Oil sands needs more labour

It takes big equipment to work Alberta’s big oil sands projects.

EDMONTON

It takes big equipment to work Alberta’s big oil sands projects.

One of the big players in providing that big equipment for more than 30 years is Finning, which boasts 307 employees and 340 pieces of equipment working in the Athabasca deposit near Fort McMurray, Alta.

The company sells, rents and services Caterpillar equipment around the globe.

And while it has been a player in the Alberta oil sands for awhile, it has only been in the past five years that this and many other companies directly and indirectly involved in gas exploration started growing at a tremendous rate, said Finning’s project manager Brian Shaw.

“We provide small skid steers for light construction, all the way up to the largest mining trucks and graders, the 797B trucks and 24H graders,” he explained.

It’s the demand for these products that allows Shaw’s team to boast the highest number of equipment sales and rentals in Western Canada, he said.

The great news is that as long as the price of oil remains above $50 a barrel, Shaw sees no sign of business slowing.

“We expect by the end of the decade or 2011, we’ll be seeing double the fleet in the oil sands.

“That’s not just Finning, but our competition too,” he said.

And with an increased fleet size, Shaw predicts a similar jump in staffing will also be necessary. But like many employers in Alberta, the current hurdle is finding qualified staff.

“Recruiting is a challenge for anybody in Alberta,” Shaw said.

During 1997-98, Finning had 57 staff in the oil sands. In 2001, that number made its first leap to 170-180 people.

Then the energy boom hit hard almost three years ago, and in the past 18 to 24 months Shaw has had to increase the staff to more than 300, he explained.

To address the ongoing labour demands, as well as Finning’s needs to staff its South American and United Kingdom teams, the company is working closely with colleges and trades programs to entice graduates, it has launched its own apprenticeship program and Finning is continuing to scour the globe in search of skilled workers.