Boom time bonanza

A town with so much demand that the jobs go begging. Complete with stories of 12-14 hour days, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, including the tale of a Hotel operator that can’t open up their restaurant, because no one wants or needs to work there.

They’re on the other side of the province and at the other end of the financial spectrum and Dawson Creek is as they say a hot, hot , hot job market. The current boom in the northeast is providing the city of 12,000 with enough money to build a huge new leisure complex.

Dawson Creek of course is part of the same territory that Prince Rupert shares in terms of Employment Insurance reporting, but in reality is a completely different world than that which we feature here. It makes for a fascinating study of two towns of similar sizes in completely different economic situations.

It’s all part of life in the oil patch boomtown and the Vancouver Sun provided an interesting look at how things can quickly change when the boom times come..

Oil and gas boom sets Dawson Creek on fire
The northern town is a hub of B.C. industry

Scott Simpson
Vancouver Sun
Monday, October 30, 2006

First of a series.
DAWSON CREEK -- Two guys came by Curtis York's office the other day, looking for work.
They were heavy-duty vehicle drivers, one from Prince George and the other from Prince Rupert.

They'd gone as far east as Grande Prairie, Alta., looking for a sense of the opportunities available in Canada's booming Western oil-and-gas sector, and were stopping into Dawson Creek on their way home to scope out gas and oilfield service opportunities in one of British Columbia's hottest boom towns.

York needs drivers to deliver drilling fluids to the gas-exploration rigs that are swarming across northeast B.C.

Things are so crazy in Dawson Creek that when a new Best Western hotel opened this summer, the accompanying restaurant stayed closed because the operators couldn't find anyone who needed a job.

It crossed York's mind that the men might be what he was looking for, and the northeast needs in abundance, people with a strong work ethic who will eat up some of the high-paying hours that a vigorous gas industry is throwing his company's way.

No such luck.

He wanted to know when they could start. They began to hem and haw.

"Are you near sour gas?" one asked.

"Well, this is the oil field," York responded.

"Is it harmful?"

"Well of course it is," he replied.

And so on. It soon became clear to York that they were more interested in backtracking than hauling.

"I said: 'I think you better just keep trucking back to Prince Rupert or wherever you've come from. You're just wasting time.'

"They didn't really want it," York reflected in an interview, adding that he has encountered "a lot of people" who make tentative inquiries but lack commitment.

Not York.

He is so confident in the future of B.C.'s gas exploration and development industry -- and the provincial government's commitment to the industry's future -- that he relocated the main office of Gerry's Oilfield Services from Bonanza, Alta., and spent $1 million on a new facility in Dawson Creek.

Companies such as his are springing up like mushrooms in the city's main industrial park in the wake of EnCana's record $400-million purchase of gas- drilling rights on a 362,000-hectare property a couple of hours' drive north of town.

Entrepreneurs such as York, who sniffed out the opportunity and bought into the B.C. government's commitment to supporting an expanded gas industry, are working flat out, making money hand over fist, and creating hundreds of new jobs for British Columbians.
"We made a commitment here," York said. "We've invested a big chunk of dollars in Dawson. We've gotten our return back on it for sure.

"With what was going on in British Columbia we thought it was in our best interests to come in. These are exciting times here and hopefully they will continue."

Perhaps they will.

In a report released last week, BMO Financial Group's economics department said oil-and-gas services will rank as the fastest- growing industry in Canada in 2006-2007.

"Oil-and-gas services are being driven by massive investments in energy resource and infrastructure development," noted BMO Group assistant chief economist Earl Sweet in the report.

"While down from their earlier exaggerated highs, prices for oil and natural gas are projected to remain relatively elevated during the next two years," he added.

"This will ensure that development of Canada's conventional and non-conventional oil and gas fields continues at a brisk pace."

Manny Kutchinski arrived here two years ago, after an oilfield- service career spent mostly in Alberta, to assist in a new pipeline facility business that his son was setting up in Dawson Creek in recognition of the Cutbank Ridge opportunity.

"We got into it right away," Kutchinski said. "In total we've got 100 people working for us here, and we've also got a branch office in Grande Prairie.

"EnCana got things rolling for us."

Paul Gevatkoff, a city councillor in Dawson Creek, said EnCana's decision to run Cutbank as a year-round operation rather than a conventional B.C. winter-only enterprise was a turning point for the economy.

"That's what supports these guys moving in here. Big public companies have moved right into Dawson Creek and set up shop based on being able to work year-round," Gevatkoff said.

Long-time area residents are also participating.

Allan Armstrong, who manages PC Oilfield Supply, took it from a startup in 2003 to "a multimillion dollar company with 20 people."

People are pretty much on the payroll at PC and every other oil- service company in town from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until they close them at night.

"I think on average, everybody is working 120-130 hours in a two-week period," Armstrong says.

"For the most part, our people have a fairly high level of ambition. If you're going to be putting in the hours and the days that we do, you have to have that drive or you're not going to survive."

His own workday begins before 5 a.m., and goes past 9 p.m.

"I worked 325 days last year," says Armstrong.

"We worked Christmas Day. We have never even advertised, really. We get out there and work just seems to follow."

The economic benefits are spreading through the community.

With a population of just 12,000, the city recently undertook a $35-million recreation and leisure complex.

ssimpson@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2006