(05-09-2015 05:26 AM)Darius Wrote:  I was talking to a few guys from a safety company I have seen at several of the shutdown's I have been at. The name of the company is Target Safety.

A few of them were saying they are really busy right now. One guy was complaining that he hasn't seen his wife in 2 months.

It's easy work. If you are just starting out, you will probably be a confined space monitor. This means you sit outside the confined space and monitor the people inside. Take readings every 15 minutes or so. I imagine it might not be the most exciting work but it probably pays at least $20/hr to start. Not sure what tickets you would need on top of the usual First Aid, H2S, CSTS, Confined Space, Fall Protection. They were saying the more tickets you have, the more work you get.

http://www.targetsafety.ca/careers/

The hardest part of that job is staying awake, I was on a shut down last week in Fort Saskatchewan and the safety company had to skid a guy who dozed off outside of a hole while doing man watch, the guys who were working inside weren't too impressed when they found him asleep!

I second that haha. Just finished up my first rotation, first half was working with some welders as a helper which was pretty cool. The last week and a bit was split between hole watch and gas monitoring. The hardest part of the job definately was staying awake. Not to mention how slow the day goes by when you're literally recording it 15 mins at a time.

holy fuck boys the alberta dream is real...

if you throw in overtime my next cheque is gonna be for almost 100 hours in a week. apparently its not even busy yet

now its time to pass out till monday and do it all over again

Atta boy!

If I make it thru next week alive lets have a meetup. Who's still in town?

I work with united safety, pretty much the same deal as Target. If anybody is looking to get into safety, go to Target, HSE or United with H2S, CSTS and standard first aid and they will 100% bring you in for 5 day orientation.

It is what I did and every company contacted me. They do shutdown work, so there will be gaps in between jobs.

I just got my NCSO, and have been working at Suncor Edmonton. The shut down is done, so I'm just looking to move on to another one..

It's so fun looking at rooms for rent in Edmonton on Kijjiji. ''Indian only, Pinay only, female only'' etc. Imagine the outcry if there were some ''white male only'' ads.

(05-11-2015 07:07 PM)Kdog Wrote:  It's so fun looking at rooms for rent in Edmonton on Kijjiji. ''Indian only, Pinay only, female only'' etc. Imagine the outcry if there were some ''white male only'' ads.

"Newfie only!"

Does anybody know if online courses for safety tickets are recognized for work sites and employers? I am looking at ones ranging from $40-$120. They say they are recognized as a Level 1 Confined Space Entry Training Course.

http://worksitesafety.ca/store/catalog.p...finedSpace

(05-11-2015 08:36 PM)Kdog Wrote:  Does anybody know if online courses for safety tickets are recognized for work sites and employers? I am looking at ones ranging from $40-$120. They say they are recognized as a Level 1 Confined Space Entry Training Course.

http://worksitesafety.ca/store/catalog.p...finedSpace

Only take safety courses that are OSSA certified if you plan on working in northern Alberta, I didn't see any mention of OSSA on that link you provided so I would forget that.

That's what I figured. Thanks bud.^^

So I just finished the 5 day safety watch training with United Safety last Saturday and I got two free OSSA tickets (fire watch and confined space) which look good on the resume.

United Safety lowered the hourly wage from $20 to $17/hr which is wack but still better than an entry level city gig so i'm not complaining. Can someone confirm the wages Target and HSE are paying?

Anyways I ended up basically sleeping throughout the entire 5 day boring ass program and managed to still pass the common sense exams but i'm not feeling confident at all in actually applying any of the teachings on the field.
Anybody know what I should be expecting to do? In case that I need to review my booklets.

Is there a reason they lowered the hourly wage like that? Seems a bit greasy.

Confined space watch is pretty straight forward, you just stand watch at the access point to a confined space. You'll have to keep track of who's going in and out of the hole in an entry log, as well as a log of the gas levels inside the space every 15 mins. When I did it i was also responsible for making sure everyone was locked off on the field lockout box, and that they were signed onto the safework permit and JSA. Although the job may be straight forward, and the booklets boring, I would still go over them if I were you. You're most likely going to run into someone asking you questions, whether it's someone green not sure what's going on, or a big wig of somesort testing to see if you know your shit. In either case, a couple hours of studying is well worth not looking like an idiot, there's alot of people looking for work these days so anyway you can set yourself apart is worth the extra effort.

(05-12-2015 01:52 PM)Kdog Wrote:  Is there a reason they lowered the hourly wage like that? Seems a bit greasy.

Safety has no entrance hurdle so everyone laid off due to the oil price will be applying to it no matter what the hourly wage is.

Also people sleeping through the program lol. Why should they earn more if they don't even take the easiest part serious?

(05-12-2015 07:15 AM)PALEO DUDE Wrote:  So I just finished the 5 day safety watch training with United Safety last Saturday and I got two free OSSA tickets (fire watch and confined space) which look good on the resume.

United Safety lowered the hourly wage from $20 to $17/hr which is wack but still better than an entry level city gig so i'm not complaining. Can someone confirm the wages Target and HSE are paying?

Anyways I ended up basically sleeping throughout the entire 5 day boring ass program and managed to still pass the common sense exams but i'm not feeling confident at all in actually applying any of the teachings on the field.
Anybody know what I should be expecting to do? In case that I need to review my booklets.

Well you'll probably be thrown onto a job site in the next few days, the lowest paid guy on site watching a hole with tradesmen inside who could (and have) die if something goes wrong. Please read up on your notes, yes it is an easy job but you have a lot of responsibility and if you do fall asleep outside of the hole, you'll have some pretty pissed off dudes getting in your face. This is a very good example of why I prefer to work on a union job site where they don't just hire green people off of the street and put them into such a high responsibility position after only a few days of training. Today I worked inside a confined space at a refinery in Edmonton and my hole watch was a boilermaker who probably has been doing the job for 30 years and makes about $42/hour, this guy knows his stuff and has done it probably thousands of time.

That being said, these green safety guys are onsite working so there's nothing that I can do about it, I just hope that they realize how important their job is and do it well. I've always said that safety is a shit job and that guys are better off getting into a skilled trade but I spoke to a safety guy onsite today (the safety superintendent, head honcho guy), he's from my neck of the woods and is making $100/hour, so there are some decent gigs out there, just not as many as say a welder or electrician.

And now for some good news fellas: Alberta heavy oil price up almost 80% since March, check out the article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/alberta-...-1.3069377

(05-12-2015 07:15 AM)PALEO DUDE Wrote:  So I just finished the 5 day safety watch training with United Safety last Saturday and I got two free OSSA tickets (fire watch and confined space) which look good on the resume.

United Safety lowered the hourly wage from $20 to $17/hr which is wack but still better than an entry level city gig so i'm not complaining. Can someone confirm the wages Target and HSE are paying?

Anyways I ended up basically sleeping throughout the entire 5 day boring ass program and managed to still pass the common sense exams but i'm not feeling confident at all in actually applying any of the teachings on the field.
Anybody know what I should be expecting to do? In case that I need to review my booklets.

You dont have to be worried. The real training is on the job...

Youll be shadowed by a Lead and put on spark watch or a level 3 confined space(very unlikely to show any unusual readings).

Thanks boys.

Hi guys,
Long time follower, first time posting. First of all, thanks a ton for all the great info. I have been thru this forum a couple times and can't imagine where I would be without such a great resource! Short story is I have been working in Korea for the past 20 years. Yes, I am no spring pigeon. But now it's time to come back to Canada. Have been contemplating a few scenarios, none of which are bound to the oil sands or the oil and gas industry in AB, though those options interests me quite a bit, not just for the money, as I have family in Edmonton anyways.

The question I have for the forum is related to non-destructive testing. Have any of you taken that SAIT NDT foundations program? If so, was it worth it in terms of getting work upon completion? I have heard the old catch 22 that, to get a job as an NDT tech, one needs experience (and a bunch of tickets). Yet, to get that experience (and the tickets) one needs to have worked in the occupation, OR does the foundations course at SAIT provide the necessary basis for getting in on the ground floor in the industry? There does seem to be a demand for them. I also wonder if an engineering or science/math background (which I have neither) is preferred. I have been accepted to the SAIT program, is that good enough? I have many years of work ahead of me, and I am looking forward to the challenges. Life is an adventure. I have no problem starting at the bottom. I am simply wondering if this program is worth the time and money. I really appreciate any feedback you guys could afford. There's no better group to ask IMHO.

Bobrok

I think it might be better to pm the guys you know here who are in that industry.

Would love to hear from anyone in that industry. I don't know anyone from this board specifically in that industry, nor have I read anything on this. Apologies if I have overlooked something. Would appreciate a pm from somebody with any info. Thanks.

^I'll PM you soon

The redneck culture of the oilsands is being eroded. At least where I work. I was looking at my text message history, and for work related texts (setting up jobs, discussing specifics related to the tasks, technical info), the top 4 texters are women. I didn't think of much of this until now, but I work in a team full of girls!

All of them started fairly short time ago (3 years at the latest), and all of them have moved up fast. I wonder if the oil sands industry will go through the same transformation we saw in other industries?

This is something that was brought up by an American contractor that came here from Houston, and he remarked that the oilsands/oil companies here are full of women, while in the US oil biz, it's a cockfest.

Emergency shutdown in Syncrude started today. Responsible confined space attendants will likely be welcome.

(05-12-2015 08:00 PM)scotian Wrote:  Well you'll probably be thrown onto a job site in the next few days, the lowest paid guy on site watching a hole with tradesmen inside who could (and have) die if something goes wrong. Please read up on your notes, yes it is an easy job but you have a lot of responsibility and if you do fall asleep outside of the hole, you'll have some pretty pissed off dudes getting in your face. This is a very good example of why I prefer to work on a union job site where they don't just hire green people off of the street and put them into such a high responsibility position after only a few days of training. Today I worked inside a confined space at a refinery in Edmonton and my hole watch was a boilermaker who probably has been doing the job for 30 years and makes about $42/hour, this guy knows his stuff and has done it probably thousands of time.

That being said, these green safety guys are onsite working so there's nothing that I can do about it, I just hope that they realize how important their job is and do it well. I've always said that safety is a shit job and that guys are better off getting into a skilled trade but I spoke to a safety guy onsite today (the safety superintendent, head honcho guy), he's from my neck of the woods and is making $100/hour, so there are some decent gigs out there, just not as many as say a welder or electrician.

. . .

^^^WTF happened at Syncrude, did something blow up?