“Anybody who works in the oil patch, it's hard on the family. Lots of divorces. Three or four years ago we were working just outside Calgary, and of maybe 50 guys I think I was the only one left married.” — Blair Ghent, Industrial Mechanic
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Chris Brookes
When I was a kid I played a lot with two little bar magnets. I was fascinated by how they'd attract if I put them end-to-end the right way, but if I reversed one they'd force themselves apart. Successfully lining up our lives with our work can be like trying to fit those magnets together. Can we get the job we want in the place we want to live? If not, do we want to live in the place where we do get the job?
When I first met Blair and Pam Ghent, it was the irony of their trade-off that struck me.
Blair and Pam moved from Newfoundland to Toronto 15 years ago and both found work they loved. Blair was in high demand for construction work in the city and Pam landed a managerial job with stock options, bonuses, the works. They had two cars, a big mortgage, a beautiful house. A perfect setup, they thought, when their son Brody was born ten years ago. Income was secure, daycare was nearby, and their 9 to 5 jobs meant the family was together every evening.
But then a child was abducted and murdered in their neighborhood. They decided that the city wasn't where they wanted to raise their then seven-year-old son. So they quit their city jobs and moved home to the tiny rural community of Harbour Mille — a place where the post office has just 70 mailboxes. Pam had inherited her grandmother's house there, and they planned to run the local general store. Blair figured his construction skills would be in demand at the shipyard in Marystown, a short drive away. The little community was a great place for their boy to grow up: friendly, safe, right on the water, with a beach and a swimming hole and dogs and fishing streams and friends to play with.
But then... the irony.
Rural Newfoundland has been in a tailspin since the destruction of the cod stocks in 1992. The shipyard lost some contracts and wasn't hiring many tradespeople. Blair couldn't find a job. The general store alone didn't provide enough income for the family. Suddenly the Ghents found themselves living in exactly the place where they wanted to live, but without enough work to support them. Precisely the opposite of the situation they'd left in Toronto.So Blair retrained to be an industrial mechanic, specializing in instrumentation — a trade he thought would be transferable to the Newfoundland offshore oil industry. And perhaps it will be, but meanwhile he's found work in the oil industry in Alberta, along with tens of thousands of fellow Newfoundlanders. Great money, but it means he's away from Pam and Brody for weeks, sometimes months, at a stretch.
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