Suncor Base Plant tips/ general camp tips

[CaberTosser]

I'm eyeballing the possibility of heading to Ft Mac in a for a position that's possibly materializing for me. I've only been to one industrial site quite briefly before, so am looking for a few tips on what to bring. It would be a camp gig, and I have had camp experience way back by spending an entire winter in a really primitive seismic camp, so a comparably luxurious one up Suncor way should be a cake walk. Just wondering what everyone on here who frequents the facility (or similar) would suggest. I'll be finding out tomorrow if I get the gig, and the finer details surrounding it (I presently don't even know if I'll need to bring any tools). Just looking for present day camp tips I guess. The shift rotation seems to be a 4/5/5/4 cycle. I guess I'll have to get some FR gear...

[BBD]

It depends on which camp you get put in. If it's either of the ones on site......you have my condolences. Be prepared to have your car searched, I know a few people who have been turfed for a case of beer in their trunk, another for a box of shotgun shells they'd forgotten to remove from their trunk.
They don't tolerate drugs, alcohol or firearms. That's great but you have to make sure you haven't actually forgotten to remove anything from your vehicle or you're done before you start. There is security and cameras everywhere.They regularly send the drug dogs through the camp as well. Some guys do well there some don't, it really depends on the people you have in the room next to you as the walls are pretty thin, you hear the guy in the next room snore, talk to his wife and watch tv every night. Don't forget to take a set of flip flops for the shower, people are not always sanitary in their shower activities.
If you're flying to site, you'll see the drug dogs at the airport as well.
If you're in the executive camp, you can go to the lounge after work for a cool one, security is much less visible but still very much present. Lots of cameras but far more tolerable. The drug dogs make regular visits there as well, food is better than the craft camps and so are the rooms, they have a private bathroom as well. I've been working and staying in work camps around Fort Mac for 20 years but this is just my 2 cents for you. Other people may have had different experiences but I think you'll find my assessment relative if you end up taking the job. I believe the company you work for has to provide your FR gear, warm clothing to put on underneath that gear is on you though.

[CaberTosser]

Thanks for the input. No worries about a vehicle or search as the gig is fly-in and fly-out and there'd not be anything to find even if I did have my wheels there, and the only drugs that go through me are a prescription antacid and the odd Advil. It would be way too much driving for me to even consider the position if the flights weren't included.

As for what I'm responsible to bring I'll definitely be requesting direction from the employer. Its the things that won't be on that list that I'm wondering about, to make the first week bearable. I'd learn for sure what I'd want to bring by my second stint.

[BBD]

If you're going to the Firebag site, the food is good at the craft camp, the rooms......not so much. The executive/staff camp, very nice.

[Mekanik]

Stayed at millennium camp when I first moved to AB seven years ago.

Wish that they had put me in borealis.

Books, some form of communication, and ear plugs.

While in town, if you want a coffee or ride into town for some escape time, pm me

[HyperMOA]

As mentioned above flip-flops are a must. Also medication for diarrhea and constipation. Never know which one you may experience.

[igorot]

Dont forget to bring the hard wire connection for internet access (wirless my a##). For Suncor Firebag site request for Noralta lodge or the by the Rec Center forgot the name but its where they house those self entitled brat( hey if they allow you in why not) This was 2 years ago and be kind to the staff, you wont regret it:happy0034:

[Sundancefisher]

It depends on which camp you get put in. If it's either of the ones on site......you have my condolences. Be prepared to have your car searched, I know a few people who have been turfed for a case of beer in their trunk, another for a box of shotgun shells they'd forgotten to remove from their trunk.
They don't tolerate drugs, alcohol or firearms. That's great but you have to make sure you haven't actually forgotten to remove anything from your vehicle or you're done before you start. There is security and cameras everywhere.They regularly send the drug dogs through the camp as well. Some guys do well there some don't, it really depends on the people you have in the room next to you as the walls are pretty thin, you hear the guy in the next room snore, talk to his wife and watch tv every night. Don't forget to take a set of flip flops for the shower, people are not always sanitary in their shower activities.
If you're flying to site, you'll see the drug dogs at the airport as well.
If you're in the executive camp, you can go to the lounge after work for a cool one, security is much less visible but still very much present. Lots of cameras but far more tolerable. The drug dogs make regular visits there as well, food is better than the craft camps and so are the rooms, they have a private bathroom as well. I've been working and staying in work camps around Fort Mac for 20 years but this is just my 2 cents for you. Other people may have had different experiences but I think you'll find my assessment relative if you end up taking the job. I believe the company you work for has to provide your FR gear, warm clothing to put on underneath that gear is on you though.

That is awesome that they are so tight on drugs and alcohol. That is a dangerous place to be messed up and working. You could easily kill yourself or others. Great to hear!

[qwert]

It depends on which camp you get put in. If it's either of the ones on site......you have my condolences.

IMHO, The craft camps and PLAs are Suncor's way of communicating their lack of respect for working people. Many people refuse to work for Suncor for these reasons which suits Suncor just fine as they use these refusals as justification for importing foreign workers who cannot complain or quit. I refuse to stay in the Suncor camps, if your company really values your services they will put you in an executive camp.

Millenium is especially bad and is well known for mold problems. I always develop an upper respiratory infection shortly after arrival which lasts until just after I leave. Using the boot tray to cover the floor vent and keeping the window open helps. The showers and washrooms down the hall are a filthy disgrace and IMHO are unacceptable today, you will be sharing them with cultures with standards that may be very different than yours. The food is best described as institutional quality and provides all the food groups of sugar, salt, starch and fat, just take a look at the physical condition of the regular residents. IMHO very careful food choice discipline is required. IMHO an exercise program is a must. In addition to shower shoes and an alarm clock, towels and soap stuff, you need to take a padlock with a small diameter hasp to lock your private stuff in your drawer or closet. Security will probably cut it off to search while you are at work, but they will/may replace it with a very cheap one if you request it. Wire cloths hangers are not supplied, take what you require. I like to take a nice familiar pillow case from home. You may need to move out of your room every rotation. Check if TV and Internet are supplied free in your room as for many years these were not supplied.

You do not state what trade or union agreement you have been offered. I suggest you request the agreement be Emailed to you before you go, carefully compare it with your regular construction or industrial agreement. Pay particular attention to holiday, vacation and overtime pay rates and when overtime applies. You may discover yourself working beside someone doing the same work but who is being paid substantially more.

'Free' flights are a mixed blessing. You will be traveling at their convenience which will usually consume one day in and one day out of your off work rotation. Suncor private flights normally land at Firebag airstrip followed by a long bus ride to camp. On my first flight in, there was no transportation waiting and it took me 6.5 hours to get to camp and I missed dinner. I claimed the hours but never collected. If you quit or are discharged for any reason good luck finding a ride to town to catch the bus home. I opted out of the free flights in exchange for some extra OT pay and arranged my own travel and found that I got more money and more time at home. Road travel in the winter is not easy or safe. There is/was a 'red eye' bus that left Calgary in the evening and gets to Fort McMoney about 6 am, I would get my company to pick me up there and I would be at work for shift start.

Good Luck, Work Safe, YMMV

[dantonsen]

slippers are good for midnight trips to the can... floors in modular buildings seem to get cold and can be dirty. Some camps wont let you wear your outdoor shoes inside so it is nice to have slippers to go to the dinning room etc aswell.

Bring a few rolls of decent tp... some places dont have 2 ply

Keep your window closed while sleeping if you are that close to the plant. Nothing worse than getting a waft of bad stank in the middle of a nap. Suncor is a real stinker and the camp is just up the river bank from it.

Borealis is better than millenium... those two are next to the base plant. Iam surprised you wouldnt be out at blacksands, most trades seem to end up out there. That place is decent and you can bring booze etc

[CaberTosser]

Thanks for the input all. I'm with 488 and had been reading over the Suncor GPC agreement off the union site, assuming that would be the one applicable. So far when including some info I got in PM's I'm not sensing a lot of love for the lower end camp provisions (excluding the executive camp).

[BBD]

Cabber,
After our conversations about the job you were looking at the agreement you need to look at is the NMA.
BBD

[zabbo]

That is awesome that they are so tight on drugs and alcohol. That is a dangerous place to be messed up and working. You could easily kill yourself or others. Great to hear!

I can assure you they don't catch all the stuff. Not by a long shot! :fighting0074:

[Sashi]

You might find the occasional Bed Bug Scare, They are usually good at decontaminating, But it's something you don't want to bring home to your place.

[Sheepcrazyguy]

Most camps have "Jack and Jill" rooms. Meaning you share your bathroom with the room next to you. Not many camps have a community bathroom anymore. Soap and Shampoo. Ear plugs are a must!

[dmcbride]

That is awesome that they are so tight on drugs and alcohol. That is a dangerous place to be messed up and working. You could easily kill yourself or others. Great to hear!

Ya turns the recreational pot user into a cocaine addict because cocaine is out of your system the next day. Pot stays in your system for weeks.

More crack heads in Fort. Mac. then anywhere else I've seen in alberta.

[canadiantdi]

In my career up there at Suncor, I saw one guy go down because of crack. I worked there for 7 years.

[AdverseCity]

Suncor has two camps for most tradespeople, unless you're a foreman or higher you'll likely be in Millennium or Borealis lodge.

Millennium
- Single level trailers, you have to go outside to get to the kitchen/gym/games rooms. Benefit is having no one above you and minimal stairs.
- Shared washrooms, each bunkhouse has 1 community bathroom and 6 private lockable bathrooms with sink/toilet/shower cleaned twice daily.
- It was SERIOUSLY renovated 3-4 years go, the horror stories about there no longer apply. The whole place was cleaned and painted, all new furniture in the rooms and common areas, new pool tables, foosball tables, theater room with an 80" flatscreen, video game room with three 50" TVs and free to use PS3s, XBox and Wii systems. A 20" flatscreen is provided in your room, I had to pay for my own internet 3 years ago but they were just installing Telus infrastructure when I left. Bring an Ethernet cord for better connection and speeds.

Borealis
- 3 floor dormitory style camp with all wings attached, you can walk from your room to the kitchen without going outside. Nice in the winter but means you have neighbors above/below you and more stairs to climb.
- Jack n Jill style bathrooms, each room has it's own sink and you share a toilet/shower with your neighbor. Convienient but sucks when you're stuck with a dirty/smelly/inconsiderant neighbor, you lose the ability to close the door and try another one.
- 3 years ago Borealis did NOT have TVs in the rooms, you had to buy/bring your own but I'm pretty sure they changed that.

Both camps are dry, no alcohol at all but Suncor is the closest plant to town. If you want a couple beer after work it is possible, just not easy. They both have a gym, Borealis had a better one but they're both pretty decent. There's also a mini gym tucked away in the back of a Millenium games room, usually empty cause no one realized it was there. Bring an Ethernet cord, shower shoes, your own towels and even a pillow if you have room. All camps use those annoying plastic pillow cases, awesome for shared pillows but loud and annoying to sleep on. A couple pictures of kids/wife/dog etc to stick on the wall makes a huge difference on long stretches, little things to make it seem a bit less isolated are key.
People complain about the food a lot but it's not that bad. I'd complain if I was paying for it sometimes but it's free. The best chicken pot pie I've ever had was in a camp actually. I'm a bachelor and I eat better in camp than I do at home.

The best advice I have is to not get negative about everything. Some guys walk around camp angry and always complaining about stuff that really isn't that bad. Take it all in stride and say this to yourself as often as necessary. "It really isn't too bad and it's not costing me a dime."

ALWAYS be nice and courteous to the camp staff. Having a couple friends in the kitchen or room cleaners always comes in handy when you need something. A buddy of mine once hooked up with a fat chick in the kitchen, she packed him some pretty amazing lunches while the rest of us had sandwiches.

[bat119]

At Syncrude there were Atco trailers with a community washroom in the middle they started a A-B-C etc. I was staying in “WW”. During my last stretch it was 1162 steps to the kitchen then another 960 to the time alley. It wasn’t unusual to pass a few drunks weaving down the hallways at all times of the day every trailer smelled like pot.
The pool hall was in the middle of camp and there were a few smoke filled card rooms with high stakes poker games going on there was a gym but all the employees were using it no room for contractor scum. On payday you lined up at the post office to cash your check they gave $200 in cash the rest in postal money orders that you could take into any bar in town and cash like money we used to call them Mc Murray money. There was a bar that opened up for 3 hours a day called the Tamerack club.

Things sound a lot better than it was back then.

[CaberTosser]

I'm more interested in a gym than proximity to drinking establishments, but the presence of those facilities would free up some of the gym equipment so that's all good too! The cruddy seismic camp I once spent 4 months straight in will have prepped me for near anything but there was never a hygiene issue like some have noted with people dropping coilers in the shower (some stories were related in PM). That place smelled of diesel, the generator was always audible as it was so close, everything smelled of diesel, the internet didn't exist and my roomies left drug paraphernalia out in open view and the campie would clean around it (incidentally, our campie way back then was Charlie Russell, the bear guy)

This is good stuff gentlemen.

[Zulu9er]

Most are fat slobs, take great delight in moving you from room to room, most of them could not make their mark as pirates in their home country, so now they feel entitled to make it difficult for you. You don't see alot of them outside in winter. Take some running shoes to leave on the shelf outside the dining hall, as boots are not allowed once inside, and make sure they are not NEW running shoes, they will be stolen. Towels that are supplied are paper thin, most likely bought at an auction when a Motel 6 or "Rooms by the Hour" type of motels, so bring your own. Bring a lock for your inroom locker, as all kinds of decrepits have keys they have kept from previous stays. If your at Voyaguer Camp at Firebag, they are crap, actually worse than that. TV's are the old CRT tube type, so if you have a 23-26" flat screen, bring it. If you are a smoker, bring cartons from home,, cigs are $15 + a pack. If your a handsome type, the lebanese cooks behind the serving counter are gonna want to make you their pet goat

I think I have covered it all
Have fun and don't lip off to security or the housing people, you'll be skidded faster than a case of diarrhea, which you will get.

[Zulu9er]

At Syncrude there were Atco trailers with a community washroom in the middle they started a A-B-C etc. I was staying in “WW”. During my last stretch it was 1162 steps to the kitchen then another 960 to the time alley. It wasn’t unusual to pass a few drunks weaving down the hallways at all times of the day every trailer smelled like pot.
The pool hall was in the middle of camp and there were a few smoke filled card rooms with high stakes poker games going on there was a gym but all the employees were using it no room for contractor scum. On payday you lined up at the post office to cash your check they gave $200 in cash the rest in postal money orders that you could take into any bar in town and cash like money we used to call them Mc Murray money. There was a bar that opened up for 3 hours a day called the Tamerack club.

Things sound a lot better than it was back then.

I think the Tamarack Bar is gone now, but those two waitresses that worked there, must have left and went to the Carribean as millionaires, guys were constantly impressing them with outrageous tips thinking they were gonna get some touchy feely,,, those two were way too smart for that