Chairman Ken, honored platform guests, ladies and gentleman – let me start by stating "man has this ever been a lot of work!!" I have been dreaming about a heavy oil museum for perhaps 25 years or more but what you will see today is far more than I had ever hoped for or even imagined. I was looking for some artifacts, lots of old pictures and most importantly, one-on-one interviews with some of our oil pioneers. Well we did all that and then some and rightfully so. After all, our heavy oil history goes back to the 1920’s and Saskatchewan's first natural gas well came into production just to the north-east of our Exhibition Grounds on Easter Friday 1934.

What I want to relate to you is how the Heavy Oil Centre developed. It started out to be a Heavy Oil Centre of Excellence, then the Heavy Oil Resource Centre focusing on the heavy oil skills and technology which we could market, then the Heavy Oil Visitors Centre and finally today, the OTS Heavy Oil Science Centre – OTS, of course refers to the Lloydminster Oilfield Technical Society whose contribution I will detail a little later.

There are many people that I wish to thank and unfortunately, you always miss somebody and I wish to apologize for that in advance. I’ll try my best to acknowledge everyone.

My notes show that in February 1993, Lloydminster Community Futures agreed to cover the cost of hiring someone to conduct interviews with some of our oil pioneers. Not only did we get the job done with Wendy Gunn (nee Huard), at the throttle, but Community Futures also provided the funding to purchase the old issues of the Lloydminster Times and acid free boxes to store the same. And to top it off, they provided a financial donation as well. Not to forget the secretarial services provided by Adele Zack and Betty Rammel. So thank you Lloydminster Community Futures for kicking off our project – our thanks to Bud Miller, Board Chair, the Board Members and Bill Kondro.

The next step took a little longer. We heard that the Lloydminster Oilfield Technical Society was looking for a project where the funds from the hosting the heavy oil shows would be used. Their initial thought was to build a "Club Room" and have it adorned with various oil memorabilia. Hamish Garland, Bill Kondro and I attended several meetings with the OTS to try and convince them to look at a broader scope combining meeting rooms with a heavy oil display centre. While these discussions were underway, we did accumulate a number of artifacts and on September 23, 1993 we officially opened the Heavy Oil Display section within the Barr Colony Museum. A year later, in 1994, we started publicizing the fact that we were looking at an expansion of our facility and would be accepting equipment, pictures and financial donations. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm led us to announce on September 11, 1996 as the headline in the Meridian Booster proudly stated "Heavy Oil Centre could be reality by New Year." Little did we know that the crash of oil prices was on the horizon.

On September 10, 1997 the Lloydminster Oilfield Technical Society decided that they wanted to get involved in the project big time – and it was big – a donation of $150,000.  The rest is history. Today, we are opening an $800,000 facility of which 94% was sponsored by corporate and private donations and all donations re acknowledged on the "Donor Wall" which you will see.

And now the tough job. I want to introduce one fantastic committee.

Hamish Garland – Vice Chairman who worked with Howard Mehain and Craftex Builders on the renovations and also on the interior displays. He was a God–send to me. Allowed me to concentrate on contracts and finances.

Otis Rusling – a fundraiser who worked with Hamish on the interior displays and who made several trips to Calgary to deliver artifacts and check on progress.

Kirby Hayes – Past – President of OTS, instrumental in finding Westwind Design and the conceptual design for the facility along with Daryl Oracheski the previous president. Kirby sure taught me a thing or two about financial solicitations. While I’m talking about Presidents of the OTS I should mention John Stanyer, the current President of the OTS who has worked with us a well.

Al Kissack - who worked very closely with Hamish and whose oil expertise was invaluable on many occasions.

Bill Kondro – who brought a wealth of management experience with him and whose Dad was a pioneer in the oil patch. Regretfully he was unable to be here today.

Bernard Walker – who seemed to be able to round up artifacts and even had his own private hoard which he donated.

Ron Hardy – oil patch expert who helped with interior displays and equipment identifier.

Dave Taylor – OTS representative and fund raiser.

Ralph Conlon and Joe Gallagher – oil pioneers and equipment identifiers.

Corrine Perkins – Secretary – Treasurer to the Committee and responsible of a lot of today’s arrangements.

Ken Gillis – our computer and marketing expert.

Bob Day – although not a direct member of the Heavy Oil Visitors Committee, he was certainly a part of it and helped in fund raising.

Barb McKeand – Supervisor of the Barr Colony Cultural Heritage Centre and Guy Dudding, Director of Parks and Recreation both with the City of Lloydminster who provided much needed guidance on the operation of the facility. Thanks to the City of Lloydminster who provide much needed guidance on the operation of the facility. Thanks to the city of Lloydminster who provided the space.

Westwind Design – the architects of the project. Our thanks to Max van der Helm, Sylvia Arthur, Ron Willemson and the crew. You were great to work with.

Foster Learning Inc. Dr. Franklin Foster, and his assistants, Alan Hagen, Sandy Reid, and Dorothy Foster sub-contracted through Westwind Design and the OTS.  They did much of the research into how all the various aspects of the heavy oil industry work.  From this research, they developed briefing documents to explain the industry to Westwind Design so that they could conceptualize the displays.  Foster Learning Inc. also wrote almost all the text for the displays you will see here.  Another important contribution was, they developed the companion world wide web site which has served as the medium for exchanging information as the Centre has been developed.  It will go on as an important companion, allowing visitors from all over the world to access information about Heavy Oil.

We also have people like Dave Addie, Dwayne Davidson and Cindy Knorr who also had a hand in the project.  The Media – who covered our progress and helped us with our promotions. I know there are others and we thank you for your participation.

Lastly, I want to thank you the donors who believed in our project and generously supported us even in times of oil price chaos. I am sure that once you see our OTS Heavy Oil Science Centre, you will not be disappointed. Thank you everyone for provided Lloydminster and area with a lasting legacy and for allowing a dream to become a reality.

Respectfully submitted,

Vic

Vic Juba, Chairman
Heavy Oil Visitors Committee

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