Episode 215 with Shawn Laporte and Max Ceron

The CWB Association brings you a weekly podcast that connects to welding professionals around the world and unrepresented communities as we continue to strive for a more diverse workforce. Join us as we celebrate National Volunteer Month to showcase the incredible contributions of our Chapter Executives from across Canada and globally.

"Be patient, try everything, find your niche, and make yourself valuable," is a brief glimpse into the knowledge Shawn Laporte shares from his 30-year journey through the welding industry. Our conversation with Shawn is a masterclass in career resilience, continuous learning, and the impact of mentorship. As Shawn transitioned from hands-on welding to inspection and quality assurance, he found a new purpose in guiding the next generation.

Find your Local CWBA Chapter Here: https://www.cwbgroup.org/advocacy/membership

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, I can check.
Check, I'm good.
So I'm Max Duran.
Max Duran, cwb AssociationWelding Podcast.
Pod pod podcast.
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Happy welding.
Hello and welcome to anotheredition of the CWB Association
podcast.
My name is Max Ceron and I'malways all over the country and

(01:09):
the world looking for the gueststhat bring you an hour of
enjoyment on your easy listeningday.
Today we have a wonderful guestwho is a friend of mine and
part of my local chapter here inSaskatchewan and, as being a
part of National Volunteer Month, there's going to be a great
episode here with sean laporte.
Sean, how are you doing?

(01:29):
Doing well, maxing yourself?
I'm doing pretty good.
I was on holidays for a bit,but now I'm back and in the real
world and, uh, work, work, workis less fun than I remember it
at 30 years old.
I don't know what.
What do you think we're gettingup there, man?

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yeah, I have to agree , you feel the aching bones at
the end of the week.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, yeah, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
The rebalance will take longer.
Hangovers even take twice aslong.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Well, let's not talk about those.
But, Sean, you know, thank youfor being on the show.
You know I met you through thelocal chapter here and the topic
in general is going to be aboutvolunteerism and National
Volunteer Month.
But let's start at the start,where I always do.
Where's Sean from?
Where'd you come from?

(02:16):
Where are you born?
Where's the roots?

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Well, I was born and raised in North Bay, ontario and
lived on the outskirts of NorthBay, ontario and lived on the
outskirts of North Bay in alittle, small little township
called Chisholm Township andjust outside of Blossom.
My parents were my dad was bluecollar and my mom was an LP

(02:39):
nurse and I pretty well learnedall doing everything with my dad
hands on doing.
He was a jack of all trades hewas a heavy equipment operator
and then I graduated from highschool in Salt River on Magwin

(03:03):
Highlands in 93.
So I did do a lot of shopclasses in there, more
electrical side, anything elseDid the school have welding?
Yeah, actually it did have awelding program, had a machine
shop, a carpentry shop,automotive drafting, and it

(03:27):
still had all the good.
Had a machine shop, a carpentryshop, automotive drafting, and
it still had all the good shops.
Like back in the day type thing.
It was like in the late 90s,that's when they were starting
to pull all those programs out.
I had a great instructor, myelectrical instructor.
I remember he was awesome.
He was an electrician so hewould let us do offsite wiring

(03:48):
on people's other teachers'houses, which I didn't
understand why.
But cheap labor, I guess.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Hopefully the one burnt down is looking for a
lawsuit right now.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yes, but and then we had a a great drama program and
so all the local, all the shopswould build all the props for it
.
Um, we did all the like, we didall the wiring for all the
lighting, we built our own lightboard and everything, uh, light

(04:19):
board, and um, we had thecarpentry shop who built all the
props.
So it was pretty cool cool inthat way.
So I was able to maintain I waspart of the maintenance crew on
keeping that up and going.
And then I went to school,originally for electronic
technician down in Toronto andat Rio College, canada, but

(04:43):
towards the end of my exams mydad had cancer and he passed
right at the end of them.
So I didn't finish that program, which I kind of regret because
he put a lot of money and timeinto me for going.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
That's a good program too, yeah it was a great
program.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
I don't regret not doing it, because it sure helped
me with my future career inwelding type thing and
inspections and then in.
So I took a few years off,always being good with my hands,
like when I was 13.
I helped my uncle build hishouse, rebuilt it, dug the well,
put the foundation in, right upto framing all the walls and

(05:23):
finishing everything, and so hewas really my high and mentor
type thing.
So after that program I wentand worked at a few remote camps
just to get my bearings back tonormal just in ontario, yeah
yeah, in ontario, I was stillstill in ontario.
Um, then, about four years afterthat I decided to go back to

(05:48):
school and in 96 I know abouttwo years, I should say um in 96
I decided to go and take thewelfare program at um in
kirkland lake at northerncollege.
Um, when I was talking to myuncle and his brother they were
both great carpenters andeverything and I asked them I'm

(06:12):
deciding, either go to doVictorian homes restoration at
Gonquin College in Ottawa orshould I go into welding and
become a welder fitter.
And both of them said if youwant to make money back, then
just go into welding and becomea welder fitter.
And both of them said if youwant to make money back, then
they said, go into welding.
So that's why it's still true.

(06:33):
But yeah, no, they were greatmentors for me over the years.
So they had my program inNorthern college, did the
pre-employment course.
That's a two-year course thatthey have there or a one year
course.
It was just a one year coursetype program.
Um, a great pro, it was a verygood program.
Um, my instructor was a welltechnologist that graduated from

(06:56):
the school.
It was kind of funny.
Um, when we were doing layoutsfor stairs I had to show the
class how to build stairsbecause with my carpentry
background.
Yeah, but it was neat having thetechnologist there to teach us
how to do WPSs and PQRs, how todevelop them.

(07:16):
He really strongly showed usthat the procedural side of it
not just throwing beads down.
Yeah, and that helped a lot andI got really interested in that
him and har and about goinginto their well technologist
program.
But I wanted to get into thefield and make money at that age
, when I was in my late 20s.

(07:37):
So then I I had to do a two-weekwork placement, so I asked my
instructor where are some ofthese old guys?
I wanted to learn how to weldand how to fit properly, and

(08:07):
anyway there was a shop, a smalltwo-brothers shop in Kirkland
Lake and they did a lot of workfor Macasa um Kid Rock, kid
Creek, um a gold mine, a localgold mine there, and they did a
lot of work for them.
So I went in there and buggedhim multiple times and he says,
no, I don't have any work foryou.
And then one day it turned upand I went there the next week.
Every week I kept on going tothis guy and keep on bugging him
for my work placement and itpanned out at the end and he

(08:30):
says, yeah, I got work next week.
If you could get the time offfrom school, you can do your two
weeks starting next week.
I got a big contract coming upand I have work for you anyway.
So when asked, my instructorbegged him so I can do my work
placement with this guy since Igot my foot in the door.

(08:57):
Anyway, it was the best work Iever done for myself is getting
working with those two brothers.
We built stuff and they builtan underground crossword, units
for the mine and everything Okay, and that was always a lot of
fun.
I really enjoyed it.
I got to learn work with.
It was a real small shop.
It was a total of five guys init and there was still the day

(09:18):
that you bring the 40-foot sheet, you drag the 40-foot sheet
into the shop with the forkliftand you'll start laying it all
out yeah, just get the work onright from right from plate.
Yeah, yeah, there was no plasmatables or nothing.
It was by hand, neither withthe little beetle doing long
street cuts and all that.

(09:38):
And we cut all our plate workout of that.
So and then he was very anal onthe model wastage too.
He would wait, a wait at wait,uh, the wastage.
At the end of the day, I'vebeen a part of that.
I've been a part of that I Ithought that was the best
experience in there and to thisday is still real highlight of

(10:01):
my career.
Yeah, rebuilt a crosser unitdown on the 5750 level in Macasa
and we only had to blow onehole out of the whole project
because the formers didn't puttheir anger bolt in the right
spot.
Rebuilt it all on top, onsurface.

(10:23):
We double checked ourdimensions to make sure it could
go go down the shaft and thendown, yeah, and down.
So it was a neat learningexperience there.
Um only I was able to workthere for price during that

(10:45):
early 2000s.
So then I took a contract jobwith the Canadian Coast Guard as
a welder there.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
So I got the work done In the middle of Ontario
yeah, in Parrysall.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
So I stayed around in Ontario, prairie Sound.
It was a great opportunity.
It was a short contract sixmonths but I was able to get her
to go on to an icebreaker andwe had to cut out the baffles to
take out a piece of equipment.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Down in the hall.
Yeah, yeah, it was neat.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
It was a neat experience and all that.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Now, if we go back in time to like when you first got
into it, you said you like youwent for electronics training.
Um, you know, radio canadaright from that was coming out
of high school now you told melike lots of your family was in
the trade, lots of the familywas, like, involved in blue
collar work.
Were you ever at that point asa young man thinking that you

(11:47):
may have wanted to get out ofblue collar work or or not
follow kind of in the same path?
Because I know that that'ssomething that happens.
It has happened in a lot ofhouseholds.
You know a lot of blue collarparents convince their kids that
being blue collar is the worstthing you could do, and it
doesn't sound like it was likethat in your home well, yes, it

(12:08):
was.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
My dad was very much into education.
He wanted me to do better thanhim.
He got hurt in a younger age,hurt his back in an injury at
work.
Um, he fell off the the cable,um steps on the greeter and
instead of letting himself fallhe grabbed onto it and he

(12:32):
ruptured his lower barabrace onhis lower back.
So he was dealing with that fora lot of years.
And a lot of my cousins weregoing into engineering.
I had one cousin is electricalengineer, another one went went
to school for chemical engineer.
So my dad wanted the pridething to push me into that kind

(12:52):
of field.
He wanted me to go and work onworking on office in a cubicle
and not get hurt.
Then he realized when I was atRadio College, canada, he
realized when I was at realcollege canada, um, he realized
that I had add over the yearsand they never diagnosed me

(13:13):
until I was in high school andjust did everything for me I was
able to get past that way.
Um, when I went to real collegecan I was able to get a teacher.
A teacher seen me strugglingwith the verbal communication
tests and all that and he wentup to the dean there and said to

(13:34):
him that he wanted me to get mystuff vocal because I was
barely passing the exams.
But he seen me in the labsacing them like I was flying
through the labs quicker thaneverybody else in my class.
He knew that I was veryhands-on and all that and his
wife was also add um, so heunderstood what the struggle I

(13:56):
was having.
So I started getting all mystuff read to me and dictate,
which made me help me lots.
But again, being in high school, being bullied for that, being
pulled out of the, the, the helpto get all the help all the
time.
You kind of feel bad on that,not being an older student, but

(14:18):
back to your saying that, uh,for your parents not wanting you
to do that.
He was strong not to about that, but he realized that I was
very good with stuff with myhands.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah, it would be a waste.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
Waste of talent too as well, but he just wanted me
to do better than him.
That was the key thing.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
And then, once you like, yousaid your dad passed away when
you were fairly young.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
And then, once you like, yousaid your dad passed away when
you were fairly young, yeah, youknow, the rest of your family
supporting you as you kind of.
You know, I'm going to go offinto this now.
I'm going to become a welder,I'm moving up to this town, I'm
going over to this job.
You know, how was the familysupport?
How did the people feel aboutyour career as it started to
develop?

Speaker 3 (15:08):
My aunt and uncle.
They really seen it in me whenI was younger and they always
had big debates with my dad onit.
Why not let him keep in thetrains and everything?
Yeah um, but they were my uncle, who I helped build, my uncle
gilbert that who I helped buildhis house.
He was my that who I helpedbuild his house.
He was my big supporter on myaunt Sue.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
He was team Sean.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, big time.
And my mom was very supportivetoo as well.
So she really she, she'sanother big supporter.
She was in her 49.
She went back to university andget her master's social work in
four years.
She went back to university andget her master's social work in

(15:48):
four years.
Wow.
So like there was people thatin my life that taught me how to
work hard and you can exceedquite well, but hard work and
now we're catching back up towhere you were in in your, in
your history.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
You're, you know you're picking up contracts.
Now you're doing a little bitof the travel.
That isn't necessarily thenormal for welders.
Like a lot of welder, fittersdream of these really cool jobs.
They dream of wanting to docool stuff, but they don't
necessarily get out there and doit right, because it isn't
necessarily easy and it's scary.
You know um, to be pushed kindof past your skills, because I

(16:25):
find that whenever you get sentout to a new job in the middle
of nowhere, you don't reallyknow what you're getting into
and you're going to have to bepretty wily about how it gets
done.
So you know how did you likethose type of jobs where you're
going out there and having tofigure out these.
You know how you're going toget this done.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Actually I loved it honestly um, I worked in
shutdowns up in kid creek intimmons, ontario, for for right
up to before I moved out toscatch one in 2000.
Um, we did uh like we at kidcreek's uh copper foundry.
There we put a whole new bottomdish on the furnace and that

(17:06):
was neat, doing all thatconstruction work or just doing
the last job I was in ontario Iwas working on and always it was
um grand forest products, butmiller, I think might be I'm not
sure who took over them anywaynow, but they were put in a OSB
recovery system.
That was my major job I did andthey always kept on pushing me

(17:33):
as being lead, all my formantstype thing.
They really seen that I like todo stuff and organize stuff and
everything and they put me onthese lead jobs.
But I was still quiteindependent.
I'd rather been left alone andfit by myself type deal than

(17:53):
babysitting a bunch of peopleyeah, yeah, just leave me alone,
let me get the job done.
Yes, and it was I found in mycareer by.
Yeah sure, in my resume itshowed that I had a bunch of uh
employment areas, but each placeI learned something new which
made me better into my craft.
Um, like, just doing simplerigging and foolish rigging type

(18:19):
deal, Just get the job done.
So today's standards is notquite well.
We would have been written offand sent away from that call
quite easily.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
What are you guys doing?
Hey, man, Safety's come a longway in my career, and that's
only 30 years, man.
Yes.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
I agree.
And then also a lot of theforeman's.
They sent me to deal with theengineers when stuff was wrong
At my younger age, type thing todebate with them who was in the
wrong, and all that on acontract, and a lot of times
they would send a juniorengineer to me and all that, and

(18:57):
then I had to somewhat tunethem in, type thing when stuff's
going wrong, what's like.
One example we're putting a bigstair tower up and they wanted
me to put a landing withstaircase and there is a steam
line going across this old plantand I said, sure, I could put

(19:18):
your staircase there.
And he says, well, why can'tyou?
And I says, well, I don't thinkthey're going to be happy with
me.
And they said, oh, why?
And I says, until I, when I goand cut that steam line up on
top and put a big loop so I canput your staircase there, we
better change our plan on howwe're going to do this.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
And they said well, you guys put it in the wrong
spot.
No, I know, I didn't put it inthe wrong spot.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
My elevations are bright.
Yeah, yeah, but engineer didn'tcome out and look before he
drew it up.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
That's what happened, yeah.
Well, yeah, they were going offthe old site plans and that you
know that osb plant been aroundsince the 50s so and it was on
a little old wind structure atthe time but it was that was a
great opportunity to learn howto adopt and conquer.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
That was a key thing oh for sure I, when I did my
turn my time at evra's ipscoback then.
This is a steel mill from the30s that you're still keeping
alive.
Uh, even if you buy newequipment it doesn't hook up to
the old equipment.
So you gotta figure all thatout because it doesn't exist and
some of it you actually have toinvent, send off to get

(20:24):
machined and whole thing, wholeprocesses.
And I always tell peoplemaintenance of major industrial
sites as a welder is some of thefunnest work you'll ever do.
It is, it's just random everyday you're always putting out a
fire or some disaster and thatkeeps you on your toes right.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
Very much so Like or just even trying to rig
something into putting a bigheavy piece of equipment into
this old building, like youcan't slow or sling over top of
that old wooden eye, joist up ontop and try to drag it in
afterwards.
But, yeah, no, it was neat andI really, I really missed that

(21:06):
kind of work.
Um, in my I was quite proud ofmy happy with myself.
I got the opportunity to dothat.
But it's not really a great jobwith a family and everything no
way you know a lot.
That's the tough part.
Um, but yeah, and then, andthen in in 2000, I decide I

(21:30):
that's when I met my wife andshe lived in the scotch one and
how'd you meet her?

Speaker 1 (21:36):
I shouldn't, maybe I shouldn't ask you on here, but I
know your wife.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
She's wonderful, it was on the internet, actually I
did okay, yeah, I think good, wemet on that.
And then, um, it was october of90 and october 2000.
I came out at thanksgiving tomeet her on the weekend and a
lot and she brought me to herparents and all that and it was
great.

(22:00):
And then I had a job interviewin november at babcock and
wilcox in melville at the, theand I got on there then I said
to my mom in my last, that wouldhave been as a pressure welder
likely right yeah, at that timebabcock, wilcox and melville was
mainly pressure piping and, Ibelieve, joints.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
I think they used to do like the, the, uh, what are
they called?
I forget what they're callednow.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
They built all the super heaters and the the board
assemblies into the power plants.
Um, yeah, I had my pressureticket.
And also when I was in Ontarioto do another shutdown.
So I went and worked in uhpower cogen generation which
burnt old wood products out ofthe sawmills and all that right,

(22:46):
and the pretty neat story onthat part.
Um, with my pressure ticket Ididn't want it originally.
My boss of the gun shut down,shut down I was working with.
He sent me in there to go andget my pressure ticket and it
was my old boss from Technowell,brian.
He became the instructor at theNorthern College of the filter

(23:09):
program and he became one of thetesters for the boiler branch.
And anyway, when I went inthere for my crusher ticket and
he says, oh good about trying todo this, he says to me and I
said I don't want it, I don'twant to do spaghetti lines, and
he starts laughing.
He starts laughing.
He says no, no, this is goingto be the best part of your

(23:30):
career.
No, it's not going to be thebest part of my career.
Like, I don't want to do thispart.
Work anyway.
He got on doing that and I saysfine, okay, like, let's do the
test anyway.
He puts nicks in the on thetube with my grinder and telling
me this is my for indicatingyour roots on your coupon on
your 6g anyway.

(23:51):
I started doing it all.
I mean he says yep, fine,you're good, well, grind it up
and wrap it up.
So, on purpose, to try to getout of this test, I caught where
his lines were just being a,not like a jerk.
Anyway I caught them all onthat and he says well, since
you're a real good smarty here,I'm gonna root bend all your

(24:13):
bends I'm not gonna face thatenough and I said here's the
coupons.
You might as well root bend themwith the cap on and everything,
so I can really fail it.
Good, he says, no, you're notgonna fail, you're gonna pass it
anyway.
He bends them all with the allthe reinforcements and all that
on it, and then I had a uh, wecall them bird's eyes.
Up on top is where your tie endsat times and you know always

(24:36):
get, then nothing wouldn't openup on that one.
You put the rod on top, yeah,you pass.
You got your ticket today, dangit.
I tried everything to get outof that and since that day I've
been welding pipe.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Then yeah, yeah.
So now you're in saskatchewan,yeah and uh, you, you get a job
in melville, which my wife isfrom melville, so I know the
area well yeah, she's actuallyvery nice yeah, yeah, nice
little valley there.
Were you sure this was theright choice?
I mean, a lot of Ontariansmoved to Saskatchewan and we

(25:11):
never let them leave.
Yeah, but you know, I knowwhere you're from North Bay's
beautiful Like that whole area'sbeautiful Ontario land.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
Yeah, it's I really miss it actually, um, I was just
amazed how long my main goalwhen I moved out west was going
to work up in fort murray.
That was I had a interview onetime to work on the millennium
project and my mom wasn't readyfor me to leave yet from home.
She wanted me to stick aroundhome a bit longer.
So I turned that down in 99 onthat job application for not

(25:46):
going out to fort murray and thevery next year you came up
anyways, yeah, next, yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
She says, now you can go.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
well, that's when gold really dropped down to
below 205 and the industry wasthe forestry industry was
starting to go down too.
Um, so then it was a good, wisemove on myself to move out here
, and so I worked at Babcock fora few months and then my wife's
mom had cancer, so we movedback to and she passed away in

(26:17):
September not 9, 11.
So it's a bad time.
Every time you hear about it on9, 11, 11.
It reminds me, it reminds us ofher mom passing that time.
but anyhow, I fell foggy for abit and I helped her dad get him

(26:38):
back on the road.
He had a little logging companylogging trailing off uh haul
logs.
So he had a little loggingcompany logging trailing off uh
haul logs.
He had a little truckingcompany and I rebuilt his
logging trailers.
He was trying to make excusesfor not being able to go out, so
rebuilt, rebuilt all histrailers up and to get them out,
and so I worked in his shop fora bit and there and then then I

(27:05):
couldn't find not much work upin Prince Albert.
That was the hard part.
Around Prince Albert it's notreally much of welding industry.
The paper mill wasn't hiringanybody so that was hard during
that time to get around.
So I went back home to NorthernOntario, to Timmins, to do a
shutdown.
It was supposed to be likethree months shut down and only

(27:32):
ended up being like four weeksbut I got never mind I got sent
home and then that summer, um,there was a little small shop in
oxbow, scotch one.
I was looking for a pressurewelder, so I applied there and
it was a little family-runbusiness.

(27:52):
Um and uh, he was looking for aguy to run one of those rigs.
So, and that's where we cameabout being and living in
Alameda for the last 20, 20years 20 years, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
Well, let's take a break right now from our
advertisers.
Perfect segue, because when weget back we'll talk about your
career in Saskatchewan and, andyou know, and how that developed
over the years.
Because you know, now you'reout there, uh, inspecting the
world awaying the world away andgone down another route, and of
course, we'll talk about yourwork with the Regina chapter.
So, listeners, don't goanywhere.

(28:30):
We'll be right back after aword from our advertisers and
we'll be back after the breakwith Sean Laporte.
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And we are back here on the CWBAssociation podcast.
My name is Max Theron.
I'm here with Sean Laportewho's calling in from Alameda,
saskatchewan.
In the first half of the showwe were talking about how he

(30:16):
came over from Ontario,developed his career as a welder
fitter and then a pipe welder,and now he's in Oxbowaskatchewan
working for an outfit running arig.
Now you know that's 20 yearsago now.
If I put my thinking hat on, uh, you graduated, you said, high
school in 93.
Um, that puts you at about 50years old right now.

(30:40):
Um, so 20 some years ago youwould have been 30, late, no,
early 30s.
At that point it's usually whenwelders start getting kind of a
little bit, either not tired ofpulling the trigger or burning
the rod, but you start lookingaround and wondering am I gonna
do this for the next 20 years ofmy life?
You know, did you hit that wall, uh, then yet?

(31:01):
Or were you still just as happyas ever, just getting out in
that truck and going to go work?

Speaker 3 (31:06):
I.
I enjoyed it, but it was againI was able to do like it.
Bring me back to my shutdowndays you had to think on the fly
jerry rig your way to get yourpiping in place and all that and
it was great and.
But I didn't like the winterstoo much, like working in the

(31:27):
winter, so slow.
Neither slow, it sucks out hereyes, I think like when I first
moved out here from ontario Ididn't find at minus 50 was that
cold, as in ontario, at minus30 with a humidity level of 70,
it's colder yeah, it's lotscolder so when I first moved out

(31:51):
here I thought it was great,and then I seen the snow
conditions and all that and Isold my sled in ontario because,
I knew not to bring it out here, because it looks like it's
like driving on ice all the timekidney bashers and all that
yeah yeah, I left the sled outin Ontario type thing.
But so when I was welding in onin Oxbow I worked there for a

(32:15):
few years, uh, with Lane NACA,uh, naca, welding down there and
welding pipe.
We built headers and andtie-ins and pipeline, a little
bit tie-ins or pipelines, andall that into batteries and oil
the repair tanks, simple likelike that when the oil patch

(32:36):
starts things.
It was great, it was fun.
Learned how to do differentpiping techniques.
I'm not wasn't used to, likeyou know, natural process piping
you're always doing up end, andnow with pipelining with the
oil pass, they always like doingdown hand pass.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Yeah, which I still don't like it.
I'm still not 100% used to it.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
No, I'm not.
I'm still above ground typeperson.
Yeah, yeah.
Then I worked in a little smallshop in Knoxville it was a
little fab shop, was their shopforeman for a bit, did that and
got into forming Back to myfitting days type thing,
building toolboxes for rigs, andbuilt a water tank for one of

(33:20):
the local rigs too as well, andthat was a good job.
I drew all the drawings for itand went and looked at a water
tank unit with the dog I wasthat falls there, and then goes
in place when they transport itand I copied off about from that
rig and built it for this otherguy's rig.

(33:41):
And it was fun doing that,trying to do your own little
engineering type thing, and itwas great.
It was a fun job and all that.
Then I started.
Then I moved into Aspen.
I wanted to get back a littlepressure vessel shop called
Freeflow in Aspen.
They were looking for a leadpressure vessel shop called free

(34:03):
flow in s man um.
They were looking for a leadpressure welder.
So I was there for about 10years working a while and it was
great, I it was.
It was a family-run business andwhen I first started it was
prior during the oil boom typedeal.

(34:23):
My first four years, I think, Idid not any less than 60 hour
weeks type thing kept it likethat.
Then I got tired of thatafterwards.
I said I have to cut my hoursback and because I wasn't able
to see my son most of the timesbecause I was born in 06.
So I think, and when you'reworking on those long days and

(34:49):
all that you don't get theopportunity to come home and see
him grow up much, but it wasokay and was good.
So then I cut my hours back to50 hours and then only 58 yeah,
so it's only 50.
And then I started doing sidegigs and carpentry work.
That's when I started torealize, um, chasing my tails

(35:12):
and not the thing I want to keepon doing it gets tiring, you
start well, you start to burnout, especially when you got a
family now yeah, type thing, andso I worked there till 2014,
and it was a hard decision tomake.
They didn't want me to leave,but I had a feeling that that's

(35:33):
when stuff was going to fall outin the world again and I
figured well, I've been workingweekends, every night, and all
that with my carpentry businessfor people, and they were
starting to ask me and do biggerjobs.
So I took a break from weldingand opened up my own little home

(35:54):
renovation business, which Ilearned when I was in high
school.
I went and worked with my uncleand doing maintenance work for
camps.
So I enjoyed that.
It was something different anddid that for a bit, Did that for
six years.
Then COVID happened and thenthe great equalizer, the

(36:14):
equalizer.
Nobody was allowing you to go intheir house.
I was unsure how things weregoing to go and the wife and I
talked and we said well, maybeyou should go back into welding
Carpentry and Zorbolo funds andall that.
So might as well, get back towelding, get that savings back.
And in 19, freefall asked me ifI would come and help them.

(36:37):
They were behind on a couple ofassholes.
So I went to Bren brandon, totheir sister shop, can steal in
brandon, and well, that umvessels built some vessels for
going down to the states and soI had the opportunity to work
with um as me organizationsbecause they were going for

(36:58):
their audit or, as me, get theiru-stamp, yeah, um, for their
vessel, for these vessels goingon the states.
So I had the opportunity to.
I had to demonstrate what we'redoing how to put a nozzle into
a vessel what the steps are, allthe steps, yeah yeah, and it
was a neat experience.
I thought that was great.

(37:20):
It was funny.
I'm a contractor and all thelocal guys in the shop they want
to go, come close to that girl,so they threw me into the
wolves On that job.
So it was great.
It was a great opportunity.
Then then in in during COVID, Itook a job with SASARC in Oxford

(37:43):
and I hadn't had my CWB ticketssince 1998 was the last time I
had my CWB tickets.
So I had to get my fourposition, bus core and metal
core tickets that's that's forfab work and all that and I was

(38:05):
able to pass them on the firsttry, which was quite surprising
since I didn't really get thatback in.
Then I had to do my stickticket and that went well too.
But yeah, in 2004, I forgot onepart.
In 2004 I challenged myjourneyments and scotch one

(38:28):
because I realized that albertwouldn't let me weld pipe
alongside my journeyments.
That's right, that's right.
So I went and challenged myjourneyments in 2004 and the
written part was good.
I passed that first.
But the practical was thechallenge was the time when 6010
was all the on the plate work.

(38:49):
That was uh, that was different.
Pipe and plate are completelydifferent.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Well, they're different steels, they're
different steels, they're madedifferently, they have different
qa?
Um.
I mean it not.
I find that pipe steel is waybetter quality.
It reacts better, it holds onbetter, it doesn't drip as much
and you try to run an open rootplate and uh and it's not the
same as pipe man.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
No, it's not like um a lot of times with pipe.
You only have like a couple ofinches of one position.
Yeah, and then, instead ofdoing, six inches in one
position so every time I pass onwhen the journeyman's, I always
flaunt her with one, one coupon, but usually it was my
horizontal summary.

(39:35):
It was tying horizontal that'svery common, you know it had to
open up on me and the instructorsays, yeah, it was just
slightly over the 1A rod andmade me come back again.
So I took the pre-employmentupgrade course so I was able to
do the seven weeks program,which I should have done in the

(39:55):
first place.
But I was being bullheaded likeany other welder that think you
can do everything.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
It's tough.
It's a tough test, like a lotof people think they just come
in and challenge.
I taught the red seal programand the amount of people I saw
walking off the street thinkingthey could do it and walk out
with their head between theirknees is like yeah, it's not
that easy, mother.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
That's not one coupon .
I only had one problem on onecoupon all the time.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
but but yeah.
So, so at this point, you knowyou're, you're running through
your career, you're doing allthis amazing work.
Are you thinking kind oflong-term of your future, of the
industry, like I mean, itsounds like so much of your life
has just been chasing jobs.
You know what I mean Chasingjobs, chasing jobs.
You've had a hundred jobs.

(40:40):
They're all great, great, allgreat learning experiences.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
But you know, at some point are you starting to think
like what's my end game here?
Well, yeah, like it's like,every time I did a different job
, I learned something new like Icould and then also I provide
something to somebody else.
Um, the longest job I stayed atwas with FreeFlow.
That was 10 years.
Yeah, it was 10 years with them, and just a week ago I went and

(41:08):
built two, a couple scrubbersfor them, and never rolled a
pipe, for since I did my lastpressure ticket.
And then they turned around andtell me, after I get it all done
, is it going to be XREED?
Well, thanks for telling melike, and so they pass x-ray
anyway, but good.
But um, one thing was in mywhen I started out with that one

(41:33):
shop in Kirkland, with withthose two brothers, and one day
with the with brian, he pulledme to the side and it's still to
this day it still sticks withme.
Um, he said to me that I wasrushing and making a mess and he
says quality first and qualitywill follow.

(41:54):
Yeah, and I started thinkingwhat are you talking about?
And he kind of explained it.
But being young and full ofvinegar type thing, you don't
think of that.
And I said it took me aboutfive years to realize that that
saying makes perfect sense.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
It's true.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
And I had to go and see him about five years later
and say thank you.
And he says well, what are youthinking of me?
And I says that one day you setme aside and said follow you
first and call me false.
And he says I said now I talkedto apprentices town apprentices
, that and they give me thatsame dumb.
Look what I gave you that day.
Like what you mean, tell me toslow down and not go faster, but

(42:39):
it's true Like if Like what youmean.
Tell me to slow down and not gofaster?
But it's true, like if you do itright in the first place, you
go quicker.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Oh for sure, Rework is the death of money.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
Yes, and that is the best thing I ever heard in my
career was that saying, and I Ipreach it still to this day, I
think, to new parents and andother people even with, even
within, with my now and with myinspections.
I even tell them that too, likequality first and quality of
fall, and and you don't get torework, and I don't have to be

(43:12):
the person to tell you you haveto rework it now at what point
did you think that you're goingto start heading down that
inspector route?

Speaker 1 (43:21):
You know when you're thinking like you know, this is
kind of neat.
I've worked on WPSs.
I've done some cool stuff withsome cool companies.
I've been a part of the processwith ASME, cwb.
You know API If you were doingsome tanks, probably some in
there.
So you know, at what point didyou start thinking this might be
something that you'd like toget into what point did you

(43:42):
start thinking this might besomething that you'd like to get
into?

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Well, with my career with SASAR, when I came back in
in 2003, they I was only on thefloor for about three months and
then they brought me into thequality department um to do
inspections and all that, and Ithought, great, I'm starting to.
Well, I'm 51 now.
Three years ago I was 49 so andI knew I couldn't weld like I
used to.
I was being called backs on myut scans and all that and and it

(44:12):
really bugged me like, come on,like I've been doing this for,
like that it doesn't meananything.
But, uh, it's just that myeyesight, my eyesight, is not
perfect.
It was like 20 years ago.
It's one thing and just thatyou're, you still have the
technique and everything, butit's hard to get that technique

(44:34):
to be perfect again.
It's not like being young again, like you're able to go quick
and all that yeah, you, you can.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
You can't go back in time, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
Yes, so I realized that, well, maybe this
inspection way is to be great.
Then I can be more of a mentorthis way.
Um.
I realized that, um, a lot ofinspectors we got come on the
floor.
They never had a bad weldingbackground.
So when I challenged theinspector telling me that I'm

(45:03):
fit, I failed this well area,okay, prove it to me how, why I
failed it, what did I do wrong?
And all that, I asked himmultiple questions what can I
improve myself on?
What am I doing wrong?
Like.
And then, and then again, hegave me the stunned look like
well, that's your job, you'resupposed to figure that out.

(45:29):
But when you can't communicateto the welder and trying to tell
him okay, maybe try changingyour rod angle and work with
them to be able to make themimprove better, it's, it's not,
it's not a beneficial part.
But that's where I got intoquality.
It's more for doing mentorshipand also it gave me a great
opportunity to learn what I wasdoing wrong.
The last time I seen W59 was inwhen I was in that program that

(45:53):
program also to that working atTechnoWeld, like with Brian and
Tom Ray type deal.
They were just gettingcertified with CWB and all that
and and W59 was only like 125pages back in the early late 90s

(46:14):
, I think so it was.
And then now today, w59 is likejust under 600 pages, so
there's a lot of things thatchanged over the years that
people weren't, that we weredoing wrong in the industry.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
Yeah, and the science and technology advances too.
The methodology for testinggets better.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
Yeah, and again too, like with my age there there I'm
so used to using thetransformer welders, like then
you get these inverter, thingslike, okay, like get this run so
nice it does run nice, but okay, I gotta re-educate myself how
to use this piece of equipmentagain, like like.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Like the laptop and the whole works trying to figure
out what I was calling likelike today's call, yes yeah,
yeah, yes, get my mic to work,and I just had to reset the
computer but now, now we've ranthrough your entire career and
you've brought up some greatpieces of information that I'm

(47:17):
going to key in on, because yourepeated them over and over and
you said it about a number ofthe different jobs you've had is
that you had someone be amentor.
You know you've had you knowteachers that were mentors.
You had an uncle that was amentor.
You had.
You know people in theworkplace that said things to
you to mentor you, and now yousit kind of on the back end of
your career.
I won't say that we're stillyoung at heart, but you know you

(47:40):
, you want to now activelymentor as well.
It's important for you to tonot just you know, get in the
hole with all your knowledge,but to share it right now.
How, how do you do that?
How do you become a mentor?
You know, how do you help getthat information that you have
from your career out into thenext generation?

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Well, now I'm doing is I work with the
apprenticeship programs inSaskatchewan.
I grade the IP exam and thepractical exam.
I started doing that about twoyears ago now and I thought at
first I thought, oh great, I getto be the dink again that who

(48:27):
failed me when I got my journey.
But actually it feels like thefirst day back on to get my
coupons.
Yeah, I feel the nervousness ofthe student coming up and I
feel those days back again likeI was doing that and it was

(48:47):
great.
It's a great feeling seeingthat, seeing them exceeding,
passing their hard work, and allthat to get their craft, master
their craft, to prove that theymaster it.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
And also when the time when you have to tell the
person what they did wrong, umthat they failed and they have
to come back again.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
It's a it's heartbreaking oh, it is, it is,
there was nothing worse thanhaving a student fail it after
you see the work they put intoit.
And and I mean there's a coupleangles to that Some people are
gifted with skills but they maybe terrible at book skills and
the written test will crush them.
And then there's some peoplethat you know they'll get a 99

(49:32):
on that written test withouteven thinking about it and can't
pass their MIG flat or some youknow position and ah, it's so
hard to see because you're soclose.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
A lot of times when I do do the testing on that, I
ask the student what do youthink you did wrong?
What caused?
This to break.
Those are the kind of questionsand they said, well, what do you
mean?
I said no, no, why did you failthis coupon?
Do you know what you did wrong?

(50:08):
And just ask those littlesimple questions and kind of
make them think, well, it mayhelp them on the next challenge,
like what to look for.
And then if they ask you, likethe graders and all that, I'm
more than willing to tell themwhat it could have been, what
could have cost it.
In my visual scene like that,like it could have been the way

(50:30):
your rod on you angle on yourrod at the time, or your your
nozzle, or how you dip thattungsten in or your gas mix or
anything.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
So many things.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
So many variables that could have been wrong.
But sometimes just telling themmaybe try it this way and then
try it again, and then practice,practice what you did wrong and
then that may stick the nexttime to go on doing it and
sometimes it helps them a lot oftimes we do the practical exam
before they do the written andthat's how we did it at sass

(51:06):
poly yeah yeah, and just askingthese questions of that
sometimes I might give them ahelping hand on their.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
For the question on the exam exactly it's by hearing
it the day before working onthe ip is interesting because I
work with I work with tradesboard in the red seal program,
um, and I've always wonderedlike some of those questions are
easy and some of them are sohard.
It's like who knows this, whowould know this?

Speaker 3 (51:35):
I saw him with my level one for 178.2 just like
really my journeyman's exam.
All the questions wereidentical in the journeyman's
exam, like, like about that.
Just a little few things weredifferent is reading the cold
book and all that that'sdifferent, but just the

(51:55):
principle of all the welders,the welding applications and
blueprint readings and all that.
That's the same as the journeynotes.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
I said it's just like rewriting my journey exam yeah,
I always tell welders too, likeI mean, you don't have to
become a journey person, that's.
That's a choice.
You do what you want to do.
But if you want to learn aboutwelding in a less stressful
environment, the two-week levelone inspector course is a
fantastic course.
Even if you don't even want tobe an inspector, even if you

(52:23):
have no desire to be aninspector, in two weeks you're
going to learn some fundamentalsof welding and metallurgy that
are really good to have.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
Like you should just have those period as a welder,
right actually I learned thatwith my level, like doing the
inspector courses, how much Idid wrong over my years of
welding, what I got away withand everything what I did wrong
in the hindsight is now I knowwhat I can get away with to go

(52:55):
forward to, on certainapplications too as well.
Yeah, that's the flips and allthat.
Um, that is a key thing is iseducating.
Like a lot of inspectors won'teducate the person why they're
failing um, say, where, like alot of times, I bring bring the
code out to the, to the welder,when they're challenging me

(53:18):
about my decision to why I'mmaking them rework it and I'll
bring the code book out and showthem.
This is what I have to follow.
This is the reason why I haveto reject you on your weld on
this part.
Yeah, it's laid right out, it'slaid right out.
Black and white type thing.
I know there's a lot of grayareas, but it's debatable.
But and also that's byexperience at the same point of

(53:46):
what you see, nor do yours, yeah, and then then turn around and
explain to them maybe try thisway, maybe it's your way, your
application on certain things,and just take time, clean it
better, like a little bit ofcleaning will help you on the
long way, right?
Thanks?

Speaker 1 (54:04):
in, in your, in your travels, you know, going all the
way back to the beginning whenyou first started welding.
Did you ever have anyinteractions with the
association?
Because, like, at that timeback then there was a chapter in
the big nickel.
Um, they're not anymore, but uh, you know, there's always been
a pretty strong selection ofontario chapters.

(54:25):
There's always been thesaskatchewan chapters.
Did you even know about any ofthat side of this industry?
Um, you know, coming up throughyour career, no, I never
realized that.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
I just knew about the cwb ticket.
Everybody was asking for that.
Before you left, your course,make sure that you have these
tickets to be employable.
That was the key thing.
But yeah, about the CWBassociation, I didn't know

(54:57):
anything until I started gettinginvolved with the.
Actually, it was when I gotcontacted with you a couple
couple times to help with a highschool teacher.
That was the key thing where Istarted realizing about the
association, what they can helpand everything.
It was listening off yourpodcast actually.
Really, yeah, that's when Istarted realizing more about
this, the association stuff yeah, and then, how'd you get

(55:21):
involved here in saskatchewan?

Speaker 1 (55:22):
what did you do?
Like?
Uh, you know the did you.
Who did you reach out to, orwas it?
Um, it was, I remember.
All of a sudden you were justaround, yeah, and then, and then
we never got rid of you, whichwas awesome, pretty well it was
the first games night actually.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
Yeah, that games night, that was the first time.
And I thought James said howabout you come to games night
and then we'll talk there, andthen.
I said to James?
I says yeah, I would like tohelp out and he never left me
alone in that sense.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
Well, we got to recruit where we got to.
Yes, now, in your short time,then with the association, you
know, when you compare it to thelength of your career, you know
what value do you see involunteering, like, what is it
that you get out of volunteering?
And you know you invite, youpromote, you bring your wife out
to events.
You know what do you get out ofit.

Speaker 3 (56:22):
And then what do you hope people get out of it that
attend Just to help somebody, ayounger generation, to give them
the encouragement, like um, togo and talk to people Um like um

(56:42):
when we had our first welcome,when we, when we had our first
welcome in the beginning of theyear in the season type thing,
and I had a couple kids thatwere sitting with my with myself
and she kept this little, thisgirl who's taking the.
I forget her name, I'm bad withnames, that's the worst bit.
I can remember faces but um, I,my wife and I were really

(57:03):
encouraging this girl to talk tolike with the boiler branch and
I says this is a greatopportunity for you to excel on
your career, if you like.
When I started asking her aquestion what she enjoyed about
her program and the areas thatshe liked in the program and she
says well, I like doingtenacious work and all that

(57:24):
nicest, the best spot you foryou to be is getting into exotic
metals and in the fire industry.
No do you get your niche yeahyeah, then you get to work with
exotic metals and a lot of timesfemales are better than males
at that because they have thepatience, not the rushing, and a

(57:45):
lot of these exotic metals youhave to be patient with them.
But uh, that was the key thingis just mentoring the younger
kids and, um, giving theencouragement that welding is
not always dirty, it's fun yeah,there's lots of opportunities

(58:06):
but the thing is I have a hardtime.
Um, giving in is when I, whenit's a person is on their final
year and they say well, I'm notgoing back to school, it's like
your third year, well you putthree years of your
apprenticeship already and youjust have to do your final exam.

(58:26):
Just go and do it.
Friends of mine, their son, wasgoing for his last year of he
had his last year of electricianand he kept on telling his mom
and dad, I'm not going to myfinal year, anyways.
Parents asked me, that was tellme about that.
And I said dad, I'm not goingto my final year, anyways,
parents asked me about what'stelling me about that and I said
okay, I'll hustle this kid toget into school.

(58:48):
I and I said it in front of hisdad and I said to him, if I,
when is the date when you go toschool?
And he says, well, it'ssupposed to be October, I says,
okay, if I don't see you in yourcar and not, you know, like the
6th of October going to MooseJoe, I'm bringing you to Moose
Joe and making sure you staythere.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Yeah, Like you're so close to the finish line man.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
And he excelled, like he was aces class, like yeah, I
says that's the thing.
Like you took all that energyto go through this program,
finish it.
And I regret it for notfinishing my electronic
technician course.
It's a sad thing about that andthat's why I have a hard time

(59:30):
not giving in to people notfinishing.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
Yeah, and you know what?
It's bad statistics forjourneypersons versus
apprentices Less than 25% ofapprentices become
journeypersons.
Apprentices is less than 25percent of apprentices become
journeypersons.
That means three quarters ofthe welders that go through
school are either never weldingagain or not going back to
school and welding just as alevel one or level two.
And I I just feel like, well, Iguess there's two angles if I

(59:58):
really stop and think about it.
Like number one no one can makeyou do anything if you you
don't want to.
If you, you know, are workingat a shop and you're getting
paid well and you got thebenefits and you're happy there
and you don't need your journeypersons, you know good on you if
that's what you like.
But for the amount of journeyperson jobs I see available and

(01:00:24):
the amount of money that I knowsome people could be making
right now, like I think aboutputting the tool belt back on.
Honestly, when I see some ofthese jobs out there where it's
like you know, I make greatmoney now, but damn, some of
these jobs being posted outthere are insane and they'd be
super fun and I think you knowall these jobs people could be
taking advantage of, you justgot to get back to school and
write that damn test, you knowknow?

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
Yeah, very much so.
Like that's the thing, justwrite that exam, like they can't
take that away from you.
No, it's forever, it's forever.
Like even right now I'm workingon my blue seal and that I'm in
that process right now workingon that.
I wish I did that earlier in mycareer, but I just started

(01:01:01):
finding out more of it when Istarted getting more involved
with the apprenticeship program.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Yeah, and like I got my blue seal and I loved the
course, I learned lots aboutbusiness and I had no idea about
management and and I mean thosetools helped me out today.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
Right, Yep, any type of education helps you.
It improves every aspect ofyourself, type thing.
It's not a disadvantage of you.
Okay, awesome.
And then other volunteersystems I work in.
I was with the cadet corps.
That was great.
My son was part of that.

(01:01:35):
I was a CI for that, and I'malso a volunteer fireman and a
medical first responder in myarea.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
Just everywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
That's the thing, that's my volunteer type thing,
and I'm also part of this weekand on Friday where I'm going up
to Sastun to judge theprovincial skills.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Well, I'll see you there then.
Yeah, yeah, I'll be up there ina booth all all week up for
skills and well, skills is inregina this year for nationals,
so that's going to be a blast.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
we're going to be heavily involved as a chapter
there, so yeah, it's a great,great thing your venture to go
to um I when I went two yearsago to winnipeg when they had
their nationals there, that wasawesome I it was great great to
see other trades and then howthese, these students are, how

(01:02:29):
they master their crafts so welland in and being competitive on
it and the workmanship they getout of that type thing it's.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Uh, I feel like every trades person should check out
um a skills competition anational one if possible, but
even provincials is fun, but thenational one really puts it
into perspective how muchinvestment industry is willing
to make in these kids.
It's like it's no joke, right?
Everyone's like, oh, I'mworried about my kids getting

(01:03:00):
jobs, or I'm worried about mykids having a future in the
trades.
Go to one national skills eventand you will not question it
anymore.
These companies are putting upmillions just to find the next
batch of kids, because they needthem.
They need the best of the best,and that's the fastest way to
find them is through skills.

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
Yep, no, it's a great place for that skill aspect, I
think, and it's neat watchingthem work on it and and the
quality of the wilts andeverything.
It's amazing, it's impressive.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
I'm jealous of them well, I didn't even know about
that stuff when I was a kid.
So, like I mean, and I didn'tbecome an, an apprentice until I
was way late in the game, so Ididn't get my journeyman's until
way later.
So I mean, I did everythingwrong.
That's what I always tellstudents yeah, I came out all
right in my career, but I dideverything wrong.
You know, yep, right, yep.
So now, what's the future forSean now?

(01:03:58):
Like you, the future for seannow?
Or like you, you, you got yourinspection gig.
You still weld.
You're a part of a number ofcommittees and associations.
You're busy.
Still, I, you know you're a guythat likes to be busy.
You know, what do you see inyour future?
Because, let's face it, we're50, right, we?

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
we got to start thinking about where, what,
what's happening well, my wifetold me I'm not allowed to quit
working until I'm 80, I think.
So I figured inspection Ishould be still able to do my,
be able to keep doing it whenI'm 80, type thing.
But I am also now I'm a leveltwo inspector.

(01:04:36):
Now I do third-partyinspections for clients type
thing.
I work for access inspection.
So I had a Winnipeg so they gota contract with SAS power here,
um, so I it's a great little gigright now, um, but I'm working
towards right now on my API five, 10.

(01:04:56):
So I can be an in-serviceinspector.
Um, my main goal is to get intomy, get my course just now.
I'm not looking forward todoing the like seminar exams,
but anyhow, um, but I'm lookingat the hindsight of that tickets
right now, get my in-serviceand also get my national board.

(01:05:17):
Key thing is like, since gashone is really promoting a
nuclear, I want to get on to oneof those projects.
So I could say I have somethingelse I could put on my stamp of
buckle this.
So I don't yeah ahead of themicrowave?

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
yes, well, and nuclear is going to be coming
one way or another.
Whether it's easy or hard, it's, it's really going to be the
way of the future.
So that's some smart thinking.
And you know, when thatindustry starts to move, they're
going to be the way of thefuture.
So that's some smart thinking.
And you know, when thatindustry starts to move, they're
going to need leaders andmentors too.
You know, um I volunteered withthe win-win, the women in uh,
nuclear, women in mining, and um, they're talking about all the

(01:05:54):
potential work for both miningand nuclear in saskatchewan and
it's like, where are we going tofind all these people?

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
like yeah, that's the thing.
I see one post like we'recomplaining about um, that all
the work was went overseas.
Like china is building allthose mods for the lng project.
I I started thinking to myself,sure, yeah, we could do that in
canada, where we're going toget all the manpower to do it.

(01:06:23):
If we're crying about themanpower is right now, yeah, or
the people I should say play,yeah, correct way saying it, um,
but um, just this finding theskill aspect is the key thing is
it's hard to find the skills,um, that is why I really promote
, I'm really active of trying toget more trades into like

(01:06:49):
elementary schools, like highschools like when I was in grade
8 we had shop class.
Still we had a machine lathe andwelding welding machine in our
woodworking shop, like it was asmall little shop.
In grade seven and eight Ibuilt a candlestick for my mom

(01:07:09):
on the lathe and she still hadit.
Like I don't know why she keptthat metal heavyweight.
I wouldn't plug it in becauseprobably short out and
electrocute you.
But I built that in grade eight.
My mom still has it.
Like I thread all the insertsto yeah, yeah and and like those

(01:07:30):
, those programs.
I do not understand why, butback in our when we were in high
school we were stillchallenging against baby boomers
.
Yeah, um, they were.
It was hard to get aapprenticeship anywhere like, um
, in any trade actually.
Well, I remember when I, when Igot into welding.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
I started welding in 93 and getting into a union back
then, forget about it Like itwas, like they were all
protected jobs, no chance, andgetting in with the city, those
you know dream jobs withoutcooperators.
Good luck, good luck, good luck.
You'd have to know someone'skid or aunt or something to get
in there.
And so, like for for most of us,we just went into manufacturing
or mining, because mining Imean mining would always kind of

(01:08:11):
take whoever was left over.
Um, because a lot of peoplecouldn't cut out the lifestyle,
because you may want to go workat the mine, but you don't
realize camp life, camp life ishard, it is, it's a struggle.

Speaker 3 (01:08:25):
I think it's great when you are younger, before you
have a family to experience it.
Trying to encourage my son toexperience it that way, Great
way to make good money.
Save it up.
Then you can go with thoselocal jobs close to home when
you're raising your family.
Get more education.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
You know cause, then you can.
You can go to school and getproper training and get those
better jobs.
Yeah, that's that's.
One thing I learned is like Isaid, I was late to the train
station for education forwelding, but once I figured it
out in my thirties I was like,well, I got to stay on this.
So it was like red seal numberone, then red seal number two,
then blue seal, then collegeclasses at night.

(01:09:06):
You know like it's like I makegood money.
There's no reason I shouldn'tbe learning more.
You know like sure I can spendthe money on my kids and stuff
like that.
But what about me?
Why am I?
I can spend a thousand bucks ayear to take a couple of classes
a year.
And you know what, down theline, every single thing I
learned, whether it seemed likeit was relevant or not they've

(01:09:27):
all helped me professionally.

Speaker 3 (01:09:27):
Yeah, they all come around Never fails you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
It doesn't matter what you learn, it'll come
around and there'll be that daywhere you're like thank you, I
know how to do this.

Speaker 3 (01:09:35):
Yeah, and you're the end, and you're just the rock
star of the conversation at thetime.
You can name that thing out foryou.
Yeah, I was the person doingthat final troubleshoot.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
Yeah, exactly, you're the hero.

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
Yeah, I enjoy troubleshooting.
That is my key thing.
That's why I kind of that's whyI'm coming back into, I want to
go into shutdown work and allthat.
It's just thinking on the flytype, think how to troubleshoot,
how we can get this going on,this timeline type thing yeah,
and shutdowns are better now.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
They're not as bad as they used to be.
No, they'd be like take thatpile of scrap and turn it into
something usable.
Yeah, it's gotten better.

Speaker 3 (01:10:13):
Yes, yes, very, very much.
So, yeah, because you're goinginto the pig and trying to find
some sort of metal and you'rehoping that it's not raw, but
you're going to blow some,you're cutting apart a crushed
staircase to build a newplatform?

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:10:31):
Pretty well.
It's still an oil patch, stilllike that, but not big industry
projects anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:10:39):
And what about saying the Saskatchewan that's in the
cards forever now you guys havestarted a family here and it's
home now.

Speaker 3 (01:10:47):
Yeah, we're still home in Saskatchewan, I think
Haven't left yet, but I enjoyworking on the road too,
experiencing that way, since myboy's 18, graduated high school
and he's working on his own.
So that way, um, since my boyis 18, graduated high school and
he's working on his home, so Ifigured he could survive.
I know I did when I was his ageyeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
Well, I'm just saying I've always I did road work
since I was a kid, and I stilldo right I still do it's part of
the job, part of the jobs Ilook for is uh to get out there
and travel and learn new thingsright, but I still have goal
sets.

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
I want to get my level three in weld inspection.
I just want to get that sayI've done it all.
Um, I still want to be involvedwith the do more of the api
side.
Um, sure I may go to albertaand work on stuff too there.
Um, get my in-service inspectorinspector course there too to

(01:11:44):
do shutdown work out there.
You know, there I'm lookingforward to just working a little
bit in the summer and take thewinter off, or vice versa that's
nice plan.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
Yeah, working summer winters off is nice, because
then you can go to somewhereelse warm, yeah, and then you
get somewhere all year round.

Speaker 3 (01:12:02):
Yeah, so, but I'm there is a lot of big
infrastructure projects going tobe on the horizon, I think, and
there'll be a lot of work onthat work type.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
Awesome.
Well, for the people that arelistening, you know what.
What would you say to someonethat's young and looking at the
steel trades?
You know what would you say tosomeone that's young and looking
at the steel trades?
You've been a part of lots ofdifferent parts of the steel
trades and sometimes that'salmost overwhelming for kids to
look at and be like okay, well,you say welding.
Then you go to the school andthere's like 17 different things
to sign up for.

(01:12:35):
How or what advice would yougive to someone that's looking
at it in terms of what to do?

Speaker 3 (01:12:41):
Be patient, try them all out.
You can find something that youlike or you don't like, and
then you find your itch.
But don't be just stuck in oneone thing that you think you're
only good at expand yourself andthen make yourself more
valuable.
That's a key thing is makingyourself valuable is a crucial

(01:13:03):
thing yeah, then then they needyou, people want you, your
services yeah yeah, and don't beafraid of learning and don't
stop learning.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
I think nobody knows everything yeah, and what about
your world of volunteerism?
Now, what would you say toyoung people that are like, have
a job, they're in the weldingindustry, but you know they see
the invites to the chapter stuff, they see the invites to the
other.
You know there's aws sections,there's apis, there's as we, all
of them, and they're like na nana na.

(01:13:35):
What would you say to someoneyoung in their career starting
out about these associations?

Speaker 3 (01:13:39):
it's a great, great place to meet mentors.
You talk, don't be afraid oftalking to people.
My wife really taught me thatshe'd been in management
management all her life and sheenjoys meeting people and
talking to people and that'sshe's my good mentor on that.

(01:14:01):
To encourage me to go and talkto these people and encouraging
them.
I think, yeah, there is a lotof people out there are willing
to share their knowledge.
You are not afraid of pickingit to the grave with them
anymore.
It's not like the time when wewere there yeah, everyone was

(01:14:21):
like knowledge hoarders yes, wedidn't have to buy that bottle
to get something knowledge outof some old guy on the corner,
but the key thing is, those arethe people to learn from still
like that's I to my to this day.
I still not regretting the timewhen I work with those older

(01:14:43):
guys.
No, and and and be veryrespectful to them absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
I like I think of the old grumpy guys I worked with.
I love them to death.
You know like the grump is justa front.
Once you get past that they'rethey're so helpful and you know
they got so much knowledge inthem.
I think about that myself, likeI almost am like everyone.
Once they're past 50 or oncethey're like 30 years in a trade
should have to write a book.

(01:15:09):
Right, they should have toleave a book behind, because if
I just get hit by a car tomorrow, there's so many little tips
and tricks that I learned overthe years that I wish I could
have handed off and I just won'thave the opportunity.
And I like I mean, how do you?
Sometimes you don't have theopportunity to teach that trick
unless it's in front of you,Cause you even forget that you
know the trick, you know don'tbe afraid of asking why.

(01:15:35):
Right, right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:35):
That's a key word why , why do it that way?
And and if your mentor orsomebody comes up to you and you
ask, see something you didwrong?
And they go up and say to youwhy you choose to do it that way
, and it makes the reason is whythey say that to you is to make

(01:15:58):
you see what, what the otherside, to make you see what, what
the other side relook what youjust did.
Yeah, the cost would be anerror.
Um, don't be afraid of that.
Why question?

Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
Yeah, and people criticizing your work.
You can't take it personally.
No, like you gotta just be likeokay, yeah, I screwed up.
Okay, what do I gotta do to notrepeat that Welding is a
science?
I I've heard very strongarguments lately that we
shouldn't even call weldingprograms welding.
We should call them weld techprograms.
Because you are a technician.
It's like we we undervalue ourknowledge.

(01:16:31):
Uh, no, there's some seriousscience into that weld.
If something's wrong, theanswer is right at your
fingertips.
We just gotta figure it out, gothrough variables and we'll fix
it.
Yep, right.

Speaker 3 (01:16:44):
And the next thing, too, is our trade is the most
scrutinized job Of all.
Like we're tested more than adoctor is or a lawyer, and they
aren't any better than enough.
Yeah, in my eyes.
Yeah, my eyes um, with ourknowledge, what we know, type
thing in our craft they can't,can't, uh, match it yeah, and

(01:17:09):
you can't look down on it like Imean no I think, society did
that for a while.

Speaker 1 (01:17:14):
I hope we're past that hump, because you go out
and try to find a plumber now,or an electrician or a welder,
there's not a lot of them, notas many as we need and and we're
realizing how, how importantthat is for our infrastructure
very much so.

Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
Like that's the thing .
At times I feel that I'm in thewrong air type thing because,
uh, like 100 years ago crossmenwere crossmen.
Like you, look at old housesand everything and to this day a
lot of them are still tight,joint miter and everything, and

(01:17:50):
they're still not open.
And that guy there was notmaking five cents an hour yeah,
I was thinking about that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:56):
I was just in chile walking on a cobblestone street
that was paved 800 years ago andit's still perfectly straight,
and I think they could build aroad out of rocks a thousand
years ago and keep it straighterthan the guy I see painting the
yellow lines on this on thehighway looks like he's painted
him with a spaghetti map likewhat?
What are we doing wrong here?

Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
well, I guess, that little pinky ring, that means a
lot, I guess, oh hey that'scoming.
Let's not yell at the engineerstoo much today, but yeah,
agreed the key thing is withinspections you have to learn is
how to communicate with people.
You got the trace person youhave to deal with.

(01:18:42):
Learn how to talk their lingo.
Then you got their uppermanagement people like engineers
and all that, and how tocommunicate with them is key.
That is one of the struggles Ilearned.
I had to correct myself quiteoften.

Speaker 1 (01:18:58):
Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Speaker 3 (01:19:02):
It's how they communicate with these different
professionals.
I'm supposed to say.

Speaker 1 (01:19:09):
Sean, thanks so much for coming on the show today.
This has been a fantasticconversation.
I love hanging out with you.
Also, say hi to your wife.
She does know how to talk likea professional.
Me and her can talk all night.
She's just so good at that.
She should host a Toastmastersor something she's so good.
But, um, but, I'm sure I'll seeyou at the.
Well, we have an event tomorrow, but this will be released
during April.

(01:19:30):
Um, I hope I see you at all ourevents.
I'm sure you'll be there.
And for all the peoplefollowing, reach out to your
local chapters.
Reach out to your local youknow associations Like, like
Sean said, you want to findthose mentors.

(01:19:50):
You want to educate yourself.
Don't be scared, don't be shyEveryone starts somewhere, so
thanks a lot, buddy.
Thanks All right, yeah, and allthe people that are following
along online.
Thanks so much for downloading,sharing and commenting.
We do have a fan mail featureon our website at Buzzsprout.
We've already had some peoplesending in some great questions.
Don't be shy.
I got a couple of questions inthere that cut to the bone to me
and I'm going to answer them.
So we're right now working outof the platform on how we're

(01:20:12):
going to answer the fan mail asthey start coming in, but within
the next few weeks we'llprobably start releasing them
through Reels.
So make sure you follow us andknow what's going on and, again,
appreciate all the followers.
You guys take care, stay tunedfor the next one.
We hope you enjoy the show.

Speaker 2 (01:20:39):
You've been listening to the Cwb association welding
podcast with max.
If you enjoyed what you heardtoday, rate our podcast and
visit us at cwbassociationorg tolearn more.
Feel free to contact us if youhave any questions or
suggestions on what you'd liketo learn about in the future.
Produced by the cwb group andpresented by max, this podcast

(01:21:00):
serves to educate and connectthe welding community.
Please subscribe and thank youfor listening.