Workers needed to ‘drill, baby, drill’ — for clean energy

September 5, 2024 Canuck

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Workers needed to ‘drill, baby, drill’ — for clean energy
Shipping, with a little help from the wind
Ontario city considers making transit free for all

Workers needed to ‘drill, baby, drill’ — for clean energy

Young man in hard hat and sunglasses in front of some muddy heavy equipment with pipes and wires. — Jacob Arseneau, a student in the drilling program at Fleming College in Lindsay, Ont., takes a break from working with the drill rig behind him. He was hired by Toronto-based Diverso Energy for the summer. (Emily Chung/CBC)

If elected, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has promised to “drill, baby, drill” – for climate-warming fossil fuels.

But it turns out drillers — both those who once drilled for oil and those in training — are finding many opportunities in renewable energy.

Jim Smith, who teaches drilling at Fleming College in Lindsay, Ont., says he gets weekly emails from companies who want to hire his students.

Toronto-based Diverso Energy took two of Smith’s drilling students, Jacob Arsenau and Ben McDowell, for the summer. They’re helping install geothermal (also known as geoexchange) heating systems in new residential developments and condo towers around the Greater Toronto Area.

Townhouse complex in the background on left, drill rig on the right with two workers — Jacob Arsenau works with Diverso Energy co-worker Justin Cheney to drill boreholes for geothermal heating and cooling at a new Mattamy Homes development in Oakville, Ont. (Emily Chung/CBC)

A week before returning to class, McDowell was in a hard hat and mud-splattered coveralls, working on a muddy plain that’s slated to become rows of townhomes and single-family homes in Oakville, Ont.

“Learning that … you can drill a hole, put a pipe in it, fill it up with grout, and that’s going to heat and cool your building – I think it’s pretty cool,” said McDowell with a grin.

His job was to help seal boreholes that had already had pipes installed in them, applying grout to exchange heat with the surrounding earth.

Arsenau was working nearby at a towering green rig, helping drill a geothermal borehole for each new home. He says he loves working outside with big machinery, adding, “So far, it’s the best job I’ve ever had.”

Tyler Bleck, Diverso’s director of operations, used to work as a driller in Alberta’s oilsands in the winter, and recruited many of his former coworkers to the geothermal industry. He’s now looking to develop local Ontario talent.

“We have a massive void here in terms of skilled labour for drilling and geothermal,” he said.

Bleck left the oil industry because he found once he had a family, he no longer wanted to spend his winters away in Alberta. He soon discovered that drillers were also needed in geothermal heating. He said the industry offers a better lifestyle, not just through steadier work, but the ability to make a living in places like Toronto: “We’re in the heart of everything.”

In terms of pay, ” We can’t always meet the oil and gas hourly rates that the drillers receive, but we’re really, really close,” if not better, said Bleck, on an annual basis because the work is steady.

Man in hard hat and safety vest stands in front of a muddy plain with orange tipped pipes sticking out of it and houses in the distant background. — Tyler Bleck, Diverso’s director of operations, stands in front of a plot where geothermal heating and cooling loops have already been installed and marked with orange-tipped pipes –- one for each home. (Emily Chung/CBC)

McDowell thinks it could be a promising career, as governments push toward a net-zero future: “To me it would only make sense that we would use renewable energy to power everything.”

Smith says there’s already an “explosion” of opportunities in geothermal, but there are also drilling jobs in other areas of clean energy – foundations for solar and wind, horizontal drilling to connect underground power lines, and mineral exploration to support the EV battery industry. Drilling is also needed for geothermal power generation.

Several reports in the past two years from the Royal Bank of Canada, Clean Energy Canada and The Smart Prosperity Institute say clean energy and the clean economy will add hundreds of thousands of jobs in the next decade.

Megan Gordon, a senior analyst at the Pembina Institute, published a two-part Sustainable Jobs Blueprint for Canada last year. It notes that the energy transition is already happening, and “workers with skills that are transferable to low carbon industries are increasingly sought after to support these emerging pathways.”

She thinks it will also provide opportunities for young people in the trades, but the government needs to provide more data about exactly which sectors those will be. “It’s going to help sort of address that gap that we’re starting to see and also recruit … youth who are feeling more climate anxiety than ever before.”

– Emily Chung

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Reader feedback

Shane Nestruck of Winnipeg wrote to us about the lengthy road trip he took this summer from Winnipeg to Newfoundland (via Labrador) and back in his Kia Niro EV. The route followed the north shore of Lake Superior to Manitoulin Island, through Toronto and Montreal, and then on to Trois-Rivières, Quebec City, Tadoussac, Baie Comeau – including a visit to the Daniel-Johnson dam. From there, he went on to Labrador City, Churchill Falls, Happy Valley Goose Bay, Blanc Sablon, and ferried to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, before heading back home.

“10,759 km with no problems (but much research and preparation),” Nestruck wrote. “In Berthierville, Que., (where by the way there are many, many charging stations and where hotels/motels give free access to Level 2 chargers overnight) we stopped to ‘top-up’ at a charging station. If you are smart and not in a hurry, you can top-up a fast (Level 3) charger half way through your day and get a 100 per cent charge overnight at your motel for free!”

EVs charging in a parking lot — Shane Nestruck of Winnipeg travelled more than 10,000 km in his electric vehicle, and — with a lot of research and preparation — reports no problems charging, including here in Berthierville, Que. (Shane Nestruck)

In Quebec, he wrote, “the governments are way ahead in providing and encouraging infrastructure for EVs.… Never have I seen so many EVs as in Quebec and never so many in one spot — six charging spots, six cars charging, and two or three EVs waiting to charge.”

“Cost of ‘energy’ for the car for the trip seems to be at first calculation less than $500.”

Have the stresses of the costs of living affected your own personal investment in climate action? Let us know what you’ve postponed and why, or if you’ve found ways to move ahead on a tighter budget.

Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca.

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The Big Picture: A little help from the wind

A ship on the ocean with white vertical columns sticking out of it — France-based Ariane Group’s Canopée, with its four sails that are part of a hybrid propulsion system. (Tom Van Oossanen/Ariane Group)

This strange-looking ship arrived in Port Canaveral, Fla., on Monday, carrying a European space module that will provide power, propulsion and life-support systems for NASA’s Artemis III moon mission. While France-based Ariane Group’s Canopée looks like it might have giant chimneys attached to it, those are actually green features — four sails that are part of the ship’s hybrid propulsion system, alongside its two diesel engines. The use of wind power cuts its fuel consumption by around 30 per cent, the company says. In 2022, international shipping was responsible for two per cent of global energy-related emissions, the IEA reports.

— Emily Chung

Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web

Ontario city considers making transit free for all

A bus with a Burlington Transit building in the background — Burlington Transit Headquarters is on Harvester Road in Burlington, Ont. (Justin Chandler/CBC)

As council in Burlington, Ont., considers making it free to ride public transit, the city is looking to hear from its residents on what they think of the idea.

Council has asked its transit service to look into offering fare-free public transit and report back by the end of this year. The city has tasked the consulting firm Left Turn Right Turn to look into the matter. The firm is expected to complete a report later this year.

In an interview with CBC Hamilton, Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward said if implemented, Burlington wouldn’t be the first city in Ontario to do so, as Orangeville is currently piloting a two-year pilot program which began in January 2023.

“I’m an avid transit user myself and a huge believer that transit is really more than a way to get around, it’s how people can participate in the life of our community,” Meed Ward said.

“We know that if we’re serious about giving people the option to take transit, reducing or eliminating fares is one of the best ways to do that.”

The city is also looking for public feedback on the idea. A survey opened on Aug. 26 and will close Sept. 15.

“The purpose of this study is to really get the community’s input on free transit and really understand what our community wants,” said Catherine Baldelli, director of transit with the City of Burlington.

Over the last five years, Burlington has tried fare-free transit for several groups, including youths and seniors.

The city first tried giving seniors free transit during off-peak hours in 2019. As a result, the number of seniors using transit increased by 41 per cent, according to the city’s website.

Last year, the city implemented free transit for youth during evenings and weekends. It also made transit free for seniors at any time during the day.

Meed Ward said that looking into making transit free for everyone is feasible because the city has already implemented it for those demographics.

“It’s not as dramatic as going from everybody pays to nobody pays all in one year, which would have been probably difficult for any municipality to do. But that’s not where we are,” she said.

Baldelli added that ridership with Burlington Transit has exceeded pre-pandemic levels, and that the service saw more than three million trips throughout 2023.

Meed Ward said that the money needed to make transit free doesn’t have to come entirely from the property tax base as it can also come through the province’s gas tax program, which is calculated based on transit ridership and population. But she said those are questions the consultants will have to look into.

Dan Hendry, project director of Get on the Bus, a nationwide program that promotes transit use among young people, said other Ontario cities have explored free transit options for youth, including Kingston and Barrie.

Hendry also said encouraging people to move away from car usage is one of the changes that is needed to combat climate change.

“Anytime we can get more people using public transit and simultaneously in parallel, electrify and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in public transit, that’s a pretty big solution in the climate space,” he said.

Baldelli said council will decide whether it wants to implement free transit once the report is completed. In the meantime, she said she’s looking forward to the study.

“It could be transformational but I’m keeping an open mind,” she said.

— Nathan Fung

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Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty

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