12 people linked to Imperial Oil’s Kearl Lake oil sands facility have now tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, an increase of three since the day before.
“There is nothing more important to us than the safety and health of our workforce and our communities,” says Imperial Oil’s vice-president of production, Simon Younger.
“This is Imperial’s priority as we continue to take actions to prevent further spread of COVID-19.”
Two of the cases remain on the Kearl site which is 130 km north-east of Fort McMurray. The other 10 are off-site.
Imperial Oil says it has traced each employee’s contacts and have asked other workers from the site to self-isolate while further testing is underway.
“Our thoughts are with these individuals and hope they make a full recovery,” says Younger.
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The company says it took several preventative measures in March. Staff are screened before traveling to the site, cleaning has been expanded, an isolation wing to a medical centre is present on site, temperatures of every staff member is taken daily and the company says it has reduced its non-essential workforce.
Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw says her office has been working closely with Imperial to manage this outbreak.
“We are doing everything possible to limit the risk of transmission,” said Hinshaw, adding she has “had conversations with the company today to make sure all parties have the information they need to make sure control measures are in place.”
Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister also spoke about the work camp COVID-19 cases.
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Chrystia Freeland said: “The province of Alberta, the provincial public health response has been very strong to date and I have every confidence it will continue to be.”
The Alberta Federation of Labour said it has concerns with the cases in the work camp.
Officials say they applaud the safety measures and precautions employed by Imperial Oil but says it’s nearly impossible to prevent cases in a place like a work camp.
“From our perspective, it was a question of when, not if,” said AFL president Gil McGowan.
He notes camps house many people and meals are shared. Social distancing is often difficult and there are unique challenges in remote camps to ensure workers can regularly wash their hands.
Oil sands workers are classified as “essential” by the province of Alberta but McGowan thinks it’s time the province re-thinks the term.
“As a province, we desperately need to have a more serious conversation about how many people really need to keep working up in those environments where frankly, there’s an elevated risk.”
McGowan wants companies to consider scaling back production and keeping only enough staff to keep the mine operational.
“Not only is this an issue of individual health and possible exposure to their families, we’re talking about hundreds and in some cases thousands of workers who get onto planes and fly all across the country.”
One industry expert says such changes would be difficult.
“Oil sands projects are very large and complex and the’re very integrated,” says Richard Masson from the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.
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Shutting down mines or upgraders in the region isn’t good option.
“It still freezes in Fort McMurray every day,” says Masson.
“You’d have to worry about the reservoir and how that’s going to affect it. Is it going to damage it? You have to worry about all the pipes that have water in them.”
Masson says there are ways to shut down operations but that would take weeks to plan and at least a month to implement and the oil companies would have to bring in more workers to complete the task. Scaling back isn’t much easier.
“You can’t really get by with much of a skeleton crew. You need the crew 24/7 to operate safely. So you have to have all your shifts covered, all the different operating positions.”
Alberta’s Municipal Affairs Minister helps decide which positions are “essential” and says the province carefully considered those employed in the oil sands.
“I am confident that designating oil sands projects as an essential service is the right one,” Kaycee Madu said, adding there are no plans to adjust the definitions of essential.