The Saskatchewan government’s new partnership with an oil and gas extraction company to deliver high school courses and internships serves neither the students nor the province’s best interests, say observers.
In June, Premier Scott Moe announced a new online oil and gas curriculum for Saskatchewan high schoolers, to be delivered through the province’s Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre (Sask DLC) with significant financial and pedagogical support from Calgary-based Teine Energy.
Co-created by Sask DLC and Teine, the courses will provide 50 hours of online theory and 50 hours of work placement. The oil company has pledged C$150,000 over the next two years to support the program.
Sask DLC has two other industry partnerships already under way: a five-year agreement, launched in June 2023, with the North American Equipment Dealers Association (NAEDA), Canada’s premier lobby group for manufacturers of industrial and farm machinery, and a one-year deal, unveiled in November 2023, with the Saskatchewan Association of Autobody Repairers (SAAR).
Both NAEDA and SAAR have pledged to provide funds and expertise to help coordinate work placements. Unlike Teine Energy, they are not directly involved in course development.
Students Get the Hard Sell
As both the Moe government and Teine Energy are telling it, the new courses are primarily about providing Saskatchewan young people with a happy future.
“To see a career—a good-paying career—and a good lifestyle that may be available in their community or very near to them, that they might not have been aware of before… I think that’s just really good exposure for our students,” Moe told CBC following the announcement of new course offerings at the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show in Weyburn, Saskatchewan.
Teine Energy CEO Jason Denney likewise framed his company’s foray into high school learning as fundamentally geared towards the present and future well-being of young people.
“Our goal for this program is to deliver real world experience, accelerate local energy-focused employment, and ultimately, enable Saskatchewan grads to pursue well-paid, fulfilling careers within their home province,” Denney said.
Easy Pass for Industry
Speaking ahead of Denney at the Oil and Gas Show, Moe was not shy about framing the partnership with Teine Energy as a “win” for industry.
“They get to showcase the innovative work that they are doing with the work force of tomorrow,” Moe said. The premier suggested labour shortages are the sole obstacle blocking the oil and gas sector from further community-oriented greatness.
“We know that the one challenge this industry has is a labour market that can keep pace with [its] growth and innovation,” said Moe.
“Saskatchewan is a bright light in Canada at the moment, leading with less bureaucracy and more get-it-done attitude,” added Denney.
Not a Rosy Forecast
Casting shade over enthusiasm for the bright future for fossil oil and gas in Saskatchewan are forecasts like the one produced by Clean Energy Canada last spring.
Using the International Energy Agency’s net-zero 2050 oil price of below US$30 a barrel by mid-century—“a price the Canada Energy Regulator is on the verge of adopting for future net-zero scenarios”—Clean Energy Canada forecasts the annihilation of jobs in the oil sands and oil production industry by 2050.
“Today, 92% of global GDP is covered by some kind of net-zero commitment,” writes the Simon Fraser University-based energy think tank. “In the inevitable net-zero 2050, Canadian jobs in the oil sands and oil production decline by 98% compared with 2025.”
Natural gas jobs may fare better, but even there, the labour force will shrink, not grow. Clean Energy Canada models a 31% reduction in the Canadian gas work force between now and 2050.
Notwithstanding Moe’s blue-skying about the “work force of tomorrow,” Teine Energy is focused on refilling job categories that are still in existence.
“Teine employs hundreds of rural Saskatchewan employees, with many reaching retirement age in the next decade,” the company’s field operations lead Tyler Holman told the crowd in Weyburn.
“This program will be an important step to ensuring our work force remains sustainable for the years to come,” Holman added.
Selling Students a ‘Bill of Goods’
With the oil and gas courses still in development, just what the students will learn remains to be seen.
Simon Enoch, director of the Saskatchewan Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, told The Energy Mix he was somewhat surprised by the “brazenness of it all.”
“This is a very business-friendly government. They consult with industry all the time about curriculum. But to give over a curriculum to a single oil company seems to be a little beyond the pale, even for us,” he said.
Enoch remains deeply concerned about what students are going to learn.
“If we’re looking at net-zero by 2050, you know, you would expect the oil industry to be much diminished, if not almost completely eradicated. So, you know, like, are they going to be honest with students about that?”
Enoch worries that students will be bitterly let down by their putative instructors. And they’ll know they were “sold a bill of goods” when the “lifelong career” they were promised back in 2024 rides off into the sunset without them.
