Layoffs at North Cariboo

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blue-sky
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Layoffs at North Cariboo

Post by blue-sky »

heard that work is really short at North Cariboo and they sent out a memo that Layoff are on ther way. They are too over staffed and with planes flying less nowadays and over 100 pilot looks like the pink slips are on there way fast.
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Cod Father
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Post by Cod Father »

I suspect this is seasonal as the rig workers are coming in due to spring break up.

The lull won't be long. Kearl Lake Oil Sands Project (KOS) got the green light this week. They are going to be building a strip for a fly-in/fly-out workforce.
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Legacy
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Post by Legacy »

Spring break up now? Why do I find that hard to believe. Snow isnt even close to melting up north. From what I heard it was non flying staff at NCA that got laid off.
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YYC the place to be
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Post by YYC the place to be »

Break up is coming earlyer this year, things are slowing down. Break up only lasts a couple months so it is not that bad of a lull, and it's not like caripoo's only business is oil anyway.

100 pilot getting ther pink slips eh?........Does caripoo even have that many pilots?
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sinjin
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Post by sinjin »

This season has been slow for everyone. The drilling season that was suposed to be the busiest ever fizzeled out to being one of the slowest one in 5 years. Oil reservs are up and exploration is down. As for the slow down, spring is usually the slowest time for flying in the Edmonton area. As for pilot layoffs, I am sure that the airlines will take enough of the pilots that there will be very few if any pilot layoffs.
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Post by twinpratts »

No WAY :shock:
I'm surprised to hear this.
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North Cariboo

Post by shamrock104 »

Is this for sure or just gossip? Anyone from Cariboo that can confirm this?
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Post by bigsky »

This was posted by another poster on the political forum under "when the music stops"

MUSKEG
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Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 8:47 am Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I not a doom and gloom person, but buckle down the chin straps we are in for a major correction. If you don't believe me go to Fort Nelson where many many companies have not turned a wheel this winter. Business is down 50 % (not my numbers) those are from people in business. Fort st John is not far behind. I've said it many times, as much as we don't like it oil and gas drives the economy. Very little exploration and drilling happening here. Oh I know we're just some back water spot to you big Easterners but like it or not your economy is driven by the west. Word is out that there are 100 almost new homes fresh on the market in Grande Prairie, many of them walk aways. All you nay sayers can talk big all you want, I've been through it once before and the similarities to the 70's are all there.



Sounds like it has slowed down somewhat. Just like a stock crash, those that refuse to believe it are left holding the bag.

I remember the down-turn of 79. The Beaufort Delta area was booming. Dome/BeauDrill/Esso were all going nuts. In a matter of 1 year it was all over.

It can, and it will, happen again. Believe it !!!
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Sub-Space Canoodler
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Post by Sub-Space Canoodler »

I tend to agree that caution is the word of the day here. This is scary stuff right now. Close friends of mine in the oil patch were told in the fall ( Of 2006 ) to " brace for a slowdown in 2007 ". I too remember the big crunch of the early eighties and also got laid off. I saw guys off of 737s back flying navajos.
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Post by compilot »

I am directly employed by the Oil and Gas Industry, I do the land acquisition for new wells and pipelines, and it has become scary slow. We have had alot of oil and gas companies cancel there entire 2007 drilling programs. Most Oil and Gas companies have enough Reserves that they don't have to drill another well for 5-9 years, so unless the price of oil goes through the roof, you won't see alot of activity any time soon.

Although if you are involved with the oilsands, you should have a little more job security.

Even with the booming oil sands I would still prepare for an Alberta Slow down!
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Post by godsrcrazy »

This is typical of the Oil patch. There use to be a bumper sticker in the eights that read. Lord let there be another Oil boom and I promise I wont piss it all away.

If North Caribou is laying off it is not normal because of spring thaw. Or it sure has not happened over the last couple of years.

I wonder how many people quit or Bond jumped full time jobs north and other places to jump into the oil boom rush and now may be unemployed. :?:
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Westrules
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Post by Westrules »

If there are layoffs at Cariboo I don't think it has anything to do with the oil patch slowing. Cariboo recevied 2 additional DHC-8s and there is another on the way bringing the total to 5. They have sold 1 1900c and are looking to sell more of their smaller aircraft(90s and 100s) so I've heard. Also 1 managed KA200 has been sold.

The fact is this 1 Dash at 37 pax equals 6 King air 100s at 6 pax. That also equals 2 pilot's for the dash or 12 for the King airs.
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Post by sinjin »

In Edmonton there have been layoffs no pilots though. As for the selling of a 1900 not sure if that is true they just bought a new one and just got it in to service.
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Post by Scuba_Steve »

...and that just got online 1900c is now gone, sold..

my understanding is that no pilots were laid off, but that is unconfirmed. I wasn't at least :? although I haven't been into work in a few days.

Planes still seem to be flying lots, just not as much as last year.

Cheers
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Last edited by Scuba_Steve on Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by 27pilot »

I'm a mudman (ie. drilling fluid engineer) living in Grande Prairie and I must say that it is very slow. We have 12 field hands in our group and only 3 of them have rigs. I just finished my last hole for this winter and now I'm just taking it easy at home receiving only my base salary. I will likely have to spend a lot of 2007 on US land rigs (Wyoming or Oklahoma) to earn rig bonuses. This is what I was told:

One of our major clients is not doing any more drilling until Oct 2007. The price of oil is still strong. However the majority of wells in my area are primarily gas wells. Price of gas is low due to how the US winter was very warm to start. There the US had a lot in there natural gas reserves. In a last month it has been very cold and the reserves are being used up. However there is a lag between demand and when new gas wells are drilled and now we only have 4-5 week of winter left. There are also other reasons why 2007 will be a slow year. However it appears that this is a temporary phenomenon. For the next 5 years, things look pretty good for Alberta.

That's what I was told by the "experts" in my company.

And yes, housing prices have levelled off in Grande Prairie. But I think they've just reached an equilibrium with the demand. I don't think we need to worry at all about the next 5 years. Just my opinion.
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Post by Kariboo Kid »

No pilots were layed off from what I understand but there is a hiring freeze. All the layoffs were office folks: some ops, some admin, and one sales lady. The number being talked about around the office is that our winter flying was down like 25%...

Heard the thing about the 90's going too....that's all I know..
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Post by skyismine »

2006/2007 winter was slow,part of this is being blamed on a slower than normal freeze up for atleast part of the season,a surge of oil on the market or over supply also drove prices down=less demand.The boom is not over...2007 is predicted to be a big year again and with the unstability in the middle east we all know oil can surge in price overnight.Cariboo is ok and this was all twisted into 100 pilots getting pink slips...Glad to hear these guys are alright,I have alot of respect for many of these people who I work alongside of.
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Post by PT6-114A »

I fly the 90's here and have not herd a word of them going yet they are the busyest planes there in the last little while. The 1900 is going for sure. The 200 would have never left but the owner sold it had nothing to do with Cariboo. But you know avaition, you just never know.
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Post by TeeKay »

I think a recap of the last week of NCA is in order. Far too many rumours by Avcanada "experten" being perpetuated. (if you don't hear a rumour by 10AM... start one!).

The company appears to be doing fine. Flying is down, but there is no layoffs to pilots yet, and I doubt there will be (of course, as previously mentioned, it IS Aviation...). In fact, pilots both old and new are still receiving upgrades and training as required. It is true that there is no new hiring for now; cross-training is the name of the game by management, that only makes sense.

With the huge hiring that went on last year, the net result seems to be that the company barely made up the shortfall with other pilots going on to the airlines. That one is a no-brainer.

For the record, there are 78 full-time pilots inlcuding management flyers of all types, and 4 or 5 contract.

As for the slow-down in the oil patch, drilling is down, yes, but the majority of NCA work is contracts which provides more security. I think a lot of the comparison is with last year's market which was absolutely insane with everyone running tail-up and hair straight back just to keep up. 20% less of that means simply a busy winter season, as would be compared with most other aviation companies.

The company needs to change to meet the changing market; hence, some planes are going and others are coming. NCA should hand it to the sales dept. for constantly finding new markets to utilize.

Other changes in the works? Perhaps, I really do not know. However, it is business as usual.
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Post by disengage »

No pilot lay offs yet...csr's yes, short maintenance in yeg so dont see layoffs there.
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Post by co-joe »

A slow down in hiring had to happen a bit there. Last year they lost so many pilots that they had more spots on the dispatch board with the words "no crew" written than then did trips booked.

So over the summer the hiring machine went into high gear for the 200's and 1900's. They have something like 10 full time 200 crews for 3 airplanes. This year the XJ and YE business has been way down and not as many people have been leaving so it only makes sense that they stop hiring for a while.

As for turnover it almost seems like Jazz, AC and WJ shift their hiring from mostly one source to mostly another and then back again. Where last year NCA lost a pilot a week to Jazz, and one a month to the other two hiring is moving around... don't wory they'll come back to Cariboo and in a little while you'll be posting that NCA is trying to hire anybody and everybody with a PPC (maybe then they'll start to pay industry standard at least :wink: )
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Post by Westrules »

TeeKay wrote:I think a recap of the last week of NCA is in order. Far too many rumours by Avcanada "experten" being perpetuated. (if you don't hear a rumour by 10AM... start one!).

The company appears to be doing fine. Flying is down, but there is no layoffs to pilots yet, and I doubt there will be (of course, as previously mentioned, it IS Aviation...). In fact, pilots both old and new are still receiving upgrades and training as required. It is true that there is no new hiring for now; cross-training is the name of the game by management, that only makes sense.

With the huge hiring that went on last year, the net result seems to be that the company barely made up the shortfall with other pilots going on to the airlines. That one is a no-brainer.

For the record, there are 78 full-time pilots inlcuding management flyers of all types, and 4 or 5 contract.

As for the slow-down in the oil patch, drilling is down, yes, but the majority of NCA work is contracts which provides more security. I think a lot of the comparison is with last year's market which was absolutely insane with everyone running tail-up and hair straight back just to keep up. 20% less of that means simply a busy winter season, as would be compared with most other aviation companies.

The company needs to change to meet the changing market; hence, some planes are going and others are coming. NCA should hand it to the sales dept. for constantly finding new markets to utilize.

Other changes in the works? Perhaps, I really do not know. However, it is business as usual.
I guess if there were no pilot layoffs everything is fine? I heard they laid off 20 people but since they weren't pilots I guess they weren't required.

I also heard they were having some cash issues? Just another rumor though.
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Post by redbeard »

Like the saying goes, right after the big expansion comes the big contraction
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Post by Kariboo Kid »

Westrules wrote:I guess if there were no pilot layoffs everything is fine? I heard they laid off 20 people but since they weren't pilots I guess they weren't required.

I also heard they were having some cash issues? Just another rumor though.
It was like 10 or 11 - not 20.
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Post by TeeKay »

K K is right. Some maintenance, stores and sales between the bases. As for pilots, as said, there is barely enough crew around to cover the trips as is.

The board is full; when not in maintenance, the fleet is utilized about 85% (IMHO), which is pretty doggone good.

RedB - well, I would not be so arrogant as to think that "they" were not required because they weren't pilots... everyone at NCA is part of the team and any layoffs are felt by everyone.

As for cash issues? Yeah, with Dash's coming in faster than they can be crewed, I would doubt that. Just because the company is only very busy this winter instead of hair back insane like last winter, means the company still is rolling in green... see 2nd paragraph.
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