Fault Lines: Life and Landscape in Saskatchewan’s Oil Economy by Valerie Zink

Abstract

Reviewed by: Fault Lines: Life and Landscape in Saskatchewan’s Oil Economy by Valerie Zink J. David Henry Fault Lines: Life and Landscape in Saskatchewan’s Oil Economy. Photographs by Valerie Zink. Text by Emily Eaton. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2016. xiii + 107 pp. Illustrations, map, notes. $31.95 paper. Valerie Zink, a photographer from southern Saskatchewan, and Emily Eaton, an associate professor of geography at the University of Regina, have produced a good introduction to the life and times of people working in the oil fields of southern Saskatchewan. The book is visually attractive with seventy-seven full-page black-and-white photos of the landscapes, towns, facilities, and people involved in oil operations. The text is based on seventy interviews that Emily Eaton carried out with people of the region between 2011 and 2015. The book focuses on life during the oil boom with less emphasis on the oil bust, which occurred when oil prices crashed in the winter of 2014–15. Five subjects explored in the book are:(1) the history of the development of the oil industry in Saskatchewan versus neighboring Alberta; (2) economic benefits to towns, farmers, and rural residents from expanding oil operations; (3) the often difficult working conditions encountered in these operations; (4) the challenges of providing services for oil workers, including stores, restaurants, housing, and schools; and (5) the response of First Nations, including both protests against the oil industry and productive partnerships formed between tribal councils and oil corporations. Two issues in particular caught my interest. First, the author points out that “it was largely foreign capital that spurred the early and rapid development of Alberta’s oil industry, while in Saskatchewan debates about public ownership and development of resources within and between the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (1944–64) and the New Democratic Party (1971–82) governments and their parties led foreign capital to perceive an unpredictable climate for investment” (15). Secondly, there is a hierarchical structure for workers in an oil boom. Jobs within the oil operations themselves pay significantly higher wages than jobs in the service sectors, with temporary foreign workers at the bottom of the wage scale. Yet the spiraling cost of living is the same for everyone. For a person unfamiliar with field operations of the oil industry, this book is a good introduction. The text and photos present both the opportunities and problems created by oil operations. The author’s stance is objective and neutral, offering few solutions to problems. There is also only limited information about fracking and horizontal drilling, which are the foundation of the oil boom in southern Saskatchewan. Looking through the photographs in the book, I could find only three people who were smiling. Perhaps that pattern best captures the severity and social pressures of living and working in Saskatchewan’s oil fields. [End Page 246] J. David Henry Saskatchewan Environmental Society Copyright © 2017 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln