Today marks the end of an era at Tuccaro!  Darlene Williamson, our longest serving employee at 31 years, is retiring.

An Ojibway from Manitoba, Darlene arrived in Fort McMurray in 1985 and began working at Neegan Development in June of that year. She has witnessed the growth of the Tuccaro Group and the many changes that have come along the way.

Darlene’s cooperative and gentle nature along with her positive attitude has been a staple at Tuccaro and she will be greatly missed by us all. We are indebted to Darlene for her years of service and dedication, and we will miss the pleasurable experience of working with you.

Darlene, we wish you all the best and thank you for your years of dedication, enthusiasm and team spirit.  Enjoy your well-deserved retirement!

On behalf of the management at Tuccaro Group I want to thank all of the workers that continue to provide support and essential services.
This is not an easy time and I appreciate everyone’s resolve. Although we are operating under challenging conditions our employees have demonstrated their adaptability and ingenuity.

For those employees that are displaced and not a part of the initial recovery and re-start operation, this is perhaps an even more difficult situation. Temporary lay-offs are affecting a number of workers that want to provide help and assistance. We are indebted to your patience and continued support. Our preparedness to return you to work is a continuing priority and we are committed to re-introduce you as soon as conditions allow.

TUC’S Super-B delivers water to Fire Unit ‘Goliath’, Aostra Road, Noralta Lodge

I want to thank all of the families, partners and friends that continue to provide support to our workers. This fire may have set us back but it has united us. We have talented, resilient, hard working people in this Group and we will bounce back stronger than ever.

Craig Jenkins, COO

Throughout the Evacuation period our Group has had teams of workers employed at our client sites and have continued to work through challenging conditions. We are proud of the effort, sweat and tears shed.  Critical Support Teams, we’ve had your back. Despite being shut out of key facilities we are pleased to report that our remote support staff have restored transaction and payroll services. There was no way we were letting you down. We are pleased to confirm full functionality of transaction and payroll services. All critical workers will be paid this week.

While fires surrounded key infrastructure and forced power outages at office facilities at 283 MacAlpine Crescent and Anzac locations our data center on the Westbank First Nations Reserve and catastrophic recovery plan went into effect.  Over the course of the last 10 days data was retrieved and restored to remote servers and the data network entirely re-built.  We are pleased to report recovery of 100% of our data.  The technology that we have built is key to our operations and administration and information has now been ported from Westbank to our remote offices.  I want to credit Brian Maponga for his extensive work in restoring this service.  It’s a big save for Tuccaro Group!

Far from the fires in Northern Alberta that have threatened the community and oil industry, Tuccaro Group is pleased to announce that Monday saw the opening of two support offices in Calgary and Kelowna that will operate to support recovery and return to work initiatives.  This is the result of coordination that took place the week prior and through the weekend.

As per the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo,  residents of Fort McMurray should not expect to return home for an extended period of time. Public safety is the number-one priority, and residents won’t be able to return home until it is safe to do so.

Please know that we are doing our best to get employees back to work and back to our city as soon as possible. When circumstance allows, Supervision will contact you when you are able to return to work.

Employment Insurance:

Time is of the essence, All employees who are currently not working should take advantage of the expedited EI program for Fort McMurray evacuees. All information can be found here.

Please only apply for EI using the reference code provided as this will allow you to access EI without having an ROE issued. At the moment Tuccaro has no way of issuing ROEs.

Affected residents must register with the Red Cross:

All evacuees should register with the Red Cross – no matter where you are currently. This will confirm for officials that no one remains in the communities. It will also allow us to reach you as more information becomes available and it will ensure you have access to the services you may need. Register:

• Online at RedCross.ca
• 1-888-350-6070

If documents, such as driver’s licences or ID cards, were left behind during the evacuation, new cards can be issued free of charge at a registry agent. A list of registry locations can be found at the Service Alberta website.

Emergency Financial Assistance:

• Emergency financial assistance – $1,250 for each eligible adult, $500 for each dependent child under 18.
• All of the latest information and locations to pick up your cards can be found on the Alberta website under the heading “Financial assistance, insurance and employment information” Click the tab titled “Debit card relief funding”
• In order to allow for immediate distribution to people who are most urgently in need of this assistance, we’re asking evacuees who aren’t in dire need of these funds to not claim them immediately.

Employee Family Assistance Program:

If you or your family members require any mental health resources during this very stressful time, please contact our EFAP provider Shepell at:

http://www.shepell.com/en-ca/totalhealthsolutions/yourefap/

or From Canada and the U.S.

1 877 890-9052

Wildfire Situation Updates:

As the wildfire situation continues to unfold, official updates can be found on the Government of Alberta website or the RMWB website.

Special Thanks & Helpful links:

• Tuccaro Group would like to send out a special thanks to Gowling WLG’s, Peter Lukasiewicz CEO, Regina Corrigan CMP, Greg Lindsey and Shawna Campbell for kindly donating offices and support for our Calgary base while we work towards resuming full operations.
• Tuccaro Group would like to send out a special thanks to RBC’s, Janice Crossley RVP, Don Simpson, and Doug Nikiforuk. Janice kindly offered to give up her personal office, at the Kelowna Main Branch, for us to use as we worked towards resuming full operations. Employees that are RBC customers, please contact your branch for a list of how they can help you. A message to Tuccaro employees from the RBC.
• Canada Post Emergency Information
  
• International Union of Operating Engineers Local No. 955 Disaster Relief
  
• Alberta Health Services Support for Albertans Affected by Wildfire

Water, fuel, heavy equipment and supplies are just a few of our services that are already being utilized in fighting the fires and will be essential to the rebuilding of our local Fort McMurray community. Tuccaro is committed to doing everything we can to continue delivering these services daily and expanding our abilities as soon as we are granted increased access to our sites and offices. Until communications are fully restored, please use the emergency contact listing located on the right side of this page.