The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Campbell Custer was ready to earn a better living, but didn't necessarily have the skills he needed. So the middle-aged Deschambault Lake man came to Northlands College to prepare for a new career in a booming industry. 'I wanted to see what oil and gas was all about,' says Custer, a student in the Creighton campus' first ever oil and gas operators program. The eight-week course, which wrapped up last week, taught its seven students the basics _ and more _ of the oil and gas sector. No guarantee Coming from the Flin Flon area as well as Deschambault Lake, Pelican Narrows and even Saskatoon, they learned about the geology of oil, drilling, extraction and transportation. They were also taught general workplace skills, such as communication and time-management. And they got the full lowdown on safety, earning a complete set of safety tickets. 'They can walk on any job site without the employer having to pay a dime,' says instructor Brian Norwood. With the oil industry in Saskatchewan and Alberta needing thousands of workers in the coming years, Norwood says some lucrative doors are now open to his students. 'There's been tremendous growth in the oil and gas industry in Saskatchewan,' says Norwood, who is based in Lloydminster (the Saskatchewan side, not Alberta). 'We had 800 rigs slated out of the Lloydminster region for the final quarter of this year, and 600 of them were assigned to Saskatchewan. So it gives you an idea of how much is going on in Saskatchewan.' Despite the massive growth of the well-paying sector, Norwood says no one is guaranteed employment. 'It's hard to say the word 'guaranteed,'' he says. 'I would tell you anybody that has some basic training and some good safety training, that is willing to get up in the morning whether it's raining or snowing, and put in a full day's work can be permanently employed in the oil and gas industry. (The industry is) very, very short of good workers. 'The trick here is good people. There's always people who knock on your door and say, 'Here, I want $60,000 to $100,000 a year, thank you very much.' But to actually get up and do it, that's two different things.' So is Saskatchewan, once home to a rather unimpressive economy, the new Alberta? 'I think it could be (but) that would depend a lot on the politics,' says Norwood. 'Politics can make a big factor on whether or not oil companies want to come and drill in your province. But certainly now in the last couple of years, some doors (have opened) and the oil companies are very interested in Saskatchewan. There's a lot of opportunity for development in the southern part of Saskatchewan and we already have roads down there, we already have electricity. It's not like having to go up to the far north and cut bush and wade through swamp and water.' A one-time newspaper reporter, Norwood himself has barrels of experience in the oil sector, having worked on rigs throughout Alberta, Saskatchewan and points further north. It's a path Custer, 56, who works at the water treatment plant and sewer stations of Deschambault Lake, now hopes to follow. Having now completed the Northlands program, he plans to operate heavy equipment at an oil camp while maintaining his home in Deschambault Lake. 'I've been working at my job for such a long time and not (progressing), just (staying) the same,' Custer says.
