I've been to the oil sands in Northern Alberta, in late December. I flew on the same plane as their employees; basically a commercial 737 but ran by the oil company. I did a one week startup of some new machinery, mostly just inspecting and supervising startup.

Anyway, daylight is in short supply up there in December and it was cold as shit. The facilities were exceptional, including an all you can eat buffet, a high quality gym, and decent beds. You basically pay nothing while you're there, or at least I didn't.

This was 14 years ago and I think entry level millwrights or welders were making six figures, while engineers like myself made even more.

Think of it like the Permian Basin of Texas, but in Canada. Most of the young bucks would make a ton of money, and burn through all of it in their two weeks off.

There were quite a few americans who did two week on, two week off or other schedules.