Damn right it's slow up here Darren, I live in southern Alberta and have been off for 2.5 months. There's a few little projects going on here and there but really not much to speak of, most of the contractors are just using their steady local guys.  I don't know where you live in BC but, I just talked t a buddy in Fort Nelson and he said it was dead slow there too.  Some people are saying that after the income trusts got shut down there's not as much shareholder money to pass around for new wells to be drilled, therefore no pipelines or facilities also, the drilling and completion costs have reportedly doubled and trippled (heard that from reliable sources).  What everyone around here is kinda saying is that the fall will likely pick up again, last I checked there was 56 rigs working in Alberta and about 800 and some racked (not drilling).  I'm about 2 steps away from going to work by hand, but I was kinda interested in US work if there's a shortage of welders there. I was curious to know what the rates for rig welders on a pipeline were in the US and how much work is there?