Construction has begun on an oil and gas work camp that at its peak could house more people than most of the Peace Region’s municipalities.
Encana recently started work on the Sunset Prairie Lodge, a camp roughly 55 kilometres from Dawson Creek that could eventually host up to 2,500 people working on the company’s Montney shale natural gas projects.
The site is undergoing early stage “dirt work,” according to Encana spokesperson Brian Lieverse. Workers could start moving in within the first few months of 2015, he added.
“We’ve got a number of large construction projects that will be happening over the next two to three years, so that's the need for the camp,” he said.
The influx of work camps to the region has been a source of angst for local businesses, who fear they’ll be cut out of a resource boom. The new “shadow” population of transient workers has also overwhelmed local infrastructure, including hospitals, most elected officials say.
Local businesses especially have trouble competing for contracts to supply worker camps, Dawson Creek Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kathleen Connolly told the Alaska Highway News.
“That’s free enterprise, they can hire whoever they want,” said Connolly. “But we have some concerns about the impact that has on our community infrastructure.”
In addition to construction supplies, camps require food service, medical, security and administrative personnel. Connolly said chamber members had learned the Encana camp needed 36 janitors, for instance. Most of those services are awarded on a contract basis.
The chamber recently passed a motion at the B.C. Chamber of Commerce that asked the province to encourage camp operators to procure contracts locally where possible. Whether the chamber’s worker camp motions will have and impact remains to be seen.
The Peace River Regional District also wants improved information on when and where camps are built. Under the current system, worker camps are approved by a patchwork of government agencies including the Oil and Gas Commission. Who gets a say on camps depends on whether the camp is on private or Crown land.
Connolly said chamber members had heard of two other companies looking to build camps in the area, though neither the PRRD nor the Oil and Gas Commission were aware of any applications.
That came as no surprise to Connolly. “There are camps all over the place nobody knows about,” she said.
At a community meeting about the camp this spring, Lieverse told business owners that his company would work to procure goods locally when possible. At that time, Encana expected Sunset Prairie Lodge would create between 15 and 25 permanent jobs in Dawson Creek.
Encana expects to invest $1 billion in its Montney holdings in the next year.
If the camp grows to the expected size, it would have as many or more residents than most of the region’s incorporated areas. Its population would rival Chetwynd and Tumbler Ridge, which each had a little more than 2,500 residents in 2011.
