The camps are populated mostly by men, who outnumber women in the oil sands by 50 to 1. When she makes it to a camp where the dorms come with fake plants, she’s overwhelmed. Sometimes she lives in an empty little apartment that requires a 6 am bus ride into camp sometimes she lives on site in a dorm equipped with only a bed and a shelf. In Alberta, Beaton bounces from mine to mine. Vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark What she knew, she writes, was that Alberta was “the place to go to find the good job, the good money, the better life.” But Ducks quickly makes it clear that “the good life” is relative. None of that was exactly clear to Beaton when she set off for Alberta in 2005. They’re also considered some of the most environmentally destructive oil fields in the world, and Indigenous populations say the mines have been ruinous to their way of life. The mines are large enough to be seen from space. When it’s over, she’ll go back to the real world.Īlberta’s oil sands are the third-largest oil reserve in the world. It will be a break from her life, a lark. Her plan is to work so much that she can pay off her student loans in two years. Saddled with an arts degree that leaves her feeling unemployable and a small mountain of student debt, Beaton leaves her beloved home of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, for the oil sands of Alberta, where work is plentiful and life is cheap. Take Vox’s survey here.ĭucks begins in 2005, with Beaton as a 21-year-old newly minted college graduate. We want to get to know you better - and learn what your needs are.
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