Lower Price at the Pump=Massive Layoffs

The Saskatchewan Government isn't being as honest as it should with its people when it comes to the oil and gas price drop.

In Brad Wall’s televised speech he, of course, did not go into the details of how this down time is going to affect the industry itself.

He talked about how HIS government kept its promise of job creation, which it did…through the oil and gas industry.

You see MOST of those jobs that his government may have been responsible for creating has been in conjunction with keeping up with the boom of oil and gas.

From seeing first hand what happens when that industry slows down, being Albertan, Saskatchewan is in for a big surprise.

Brad Wall and his government are very proud of the fact that they have the “lowest” unemployment rate in the country. That will not be the case if the oil does not rebound immediately.

You will have massive layoffs, not just from the oil and gas companies like Cal-

Frac, Iron Horse, Haliburton, Element and Baker Hughes…these companies rely on other businesses to do the work they do.

Many of these companies sub-contract to other companies who then have their welders and class 1 drivers do the work for the bigger companies.

Companies like Vanko Oilfield Services in Kindersley, SK probably won’t need all their people to do repairs to pump jacks and maintenance to picker equipment, layoffs will happen. While REV Energy Services ltd out of Kerrobert, SK will need to keep some people on, not everyone will be keeping their jobs there either. Welding companies like Gremur Industries Ltd out of Maidstone, SK could have some tough times ahead as they deal with oilfield construction, people there will probably see their time shortened with the barrel of oil dropping to less than $53 as of January 4^th, 2015.

These massive and wealthy companies get their safety equipment and supplies from companies like Kost Fire Safety Ltd in Medicine Hat, AB that have trained personnel to care for this safety gear who make sure this gear works properly so no one will get hurt, they have other work for these people to do, but the money they make off the safety equipment will take a hit if the companies stop drilling.

These are just small companies who will lose jobs and income directly from the drop in the oil price that the Saskatchewan government is not being up front with you about, it isn’t just about their “budget”. There are the other industries that are going to take a massive hit.

Oil and gas companies like Baker Hughes and Cal-Frac spend millions of dollars on hotel rooms, restaurants and fuel themselves for their own workers who travel. 

Those new hotels and motels that are built and/or renovated in Kindersley,SK and elsewhere are going to lose money when road bans are put into place in Saskatchewan and these multi-million dollar companies start handing out pink slips. The restaurants and living accommodations are going to take a huge hit when the road bans are put in place. Rental accommodations are going to lose their renters who move back to where ever they came from because landlords here got greedy, charging exorbitant amounts of money for holes in the ground.

Gas stations are not going to have the company trucks pulling in to fuel up so the workers can head home to see their loved ones, they are already at home living off of unemployment.

Which brings me to my last point Saskatchewan; this has been a boost in your livelihoods. You have never seen this kind of money flowing through the coffers before. Many of your people have gone from making substandard wages to having wealth beyond knowledge. I hope they were smart enough to save and not blow it on huge houses and expensive cars/trucks/SUVs.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/as-crude-prices-plummet-oilsands-workers-find-themselves-jobless-1.2176208

One of the biggest problems people face, especially people who have no experience with money, are that when they get money they want to spend that money. Alberta saw it in the 1980’s.

People lose their houses and vehicles because they do not budget for the price of oil dropping this low. They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on building a dream home for their family with a mortgage payment that is outrageous, along with car payments for both adults (sometimes even the kids) and then the layoff happens.

Remember, you only receive 55% of your insurable earnings on Unemployment…BUT, there are stipulations, the Canadian government website http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/ei/types/regular.shtml#much…says, “As of January 1, 2014, the maximum insurable earnings amount is $48,600. This means that you can receive a maximum amount of$514 per week.”  

I hope your mortgage and car payments are not more than $2000 and that you have another income coming in to cover the cost of incidentals like food and utilities…or you are going to be flooding the market with brand new houses and that vehicle is not worth what you paid for it anymore, you now have to take what you can get for it.

So people of Saskatchewan, this is the first down time in the oil and gas for you. Those Albertans who moved here and have gone through this should be fine, if they used their heads. I hope that the Saskatchewan governments’ positive spin on bringing in the industry did not take away the sensibilities of the people.

The one good thing about oil and gas prices is that it can rebound whenever the United States government decides. So when they decide to stop policing the world you may get your jobs and livelihood back, hopefully this will happen before anyone loses their shirts.