At least 120 vehicles, ranging from giant trucks to small cars, drove in a convoy from Innisfail to Olds on Saturday, Jan. 26, supporting the oil and gas industry and calling for pipelines to be built.
The convoy, with horns honking and lots of signs on the backs and sides of vehicles, received lots of honks in support as it proceeded from Innisfail down the Queen Elizabeth II Highway and into Olds, where it ended -- again with horns blaring -- at the Parkland Pipeline Contractors building in the Southeast Industrial Park.
Convoy organizer Paul Hoffman of Parkland Pipeline Contractors said there were so many vehicles in the convoy that they stretched for five kilometres.
"We had lots of industries; people from B.C. over to Saskatchewan showed up," he said, adding there was even support from Quebec. Over the years, several Quebec politicians have argued against pipelines going through that province.
Hoffman said the goal of the convoy was to be peaceful; to reinforce the message that the oil and gas industry is important to Olds and Innisfail and that families that depend on that industry are hurting, thanks to the low price of Canadian oil and the resulting layoffs in the industry.
He said the industry has been going through "hell" the last few years.
"Our company in 2016 had 1.2 million man-hours (of work). In 2018, we had 200,000," Hoffman told reporters in Olds.
"Bristow (Projects in Innisfail) a couple of years ago had 200 men working, now they've got 50. They're down 75 per cent, we're down 80 per cent.
"It's hard work to keep the doors open and we need people to know that, you know, we're not the bad guys. We're not the bad guys going into the communities," he added.
"I've been working in the oilpatch for 45 years. Nobody's ever told me we weren't welcome in their town. We go and we contribute positively. We contribute to the communities, we contribute to the provincial economy and we for sure contribute to the federal economy and we need people to realize that.
"We need to quit giving away our stuff, too. Let's build pipelines instead of giving away our oil and gas."
Hoffman noted the pain is felt all over the province, including Drayton Valley, where his company has been working.
"If you're familiar with Drayton Valley, 61 businesses went bankrupt before December. That's got to decimate a town, you know," Hoffman said.
"And we're up there working in Drayton Valley right now, so they're grateful to have us there. We are, we're net positive contributors to the community and that's what we're trying to do today."
He stressed that although Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper was there, the rally was non-partisan, designed to stress the need to parties of all political stripes to get the industry going.
Hoffman said they may organize another rally before upcoming elections to drive the point home again.
It was pointed out to Hoffman that the convoy was a message to the converted. Support for the oil and gas industry in general and pipelines in particular, is strong in Alberta. Support for the industry is far weaker in B.C. as well as Central and Eastern Canada.
He conceded that point.
"In my mind the only change we can impact is at the provincial level. Out here in Alberta we don't impact too much on the national level with our votes, we're kind of outnumbered. But we can definitely impact Alberta and start making our changes provincially and that's what we want to do," Hoffman said.
Hoffman noted that in Innisfail, organizers and politicians addressed the crowd, including Olds mayor Mike Muzychka and Innisfail mayor Jim Romane.
Muzychka said he plans to take the message from the convoy to Quebec City at the end of May when the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) meets there.
During an interview with the Albertan, Muzychka said he's confident he and other Alberta municipal politicians, including the mayors of Calgary and Edmonton, will be able to persuade some eastern Canadian politicians of the need to get pipelines built because Alberta tends to send one of the largest -- if not the largest -- delegations at FCM.
"I think if we all get together and we can be very positive about it -- we don't want to stir up any negativity -- but (we can) definitely deliver a message that's very positive and promote this industry," he said.
Hoffman said there were some members of the yellow vest movement in the convoy.
In recent months, some members of that movement have participated in other oil and gas support convoys protesting issues like immigration and carrying messages critical of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
"There were yellow vests here. Their views probably align with a lot of ours but we didn't want to dilute our message. We just wanted it to be about pipelines and pipeline support," Hoffman said.
Hoffman said planners made a deliberate decision not to drive down Highway 27 in Olds because even though that would have been more high-profile, they didn't want to disrupt traffic. They also feared the logistics of having RCMP at every stoplight would be too difficult and inconvenient.
"It was a great day. It was a great day for oil and gas, pipelines. We got people's attention; we got the message out there. That was very important."
As the convoy ended, a plane circled overhead pulling a message that said "Thanks for supporting oil and gas."
