LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS - Delbert Manual loves the daily challenges he faces working as a millwright.

Delbert Manual receives his certificate of millwright journeyman at a luncheon held in Norman Wells on Feb. 4, from Sherri MacDuff, career development officer for the department of Education, Culture and Employment. - photo courtesy of Sandy Whiteman

"I didn't know anything about the oil industry so being a millwright I had to start from the bottom and work my way up," said the 42-year-old Fort Good Hope resident, who now lives in Norman Wells. "It was a challenge and that's what I like."

Certified as a journeyman about a month ago, Manual's journey as a millwright with Imperial Oil began some five years ago. Working as a boat captain for the company, Manual wanted to move on to a job more challenging for him on a daily basis.

"It was limited," he said of his job on the boats. "I was doing the same thing everyday. I was driving people to whichever island they needed to go to. It was a seasonal job and I wasn't really learning anything from it. I wanted something with more of a challenge."

A major requirement to get a job with Imperial Oil is completion of high school, something Manual didn't have.

But this was just another challenge he was willing to take on.

Going back to Fort Good Hope to the community's college campus and then to Fort Smith, Manual completed his GED, giving him a high school equivalent and the one requirement needed to fulfill his dream.

Hire by the Pipeline Operation Training Committee, a group of organizations working to hire and train people for the construction of the Mackenzie gas pipeline, Manual picked up and went south to Edmonton to begin his training as a millwright.

"I'm so used to living in a small community but going to school in Edmonton, there were a lot of students there and the homework I had to do was a big challenge," he said. "I spent a lot of my nights, three hours a night usually, doing my work. And the city itself, it's a big population, a lot different than what I'm used to, definitely overwhelming.

"The thought of helping build the pipeline through the Sahtu was what got me thinking about becoming an industrial mechanic. I'm hoping it goes through."

Upon completion of his training, Manual was back in Norman Wells to start his apprenticeship training with the company.

"It's really good working with them," he said of his time with the company. "They give me a job and each day I do my job I feel more confident and independent and I have opportunities everyday to learn something new and it's challenging. I love it.

"We work on pumps, compressors, turbines and a lot of big machinery and a lot of preventative maintenance. I'm still learning, even five years in. There's so much to learn. Even the guys who have five years experience more than me are still learning."

Working toward his red seal as a millwright now, Manual gives a lot of credit to his family and the people he works with who help him on a daily basis, adding he sometimes creates a "mountain of problems" when it comes to completing paperwork, something he's grown to love since immersing himself in the profession.

"My family has been really supportive and my boss too," he said. "He's been helpful when sometimes I'm doing (a) project like collecting oil samples and sometimes the engineers want data reports and he helps me when I get (stuck) with them.

"When I feel uncomfortable about something I have two other millwrights I can ask questions to. They help me when I need it, walk me through a job so I learn how to do it."