Note: The Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show in Weyburn recognizes Southeast Saskatchewan Legends at every edition of the biennial event. Six long-time employees of the southeast oil patch will be recognized at this year's gathering June 3 and 4.
WEYBURN — Dale Ziegler was born in 1967 and raised on a farm near Francis where he continues to reside.
During his high school years, he worked at a seed plant in Sedley.
Immediately after high school, Ziegler went to work for Lorne Stoppler with Midwest Pipeline, out of Regina. At Midwest, he held different roles including labourer, parts runner, side-boom operator, bending machine operator, excavator operator, foreman, assistant superintendent and superintendent. That work took him across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
In 2000, he married Charity Knoll, also of Francis. They had three children – Brett, Breanna and Brodie.
In 1998, Dale Ziegler started work with Carson Welding and Maintenance out of Lampman. With Carson's his roles included foreman, assistant superintendent, superintendent and project manager responsible for managing larger pipeline projects, while actively pursuing work with existing and new clients.
In 2011, Carson Energy sold to Flint Energy. Within the next three years, there were a lot of changes, as Flint Energy sold to URS and then URS sold to AECOM. His roles with these three companies changed a few times over the next four years, first as operations manager, then central area manager and then vice-president plains area, as Ron Carson was working towards his retirement.
“It soon became very apparent that our perspective of the importance of looking after our employees and key clients did not line up in any way,” Ziegler said. “It was time to move on and start a new business and go back to our roots where employees and key clients were the backbone of the operation.”
In early 2016, with the guidance of Ron Carson, some key managers and Ziegler started planning to start up a new entity, Canadian Plains Energy Services (CPES). It would specialize in pipelines, facility construction, fabrication and crew work, principally in Saskatchewan. Discussions started with Stephen Smith of Strike Energy and it was quickly decided that they would be a perfect fit to join forces with. CPES would be their Saskatchewan footprint.
Stephen Smith and his team made it very easy to get started in a very timely manner, Ziegler said. Locations were quickly reopened in many of the old Carson Energy locations, including Virden, White City, Alida and Carlyle. At a later date, North Battleford (previously a Strike entity) joined the CPES team. Acquisitions of Brent Gedak Welding in Estevan and Quakes Oilfield Construction in Lloydminster gave CPES a solid footprint in key areas for the leadership.
“The key reasons for the success of CPES was due to the dedication and hard work of each and every employee, and I was very proud to work with every one of them,” Ziegler said.
In 2018, Ziegler participated in a STARS Air Ambulance fundraiser called Rescue on the Prairies. A small team of participants were able to raise over $500,000 for a very good cause.
In 2024, Ziegler retired from the president role and passed the reins on to Aaron Karpan. He returned to work for a short period as a business development advisor to help with some business development before officially retiring in the fall of 2025. Ziegler will continue to attend the management meetings periodically.
Ziegler's retirement plans include operating a small business out of Francis, travelling with his wife and spending time with family and friends.
In 2000, his wife opened, owned and operated Ziggy Mart, a convenience store/gas station/bakery in Francis. It was sold in 2009. She now works as an executive assistant at McDougall Auctioneer, along with Breanna and Brodie. Breanna has a degree in human resources and Brodie is working towards her degree in speech pathology. Brett works as an equipment operator with Canadian Plains.
Key mentors in Dale Ziegler's life include his parents and siblings, along with Stoppler, Carson, Smith and Glen Greenshields.
