I've been thinking about going to work up north and heard a blurb on the radio about a job fair in Calgary at the Radison Hotel for Suncore. Didn't catch much else.

If you do work there how do you like it? Hows the company? Are in camp and flying back and forth or in town? Whats the pay?

Anyone else working at other sites? My Bro in law is at the CNRL site as a 3rd year millright and really likes it. Good pay, flys back and forth, says the food is kinda crappy compared to other camps he has been at. Dad works at the Suncore site as Instrument tech contractor. Says its ok, food is REALLY bad. Unfortunately neither really gets to interact with any HETs.

Unfortunately my experience is a bit obscure. Its airfield equipment. Ideally I'd like to get a position in that area.

Any insight would be appreciated!

 

Not sure who does the maintenance on the machines at Suncor. I know at Syncrude is mostly Finning. I remember talking to Luke about this back when we were both at SAIT, the sign on bonus that they were offering was meant to help buy a place up there, they wanted full time locals.

If you can get a camp job, try to get into the small camps. Mildred Lake and Millennium/Borealis are big, dirty and horrible food. Last two camps I was in was Noralta (at the top of the hill south of suncor) and Oilsands (just across the bridge to nowhere), rooms were cleaner, and the food was much better. At the oilsands, you could get into an executive room if you asked for it if they had openings, didn't need to be a foreman.

 

Curious to the meaning of HET. High Efficiency Toilet doesn't seem to be it, even though that is what comes up on a search. I'm guessing heat trace or heavy equipment tech?

 

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I interveiwed with suncor 6-7 years ago. at a hotel downtown. at the time the pay wasn't enough more than I was already making here to make going away worth it. and the shift was 4on 4off. So they didn't want anyone flying in and out. they wanted only guys that would move up there basically. there was no suncor camp. as suncor mine is the closest to town. I'm not sure if things have changed since but thats the info I got while I was looking into it. Now at this time, the only way I'd go away to work is overseas.

 

You could also look at the diamond mines in the NWT. They have a two week in/out rotation, fly in of course and the camps are pretty good. Having said that, the security is very, very high. Body fluid samples will be required, etc.

 

the Ekati mine is a Finning site.

 

I seen a few job posts for that outfit. Way to far away for me for way to little pay. Probably one of the few companies out there that might give me a job these days.

Way to many young engineers, that will work tons of hours for no pay.

 

i didn't really mind working at firebag (suncor) it was fly in and out on suncor jets, you find a way around the food (you get creative haha). i was working 14 on 14 off

 

Thanks for the info, my dad is at Firebag and said the same thing about the food. I guess it was/is so bad that their company got them passes to eat at another camp.!

Anyone know who has the contracts to run the airfields at any of these sites. I know Frontec does airfield servicing but didn't see anything about them being in northern Alberta.

 

On the subject of camps, my kid builds them they are currently building what he said was the first two story executive camp, spiral staircases the works. He stays in camps while they build the new ones, says the food is either good or bad no in between and its hit and miss.
The problem with flying in and out of some sites is the runways are "gravel" actually rocks. The type of jet aircraft that can land on these types of runways is limited to ones that have gravel deflector kits installed on the engines. Even the kits themselves are hard to come by. These are B737-200 with the old PW JT8D engine. As you may guess this equipment is very old as there is nothing else to replace it and yes the rocks make a mess of the aircraft.

 

You'd think with the amount of money they're investing into these sites that they'd spend the extra coin and get a properly paved airstrip

I try to avoid Fort Mac when I can but I occasionally have to go up there for a week stretch. Usually I fly in and out but now that I'm running a service truck I'll be driving the highway to hell next time I go up... Yaaay

 

Not sure about the first two story executive camp. My dad was in the PTI camp (Beaver Lodge) for the last couple years, its two story. No spiral staircase though. Nice dining area that I could see (I wasn't allowed in it), but the bar was good.

 

Gravel runways? Cool! I wonder how well a high speed snowblower works on those!

 

I am also wondering what a HET is.... helicopter engine tech?