Editorial

Giant loss for community

Dave Redgate said the news was ‘devastating’ last week as Kelly Persson announced he was pulling the plug, going elsewhere to make a living.
But the term ‘devastating’ hardly began to cover the emotion that hit the gut like a well-aimed army boot when Persson dropped the bomb.
The president of the Northern Oilfield Contractors Association not only resigned from that position. Even more importantly, he walked away from the president's chair in the family-owned business that his Dad Emil spent a lifetime building – and that Kelly had dedicated his life to for the past 22 years.
He was quick to try and solve the problems when the company began losing money because it was being run off jobs on Crown leases. He represented the company, then became the point man when contractors banded together and began searching for a solution.
Kelly and Emil initially took their concerns to their Member of the Legislative Assembly, Pearl Calahasen – and through her, to Premier Ralph Klein. It’s not fair that First Nations groups are allowed to lay claim to oilfield development work on Crown lands, they said, just because they consider them to be their ‘traditional lands’.
Klein and his government members have repeatedly insisted they don’t recognize the term. But at the same time, they’re looking the other way when those First Nations groups demand a 10 or 15 per cent piece of that development contract pie.
And government officials are wearing the same blinders when contractors won’t pay that price and some First Nations groups erect blockades until something gives. Usually it’s the petroleum companies that blink first, and release the contractors they originally hired.
The incidents are real – not some kind of fairy tale that contractors conjure up as they’re camped out in the bush. Kelly worked hard and long to bring attention to contractors’ dilemma and was rewarded with an award-winning documentary on CBC television’s National news. That footage even showed one First Nation chief hurling insults — and running Persson’s crews off the site.
But still, the people under the Dome in Edmonton didn’t appear to be watching – or seeing — what was going on under their noses, even though Canadians had witnessed the incident.
Next, Emil’s president and the Contractors Association took their dilemma to councils for the Municipal District of Lesser Slave River and the Town of Slave Lake, asking those groups to send letters of support – and demand the province get involved before the issue blows up. In many cases, bloodshed could have been a bad comment away, contractors said, and the families could only sit at home worrying when their bread-winners, husband and dads headed to the bush for what they hoped would be a safe and profitable day -- or week.
Kelly felt thwarted when the Town’s letter of contempt for the goings on was not as strongly worded (make that ‘demanding’ or ‘defiant’) as one that had Lesser Slave Lake Reeve Sheila Foley’s signature on it. Perhaps Mayor Ray Stern chose to be ‘politically correct’ with his communique. Be that as it may, we believe both Calahasen and Klein are receiving the message -- though maybe not 'getting it'.
And as closed door meetings continue between a facilitator and First Nations groups -- with the Contractors’ legal counsel sitting in -- it’s little wonder Kelly has finally pulled the plug.
Maybe he’s taking one for the home team. Maybe he thinks his disappearance from the picture will allow the process to grow some wheels. We doubt it.
But it’s a very sad day for Slave Lake when this champion throws in the towel.