In 35 years of working in Alberta’s oil patch, home to the world’s third-largest crude reserves, Ray Mildenberger endured a volatile industry’s ups and downs without being laid off. That changed in October, when Mildenberger, 60, and five co-workers of an oil service company in Grande Prairie, Alberta, lost their jobs. Mildenberger turned to selling truck parts to pay the mortgage – the first job of his career outside the oil industry. “I took the first thing I could secure,” he said. “There have been a lot more lay-offs here lately. I consider myself lucky.” Alongside the lay-offs, local food banks report strains from rising demand, while across the province oil wells have shut down. But although […]