Paintearth Energy Services community initiative update
July 10, 2007
Paintearth Energy Services is proud to be part of meaningful community initiatives. At Castor, Alberta the local senior’s lodge was working hard to get funding and approvals to expand and modernize their facility. We suggested that we would be willing to supply some labour for the project during a slow period at our nearby Halkirk, Alberta plant. This has been a great project for us, helping the community in a very tangible way while keeping staff busy. We are thrilled to be recognized in the following article from a recent issue of the Red Deer Advocate newspaper.
A true community partnership
July 3, 2007
Sylvia Wold was optimistic her pitch to the local business community would generate support for the expansion of Paintearth Lodge in Castor.
But the administrator with the Castor and District Housing Authority was still shocked by the response she got from Paintearth Energy Services
Kerry Pickles, general manager of the company’s Halkirk plant, offered to send manpower — and lots of it.
In addition to providing a valuable service to the community, Pickles felt the donation would be a good way for Paintearth Energy Services to keep its workers busy during the current slowdown in the oilpatch.
“Typically in the past, there would have been layoffs if we slowed down this much,” he said.
By helping at the lodge, the company has been able to keep workers on the payroll and earn a charitable donation for the labour they provide.
Since early this spring, it has been sending as many as a half-dozen workers to the construction site each day. Nearly 1,100 man hours had been accumulated as of last week.
“They’re our heroes,” said Wold.
“There were absolutely no strings attached. These men just arrive here and go to work all day long.”
That’s helped accelerate the timelines for the addition of 25 units to the 30-room facility. Development of a closed-in courtyard and other renovations are also being undertaken.
The unexpected labour gift also enables the Castor and District Housing Authority to access additional funding for the $3.8 million project. That’s because Paintearth Energy Services’ donation can be valued as a gift-in-kind and used to access matching government grants, said Wold.
With the housing authority responsible for about 57 per cent of the project’s cost, this is important, she said.
“We’re fundraising until we can hardly stand it anymore.”
Wold praises the project’s contractors for incorporating Paintearth Energy Services’ workers into their own crews.
“Everybody has gone out of their way,” she said. “It’s just been amazing.”
Pickles plans to send employees to the construction site as long as he can spare them.
The charitable donation receipt is welcomed, he said, but not the primary motivation for his company’s help.
Temporarily laying off employees creates a risk that they will no longer be available when they are later needed. And that would be a problem in today’s tight labour market.
Even if replacements could be found, the cost of training them could run as high as $20,000 to $30,000, said Pickles.
He added that another big motivation for assisting with the lodge expansion is Paintearth Energy Services’ philosophy of supporting the community. In addition to wanting to be a good corporate citizen, the company benefits from an enhanced image in the eyes of its existing and prospective employees.
Workers may have family members who live in Paintearth Lodge or expect to reside there in the future, noted Pickles.
The lodge expansion is “vital” to the community, stressed Wold.
“I always have 20 to 30 on the wait list,” she said. “And those are people that needed to be in here six months ago.”
Jim Klasson, economic development officer with the Paintearth Economic Partnership Society, applauds the company for making its surplus labour available for a worthy cause. He thinks other similar arrangements are possible in the future, perhaps involving other businesses.
Paintearth Energy Services would be willing to take on another project under the right circumstances, confirmed Pickles.
“It was a real win-win.”
With the Paintearth Lodge expansion working toward an October completion date, Wold is of two minds when it comes to oilpatch activity.
“I really hope that Paintearth Energy picks up because they are such a boom to our community, but I don’t want them to do it until my project is done,” she laughs.
“I try not to tell Kerry that.”
|
