Drayton Valley sends Ottawa SOS signal over oil price slump

Residents in the central Alberta oil and gas town of Drayton Valleyhope to send Ottawa adistress signal over the oil price crisis and pending layoffs at a rally Tuesday afternoon.

Rally organizers say they wantto drawOttawa's attention to the impact ofplunging oil prices, which have wreaked havoc on thecommunity of just over 7,000 people, wherebusinesses are fighting to stay afloat as residentsstruggleto hold on tohomes and feedfamilies.

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Last week, 50 local business owners penned a letter inviting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sit down with them for an informal chat tolook for solutions.

Lifelong Drayton Valley resident and rally organizer Tim Cameron said a key message the town hopes to send the federal government is that new pipelines urgently need to getbuilt to getAlberta oil to international markets. The level of concern in town can't be overstated, he said.

"The business community as a whole is in panic," saidCameron. "I'm reticent about floating those big verbs and those big adjectives because it sounds like another typical media sound bite 'Oh it's devastation, it's collapse of a community' but it really is."

'Dozens of guys like me'

Cameron once worked as a project manager on the civil construction and environmental side of the energy industry where he managed up to 50 workers four years ago. Now he's scrambling to find work.

"And there's dozens of guys like me in Drayton Valley so that starts to put it in perspective," said Cameron.

On Sunday Premier Rachel Notley announced an 8.7 per centoil production cut, in an effort to address a glut and boost the sagging price of Western Canadian Select oil, which sells at a huge discount compared to comparable U.S. oil.

She urged Ottawa to "toss the half-hearted statements away" and "step up and help us bring an end to this crisis" by getting Alberta crude to the west coast with additional pipeline capacity.

Planning for Tuesday's rally evolved out of a speaking event already planned in the evening involvingVivian Krause, a Vancouver-based researcher who has extensively investigated foreign financial backing in Canada'senvironmental movement.That dinner and speech was organized by the council ofBrazeauCounty, which surroundsDraytonValley.

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"We wanted to show our business community that there's outside forces out there that are working against Brazeau County. They're working against this province and they're working against this country," said county reeve Bart Guyon.

'We're not partisan'

"Having more people engaged and understand what's actually happening may help to shape public perception on what's going on out there, and maybe have a chance to influence the prime minister and our premier to do more in order to get oil to tidewater."

Dealerships, banks,retail outlets and oil companies plan to closeearly for the 4:30 p.m. rally.

"We're not partisan," Cameron stressed. "There have been a variety of parties that have put us in this situation. And it's up to everybody now to get involved."