Oilsands slump has repercussions for commuting workers

A sharp slowdown in Alberta's oilsands has left a pipefitter in southern Newfoundland facing a problem he hasn't known in years: unemployment.

Bernard Pike has returned to his home in Mooring Cove, on Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula, after being laid off as a pipefitter in Fort McMurray. He told CBC News a rapid series of cancelled expansion projects is causing an upheaval in an industry that only months ago had been having trouble finding new workers.

"All of a sudden there's a scurry of people looking for jobs everywhere," Pike said in an interview.

"With the pricing of oil going down, I have a big concern with where I'm going to go next 2,500 to 3,500 people got laid off over the last couple of weeks."

The global financial crisis and a dramatic drop in oil prices have prompted key players in Alberta's oilpatch including Shell, UTC and Petro-Canada, among others to shelve expansion projects.

Those decisions have led to a stunning turnaround for job seekers.

"I called at least 15 companies over the last two weeks, [and was told]'No, we're not hiring right now,' " Pike told CBC News. "There's a bit of a standstill."

Skilled workers from Newfoundland and Labrador and many other provinces have made their way to the oilsands, which in the boom times of recent years has offered top-shelf salaries and incentives. Some estimates have put the number of commuting workers from Newfoundland and Labrador to the Fort McMurray area as high as 10,000.

"It's somewhat, again, frightening to be dependent on another province for meaningful employment opportunities," said Sam Synard, the mayor of Marystown, a shipbuilding and industrial hub on Newfoundland's south coast.

Several key industrial projects had been lying on the horizon for Newfoundland and Labrador, but some are in doubt.

For instance, Harvest Energy has postponed an expansion to the North Atlantic Refining facility in Come By Chance, and Newfoundland and Labrador Refining Corp., which is hoping to build the first new refinery in North America in a generation, is fighting off bankruptcy in the courts.

"So far, we haven't been able to move those along to a construction phase," Synard said of the pending projects.

Pike said he is also worried about workers who have spent heavily on houses and other big-ticket purchases.

"Back seven, eight years ago, when Hibernia was big, a lot of people went into this buying [spree]. What happened to those people?" he said.

"People lost their families, lost their houses, lost everything. Is that going to happen here?"

Pike said as long as the global financial crisis drags on, he is uncertain what and wherehis next move will be.