A Groundbirch employee wears a red shirt with the words ‘community crew’ across the back.

In the Community

We expect to be operating Groundbirch over the long term and understand the importance of bringing benefits to the areas in which we live and work.

We aim to be good neighbours and seek appropriate and effective ways to contribute to the well-being of the communities around our operations and planned future developments. This means working with people close to our operations to address their concerns and help them benefit from our activities, such as buying and hiring locally.

Local Talent

The Shell Groundbirch head office in Fort Saint John, British Columbia.
  • We employ about 130 staff and field contractors in the Fort St. John office and four plant locations with additional field contractors supporting through service agreements.
  • The majority of our operations staff are locally based and we actively promote and consider qualified, competitive local and Indigenous suppliers.
  • Over $28M in contract opportunities have been awarded to Indigenous-owned organizations or partnerships since 2015.

Community Investment

We focus on providing long term sustainable programs in four main areas: Environment, Education, Employees and Community.

Our investments in local community organizations support science, technology, engineering and mathematics, health and community programs and initiatives.

Shell contributes to local educational programs, and through partnerships with local training organizations, we provide transition to trades, scholarships, bursaries, and practicum placements.

We support many cultural programs for local Indigenous communities including language preservation, traditional crafts, hunting, trapping, dancing and drumming.

  • We have a long-term interest in creating benefits for the community and have contributed over $5M to local social investment initiatives since 2009.
  • In 2018, we invested over $400K in social programs in the Peace River Regional District.
  • The Northeast B.C. Community Grant Program launched in 2017 awarding funding to local non-profit organizations. A combined $90K has been awarded in two years and program funding will increase to $60K for 2019.

Find out more about Shell’s programs:

Social Investment program

Community Involvement

Many words are grouped together to form the shape of a heart that indicates Shell’s Fuelling Kindness initiative.
  • Fuelling Kindness launched in 2016 by Groundbirch employees. With this initiative, we show our support and appreciation for local organizations and community members by giving back through random acts of kindness.
  • The Fuelling Kindness Grant program awards grants of up to $1,000 to not-for-profit organizations through which Shell employees, retirees and retailers or agents volunteer.
A group of Shell Groundbirch employee volunteers stand behind a banner at a community event.
  • Shell is a strong corporate and local supporter of the United Way of Northern British Columbia giving more than $350K via employee donations matched by Shell since acquiring the Groundbirch asset in 2008.
  • Shell founded the B.C.-based synergy group, Rural Roots & Resources. Through collaboration between Shell and community members, this team addresses the issues and challenges associated with the development of Shell’s projects in the Groundbirch area.

Indigenous Engagement

We believe Indigenous communities are important partners. Our projects must be designed and implemented to minimize impacts, provide shared value and enhance relationships with Indigenous Peoples.

Building and maintaining trusting relationships, investing in human capacity and sharing economic benefits provides opportunity to maintain social license to operate, reduce project risks and builds a diverse and inclusive workforce.

Shell acknowledges the rights of Indigenous Peoples and recognizes that additional resources, strategies and actions are required to engage with impacted communities to understand their concerns and issues to develop and implement mitigation and enhancement measures, as well as develop relationships for the life of our operations.

Learn more:
Shell’s commitment to Indigenous Peoples in Canada