NS Politics

Everything is politics, at least to someone.

Category: Jorbs

  • Imperial Oil (ExxonMobil) Cuts Jobs

    ExxonMobil Leaves Loves Canada!

    You can’t make us pay to clean this up once we’re done either.

    We at ExxonMobil would like to remind Canadians that as the owner of 70% of Imperial Oil we call all the shots. Including inserting all the highest executives. And at Imperial Oil (and/or ExxonMobil depending on any legal issues that may or may not arise, we are legally two different companies, don’t get it twisted) we believe our people are our greatest strength.

    As long as they don’t cost too much.

    And while we might be legally and realistically obligated to keep a certain number of operators and technicians to keep a plant running we realized that design, optimization, and compliance are huge areas to potentially streamline our operations. And we are passing the savings on to you, the shareholder! So it is with great pride we announce that we have the privilege of laying off 900 Canadians.

    You are a shareholder right? We wouldn’t want to miss out on this golden opportunity!

    We have spent the last 5+ years innovating the art of offshoring jobs. Conventional wisdom said that natural resource jobs seem land locked to the country they are found within. But we wanted to think bigger and leverage our position as a global mega corporation to take those good paying jobs and put them in India instead! Because those good paying jobs don’t pay as well there! Did you think your family member who went for an engineering degree had safe job prospects? Not if we can help it. Tell them to buy stocks.

    We all have to face the hard facts that despite Canada’s oil and gas sector making money, it simply doesn’t make as much as it could. Like it does in other countries that are easier to plunder. Canada needs to look inwards and ask how it can make itself competitive in the global market. The cost of Canadian workers is just not something our shareholders can bear.

    We look forward to not having to pay the retirements we promised those employees when they joined. It’s a harsh world for anyone without capital. Our company knows this because we worked hard for our capital by destroying the global climate. The people we grace with continued employment will just have to work harder to pick up the slack of two other workers. The sense of pride and accomplishment they get for their works will no doubt improve their lives.

    We will usher in a new era of Christian work ethic!

    For the poor.

    They should have been born rich, or have retired at age 55 in 2007.

    Disclaimer:

    The author of this post does not speak on behalf of ExxonMobil or Imperial Oil, which should be obvious from the content. The author merely wishes to express discontent that there never seems to be such a thing as enough profit, regardless of the lives upturned as a result. And a real government would not let those jobs be off shored to places that do not pay taxes or live in our communities.

    Some true facts:

    It is worth noting that less than two years ago Imperial Oil, in agreement with ExxonMobil as the primary shareholder, bought back approximately $1.5 billion in its own shares. A move one does when it has no interest in investing in anything but wants its share price to go up.

    Imperial Oil has also been operating at a profit in the billions of dollars each year since 2021, with 2022 being a record year. But global oil prices have been slipping so it’s time for the chainsaw.

  • What Minerals Do To A Community

    Easy decisions rarely exist when it comes to natural resources. Shame since I feel like we are due for an easy one.

    As the NS provincial government tries to scope interest in minerals that may or may not be present within the province it might be worth thinking about the general impacts they have on an area.

    The dream.

    Hurry Up and Wait

    Considering this is at the exploration stage we have no confirmed projects to review at the moment. You might know there’s some oil or some uranium somewhere, but you have to figure out quality and cost to extract before you can even make a call if it’s worth getting. Thus exploration first.

    Environmentally, mining anything is never a beneficial activity for the local area. Best case you have no effects and just hold a healthy side of risk. And risks are never zero, there’s not enough money and tech in the world to reduce all risk to zero. The exact environmental risks will depend on what is found and how you extract and process it. The Fort McMurray oil sands for example is near the surface so not hard to find, but it is hard to process oil out of sand. It takes a lot of hot water which results in energy spent to heat it and tailing ponds to hold it. Containment is key and not perfect, Imperial Oil being the most recent large case of spillage.

    A community that’s not in hard times likely won’t want this kind of risk. The counterpoint is an argument for the collective, some risks are worth the benefits after all. So what do we get out of it.

    What We Get

    JOBS! This depends heavily on process. To get a lot of jobs you need something that’s very profitable but requires a lot of maintenance to keep running. Project construction is a lot of jobs initially, but it’s cyclical at best and I would caution against too much excitement to that kind of growth. Companies also love talking about how many indirect jobs they create. It is true in the case of long-term jobs, because if more people live in a place to work, more jobs will be induced by that population (more people need more teachers, more stores, etc). This assumes those workers live in local communities, the benefit will be way lower if remote work camps are built instead.

    Taken from Google Earth. Work camp north of Fort McMurray, AB. Beware, fly-in/fly-out workers don’t benefit the local community much.

    TAXES! Resource revenue is a hell of a drug, get enough of it and you can drop taxes to the floor. For those unaware, Alberta has no provincial sales tax (only the 5% federal tax rate applies) and income tax starts at 8% for the first $60k and only 10% up $151k. As a result the vast majority of government revenue is from oil and gas, so the provincial balance sheet is tied to the price of oil. A best case scenario is the model Norway took to build their oil investment fund now valued at over $1.7 Trillion USD, based on the true realization by their government that their oil will eventually run out. But boy a politician sure looks cool if they can lower taxes today.

    What To Expect When You’re Expecting (a Mine)

    Construction pains. Big projects require a lot of people for the build, and in a rural town they’ll need places to stay. Hotels will be full and it can make the local housing market go crazy if the construction phase is measured in years as temporary people look for apartments to rent. A good time to sell for residents, not a good time to buy for newcomers.

    It’s raining men. Gender parity has not hit construction or trade jobs. If a lot of jobs are created expect a lot of men. I highly recommend the graphical novel Ducks by Kate Beaton for a female perspective on working in the oil sands and its human costs.

    Potential for pretty large wage disparities. This depends entirely on how desperate a worksite is to attract the workers it needs but the market will continue to pay the lowest rate. Resource jobs have tended to pay well for remote and difficult work which might not follow to the rest of the economy. People with too much money and not enough to do don’t always make the best neighbours.

    Giving our grandchildren another ghost town. Resources are limited, markets change, nothing is forever. Something will have to be cleaned up eventually. We have a bad tendency to ignore it when we know we won’t have to deal with it ourselves due to our inevitable death.

    Final Stuff

    None of this is guaranteed. It is so dependant on if anything is found and the specifics. But politicians have to pitch growth (I guess), and resources are an exciting low investment possibility for a government so long as approvals don’t get in the way. After all, industry hates uncertainty, exploration is already gambling so why also gamble with approvals. Politicians need to signal we are open for business to get interest and take the backlash later.

    Bring attention to concerns, ask the hard questions, get mitigation in legislation. Don’t believe a company that tells you they’ll do something in the approval stage when no one writes the regulation. Complacency and cost effectiveness will win out in a few years time.

  • An Unhinged LinkedIn Post About Keeping Employees Happy

    And why oil companies don’t directly say climate change is a hoax.

    You’re right stock photo guy, working is fun!

    I’m kind of intrigued by internal company speak, the stuff sent for employees only, but not in the fun classified way. As a deeply cynical person I struggle to figure out its vibe a lot of the time. Mr CEO, I hear you when you say you care deeply about working with our communities but I believe the employees that live there full time care more than you.

    Companies might try to downplay it, but high unplanned attrition sucks in any workplace where they have to train people. It takes time and money to replace people. Even worse high attrition can turn into a negative feedback loop as the remaining experienced employees get stressed out and look for better work elsewhere. The brilliance of the gig economy was getting rid of the pesky “losing money on having employees” part of owning a business.

    But on the other hand companies have an incentive to give employees as little as possible. Money, benefits, anything that isn’t producing value. Too little attrition might mean you’re giving your employees too much of a sweet deal. Think of all the shareholder value being wasted!

    So if I was a freak executive I would call it an optimization problem with target X quitters per year. To prove we are on the right track.

    And you know what keeps people around without demanding more money, a sense of pride and accomplishment. And the opposite will make people wonder if something else is out there.

    Working, but looking.

    Pro tip: let employee groups put out a decent chunk of messaging, people tend to care about things they volunteer to do, and they often do it with people they like. The positive vibes might even be real at that point.

    It’s a lucky company that can narrow it’s reach of employees incredibly small. Especially in Canada where employment discrimination laws can matter. So it’s worth setting up why you should be proud to work here. How we comply with laws for the love of the game and truly believe in it.

    Our company believes in the causes the majority of the population believes in. Unless the government tells us that we shouldn’t believe that anymore, then we don’t.

    As an example, climate change is real because debating that in the marketplace of ideas would be a mess. Lobbyists are so much more effective at working that message anyway, sure hope no one leaks our ties to it.

    Fun fact, the major Canadian carbon capture project is looking for as much subsidies as possible before they commit. Best business practices always prevail. That’s without getting into how debatable carbon capture performance is at the moment.

    And we love DEI and LGBTQ and all that. Unless that looks bad. Then we kind of do, we at least care about our existing employees, I think. Can someone tell me what to say to make the most money?

    It’s the middle ground backtracks that seem the most bizarre, organizations want to seem reasonable and a good place to work, but how do you manage it when a population hasn’t changed opinion fast enough to just pull a 180. How does Bud Light navigate a made up controversy, probably something about “not intending to be part of a discussion that divides people”. How does a company respond to its internal pride group when it tells them they can’t put up a flag anymore? Is saying “blame the government or the mob because we don’t want to take a stand” a satisfying answer.

    It’s disheartening to be reminded of the relationship to the companies we work for. People care about people, organizations care about government. We at least have some say in our government and who we work for.

    As pride sponsorship drop this year those internal company memos might get a little harder to write.

    What working in client sales taught me about being a manager:

    WHY DOES NO ONE GRIND AS MUCH AS ME TO MAKE MY DREAM COME TRUE! YOU ARE ALL OUT TO GET ME!