the premiums that are being paid out into the EI system – so premiums continue to have to go up because people are drawing on the system – but also we’re being disproportionately affected because we desperately need those people in the workforce to fill the gaps.”

Leitch reassured those present that qualifying indi-viduals would still be able to collect EI benefits.

“Let’s be clear,” said Leitch. “We want to better con-nect Canadians with jobs that are available for them and where they can have full time employment. That’s the best circumstance for family, the best circumstance for the employer and employee.”

That doesn’t mean that the government will be at-tempting to force individuals who are unemployed to


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The Petroleum Services Association of Canada is sponsoring four new awards for students at Northern Lights College, including those in the welding

program at the Dawson Creek campus. Photo by James Waterman.

in this issue:

• the latest scoop - InnoVatIVe randy galbreath

• shapIng alberta - premIer’s councIl

• VIsIt From the sea - aquaVan comes to b.c.

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relocate for work.“We are not going to force people to move to different

parts of this country,” said Warkentin. “We are not going to tell someone who lives who-knows-where that they won’t receive unemployment insurance. But what we are telling Cana-dians across the country is, if there is employment in your com-munity, that is within your qualifications, and you’re not applying for it, then you can’t get unemployment insurance.

“If you have an opportunity to be employed, than clearly you don’t need [EI],” he continued. “We’re going to become more concentrated on ensuring that people that can get a job get a job. Even in [Grande Prairie] the unemployment rate can go up to eight per cent in our region. So, in a place where we are desperate for folks, we need to tell those people, ‘Actually, your option isn’t to get EI. It’s to go get a job that is available.’”

EI reform isn’t the only initiative in the budget bill designed to bridge the labour gap, as the legislation also features a Temporary Foreign Workers Program, a program for people 50 years of age or older who have been laid off or need retraining to join a new profession,

and an additional $15 million in funding for the Youth Employment Strategy (YES).

One individual present at the open house noted that it is difficult to attract young people, as well as First

Nations, indicat-ing that unem-ployment levels are high in both groups.

Concerns were also raised re-garding employ-ment of foreign workers, particu-larly in terms of

investing time and money in bringing that individual to Canada, only to lose that worker to another iindustry or another province such as Saskatchewan, where the rules around foreign workers are different than in Alberta. Warkentin suggested that is a provincial issue, not federal.

Leitch stressed that employing Canadians is a top priority, too.

“What we are doing is making sure that, if there is an

employer that requiresemployees, that they know which Canadians are avail-able, and so they will be able to approach those Cana-dians, know which Canadians have the qualifications in the area to get a job, and once they’ve exhausted that move to a Temporary Foreign Worker,” said Leitch. “So we’re trying to make sure that under all circumstances that Canadians are the first choice.”

The worker shortage is set to become an even bigger issue as major projects ranging from oil and natural gas pipelines to new mining operations and BC Hydro’s Site C could all be underway in the next five to ten years.

“These are huge challenges,” said Leitch. “And that’s why, as a federal government we, are very focused on the issues.”

Leitch added that the government consulted exten-sively with businesses in western Canada when decid-ing how to address the issues.

“This is a concern,” she said. “We want to hear from Canadians, hear from Canadian businesses, as well as

employees so that we can come up with a comprehen-sive way to deal with the challenges.”

“We want to better connect Canadians

with jobs that are available.”

– Kellie Leitch, Simcoe-Grey MP

“We are not goign to force people to

move to different parts of the country.”

– Chris Warkentin, Peace River MP


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