Maritimers working in the Alberta oilsands are feeling the pressure of plummeting oil prices, with some forced to return home jobless.
The price of crude oil fell to US$47.93 a barrel Tuesday, the lowest it’s been since April 2009.
Before the plunge, Duncan Campbell worked as a construction surveyor in Alberta. Now he’s back home in the Maritimes, and Campbell says he doesn’t know what will come next.
"When is it going to happen? When am I going back (to Alberta)? Am I going back? Do I have to get another career?"
He admits lower oil prices have always worried him.
"It was always a concern when you see the price of oil drop as it has and I've been working steady for the last nine, 10 years," he said.
Campbell says that it used to be easy to find a job in the Alberta oil industry, but times have recently changed.
"Even back in let's say the summer, you could (search online) and there might a dozen different opportunities for my position. I think if you go on today, I don't think there's anything," he said.
Adrian White of the Sydney Area Chamber of Commerce said the plummeting oil prices are concerning because the industry in the Western provinces drives the Canadian economy.
"It's concerning if it continues for a long time. As to what that might do to the local economy, we certainly don't want to have people losing their homes, or lose their cars, or not be able to pay their bills," said White.
Sadie Holloway of the YMCA Employment Centre in Cape Breton says the lower prices will not only affect those working out west, thanks to trickle-down economics.
"If you don't have money, you don't buy as much and it would probably affect everyone in a trickle-down kind of way."
Holloway says the job insecurity out west could force some workers to start looking for work in other parts of the country.
In the meantime, Campbell continues to watch his job prospects drop along with oil prices.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kyle Moore
