From the classroom to the oilpatch

A Q&A with Gary Remenyk, president of Halo Ventures Ltd

By Beverly Lomosad

Gary Remenyk likes to work with his hands and build things. He likes to mend vintage cars, for example – particularly the paint job aspect of a restoration work – resurrecting cars back to their original state and giving them a new lease on life. But his most-enduring work was not with hard-to-find, sleek machines; rather, it was with students with the classroom as his canvas. For a total of 28 years, Remenyk was a trades instructor – first with British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) then briefly with Northern Lights College (NLC) – and about half of his teaching career was spent running a BCIT dual-credit trades program that he himself had put together. The program, which was piloted then fully implemented at South Peace High School in Dawson Creek, was designed to be run in the high school system and allowed students to gain a year of technical training and, at the same time, earn credits both for high school graduation as well as for post-secondary education.

On a personal level, the program also paved the road for Remenyk to seamlessly transition back to Bonanza, where he grew up, while keeping his BCIT job. The rural environment of Bonanza was where he wanted his kids to grow up in, he said. Bonanza was also where, 30 years ago, he embarked on entrepreneurship and became a business owner.

How did the business get its start?
My wife and I bought the business from another company in 1993. We’ve built it up since. Fluid transfers – that is, hauling crude oil, including condensates, and produced water to a disposal site – account for about 75% of our business. The remaining 25% involves services provided through our vacuum trucks and steamer trucks. Up to 99% of our clients are businesses in the oil and gas industry. Occasionally, we dispatch our steamer trucks to residential clients experiencing issues such as frozen piping and things of that nature.

Please share a little bit about your professional background.
I’m a licensed automotive mechanic and also have a mechanical engineering background. I grew up in Bonanza but moved to British Columbia to pursue post-secondary education in mechanical engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC). I put my university education largely on hold after my third year as I accepted a job as an automotive technology instructor at BCIT’s Burnaby campus. We had three young kids, and money was pretty tight, so I decided to take the job and pursue a teaching career while taking courses part-time with UBC. I retired from BCIT in 1999 after 26 years.

My time with BCIT gave me the opportunity to design a dual-credit Automotive Service Technician program for the high school system. The program, which was piloted then fully implemented at South Peace High School in Dawson Creek, allowed students to earn credits both for graduation as well as for post-secondary education. Students under the program will have received one year of technical training in heavy duty mechanic and auto collision when they finish high school; effectively, the program fast-tracks their post-secondary education. To this day, the program continues to be offered through NLC in Dawson Creek.

Upon my retirement from BCIT, NLC, anticipating the wind turbines to become the next big thing, asked me to design a program to deliver wind turbine training. I taught the program on the first year it was rolled out then continued on for a second year as NLC’s search for a teacher proved unsuccessful. I fully retired from teaching after that.

When did you move back to Bonanza?
We moved back to Bonanza in 1985 mainly to take over the family farm. I also thought that the rural environment was better for the kids than the city. When I designed the Automotive Service Technician program, my main goal was to find a seamless transition back to Bonanza while maintaining my BCIT employment. One of my thoughts was also to build and deliver training so that students didn’t have to move away from the north to get training. I think employers will have a higher chance of staff retention if they hire people who grow up in the community. In contrast, people hired from, say, Vancouver usually won’t stay as soon as winter hits.

So, what made you decide to acquire Halo Ventures Ltd?
Some friends of mine were in the oilpatch, and they’re doing really well. So, that piqued my interest to also get into the oilpatch. My wife, Maryellen, deserves a lot of credit because she held things together in the business while I was in the thick of pursuing my teaching career.

Could you share some of the challenges you’ve encountered along the way as you were building the business?
The escalating prices present a major hurdle in today’s business environment. Inflation is driving prices insanely up. And it’s not just the typical inflationary cycle; it’s also people taking advantage of the situation and using it to jack prices up and gouge people. Now, if you ask for a quote, it’s valid for a week.

Getting equipment is also the worst it’s ever been. We can’t get new equipment, and people are using COVID-19 as an excuse for production and delivery hiccups. We used to target to renew our fleet of trucks every five years. Not anymore. Now, we just make sure they are mechanically sound.

The oilpatch, in general, is very demanding. The product doesn’t stop coming out of the ground, so you have to be able to provide service 24/7. We are on every day of the year. My wife and I do take a few breaks, but the business is on every day. My phone never quits ringing, and it doesn’t matter if we’re away. That has weighed down on us a bit as we got older.

Managing customers also comes with its own set of challenges. The challenge often lies in finding a middle ground as we try to come to a place where customers felt they’ve been granted the best deal they’ve asked for while also keeping our business viable in the process. And some customers are better than others. Another major challenge is in finding workers. It seems to me as though nobody wants to work; it never used to be this way, and I’m not sure why. I think the dearth of workers started to become a real problem during the COVID-19 years, that is, between 2020 and 2022. And it’s probably worse now. The shortage of workers, however, is not just in the oilpatch; it’s felt pretty much across all industries.

How are you navigating the problem of staff shortage?
We are not too bad right now. We currently have 12 full-time staff.

Is the oil and gas industry in a better shape today than the state it was years ago?
Back then, it was fairly steady. Prices did drop substantially at one point, but it was fairly steady, and we made a pretty good living.

What impact, if any, did COVID-19 have on the business?
Our guys are in the trucks by themselves, so the pandemic didn’t really have any impact on us. Still, we’ve implemented hygiene protocols.

How are you managing work-related stress?
I have other interests. I like restoring vintage cars. So far, I have done more painting than actual restoration work. I like to build things. When you do something with your hands, at the end of the day, you can see a tangible result from your work. I plan to do more car restoration in retirement. The grandkids have also started playing hockey, and I’m quite involved in that.