When a truck at Jackpine Mine dumps oil sand, it pours straight into Stacey Ryan’s domain.
Ryan is responsible for all the people and processes between the mine, pipeline and refinery-one woman in the sea of men who work in Alberta’s oilsands.
Her career spans 20 years, although she only started working at Shell’s Albian Sands three years ago.
“I actually think I moved up because of my personal drive and commitment to being a lifelong learner,” she said.
Many women struggle with the idea of hard labour, tough conditions and time away from their families, but energy companies are trying to change that through aggressive recruitment. Some companies are offering mentoring and flexible work hours in hopes of wooing women to fill the 100,000 jobs that are expected to open over the next decade.
While the long, frigid winters aren’t for everyone, Ryan said having a thick skin has literally paid off.
Get daily National news
“It has been a great opportunity as a single mother and has allowed me to provide opportunities to my son he might not have had otherwise.”
Those opportunities don’t come easy, however. Employees at Albian work 12 hour days.
Jessica Willemsen said it’s painful to wake up before 4 a.m. to catch the bus for the commute from Fort McMurray to the mine she works at, but a compressed work week means she gets three days at home with her family.
“I think they’ve been very open to having somebody new come with new ideas,” she said of the crew of men she manages in the truck shop at Jackpine Mine. “I can’t say there’ve been any negative feelings at all.”
With files from Mia Sosiak.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.