Construction and maintenance workers at oilsands projects north of Fort McMurray are returning to their jobs, helping to restart production after wildfires forced the shutdown and evacuation of these facilities.
"On the construction projects that we have been involved in, we are back up to a full complement of workers and those members who had been waiting for flight itineraries," said Jay Bueckert, Fort McMurray regional director with the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC). "In many cases, we have the normal number of workers out at site doing the work. Where there is still a little bit of a wait and see thing is with Syncrude and Suncor sites, but that has also started up and we see our members going back to work there."
Suncor announced June 6 it is ramping up production in a staged manner and expected all of its base plant operations in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) would return to pre-fire production rates within the week.
"A return to normal production levels at Suncor’s in situ facilities and the completion of the planned turnaround maintenance on the U2 upgrading complex is expected in the third week of June," said a Suncor press release. "There has been no damage to Suncor’s assets as a result of the fires and enhanced fire mitigation work has been conducted at all sites to reduce any future potential threat."
Syncrude Canada Ltd. and Suncor Energy Inc. are in the process of bringing back staff and restarting production, after the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry lifted a mandatory evacuation order on May 20.
CLAC has about 200 people working at Suncor, while there are about 300 employed at the Syncrude site, said Bueckert.
Out-of-control wildfires forced the evacuation of oilsands projects from north of Fort McMurray to just south of Fort MacKay on May 16. Nineteen work camps and about 8,000 people were affected by the evacuation order.
Construction activities at Suncor’s Fort Hills mine have also returned to pre-fire levels.
"When Suncor was trying to get its base operation up and running again, they needed a lot of man power," said Bueckert.
"So, they closed the Fort Hills project on the construction side, because it is not operational. This allowed Suncor to open up all the camp space for their base camp workers. Now that everyone is being allowed back to Fort McMurray, they have fired up the construction phase again at Fort Hills.
"The Horizon oilsands project never reduced its workforce, because they were a long way from the fire and there was no threat," added Bueckert. "In large part due to prevailing winds, the air quality was good enough. There were only a few days when it was pretty smoky. On those days, they kept people out of the workplace."
About 2,500 CLAC members continue to undertake construction and maintenance work at the Horizon oilsands project, which is near the wildfire about 50 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, said Bueckert.
Imperial announced June 3 that there had been a safe return to normal operations at the Kearl oilsands site. Kearl’s physical plant was not damaged by the fires and the company will continue to closely monitor air quality and developments with the fires in the RMWB.
Due to the wildfire and evacuation order, some CLAC workers weren’t able to work for about four or five weeks. However, Bueckert said for the most part everyone is back to work.
In total, CLAC has about 10,000 members working in the Fort McMurray area in construction, maintenance and pipeline, as well as the service sector, explained Bueckert.
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