development

Onion Lake Enterprises

Onion Lake Enterprises Ltd. was founded in 1992 as a for profit aboriginal employment program providing commercial cleaning services to Husky Oil for their offices and facilities on the Lloydminster Upgrader. Over time, the business has expanded its client base to provide cleaning services to other oil patch and commercial clients. In late 2010 Onion Lake Enterprises diversified into food services with the acquisition of a restaurant located at the Makaoo Mall in Onion Lake.

OLE employs 50 permanent staff plus additional staff for temporary capacity requirements. Of these, 10 are employed in the Horseshoe Café with the remainder working in administration or janitorial services in Onion Lake and Lloydminster.

The commercial cleaning business demands a high level of safety awareness and specialized training to work in hazardous environments, and OLE prides itself on its strong focus on employee safety. With company support, many of our employees have acquired specialized qualifications and training including:

•H2S – sour gas environment training (H2S monitor use is mandatory to work at many commercial cleaning sites);
•Electrical code safety training for upgrader cleaning services staff is necessary for cleaning wiring closets;
•Hazardous materials training through the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WMHIS)
•Husky corporate & site orientation on details of safety and disaster response on the upgrader site.
 

Our established expertise in managing these specialized training needs has created opportunities in consulting and support for industrial safety programs.

The long term goals of OLE include continued expansion of its commercial cleaning services and increase the scope of the business in food services. Plans for the Horseshoe Café include growth into provision of conference facilities and catering.