The Petroleum Services Association of Canada

THE PETROLEUM SERVICES ASSOCIATION OF CANADA oil and gas industry that do not qualify for Core- Group membership; the Government,Municipal, and Academic Member category is designed for governments and organizations that have no commercial investment in the oil and gas indus- try but have an interest in the service, supply, and manufacturing sector and the data it can provide; and the International Member category is de- signed for organizations and companies that have a commercial interest in the oil and gas industry but do not have an office in Canada. In addition to the different types of benefits that accrue to PSACmembers depending upon their membership category, Salkeld believes that access to the country’s government officials and policy makers is a key benefit for all of its members, as well as those non-members who are still part of the oilfield services industry.“When the new- ly-minted Prime Minister (Justin Trudeau) came to Alberta, shortly after he gained office, he met with the Premier of our province, four of the big oil sands producers, and then he met with PSAC,” Salkeld recounts. “He didn’t meet with the association represent- ing the producers; he didn’t meet with the asso- ciation representing the drillers; he didn’t meet with anybody else. In that circumstance,we had the Prime Minister, the Premier, the federal energy minister, the provincial energyminister, and a local MP in the meeting.And I took 12 of our directors into this meeting and moderated the session, so each and every one of our members had an op- portunity to speak directly with the Prime Minister and the Premier to explain their circumstances face to face.And we’ve had a number of those kinds of sessions since then,where we met with senior government officials.” A key part of PSAC’s agenda was lobbying to get various oil and gas pipelines approved.“When we met with the Prime Minister and the Premier, and they said ‘How can we help?’we said,‘Get pipelines approved and help us get them built,” Salkeld relates.“It doesn’t require government money, because industry will put up the money. And that puts people to work and it puts PSAC members to work keeping these pipelines full of oil and gas. In addition, PSAC has organized what it calls “On the Hill Days” in both Edmonton and Ottawa.“We take a contingent of members and have two days of meetings,”Salkeld says.“We get in front of as many elected officials and govern- ment senior staff and policymakers as possible. And our ability to get into these meetings has grown exponentially.And why we’re leveraging that, at this point in time, is because both our fed- eral and our provincial governments are talking about representing the middle class, blue-collar,