Pipeline work course helps Metis workers

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A three-way partnership between Zone One of the Metis Nation of Alberta, AVC Lac La Biche, and the private sector has provided an opportunity for Metis pipeline workers to upgrade the skills they can offer to employers.

On June 30, seventeen Metis from northeastern Alberta graduated from the Pipeline Certified Training Course, certified as operators of either a side boom cat or a track hoe. The course was held at the Christy Creek Gravel Pit near Lac La Biche.

The course simulated actual working conditions on a pipeline job. There was one instructor training six students on three track hoes, and two instructors training eleven students on seven side booms. The head instructor running the course was Reg Fontaine. Trainees said he ran things in a tough manner, just like a foremen on a job site.

The 20 students who started the course were selected from over 100 applicants. Most of them had prior experience working on pipeline jobs. "Taking these people from skilled labor to operator opens up jobs at the entry level for younger workers," Bourque said, so it's not just the trainees who benefit from the program.

The cooperation from the business sector in donating most of the equipment and pipe used in the training course was "incredible", said Zone One president Gary Bourque. "Without the buy-in from industry the course would not have been possible."

Bourque also said the partnership with AVC was vital. He sees this as a positive first step in establishing an ongoing working relationship with AVC to meet the training needs of Metis workers in northeastern Alberta.

The month-long course was made possible by Human Resource Development funds, handed over to the MNA by the federal government through the "Regional and Bilateral Agreement."

The agreement means the MNA zones are "in control of our own training dollars", said Bourque. "We can decide what training programs to initiate and fund."

The course started with a three day job preparation session at AVC which included first aid training and workplace safety training. Then the students were working with the equipment at the Christy Creek site six days a week for ten hours a day, simulating the conditions they will find on a pipeline job.

The course was timed to wrap up just as pipeline contractors are starting to hire for the summer and fall.

Bourque said the Zone One office will follow up on the course by "tracking trainees to evaluate the success of the program."

He feels that most, if not all, graduates of the course will get pipeline jobs fairly quickly. And the indicators from the businesses that donated equipment and materials for the course is that more training programs specific to the needs of the industry should be held in the future.

Some of the private businesses that donated equipment for the course were on the job site from time to time to observe the progress of the trainees. A senior field management member from Reid's Welding said he was on the job site four times in June, "scouting the talent." As he observed the trainees operate equipment he would rank the top ones, he said. And every time he was on the site a couple of different students were pegged as being the best in the class.

He added that this kind of intensive training course is especially valuable to pipeline contracting firms because mot of the training in the business is on the job. The course was the first of its kind offered exclusively to Metis workers in the province.