An oilpatch worker and his family from Sylvan Lake have had a tough go so far this year.

Chadron Miller had a tough financial decision to make last week.

The oilfield worker from Sylvan Lake had to either try and hang onto his 2015 work truck, or pay for repairs on his wife’s vehicle.

In the end, he drove the truck to the dealership and handed in the keys. He documented the return on Oilfield Dads, the Facebook page he started about a year ago.

Like so many other people who made a comfortable middle-class living from Alberta’s oilpatch, Miller, 36, once had no trouble keeping up with payments on a new vehicle or a mortgage. Putting food on the table was never an issue.

In 2014 he worked 338 days. In 2015 it was only 150. This year he was hoping for better times but so far he’s worked just 90 days, at about 60 per cent of the rate he received as an oilfield consultant.

He’s been able to fall back on his pipefitting ticket to find work here and there. He was in the Fort McMurray area in the spring but evacuated during the catastrophic wildfire and later laid off. He was recently working in the Red Earth Creek area but last week the job ended.

Miller felt guilty living in camp because food is provided. Back home in Sylvan, his wife, Jill, was doing her best with a part-time job and also some hairdressing work, trying to make ends meet. The couple, who have three young children, haven’t been completely successful.

Miller was able to survive the 2008-09 recession because he had enough money put away. However Alberta’s recession has turned into a depression and his savings dwindled up.

“I get bill collectors calling every day.”

Oilfield Dads saw about 4,000 people join soon after he started it last year. It now has about 8,700 members, and serves as a support group for people who work in the industry. Many share their personal and family challenges as they struggle through hard times in an oilpatch hit hard by low world oil prices. Thousands of direct and support jobs have been lost.

Miller says the future of Alberta’s oil industry is uncertain because the impact of a royalty review and new carbon tax are unknown. “The industry’s getting hit left jab, right jab, uppercut.”

Today Miller starts work in the Fox Creek area. He got there because his sister lent him her vehicle. He doesn’t know yet how long the job will last. “I’m hoping till Christmas.”

On a brighter note, he’s noticed that more oilpatch people have been finding work lately. He believes that’s because oil companies who had been pushing off capital projects are now spending money in the final quarter of their 2016 budgets.

But there are fewer hours and pay cuts, and companies aren’t paying as much for travel or picking up costs like orientation training.

Miller has started oilfielddads.com, a membership business that helps people with networking, training and resumes. But it takes time to build a business, he said.

In a way it was comforting when he let his truck go. “Hey I’m no different than anybody else out there. … I’m fighting the struggle right alongside everybody else.”

He’s worked in the oilfield for 20 years but he is not going to push his son to do the same.

“I don’t want him to have the same heartaches that I have.”

barr@bprda.wpengine.com