Remarks Of C. H. Thayer, Great Cdn. Oil Sands At Plant Opening Sept. 30 1967

My role in today's program is to express appreciation of Great Canadian's officers and directors, and my personal thanks, to all who have contributed to the design, construction and successful operation of our Athabasca facilities, I regret that time will permit me to name only a few of the man who contributed immeasurably to this project. At, the outset, I want to pay tribute to the group of men who were the real moving force in Great Canadian during the early days of is existence particularly to Alex Barron, Frank O'Sullivan, Don Treadgold, Robin Law, Don Wilkins and Tom Clarke. Their vision, initiative and dedication to the job of developing Athabasca oil has contributed substantially to what you see today.

Also present today are two Athabasca pioneers, S. C. Ells, who is widely known for his exploration of the area, and Sid Blair, author of the famed Blair Report which stirred renewed interest in the sands, in the 1950's and I want to call attention, too, to the contributions of the late Dr. Karl Clark, who developed the fundamentals of the hot water separation process we are using.

Since the beginning of the project we have had the continuing cooperation of people at all levels of government. Here in Alberta, we have been assisted by every department and bureau of the provincial government in filing required information, in obtaining permits, in the clarification on of rules and laws. and generally in enabling us to conduct our affairs in accordance with the principles of free enterprise business operations. I express to you our thanks and appreciation.

At the local level, we have enjoyed the fill cooperation and support of the officials of the new town of Fort McMurray.

In Ottawa, the Federal Department of Labour, which includes the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Departments of Public Works and of Transport have been particularly helpful to the project

For superior performance in the design and construction of our plant we are indebted to the general contractor. Canadian Bechtel Limited, and to its many subcontractors and suppliers. I my opinion, the depth and breadth of talent assembled for this project has nbever been surpassed. More than 500 engineers and specialists, representing almost every type of scientific skill, participated. Construction performance was particularly outstanding is that the job was completed under a tight schedule in the face of labour and material shortages, severe winter weather and other physical difficulties.

Among others, Corporation of Calgary turned in an outstanding job. Mannix performed some $25 million worth of work on the project, including the Athabasca River Bridge, the 20-mile access road from the bridge to the plant site, the 16-inch 266 mile pipeline to Edmonton and the initial clearing and grading of the plan, site. There are at least 80 additional major subcontractors and manufacturers whom I would like salute, but time does not permit. I would like to express my appreciation also to the more than 8,000 skilled craftsmen employed at the plant site at one time or another who performed over 1,000,000 man-days of work in constructing the facilities you see here today. I add a special world of thanks to the 11 building trades unions which represented them, and to the business agents of those unions most of whom are here with us today.

I have a very special greeting for Leo Andersen of Canus Camp Services, our caterers. He happens to be the finest pastrymaker it has been my good fortune to encounter. Occasionally, we meet a person who is supremely dedicated to his job. Leo is one of these. He has a wife and five children in Edmonton, but in spite of that, he has spent 1,085 days here on the job, including Christmas holidays, in the last three years He has done so because he knows that good food every day means a good camp. Leo, your. dedication to the job and the. excellence of your pastries has been a key factor in keeping men at work on the project and, therefore, in getting it completed on time, I present you with this gold watch as a token of our appreciation. On the back, these words are engraved "Leo Andersen, World's Best Pastry Cook, GCOS September 30, 1967".

Now, to my associates in Sun Oil Company I express my personal appreciation for your invaluable cooperation and assistance. It would be difficult for me to name a single Sun Department that did not help us in some important way.

The staff of the Research and Engineering Department made invaluable contribution to research, process development and design, and aided materially in the testing and startup of such Rev units as the extraction plants. I cite particularly Bill Davis, a GCOS vice president who headed one original Engineering Committee and has been closely involved in the project since its inception, and several top engineers who were borrowed from Sun Oil on a temporary basis. One of these is Ed Innes, GCOS project manager, who is still required in Edmonton after more than four years away from his home in Philadelphia. I want to make special mention, too, of the engineers who supervised the operation of the field test unit here at the site. W e are deeply appreciative of the sacrifices of the wives and families of many of these men who were away from theft homes for long periods of time. In graciously accepting this situation, the wives of our men have proved to be real ladies, indeed.

The Land Department under John McWilliams handled all property and permit matters, organized Athabasca Realty Company, and through this company with the aid of A., B. Moss, Joe Fitzgerald and others - is providing $10,000,000 worth of houses in Fort McMurray for GCOS employees.

We also leaned heavily on the Treasury, Transportation, Accounting, Purchasing, Insurance, Industrial Relations and Public Relations Departments. Sun Oil Company Limited's Toronto office was deeply involved throughout, particularly in handling of financial matters. And, of course, none of this could have been achieved without the decisions and directions of Sun's executive officers.

GCOS has contracted with Catalytic Construction Company of Canada to handle plant maintenance, and we are expecting superior performance from them They are doing similar work for a substantial number of other large manufacturing plants in Canada, including Sun Limited's Sarnia Refinery. The Sarnia plant was Catalytic's initial effort in contract maintenance, and the Company has made excellent progress in this field since that beginning 12 years ago.

Finally, I want to express my pride in the performance of Bob McClements and all Great Canadian employees in getting the organization set up and the plant into operation. Despite the fact that many of our people are new to this type of processing operation, they have done a truly remarkable job in handling the many startup problems.

I hope that all of these groups and individuals share our feeling of satisfaction and achievement in seeing our joint efforts culminate in the successful operation of a unique new plant.