"No one expected gas to stay at $8, $9 or $10 (per gigajoule), but nobody expected $3 either." Soucy said concerns about finding enough workers will hover over the industry. "It's still very much there," he said. "Because of the lesser amount of activity that happens in the spring and summer it's been manageable." Nobody wants to see a repeat of last winter. "Somehow, one way or another, they managed to get through the winter. I don't know how they did it. They were strapped going into the winter."

Soucy said there were a lot of workers "dragging their butts" in the spring after working at top speed all winter long to keep rigs drilling and oil and natural gas pumping. A whole legion of rookies cut their teeth in the industry last year, and will be entering their sophomore year in the rugged industry. "I would hope it would not be as bad this winter as last. These people have one season of work behind so they will know what it's about."

Finding qualified workers is still frequently voiced as a concern by PSAC's members, which include 240 companies focused on oil and gas exploration and production. Worker shortages are not restricted to the oil and gas industry in North America, he said. "There's just enough young people coming into the marketplace to replace the growing number of people hitting retirement age.

Rick Dawson, vice-president of marketing for Precision Well Servicing, said finding workers is on the minds of everyone in the industry. "Like everyone else, labour is going to be the unknown factor. There definitely isn't enough. The system is going to have to find a new way to find these people." Dawson said Precision, which has 239 servicing rigs, including 52 in the Red Deer area, has enough employees to staff the rigs, but finding relief workers will be the challenge. Customers understand because everybody is in the same boat.

Dawson said the fall will be busy and the summer would be busier if the wet weather hadn't slowed things a little. In Western Canada, there were 340 rigs drilling, 292 idle for a 54 percent utilization rate, according to the CAODC. A year ago, there were 316 drilling, 283 idle for a utilization rate of 53%.