Labour shortage anticipated with rigs’ resumption

After massive layoffs, workers expected to have difficulty trusting oil industry

When oil prices plummeted, companies across Saskatchewan suspended operations and laid off workers in droves. Now that work is returning, they can’t convince anybody to come back.

“There is going to be a labour shortage of people. It’s guaranteed to happen,” John Winder, project manager for Kana Oilfield Services Ltd, said. “Nobody wants to come back to something that isn’t a sure thing.”

In major oil centres in Saskatchewan like Kindersley and Weyburn, operations are starting to increase again after the market crashed in 2014. But what was once a popular opportunity for jobseekers across Canada has become filled with caution — from workers and companies alike.

Kana Oilfield Services, an Alberta-based company with operations across Saskatchewan and the other Western provinces, has been putting up job postings for positions in the Kindersley area. But with the industry still reeling from the huge drop in oil prices, Winder says it’s hard to offer enough incentives or a high enough wage to draw people back to the rigs.

“It’s not that you can’t find the people, it’s that you can’t find local people,” Winder said, adding that companies are finding it difficult to justify paying travel and living expenses for out-of-province applicants when the work still isn’t consistent yet.

Lana Rhodes, a training consultant with Great Plains College in Kindersley, said business is starting to pick up again as oil prices are slowly creeping upwards. But she did agree that a labour shortage was a definite possibility, if it wasn’t already happening, because workers have lost faith after the long slump and unstable market.

“The confidence in the industry isn’t back yet,” she said “It’s a trust thing. It’s not that these people are unwilling to work.”

The expectation — or concern — of a labour shortage in the oil industry is not limited to the Kindersley area.

Weyburn mayor Marcel Roy, who runs an oilfield safety training firm, said people are tired of the “up and down” cycle of the industry. It doesn’t help that the current “down” of that cycle has lasted much longer than usual, which is contributing to a labour shortage.

According to Roy, the “magic number” for the price of oil is $50 per barrel. If the price goes above that, companies feel good about their operations. If it falls below, concern returns, he said.

“There is a resurgence coming, but it’s going to be a slow one,” Roy predicted. “We are seeing businesses being very optimistic ... but they’re cautious.”

The idea of “cautious optimism” seems to be the best descriptor for the current state of the oil industry. Both Roy and his Kindersley counterpart, Mayor Rod Perkins, said they see business beginning to return to their areas of Saskatchewan. More drilling operations are taking place, they said.

But whether it’s due to a lack of trust, pay or amount of work, the oilfields might stay empty for a while longer as potential workers decide if it’s worth it to come out — or come back.

“If you’ve got a decent job already, why would you give it up to come make an extra bit of money for a month and then have no job again?” Winder asked.