The Lost LNG Decade | A Canadian Taxpayer’s Many Nightmares

Would you believe there are two countries in North America?

One smart and rich, and the other one is Canada

Canada’s LNG Debacle is a Taxpayer’s Recurring Nightmare in Five Acts

Canada entered the new century holding the geological equivalent of a winning lottery ticket and then spent the next decade misplacing it under a stack of forms marked “Pending Review.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. which has never shied away from monetizing a resource, took the opportunity and built a global LNG empire.

Has Canada finished its first round of stakeholder engagement on LNG? One country treated LNG like a revenue engine; the other treated it like a "Meh."

This isn’t policy the Canadian taxpayer might have anticipated since Canada has no shortage of Natural Gas and has known this for a century. Historically the country unites for big projects. The country was created by a railroad project. The country dredged the St Lawrence Seaway. The country developed the world's third largest deposit of petroleum. The nation built the James Bay Project. The country opened ports on every coast.

Today the indolent response to economic potential in natural gas is more like a nation encountering nightmare after nightmare: A country crippled by institutional fetters watching the U.S. mint brand new and recurring wealth at industrial scale, overnight.

From whence did these nightmares spring?

Nightmare 1: The One Where You Watch Someone Else Spend Your Lottery Winnings

The 2010s through early 2020s were golden years for LNG arbitrage. Asian buyers were paying premiums, the U.S. was still stretching before the race, and Canada had every structural advantage you can imagine. What it didn’t have was the ability to move faster than a glacier with a government appointment and a clipboard.

Economic modeling from the Conference Board of Canada shows what taxpayers could have gained if Canada had built out roughly 56 million tonnes per year of LNG capacity:

•  about $11 billion in annual GDP
•  nearly 100,000 sustained jobs every year
•  more than $2 billion per year in taxes and royalties

For taxpayers, that’s the kind of revenue that funds hospitals, schools, and infrastructure, and expands the horizons for all Canada, with the basics that nowadays need “more study” because budgets are tight. Instead, Canadians got the privilege of watching the U.S. collect the receipts, and building their economy. With they did in LNG.

Nightmare 2: The One Where Every Project Dies of Sclerosis

Pacific NorthWest LNG—$36 billion, global capital lined up, Indigenous partnerships ready—spent years in regulatory limbo before finally expiring of natural causes in 2017. A fact we all know was a procession of West and East Coast proposals followed into the bureaucratic afterlife, casualties of timelines that averaged 19 months longer than U.S. approvals.

Broader tallies of cancelled or stalled resource projects since 2015 reach the $660–$670 billion range. For taxpayers, that’s not just a number. It’s the sound of revenue evaporating while taxes keep rising to cover the gap. Add to the evaporating cash the mismanagement of federal spending, and debt spirals while development process dies horrible deaths.

Nightmare 3: The One Where Your Neighbour Builds a Formidable Mint While You’re Still Reading the Instructions on a Tinker Toy.

This is the dream where the U.S. appears in a montage of hard hats, cranes, liquefaction trains rising like steel cathedrals, and Canada, same vicinity, same offices, similar ciews, cannot find the right sticky notepad.

The neighbour’s holdings now contain:

•  the world’s largest LNG export system
•  long‑term contracts with half the planet
•  a job boom so large it needs its own zip code

Meanwhile, the Canadian taxpayer stands at the fence holding a bag of fentanyl precursor, wondering how the neighbour built a national treasure while Canada was debating the merits of people owning nothing or giving their property to a few sullen Native folk suddenly enamored of urban property belonging to others. The old game of Indian Giving taken to Grand Theft Auto Level 11 (and there's only 10 levels).

The people they are removing from property might be their MD, or their Professor, or their Band Accountant. If it seems like self-sabotage, that's because Canada's new motif is psychopaths rule.

Nightmare 4: The One Where You Finally Arrive, After the Market Has Gone Home

LNG Canada’s first cargo in mid‑2025 was a triumph, arguably, since it was the largest private investment in Canadian history now finally producing. But by then, the global market had shifted. U.S. and Qatari expansions had flooded supply. Prices had cooled. Competition was fierce.

Canada entered the market like someone fashionably late to a party that wasn’t supposed to be fashionable, like, for instance, making the King wait for knighting. For taxpayers, it meant the premium years were already gone, the years that would pay down debt and fund new services for immigration, for defense, for education, and new industry. Instead. Food banks, and grocery tax credits.

It's too pitiful for words, really. Let us continue with words anyway.

And now, Nightmare 5: This is the worst one. The lucid nightmare. The One Where the World Knocks—And Canada Isn’t Ready Yet

The moment when the taxpayer finally sees the problem clearly—and the problem is timing. In this dream, Canada isn’t short on demand because leaders from Japan, South Korea, India, Germany, heads of major economies with real energy needs, publicly stepped forward with the same message:

We want Canadian LNG. We want long‑term contracts. We want reliable partners.

They say it publicly. They say it diplomatically. They say it repeatedly.

And yet Canada, in the nightmare, answers with the soft thud of another discussion paper hitting another desk.

Meanwhile, Indigenous‑led projects—Woodfibre, Cedar, Haisla Nation’s leadership are proving what modern energy development can look like when communities lead: faster timelines, clearer accountability, stronger environmental stewardship. They’re building while the rest of Canada is debating the preamble.

The clocks in this nightmare have stopped moving. God forbid pensions go unfunded while taxpayers stand between global demand and Indigenous innovation and realize the nightmare isn’t a lack of opportunity—it’s a generational inability to act when opportunity arrives.

The bottom line remains at a decade earlier, when Canada could have had:

•  stronger provincial and federal revenues
•  diversified export markets
•  tens of thousands more well‑paid jobs
•  a fiscal position less dependent on hoping commodity prices behave

But the approvals stretched on into disapprovals, and the best projects aged out. But not on the exact same continent of North America where U.S. built an export empire in the same time it took for Canada drop to a zero growth GDP and no change in sight.

The Closing Gavel

Canada’s LNG story isn’t a tragedy of resources or capability. It’s a tragedy of timing. The world knocked. Indigenous partners stepped forward. Investors lined up. The opportunity was real, measurable, and repeatedly confirmed by global demand.

And yet, the decade slipped away.

The U.S. certainly didn’t out‑resource Canada. It out‑decided Canada's decision-makers and in so doing left Canadian citizens, taxpayers, in the lurch.

For taxpayers, the nightmare isn’t the lost wealth—it’s waking up to the realization that the alarm clock rang ten years ago, and the country is still reaching for the snooze button.

On the same continent

The U.S. LNG export industry is experiencing massive growth and record-breaking performance, driving significant excitement in energy, economic, and policy circles as of early 2026.

The Key U.S. LNG Export Terminals:

Prior to 2016, the U.S. was seen as a potential importer of LNG, not an exporter. Many facilities built in the 2000s (like Sabine Pass) were designed as import terminals because forecasts predicted domestic shortages after decades of declining production. The shale revolution flipped that script dramatically—sudden abundance from fracking (Marcellus, Permian, etc.) created a glut, crashing domestic prices and sparking ideas to export the surplus.

A Quick Guide to the Major Players

As the United States leads the world in LNG exports—hitting over 111 million metric tons in 2025 alone—the infrastructure powering this achievement is concentrated mostly along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas. These facilities liquefy abundant domestic natural gas (primarily from shale plays like the Permian, Haynesville, and Eagle Ford) and load it onto ships for global markets.

Here's a straightforward rundown of the most important operational and soon-to-ramp-up terminals as of early 2026, focusing on their scale, operators, locations, and roles in the boom. Capacities are approximate nominal (design) figures in billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) or equivalent million metric tons per annum (MTPA), with many sites exceeding nominal through optimization.

Sabine Pass LNG (Cameron Parish, Louisiana)
Operator: Cheniere Energy
Capacity: ~4.5 Bcf/d (about 30 MTPA) across six trains
Status: Fully operational since 2016 (first U.S. Lower 48 exports)
Why it matters: The pioneer that kicked off America's LNG export era. It's the largest single facility, reliably shipping massive volumes and serving as a benchmark for reliability and scale. High utilization keeps it at the heart of U.S. export records.

Corpus Christi LNG (San Patricio County, Texas)
Operator: Cheniere Energy
Capacity: Originally ~2.4–3 Bcf/d (Trains 1–3); expanded with Stage 3 to ~3.3–4 Bcf/d total
Status: Core trains operational since 2018–2019; Stage 3 (modular addition) ramped up in 2025 after first production late 2024
Why it matters: A major workhorse with flexible, shorter-lead-time modular tech in the expansion. It helped drive 2025's surge and shows how brownfield expansions (building on existing sites) accelerate growth.

Freeport LNG (Freeport, Texas)
Operator: Freeport LNG Development
Capacity: ~2.1–2.2 Bcf/d (Trains 1–3)
Status: Operational since 2019
Why it matters: A key Gulf player with strong ties to international buyers. It consistently contributes high volumes and demonstrates solid operational performance in a competitive landscape.

Cameron LNG (Hackberry, Louisiana)
Operator: Sempra Infrastructure (with partners)
Capacity: ~3–3.5 Bcf/d (Trains 1–3 operational; potential for more)
Status: Trains 1–3 online since 2019–2020
Why it matters: Another reliable Gulf Coast anchor, drawing from nearby production hubs and supporting diversified export flows.

Cove Point LNG (Calvert County, Maryland)
Operator: Dominion Energy (now often under affiliates)
Capacity: ~0.8 Bcf/d
Status: Operational since 2018
Why it matters: The main East Coast export terminal, serving European and other Atlantic markets efficiently. It's smaller but strategically important for shorter shipping routes.

Calcasieu Pass LNG (Cameron Parish, Louisiana)
Operator: Venture Global LNG
Capacity: ~1.4 Bcf/d nominal (mid-scale design)
Status: Operational since late 2021/early 2022
Why it matters: Venture Global's first success story using modular, mid-scale tech for faster build times and lower costs—setting the template for their rapid expansions.

Plaquemines LNG (Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana)
Operator: Venture Global LNG
Capacity: Phase 1 (~1.3 Bcf/d nominal, 1.6 peak); full site targeting ~2.6–3.2 Bcf/d with Phase 2
Status: First cargo December 2024; rapid 2025 ramp-up (delivered ~16.4 million metric tons in its debut full year); Phase 2 commissioning ongoing into 2026
Why it matters: The breakout star of 2025—its speed to full output helped propel U.S. records. Mid-scale modular approach (18 trains in blocks) shows how innovation cuts timelines dramatically.

Golden Pass LNG (Sabine Pass, Texas)
Operator: Joint venture (ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy)
Capacity: ~2.1–2.2 Bcf/d (three trains)
Status: Under construction; first train expected early 2026, full ramp through the year
Why it matters: A major upcoming addition with international backing. It will boost capacity significantly and highlights partnerships that secure long-term offtake.

Other notables on the horizon include: Rio Grande LNG (Brownsville, Texas) – NextDecade; under construction, ~2–3 Bcf/d Phase 1 targeted late 2020s.

Port Arthur LNG (Jefferson County, Texas) – Sempra; Phase 1 under construction, ~1.6 Bcf/d expected 2027+.

These terminals—mostly Gulf-based for proximity to cheap gas, deep water ports, and pipelines—have turned the U.S. into the top global exporter through private investment, engineering speed, and market responsiveness.

The 2025–2026 wave (Plaquemines full ramp, Golden Pass startup, Corpus Christi Stage 3 completion) continues building momentum, with total U.S. capacity heading toward 20+ Bcf/d in the near term. It's a practical showcase of scaling energy infrastructure to meet worldwide needs.

WFCA's John Betts Announces Upcoming Retirement

 Departing A Forest Sustainability Career This Spring

John Betts, long-standing Executive Director, WFCA, announced his retirement during the afternoon of day one, 2026 WFCA Annual Meeting, Jan 28, 2026, effective this coming spring.  John Betts retires after a long and fruitful tenure dedicated to the association of businesses that keep Canadian forests in all their splendor. 

All aspects of trees are covered by WFCA members, businesses, faculties, government departments and ministries, and human resource agencies. John knit this sector together for a long time. He knew the reforestation industry from a lifetime perspective. It was my pleasure to conduct media business with the WFCA over the years, in print, and technology. 

I learned a huge amount about the business of reforestation in Canada from John Betts. I was always reading the quarterly bulletins. I covered the reforestation business  journalistically for a couple of decades with the assistance of John Betts. Absorbing his perplexing puns, and the remarkable accounting of people making Canadian forests sustainable was educational for years.

Congratulations, John, for hosting another Annual Meeting, capping the career and putting your personal stamp on western Canadian reforestation from the rainforests to the boreal!

Mack McColl, Editor, McColl Magazine

Poilievre Speaks to Conservatives in Calgary

Poilievre Expected to Survive Leadership Review as Conservatives Gather end of January

CALGARY — Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre is widely expected to survive this weekend’s mandatory leadership review, with party delegates signalling strong support as they arrive for the national convention in Calgary.

The review, triggered automatically after the party’s 2025 election loss, asks delegates to vote on whether Poilievre should remain at the helm. Senior party members and grassroots organizers say there is no sign of an internal revolt, and no credible challenger has emerged to test his position.

Interviews with delegates and young Conservative activists ahead of the vote suggest confidence in Poilievre remains high. Several described the review as a formality, noting that polling among Conservative voters continues to show strong approval of his performance.

The party is hoping for a decisive result that mirrors the 84 percent endorsement Stephen Harper received in 2004, a benchmark many Conservatives still view as the gold standard for post‑election leadership validation. Strategists say Poilievre is aiming for a similarly commanding mandate to reinforce stability and avoid speculation about succession.

Despite the loss in 2025, Poilievre retains firm control of the party apparatus, and insiders say there is no organized movement pushing for change. With no heir apparent and no visible fractures in the caucus, the leadership review is expected to reaffirm his position and allow the party to shift its focus toward rebuilding for the next campaign cycle.

The vote will take place shortly after Poilievre’s keynote address to delegates, with results expected later in the weekend.

McColl Magazine Daily: Poilievre Secures Strong Mandate in National Convention

WFCA 2026 Annual Meeting -- Brinkman and Tesluk follow Hon. Ravi Pamar | Day One

McColl Magazine Daily: Dirk Brinkman, Jordan Tesluk and Company Speak to Day One | WFCA 2026

"Excuse me. Mind if I squeeze in here?"

Canada's best position would be to try and squeeze between these two and pretend to be a middle man on something besides fentanyl precursors.

Former Winter Olympian Turned Canadian Carpenter

#WinterOlympics #Carpentry #SkilledTrades
What if the discipline you admire in Olympians could help launch your next career in carpentry?
Meet Elena Muratova from Local 1598, a level-three carpenter apprentice who understands what it means to grow through the carpentry trade. For Elena, carpentry is more than a construction job. It is a career path that builds confidence, develops hands-on skills, and rewards hard work. The training you receive as a carpenter apprentice stays with you for life, both on and off the jobsite.
 If you are exploring careers in construction, apprenticeships, or opportunities in the skilled trades, this story shows what is possible.

What is one reason you would consider joining the carpentry trade? Stay in touch. Visit to learn more. 

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Canada's Salmon Industry in Crisis:

Rising Imports Threaten Food Security

A new report from the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) reveals a concerning trend in Canada's salmon industry. Despite strong demand, farm-raised salmon production in British Columbia has declined by over 40% since 2015, leading to a surge in imports from countries like Chile and Norway.

The CAIA warns that this shift threatens Canada's food security, economic resilience, and climate policy. Imported salmon has a higher carbon footprint due to longer transportation distances. The industry is calling for regulatory certainty and investment to boost local production.

Key Stats:

1. Salmon imports: $700 million annually, up from $300 million in 2015
2. BC salmon production: 53,816 tonnes in 2024, down 40% from 2015 peak
3. Jobs: 18,074 full-time positions in the aquaculture sector
4. Economic output: $6 billion annually

The CAIA proposes four priorities to revitalize the sector, including canceling the BC salmon farm ban and designating Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as the federal development lead. With the right support, Canada's aquaculture industry can generate $2.5 billion in annual output and 9,000 jobs by 2030.

The report from the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) reveals a growing imbalance in Canada’s food system. While demand for farm-raised salmon remains strong, production in British Columbia, which has traditionally led salmon production in Canada, has declined significantly, driving a surge in imports.

Since 2015, farm-raised salmon production in BC has fallen by more than 40 percent (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Production of farmed salmon by region, 1991 to 2024. Source: 2024 Aquaculture Industry Snapshot, Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA), 2026. Data sourced from Statistics Canada. Table 32-10-0107-01. 

Over the same period, Canada’s salmon imports have more than doubled (Figure 2),

Figure 2. Value of Canada’s imports of salmon, 2015 to 2024. Source: Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA). Data sourced from https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/trade-data-online/en. 

reaching approximately $700 million annually. Much of this growth has come from increased imports of salmon from countries such as Chile and Norway (Figure 3),

Figure 3. Percentage growth of Canadian imports of salmon from Chile, the United States, Norway and China, 2014 to 2015. Source: Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA). Data sourced from https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/trade-data-online/en. 

as Canada turns to international suppliers to meet demand that could be fulfilled locally.

“Salmon remains Canada’s most consumed seafood,” said Brian Kingzett, Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association. “The data clearly shows demand is strong. With long-term regulatory certainty, Canada has a real opportunity to produce more of this food at home.”

Canadian-raised salmon is a climate-friendly source of protein and a significant contributor to the national economy. The BC sector currently supports more than 4,000 families and generates $1.2 billion in annual economic output, with the most significant impacts felt on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland.

Increasing reliance on imported salmon also carries broader implications for food security, economic resilience, and climate policy, as imported salmon typically travels longer distances by ship or air, resulting in higher greenhouse gas emissions compared to locally produced Canadian salmon.

With renewed regulatory certainty and improved investment confidence, the sector has the potential to generate up to $2.5 billion in annual economic output and approximately 9,000 jobs by 2030, and as much as $4.2 billion in annual output and more than 16,000 jobs by 2040.

 “With the right framework in place, BC salmon farmers are ready to support Canada’s food system and help build a stronger Canada,” said Kingzett.

ICBA Continues to Lead

 . . . in training and apprenticeship

When it comes to training and apprenticeship, the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) is at the head of the class.

The construction industry is constantly evolving, and continual training is needed so workers don’t fall behind. Everyone needs to stay current with safety tickets, technical changes, code updates and more in order to get ahead in their careers.

Whether you are new in the construction industry or would like to add to your experience, ICBA has courses for you. This year, they offered more than 900 courses and that number keeps growing.

Trades Instruction Available in BC & Canada

UBCBuilt  Offers a Red Seal Career in Building Trades  

Rob Duncan, who belongs to the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, is an instructor in Prince George for the Carpenters’ Regional Council (CRC), of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.

"I teach Fall Protection, Confined Space, mobile elevated work platforms, scaffolding, apprenticeship, and deliver programs we call ‘boot camps,’ job-specific courses to give community members the basic knowledge about opportunities in the trades," specifically in carpentry and scaffolding.

Russell Claus Takes the WFCA Stage on Forestry Work Safety

 Forestry employment safety protocols save lives

VICTORIA, B.C. - Russell Claus is a volunteer with Threads of Life, who, in the summer of 2010, suffered a workplace injury that changed his life forever.

Claus spoke at WFCA 2024 Annual Conference on Jan 31 in the afternoon. "I was a tree planter," he said, on behalf of Threads of Life, as he focused on Canadian families dealing with workplace fatalities.

"I am with the speakers bureau of the organization. I am here to make the face of tragedy real. I was 25 years old on a hot July day when I suffered workplace injury."

Claus explained how it was a great time in his life, as he was engaged to marry, and studying at University of Victoria when he went north in May of that year to go tree planting.

"It was the same each morning, wake-up, go to the mess tent, then to the crew vehicle, and arrive at the cut block to plant trees.

"From May to late July, I lost 15 pounds, I was hypoglycemic, but I pushed myself especially toward the end of the planting season, working hard through the pain, fatigue, and feeling unwell.

"It was the last full-day of the planting year, so we set big numbers for ourselves and decided to go for it. Sure it was a hot day, but we had favorable grounds. As the day progressed, I began to feel nauseous, dehydrated, and heat exhausted, yet I went on despite knowing better. By the time the day ended I felt very bad.

"We drove around the cut-block," to wrap up this worksite, gathering personnel and equipment. Everybody was happy, but Claus was becoming sick. "I needed to stop and get sick. I insisted we stop on a pullout. I got out and moved up beside the front, driver's side of the running truck. I knew Kyle had got out of the driver's seat and went to the back of the vehicle. I leaned around the front of the vehicle to wave him off. But he wasn't there."

Kyle, unbeknownst to Claus, was behind the wheel again when suddenly a loaded truck approached to pass on the single lane logging road, and Kyle, the driver, had, "lost sight of me. He needed to move aside for the loaded log hauler, so he hit the gas. I was leaning in front of the vehicle and he hit me, causing me to ask, 'Why is the truck moving?'"

The front passenger side wheel rolled over his hip. "I felt the exhaust pipe burning a hole in my shoulder."

Unfortunately the drills to prepare an emergency response vehicle were the responsibility of Claus. He was the one who had trained for it. "I was underneath the vehicle and tried to crawl out. I wondered if I could move my feet, so I wiggled my toes and concluded it was not paralysis. Most of the pain was in the burned shoulder, and a coworker grabbed my arm and pulled me out from under the vehicle.

"I asked them to roll me over, where I felt pain in the hips and groin. My pelvis was broken in five places, the urethra severed, and there were other complications."

The 50 minutes of egress from the workplace were the most painful in his life, laying on a wooden board, bouncing down an an unpaved logging road, contemplating all these fearsome injuries. He was yet thirsty from dehydration and heat exhaustion, and knew not what to do, so, "I began to assess myself," all the while his bladder filling with blood at the severed urethra.

"I wondered what was ruptured and calculating how much time I had to live within the timeframe of the journey, I decided I was going to die on the way to town, due to my trained estimate of the survival rate from the injuries, and the estimated time of arrival at a hospital. I took off my oxygen mask and told them there is no way I am going to make it so let me go.

"I went into semiconsciousness," and they reattached oxygen while Claus had given in to (what appeared to be) his inevitable death. "I was seeing shadows of trees whip by," eventually startled awake at the transfer from stretcher to gurney at the hospital. He has never forgotten the resignation in his situation so close to death's door. He is struck to this day by the comfort he had taken from this resignation.

The doctors dealt with the repair to the bladder to stanch internal bleeding, and began assessment of the myriad injuries. Reconstructive surgeries would ensue. Injuries fatigued him and morphine dragged him down to kill the pain.

He went to Prince George, and in the hospital it was quiet and dim, he was alone, where he was saddled with a superpubic catheter, pain radiating up from his lower torso, "My mind began to ask what had happened to me. I felt tears come into my eyes. I was scared, defeated, alone. My fiance arrived, and months of rehab and recovery, and surgery took place."

Claus was wheelchair-bound, muscles atrophied on pain killers, and says he fell into a state of complete dependency, suffering sleepless nights with raging restless leg syndrome, common bodily functions gone missing in action, uncertainty in his romantic relationship, "Would I walk, limp, have sex? I had no answers."

More surgery came and went. What remained was uncertainty of recovery, "I did begin to recover in a way, but cramps, high blood pressure, extensive nerve damage, antibiotic exhaustion, multiple urinary tract infections, plus the mental impact from the scarring, having sweating hands, fear of crossing streets, a return to school was unmanageable."

He realized in the depths of making it from sick to recovery, some of the search for wellness wasn't going to come to pass. He wasn't going to be the same. "It's not the same life. I do hike the West Coast Trail," (difficult to imagine doing this in the face of chronic pain and life-long complications).

At this moment in his talk, Claus turned to the subject of family, friends, and coworkers. The first rumination was about Kyle, who came forth, and Claus learned he had attempted suicide after the incident, "I am still in his dreams in a bad way.

"Helene, we spoke differently to each other after the incident, we got married, but we are not any more. She was so spent from managing my life, it was huge PTSD to her.

"What I learned. I thought 'whatever' but if you get hurt at work, others bear the injury for the rest of their lives."

He works in health and safety. "It's my job to put the information and training out there, to teach safe and supervised work, advocate for safety-oriented changes, and ask for vigilence in finding experienced crew chiefs. Sometimes the amount of supervision they have is as little as two months.

"Do I question how our work is structured? My pushing hard that day was costly to my health, and almost cost me my life." It was the challenge and the opportunity which drove him past the boundaries of safety.

"I was a young worker when that happened, but plenty of people continue to work around heavy equipment, and must always remember, lapses in concentration and failure to comply to regulations and standards of practice in the field will cause a rippling effect."

Reach out to Threads of Life

Claus currently resides in Halifax, N.S., where he works in occupational health and safety. Originally from Victoria, B.C., he completed his Master’s degree at McMaster University where his studies and thesis focused on worker safety in the resource sector.

Q & A
Q. Did you have counseling in the care after the incident?

A. I was required to get counseling and family was also availed of counseling services. Through Critical Incident Management programs, there is treatment for psychological injuries, immediate counseling and support is made available to those in critical incidents.

Freelance Writing by Malcolm 'Mack' McColl  Originally Published Feb 10, 2024