My condolences to the worker’s loved ones and coworkers, and to area families and communities.
Drowning in a pit of frac waste or water hoarded for frac’ing would be a terrible way to die, and is preventable with adequate safety and education measures. Frac’ing is deadly. I’ve walked in some of those pits before they were filled. They’re monstrous and challenging to get out of even when empty, near impossible if raining, heavy dew, thawing after frost.
Frac’ing is evil, frac’ing must be criminalized.
And, Rebecca Schultz and Birchcliff appear to be corrupt as Trump in hell, not a good combo, corruption and frac’ing:
@JasonOnTheDrums 2024:
The best part?
Birchcliff Energy and their lobby group have donated $50,000 directly to Rebecca and to UCP linked PACs.
Nothing to see here folks!!
Rebecca and the UCP have received OVER $50,000 from Birchcliff Energy and their lobby group since 2017.
Rebecca is shady AF!
#Ableg Question:
How do you get UCP MLA Rebecca Shultz to promote your business?
1. Donate $35,000 to a secretive UCP PAC!
2. Hire a lobbyist who donated $13,500 to Rebecca and the UCPsince 2019!
Rebecca Shultz is for sale
Cronyism and corruption is key in the UCP!
***
Snap taken from Birchcliff Energy’s website.
Birchcliff is not responsible! If they were, Mr. Olesiuk would still be alive and Rebecca Schultz would not be on the Board of Directors.
Workplace death: Birchcliff Energy Ltd, fined more than $300K for failing to ensure worker’s safety, Birchcliff Energy’s guilty plea resulted in a creative sentencing fine that provides funding for improved surface water training for workers and emergency personnel by Tina Kennedy, Aug 21, 2026, Calgary Herald
Grande Prairie — Birchcliff Energy Ltd. has been fined $312,500 after admitting it failed to ensure the safety of a worker who died on an oil and gas site three years ago.
David Olesiuk, 43, was gathering water samples at a hydraulic frac pond when he fell into a reservoir near Baytree in Saddle Hills County, approximately 100 kilometres northwest of Grande Prairie, on Oct. 10, 2023.
Frac “Pond”
Frac ponds are typicallybut often notlined with an impermeable lining to prevent the fluid from leaching into the environmentin the rare times they are lined, liners usually leak, and have been found by regulators to contaminate groundwater. The liners extend up the embankments and are often slippery.Trying to blame the liner for the killing? Those massive frac pits are slippery even when unlined if wet.
A few frac water hoarding dams/pits; some fenced to protect wildlife, most are not (fencing is expensive and frac’ers are cheap and greedy). Photos by Will Koop:
Nice leaky lining, as usual.
Frac “ponds”
I would not call them ponds. I’ve walked around and into some of these pits before they were filled. They fucking massive.
25 to 100% of water injected for frac’ing is lost forever to the hydrogeological cycle. Think of the severe droughts and wildfires occurring in frac fields around the world, and especially in Alberta, BC, SK.
Images below by Bob Donnan:
Under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act and code, companies are required to assess hazards, develop policies and procedures that address those workplace hazards. They are also required to do everything to reasonably eliminate or reduce a hazard and develop procedures that workers follow to ensure the best possible outcome.Maybe in writing, but not in reality. If it were true in reality, there would be no frac’ing in Alberta.
As part of the sentencing in the Grande Prairie Court of Justice this week, the Crown formally withdrew the 17 remaining chargesRemoving charges as part of “sentencing.” FFS. Alberta and Alberta courts, always protecting the greedy killers in the oil patch, like judges protecting convicted rapists, letting them go again and again, even when they rape kids. and designated the fines be split between two groups: Energy Safety Canada (ESC) and Saddle Hills Protective Services.
ESC, the oil and gas industry’s health and safety association for oil and gas, receives $200,000 to develop a training program on water surface safety and injury prevention. Saddle Hills gets $112,000 to develop water surface rescue training for its responders.JFC! Alberta has been frac’ing and building massive water hoarding and waste pits for decades. Only now, the fuckers are developing water surface rescue? That needed to be developed before the frac’ers started frac’ing, with onsite rescue equipment at very fucking pit – many of them filled with toxic chemicals.
Birchcliff Energy Ltd.’s safety recordAlberta’s mostly American hedge fund owned media is bragging here for the company. The company’s safety record is not good enough. If it was, Mr. Olesiuk would still be alive.
The company has its Certificate of Recognition (COR) through the Alberta Association for Safety Partnerships. The COR program audits a company’s health and safety management program to ensure it meets the required standards. Certifying audits are conducted every three years with maintenance audits in the succeeding two. Birchcliff’s most recent audit, expiring Sept. 29, was in its final review and report writing stages when Olesiuk died.
As a consultant to Birchcliff, Olesiuk was directed by the company and recognized as an employee in Occupational Health and Safety legislation.
Historically, the Alberta OHS employer data portal shows the company was issued orders on three separate occasions in 2020, 2023 and in the days following Olesiuk’s death in2023 (I am hoping that this was a typo error, not intentional by the reporter or editor to befuddle the “timing” of the orders 2026.
Orders are issued when an OHS officer has seen something that requires immediate attention. A stop work order requires a company to stop any related work until it is addressed.
Three days after the 43-year-old’s death in Bay Tree, the company was faced with orders related to water safety and fall protection. On Oct. 13, 2023, OHS issued a stop-work order and required the company to immediately address their assessment process related to hazards under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Code Part 2 Section 7: Hazard Assessment, Elimination and Control-Hazard Assessment.
Almost a month later on Nov. 9, 2023, two more orders were issued and required to immediately address working-alone procedures and their general obligations.
The company faced at least one OHS order in May 2020 under the act’s Section 40 as it related to the company’s program and practices around serious incidents injuries and incidents.
According the Alberta Employer Data portal, the company sustained two disabling injuries that year. Then, in 2021 and 2022 they recorded two more disabling injuries. Their disabling injury rate, based on the number of injuries compared to how many hours the company’s workforce has accumulated in that year, was above the industry standard.
No wonder Birchcliff appointed (freshly) ex UCP environment minster, Rebecca Schultz to their Board of Directors!
Just over four months ago, on May 1, Birchcliff was issued another OHS order as it relates to the OHS Act’s Section 33: Compliance and Enforcement-Serious injuries, illnesses, incidents and worker exposure to radiation.
See Alberta’s OHS Investigation website at www.alberta.ca/ohs-investigations for more information related to charges, convictions and fatality summaries.
Birchcliff Energy fined $312,500 after worker dies at Spirit River site by Western Standard News Services, Aug 23, 2026
Birchcliff Energy Ltd. has been ordered to pay $312,500 after pleading guilty to a workplace safety offence stemming from the death of a worker at an oil and gas site near Spirit River.
Birchcliff pleaded guilty August 14 in Grande Prairie Court of Justice to one count under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act of failing to ensure the health and safety of a worker.
All remaining charges against the oil and gas exploration and development company were withdrawn.
The charge followed an October 10, 2023 incident at an oil and gas site west of Spirit River.
A worker was obtaining water samples when they fell into a reservoir and died.
The court imposed what Alberta’s OHS legislation calls a creative sentence, directing the money to organizations and projects intendedto be bribed silent and nicely obedient to killer polluters, notto improve workplace safety rather than imposing the entire amount as a conventional fine.
Birchcliff was ordered to pay $200,000 to Energy Safety Canada to develop an industry awareness and training program addressing serious injury and fatality risks associated with surface water operations.
Another $112,500 will go to Saddle Hills County Protective Services to develop surface ice water rescue training and help purchase ice water rescue equipment.which fucking ought to have occurred before the frac’ers started frac’ing and building their massive greedy water-hoarding killer pits.
The company and Crown have up to 30 days to appeal the conviction or penalty.
Alberta’s OHS legislation establishes workplace health and safety requirements for employers and provides protections for workers.
Charges may be laid under the legislation when a failure to comply with workplace safety requirements results in serious injury or death.
The OHS Act permits courts to impose creative sentences in which money that would otherwise be paid as fines is instead directed toward organizations or projects designed to promote or improve workplace health and safety.
Victim fine surcharges apply to fines paid to the Crown but do not apply to payments made to other organizations under creative sentences.
Sentence documents are available through Grande Prairie Court of Justice rather than the Department of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration.
RigPig 23 Aug 2026:
I was involved in drilling operations for Birchcliff in that area when this happened. Actually just east of Dawson Creek inside Alberta. It was an open frac pond, for frac water. Generally they are not fenced and production workers know to stay clear.But wildlife don’t
You aren’t going to ‘take samples’ on an iced over frac pond at night.How do you know? Some oil and gas companies are ruthless and cruel in how they treat workers and too often order contractors to work in dangerous conditions, he might have been ordered to. This reads to me like a smear job, trying to belittle Mr. Olesiuk, killed because of the company’s greed and shit safety/training/rescue measures, to make the company look good, followed by the tragedy comment. FFS. Nasty. A tragedy nonetheless.
Refer also to:
2026 05 29: Former cabinet minister Rebecca Schulz quietly resigned her seat in the Legislature two weeks ago by David Climenhaga, May 29, 2026, Alberta Politics
According to the website of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Calgary-Shaw MLA Rebecca Schulz gave up her seat on May 15.
That’s not a surprise, but it’s odd.
It’s no surprise because when the former minister in cabinets formed by United Conservative Party premiers Jason Kenney and Danielle Smith announced her resignation as Alberta’s environment minister last New Year’s Eve, she said she’d be leaving her seat in the Legislature in May. Her cabinet resignation took effect on Jan. 2.
“Timing is everything in life and in politicsno kidding. In aiding polluters and killers of workers especially?, and it is time for me to seek new opportunities in my career,” she wrote in her anodyne cabinet resignation letter, without providing any hints of why she chose that particular moment or what opportunities awaited her. …
What’s more, on May 12, Ms. Schulz offered a swan song of sorts in an interview with CTV News, praising the premier, sending up hosannas to former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, and dutifully carping about former Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau and his environment minister Steven Guilbeault. …
Just Me says: Rebecca Schulz always stuck me as a suitable doppelgänger for Miranda Rosen, as they both have that vacant look that the lights are on but no one is home. Well, she’s flown the coop, without so much as a pat on the back or a public celebration at the close of her tenure. I genuinely believe that Schulz wouldn’t know that there was even so much of a ripple of tension with her presence even if it smacked her in the face. Truth be told, she was the ideal UCP MLA: sit quietly, don’t stir, and collect your pay, benefits, and bribes.
LAS says:
Just Me, I agree. She was entirely convincing in her mini-Dani role and her trad wife ringlets just made me shake my head.
Carlos says:
A Pat on the back? What has she done other than killing the renewable energy sector
Anonymous says:
Carlos: There also may be conflicts of interest issues with Rebecca Schulz and her husband.He reportedly is partner in an oil and gas operation.
2026 08 05: Rebecca Schulz, Alberta, Canada – Independent Director jumps ship, quickly and sleazily from the super corrupt UCP into Birchcliff’s arms and is plunked on its Board of Directors. Was Schultz specifically chosen to get Birchcliff off it’s crime of unsafe work practices killing Mr. Olesiuk, and “formally” getting rid of those additional 17 charges? And what’s with calling her “independent?” No such thing in corrupt as hell Alberta, most especially an ex UCP politico and cabinet member. Creepily, there are a lot of lawyers and ex EnCana/CAPP people on the company’s board.
Ms. Schulz is a public affairs and policy leader with extensive experience across government, business, energy, environment and economic development. She is currently Vice President, Regulatory and External Affairs of Whitecap Resources Inc. Prior thereto, Ms. Schulz was Alberta’s Minister of Environment and Protected Areas as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Calgary Shaw, with key projects focused on energy, emissions policy, land planning and water management. She holds a Master’s Degree in Communication from Johns Hopkins University and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Saskatchewan. Ms. Schulz was first elected to the Alberta Legislative Assembly in 2019 and her other Ministerial portfolios included Municipal Affairs and Children’s Services.
Some of the frac water hoarding pits south east of Bay Tree, Saddle Hills Co, Alberta. Snap taken Oct 12, 2023
Source, Zoom in and around, SE of Bay Tree: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Bay+Tree,+Alberta//@55.7401265,-119.9506086,26391m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m8!4m7!1m5!1m1!1s0x5391737bdc5607e5:0x43c9b4928626d861!2m2!1d-119.9051597!2d55.8248163!1m0?entry=ttu
A proportion (25% to 100%) of the water used in hydraulic fracturing is not recovered, and consequently this water is lost permanently to re-use, which differs from some other water uses in which water can be recovered and processed for re-use.
2012: NASTY FRAC’ER! Encana sues top tribal judge to fend off Wyoming worker death suit
2011: For Occupational Safety and Health Research and Practice in the U.S. Oil and Gas Extraction Industry by NATIONAL OCCUPATIONAL RESEARCH AGENDA (NORA)
During 2003-2008, 648 oil and gas extraction workers were fatally injured on the job, resulting in an occupational fatality rate of 29.1 deaths per 100,000 workers – eight times higher than the rate for all U.S. workers.
Workplace Deaths Drop – But not in the Oil Industry
Alberta drastically under-reports workplace injuries
etc. etc. etc.