Wood Buffalo 15th Anniversary November 2010

November 2010

Celebrating 15 Years of Alberta's Major Oilsands Municipality

A supplement to

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Congratulations Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on your 15 th Anniversary

Features:

[16] Into the future Wood Buffalo sets its sights on successfully supporting 200,000 people in 2030 and beyond by Melanie Collison and Deborah Jaremko

[20] Begin again Community recycling has caught on strong in Wood Buffalo by Melanie Collison

[30] Waste water for the future Fort McMurray’s new processing plant is designed to high standards and for continued population swell by Leisa Vescarelli

[27] BYO…bag? Wood Buffalo enacts the most comprehensive single-use bag ban in North American Municipalities by Leisa Vescarelli

[39] Centuries of hard work and unique culture The MÉtis helped shape Wood Buffalo and now face the “double-edged sword” of development by Melanie Collison

Contents

Table of

[7] Welcome from the Government of Alberta [7] Welcome from the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo [11] Map of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo [12] Timeline: The history of Canada’s oilsands heartland

Contents

Table of

[42] Innovating affordable and comfortable growth

[54] The Fort McMurray mosaic

Wood Buffalo Housing and Development goes the extra mile in developing communities rather than simple neighbourhoods

The jewels of culture and diversity thrive in the oilsands capital by Leisa Vescarelli

by Melanie Collison

[48] Flight plan

[61] 25 years of discovery

Establishment of a new airport authority pushes the much-needed Fort McMurray terminal redevelopment in the right direction

The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only oilsands interpretive centre celebrates its first quarter-century of wonder by Melanie Collison

by Renato Gandia

[66] Big dreams, big potential, big community, big spirit Wood Buffaloâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image re-branding campaign continues with online videos and planning for a massive homecoming event by Renato Gandia

Many things have changed in Alberta over the 15 years since Wood Buffalo was incorporated, but one thing remains the same: the Government of Alberta’s commitment to developing and maintaining strong, effective partnerships with all municipalities. By working together to meet the growing challenges of the 21st century, we are ensuring a bright future for all Albertans. On behalf of all my colleagues in government, I once again congratulate you on achieving this significant milestone. Best wishes for a successful and enjoyable anniversary commemoration. Ed Stelmach Premier of Alberta

Greetings from the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo! On behalf of council and our residents, I’d like to thank JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group for providing us the opportunity to showcase this region as we celebrate our 15 years of service. This year marks a special anniversary in our evolution as Canada’s largest municipality — an occasion to highlight the unique partnership central to the ongoing success of both the municipality and Alberta’s energy sector. We thank you for sharing the Wood Buffalo story with your readers. This region was one of the first settled areas in Alberta. It has a long and vibrant history, rich in culture and heritage. In 1995, the area now encompassed by this municipality, which stretches from north-central Alberta to the borders of Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, was reorganized to better meet the needs of the citizens we serve. In the 15 years since amalgamation, our population has seen tremendous growth from 34,000 people to a booming, bustling region topping the 100,000 mark. Of course, the main reason for this significant growth is the oilsands. Wood Buffalo is at the heart of Canada’s energy future. In the 10-year period from 1996 to 2006, close to $47 billion was invested in the energy industry within our municipal lands. The Alberta oilsands is the world’s sixth-largest oil supplier, with production in the range of two million barrels per day. With approximately 1.7 trillion more barrels in existence, revolutionary technology will keep Wood Buffalo at the forefront of the world’s oil and gas stage for many more years to come. This rapid growth has presented a number of unique challenges and opportunities that many Canadians can only fully understand once they’ve been here and witnessed it first-hand. We have a shortage of available land, and yet demands for infrastructure and housing have increased. The municipality has been working with our provincial partners to address the problem, and as a result we developed a land-use framework to set out a new approach to managing the province’s land and our natural resources in an effort to achieve long-term economic, environmental and social goals. This land-use framework called for the development of seven regional land-use plans, the first being the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan, which encompasses our municipality. On behalf of council, I sat on the Regional Advisory Council and had the opportunity to enhance the depth of local input to this plan. A draft was released in August 2010, and we look forward to submitting our feedback as a key stakeholder. This plan will have a significant impact on our region’s growth and development, and will hopefully help to charter our future in an organized format, permitting us to enhance service delivery standards for our citizens. We encourage you to explore the pages of this publication to discover all that Wood Buffalo has to offer. We are unlike any other region in Canada — full of proud people with “Big Spirit.” This is our home, and we invite you to discover it. Melissa Blake, MayoR Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 7

Letters

Wood Buffalo plays an integral part in the Alberta economy as one of the province’s most dynamic regions for energy development. The strength of any municipality, however, is found in the hard work and community spirit of its residents. I am confident that these qualities will continue to be the foundation for Wood Buffalo’s remarkable success.

Welcome

On behalf of the Government of Alberta, I am pleased to extend congratulations to the citizens and council of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on its 15th anniversary as a specialized municipality.

creative [Production, Prepress and Print Manager] Michael Gaffney mgaffney@junewarren-nickles.com [Senior Publications Manager] Audrey Sprinkle asprinkle@junewarren-nickles.com [Publications Manager] Rianne Stewart rstewart@junewarren-nickles.com [Art Director] Ken Bessie kbessie@junewarren-nickles.com [Creative Services Manager] Tamara Polloway-Webb tpwebb@junewarren-nickles.com [senior Graphic Designer] Birdeen Selzer birdeen@junewarren-nickles.com [Creative Services] Janelle Johnson production@junewarren.com [Contributing photographer] Jeffery Borchert [Contributing illustrator] Karen Klassen sales [Director of Sales] Rob Pentney rpentney@junewarren-nickles.com [Sales Manager-Magazines] Maurya Sokolon msokolon@junewarren-nickles.com [Senior Account Executive] Diana Signorile [Sales] Jerry Chrunik, Nick Drinkwater, Ellen Fraser, Michael Goodwin, Rhonda Helmeczi, Nicole Kiefuik, David Ng [Advertising Inquiries] adrequests@junewarren-nickles.com [Ad Traffic Coordinator] Elizabeth McLean atc@junewarren-nickles.com marketing [Marketing Manager] Sonia Taylor Crichton scrichton@junewarren-nickles.com [Tradeshow & Marketing Coordinator] Jeannine Dryden jdryden@junewarren-nickles.com [Events Coordinator] Mary Hatch mhatch@junewarren-nickles.com [Event Management & Marketing] Phil Enarson, Westbrier Communications westbrier@shaw.ca offices [Calgary] 2nd Floor, 816-55 Avenue NE, Calgary, Alberta T2E 6Y4 Tel: (403) 209-3500 Fax: (403) 245-8666 Toll-free: 1-800-387-2446 [Edmonton] 6111-91 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T6E 6V6 Tel: (780) 944-9333 Fax: (780) 944-9500 Toll-free: 1-800-563-2946

here is a reason Fort McMurray, Alberta, is no longer a city. Despite being the over 70,000-person-strong industrial hub of the second-largest deposit of oil in the world, it technically bears the cozy distinction of “hamlet.” The people who drove the creation of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) made this so — primarily, as the story goes, based on the vision of former Fort McMurray mayor and current Member of the Legislative Assembly Guy Boutilier, who proposed the idea of amalgamation in 1988. Why? Because, as is so often the case in areas close to major industrial development, the centre of community was not able to reap the benefits of corporate taxes paid regionally, and therefore challenged to provide adequate support for its residents — even though at its doorstep, and at the doorsteps of numerous smaller centres in the region, lay billions of barrels of recoverable oil and the promise of development, if a longterm prospect. “In the mid-1980s, the entire economy of the region and province was in a downswing. Large-scale oilsands projects were stopped or postponed because of the oil price slump,” reads a 2007 case study by Leadership Wood Buffalo on the municipality’s amalgamation. “The city [of Fort McMurray] had run out of money from infrastructure pro jects and the tax base was getting small. The oilsands companies did not pay taxes to the city. Taxes were paid to the Improvement District, which had $15 million in surplus while the city of Fort McMurray was in deficit.” In the spring of 1993, a stakeholder group including Suncor, Syncrude, the city, local school boards, the Improvement District, the local hospital board and Keyano College was established to “find common solutions to our collective problems.” Two years and not an easy street later, on April 1, 1995, the RMWB was born. That same year, what is known as the “second wave” of oilsands development began, the result of a report from the National Oil Sands Task Force, which galvanized the governments of both Alberta and Canada to provide incentives for investment based on the massive prospects of the region. Fifteen years and at least one more wave of development later, life in the RMWB and especially Fort McMurray has been characterized by huge population growth, major infrastructure stress and admissions by some of poor planning in the face of almost untold resource potential. But, it’s getting better. One cannot help but wonder how much worse the situation could have become if Wood Buffalo had never been, leaving Fort McMurray and the region’s other communities to fend for themselves. In writing this, I am reminded of the sign that used to greet those entering Fort McMurray driving up Highway 63 — “Welcome to Fort McMurray,” it read, “We Have the Energy.” Indeed, you truly do. Congratulations on 15 years of Wood Buffalo, and all the best on what is certain to be an amazing future. Deborah Jaremko Editor, Oilsands Review

Big opportunities, big challenges, big spirit: The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo at 15 years is a collaboration between JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group and Westbrier Communications.

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 9

Note

editorial [Editor] Deborah Jaremko djaremko@junewarren-nickles.com [Editorial Assistance] Laura Blackwood, Samantha Kapler, Marisa Kurlovich proofing@junewarren-nickles.com [Contributors] Melanie Collison, Renato Gandia, Leisa Vescarelli

Editor’s

[president & ceo] Bill Whitelaw bwhitelaw@junewarren-nickles.com [publisher] Agnes Zalewski azalewski@junewarren-nickles.com [associate publisher] Chaz Osburn cosburn@junewarren-nickles.com [editorial director] Stephen Marsters smarsters@junewarren-nickles.com

What does 'Big spirit' mean to you? To us, it means progressing towards a new energy future while bettering the communities we live and work in. Congratulations to the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo on 15 successful years! With thanks from all Shell employees and their families. everyone home safely, always. For more information visit: www.shell.ca

NORTHWEST

Charles Lakes

Leland Lakes

Robertson Lake

Merryweather Lake

Hay Camp

Wylie Lake

Ri ve r

Edmonton

er iv

Carlson Landing

Jackﬁsh River

Colin Lake

Cornwall Lake Sl ave

Fo Wi rt Sm nte i r R th oad

Thultue Lake

Map

Andrew Lake

Fort Fitzgerald

SASKATCHEWAN

St. Bruno Farm

Wood Buffalo

TERRITORIES

Fort Smith

Lake Athabasca

Sweetgrass Landing

Fort Chipewyan Lake Claire

WOOD BUFFALO NATIONAL PARK

Jackﬁsh

Embarras Portage

Richardson Lake

Embarras Municipal Boundary

Kenny Woods Berdinskies Point Brule

Island Lake

Ath ab as ca

River

Calgary

Gardiner Lakes

n ya ew d ip Roa h C r rt te Fo Win

McClelland Bitumount Lake

Namur Lake

Fort MacKay Mildred Lake

The Regional

Tar Island

Fort McMurray

Municipality of

Wood

Ath

Rive a ab sca

arwat

Saprae Creek Lenarthur

Gregoire Lake Estates

Buffalo

Cle

Draper

Anzac

er Ri er v

Gordon Lake Baker Lake

Quigley

Mariana Lake

Pingle

basca River

Watchusk Lake

Janvier

Chard Leismer

PELICAN SETTLEMENT

Ath a

C h ristin aR iv

Garson Kinosis Lake Cheecham La Loche r e Winter Trail

Conklin Devenish McMillan Lake

Margie

Christina Lake

Winefred Lake

Formed on April 1, 1995 and comprising 63,000 square kilometres, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo is the largest municipality in North America.

Behan

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 11

Historial

Timeline

Wood Buffalo History of a global energy community

1700s

The Cree occupy the territory along the lower Athabasca River.

1778

Explorer Peter Pond builds a post on the Athabasca River near Lake Athabasca, opening up the valuable MacKenzie Basin fur region. The post closed in 1788 in favor of Fort Chipewyan.

Community

1780

ca 1800

ca 1790

1821

Fur traders establish posts on the Athabasca, Slave and Peace rivers. Independent traders, called Pedlars or Canadians, are the first to move into the region, followed by the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Chipewyan Indians move south. Now both Cree and Chipewyan are trading in the area around the confluence of the Clearwater and Athabasca Rivers.

Fur trading posts are built down the Mackenzie River. There is competition, often violent, between the North West Company (formed from Pedlar partnerships) and the Hudson’s Bay Company.

1870

The Hudson’s Bay Company establishes a post at the confluence of the Athabasca and Clearwater rivers and names it Fort McMurray, after the firm’s chief factor for the region, William McMurray.

The Hudson’s Bay Company and North West Company join together, ending a fierce rivalry.

Industry 1719

A Cree named Waupisoo brings samples of pitch (oilsand) to York Factory, a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post on the edge of Hudson’s Bay in Manitoba. He had previously brought samples of salt and brimstone.

1700

1882

The Geological Survey of Canada sends Robert Bell and team on an expedition to study the Athabasca Basin.

1800 ca 1790

Explorer Alexander Mackenzie provides the first recorded description of the Athabasca oilsands.

12 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

1906

Count Alfred von Hammerstein conducts four seasons of drilling between 1906 and 1909. He was not that successful in his work but was a promoter of the area.

1900

1910 1910

Hammerstein forms the Athabasca Oil and Asphalt Company. There is a flurry of speculative activity in the Athabasca region and in the village of Fort McMurray.

1898

The Hudson’s Bay Company closes the Fort McMurray post because of poor fur returns. Fort McMurray continues as a transportation terminus only. Many of the prospectors using the inland route to the Klondike passed through Fort McMurray.

1898

Free traders William Gordon and his sister Christina open a post in Fort McMurray. Christina Gordon was the first white woman to settle in Fort McMurray. Presentday Christina River is named after her.

1899

The Cree of Chipewyan and Fort McMurray sign Treaty 8, surrendering hunting and trapping grounds for reserves, tools and treaty money.

1911

The Department of the Interior sets up the Fort McMurray Fire District, covering 31,080 square kilometres of the Athabasca River from Grand Rapids to Lake Athabasca.

1912

Six wells are drilled in the Athabasca area by the Northern Alberta Exploration Company.

The Royal North West Mounted Police open a detachment in Fort McMurray with one Corporal. Clearing begins to create Franklin Avenue, the main street of Fort McMurray.

1914

Fort McMurray’s first schoolhouse is built. The Board of Trade is formed in response to a need for community organization and local government.

1912

ca 1921

D. C. McTavish, the first Presbyterian minister in Fort McMurray, establishes McMurray School District No. 2833 of the Province of Alberta. About 13 students attended school in a log cabin — his wife, Cassia McTavish, is the first schoolteacher.

Dr. Karl A. Clark of the Alberta Research Council is given approval to conduct research concerning the extraction of bitumen from oilsands and to assess the value of bitumen as a roadcovering material.

1921

The Alberta and Great Waterways Railroad reaches Draper, Alberta, six kilometres from present-day Waterways. The remainder of the trip to Fort McMurray was made by boat or horse.

Dr. George Ings, a surgeon, accepts a government appointment to the north. He practiced medicine in Fort McMurray until 1933.

1924

CJCA Radio broadcasts became part of life in the North. Important messages could be sent over the radio to northern listeners.

1924

Angus Sutherland, pharmacist, purchases Fort McMurray’s first vehicle. The Union Bank of Canada opens a branch in Fort McMurray.

A dilapidated, single-line telephone system is hung on trees in Fort McMurray. Mail and freight is hauled between Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan with horses and sleighs. The trip, one way, takes six days.

1923

1925

1921

The Hudson’s Bay Company post at Fort McMurray is re-opened. A large freight storage warehouse is built for the transportation business, while the fur trade remains poor.

1920 1913–14

1913

The first schoolhouse is destroyed by fire. School children are forced to take their classes outside.

1924

The first airplane lands at the Snye River.

The Alberta and Great Waterways Railroad reached present-day Waterways, ending the water route from Athabasca Landing to Fort McMurray. All shipping to the north went through Waterways until road and rail reached Hay River, North West Territories, in the 1960s.

1927

1925

1923

Dr. Clark builds a small bitumen-separation plant at the University of Alberta. 85 tons of sand are processed, but work is hampered by problems with continuous operation and high heat costs.

The Alcan Oil Company becomes the International Bitumen Company, under the control of Robert Fitzsimmons. By 1930, he was operating a small hot-water separation plant at Bitumount, a site approximately 90 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.

The Alberta Salt Company begins producing high-grade salt, becoming the first commercial salt plant in Alberta. Transportation problems force it to close in 1927.

1920 1917

Federal Department of Mines engineer Sidney Ells produces the twovolume Notes on Certain Aspects of the Proposed Commercial Development of the Deposits of Bituminous Sands in the Province of Alberta.

1930 1925

Thomas Draper begins experimenting with oilsands as a paving material, both untreated and mixed with asphalt. He was one of the most persistent experimenters in the use of oilsands as paving materials.

1929

A separation plant formerly in Dunvegan, Alberta, is moved to a site on the Clearwater River near Waterways. Only 11 barrels of bitumen are produced during the three days the plant operated.

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 13

Historial

Timeline

Wood Buffalo History of a global energy community

continued

ca 1931

The Snye is an important northern commercial air base.

1934

Fire sweeps through a block of Franklin Avenue, destroying the Franklin Hotel, Sutherland’s Drug Store, the Government Telegraph office and quarters, McVittie’s Dance Hall, John Parry’s Store, Skelton’s Meat Market and the Gem Confectionary Store.

1935

Joe Durocher started the first commercial power plant in Fort McMurray. Diesel-powered generators produced electricity. The cost was $0.25 per kilowatt hour in 1935.

1942

Waterways and Fort McMurray suddenly become a staging ground for the U.S. military Canol Project, in which a pipeline was to be built from Norman Wells, North West Territories, to an army installation at Fairbanks, Alaska. Every available boat and barge is used to transport cargo downriver to Norman Wells.

1946

The Board of Trade becomes the Chamber of Commerce.

1947

The settlements of Waterways and Fort McMurray amalgamate as the village of McMurray, with Alfred Penhorwood serving as the first mayor.

Community 1984

Industry 1940

Ball and partner Sidney Ells establish the Abasand separation plant, investing $1 million in research and development. Production at Abasand Oils ceased when the separation plant burned down in November 1941.

1936

Entrepreneur Max Ball obtains a six-section lease on the Horse River on which he builds an extraction plant.

1930

1940

1946

Design of the Bitumount plant begins for Oil Sands Ltd (formerly the International Bitumen Company).

1950

1942

1938

St. Gabriel Hospital is opened with 16 beds. The Grey Nuns of Montreal ran the hospital until it was closed in 1970.

The recently formed Canadian Pacific Airlines builds a landing strip and log office at the present airport location. The Abasand separation plant, now owned by the federal government, is rebuilt but is again destroyed by fire in 1945.

14 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

1960 1953

1948

The Bitumount plant commences operation. Due to accidents, fires and low river levels it was never successful. It closed Sept. 30, 1949.

The Great Canadian Oil Sands Consortium is formed with major financial backers from central Canada plus Sun Oil of Philadelphia.

The Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority builds an underground test facility northwest of Fort McMurray to experiment with producing bitumen too far below the surface to be mined. It is here that one of today’s major commercial methods — steam assisted gravity drainage — is proven viable.

1970

1962

Great Canadian Oil Sands receives government approval to produce 31,500 barrels per day at the Tar Island plant. By 1967, it was built — the legacy of what is today Suncor.

1948

McMurray is incorporated as a town.

1951

Fire destroys three buildings in Waterways, including the Waterways Hotel.

1957

The first car trip is made from McMurray to Edmonton. The route followed 447.5 kilometres of winter trail to Slave Lake and 310 kilometres on Highway 2 through Athabasca to Edmonton. It took 18 hours.

1958

Alberta Government Telephones installs a dial telephone system. For the first time the 160 subscribers could make long-distance telephone calls.

1962

Highway 63 (an all-weather, gravel road to the South) is completed.

1964

1968

Fort McMurray is granted “New Town” status, entitling it to financial assistance for capital projects, but also meaning that the town lost its autonomy to the province.

1965

The Grant MacEwan Bridge opens, providing access across the Athabasca River for the Great Canadian Oil Sands project and others to follow.

1966

The Fort McMurray General Hospital is built with 34 beds, expanded twice in the 1970s to provide 54 beds and additional pediatric, emergency, laboratory and surgical care.

1996

Canadian Prime Minister Chrétien visits the city and announces $25 billion worth of tax breaks for the oilsands industry. Building starts are up and housing prices have increased 20.4 per cent over December 1995.

1980

1967

The town’s name was changed from McMurray to Fort McMurray.

1990

1970

Fort McMurray receives television viewing. The “Frontier Package” provided four hours of pre-packaged programming per day.

1974

The post office starts doorto-door letter carrier service.

1980

Fort McMurray Regional Hospital opens with 150 beds.

The City of Fort McMurray and Improvement District No. 18 are amalgamated to form the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, the largest land area municipality in North America.

2005

The Fort McMurray community, exploding with growth from oilsands development, makes a business case to the provincial government to address its critical infrastructure needs.

2007

The Fort McMurray community, exploding with growth from oilsands development, makes a business case to the provincial government to address its critical infrastructure needs.

Construction begins on the Syncrude plant. Completed in 1978, Syncrude was initially licensed to produce 125,000 barrels of oil per day.

The municipality passes a resolution to intervene in applications for oilsands projects within the region until its infrastructure needs are addressed.

2007

The municipality launches an all-encompassing planning initiative called Envision Wood Buffalo, predicting that the 2007 population level of 90,000 will reach 250,000 by 2030.

2010

Wood Buffalo council approves the Envision Wood Buffalo plan, granting it $12.43 million over the next five years in federal funds to aid in the development of sustainable municipal infrastructure and services.

The municipality launches an allencompassing planning initiative called Envision Wood Buffalo, predicting that the 2007 population level of 90,000 will reach 250,000 by 2030.

2010

Renewed strength in energy prices and investor confidence again spark forecasts of substantial new growth in oilsands development. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo celebrates its 15th anniversary.

2000

2010 2008

1997 1974

2006

Fort McMurray is incorporated as a city.

1995

Northland Utilities officially turns on natural gas.

2005

1980

The Athabasca Regional Issues Working Group (now the Oil Sands Developers Group) is established to identify and facilitate resolution of issues related to oilsands development in the region.

2006

The municipality passes a resolution to intervene in applications for oilsands projects within the region until its infrastructure needs are addressed.

A global recession– induced slowdown impacts the development of new oilsands projects, and government investment allows the municipality to address some of its infrastructure needs.

Adapted from Library and Archives Canada, the Energy Resources Conservation Board and Oilsands Review.

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 15

Wood Buffalo

Envision

16 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

Into the

future by Melanie Collison and Deborah Jaremko

Wood Buffalo sets its sights on successfully supporting 200,000 people in 2030 and beyond

he year 2030 may seem far away, but for the people working behind an initiative called Envision Wood Buffalo, it often seems to be just around the corner. Things happen fast in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB), which has experienced explosive growth since its inception in 1995 thanks to the increasing importance of the oilsands industry to continental and global energy supply. Both the provincial and municipal governments have admitted to in the past not planning well enough for sufficient community infrastructure to support this industry, which, despite a brief downturn in 2008 and 2009, is booming. Recently the municipality marked a major milestone in its quest towards a governing planning process that supports sustainability under the balance of the economy, the environment and social programs. This strategic planning process — and now its implementation — is the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan dubbed Envision Wood Buffalo. “The governments of Alberta and Canada entered into an agreement in 2005 for the transfer of $476 million in federal gas tax funding to benefit Alberta’s municipalities,” explains the RMWB in its Envision Wood Buffalo plan document. “To receive funding, Alberta municipalities are required to have an Integrated Community Sustainability Plan adopted by their councils by March 31, 2010.”

On March 10, 2010, the RMWB council announced it had done just that, in approving the Envision Wood Buffalo plan. Based on 2007 census numbers, the municipality says this means it will be allocated $12.43 million over the next five years in federal funds to aid in the development of sustainable municipal infrastructure and services. “All the pieces are coming together, pointing in the same direction, for the kind of sustainable development pattern we want to see for the region,” says Samuel Alatorre, manager of implementation for Envision Wood Buffalo. With two masters degrees in planning and a fresh PhD in planning and regional development, Alatorre says he was drawn to northern Alberta from Mexico by the chance to work at the forefront of sustainable development planning practice. “Envision Wood Buffalo will be a guide in getting us closer to the vision we have. At the same time, it’s a guiding document, so we can feed information back into it and see how we’re progressing. Most of the growth is going to be tied to the economics of the oil industry. We have to find the vision for the future by adjusting to the economic cycles.” Envision Wood Buffalo follows the trail blazed by Future Forward, a visioning project the region undertook in 2006. Residents looked at where their community was then, thrashed out where they wanted to go over the next 20 or 25 years, and mapped out a flexible path into a sustainable future.

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 17

Wood Buffalo

Envision

Statement of sustainability: the foundation for future policy-making under Envision Wood Buffalo “We value living in a region that is safe, healthy, inclusive of all residents and provides local opportunities. We have a strong economy, a healthy environment, a rich culture and an abundance of social capital that together form the pillars of sustainability and contribute to quality of life and well-being. We strive to find balance in our economic, environmental and social systems and to live within their natural limits. We make decisions that reflect an understanding of the interdependence of these systems and consider residents’ long-term needs to ensure the resources of today are sustainable into the future.”

In this context, sustainability is defined as meeting today’s needs without denying future generations the ability to meet their needs. It is generally measured in terms of a community’s environmental, cultural, social and economic dimensions. The current population of Wood Buffalo is around 85,000, but planners are working with projections for 2030 of roughly 200,000. “Even though we’re thinking about 2030, sometimes in our daily work it feels like that is just around the corner because of the pressure and the topics that are being discussed,” says Alatorre. Balance is central, among “what is of interest to the rural community, of interest to the oilsands [producers and] of interest to the people in Fort McMurray. It’s hard to achieve, particularly in a region that is growing so fast. Some initiatives move faster than others.” The ongoing process has already influenced municipal decisions and improved council’s focus, says current Mayor Melissa Blake, who has launched a bid for a third mandate, to be decided this fall. “It’s so rewarding, the ability to actually see change taking hold,” she says. “Today versus five years ago, you can see the physical change in the residential areas, the [road infrastructure] work.”

As a result of strategic planning, she adds, “We’re starting to get that clear focus. We can do more than we ever thought we could.” Practical matters such as road planning, waste water handling and waste diversion from the landfill are well in hand in Fort McMurray, Blake notes.

18 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

The recently redeveloped MacDonald Island recreational centre at the confluence of the Athabasca and Clearwater Rivers is being touted as a fabulous success, and planning is proceeding apace to update the original 1970s Lower Townsite. Critical needs have to come before wants — clean rural water delivery and treatment makes a whole lot more sense than urban parks, Blake says — but, “If we can do both that’s what we would do.” She admits that the municipal government hasn’t been as quick as it should have been on establishing and meeting an acceptable standard of service delivery to the rural areas, but she says it’s coming. “The municipality has adopted a rural service delivery standard. We, as a council, are looking for a benchmark, basic level of service.” That works for services such as water and sewers, but it’s a little trickier in areas covered by bylaws. Some communities are fine with off-road all-terrain vehicles in town; some are not. Some want street lamps every so many metres; some don’t want light polluting their dark skies. By definition, Envision Wood Buffalo respects the unique character of each community as it carries the visioning process into the smaller Wood Buffalo centres of Anzac, Conklin, Draper, Fort Chipewyan, Fort Fitzgerald, Fort MacKay, Gregoire Lake, Janvier and Saprae Creek. It necessarily considers First Nations’ treaty agreements and right to self-determination. Planning and development department liaisons are working with each of the communities to help the department refocus its urban thinking to encompass a huge rural region. Since 2006, this department has swollen from 20 to 80 employees. Blake says that most are young, full of energy and ideas, and keen to embrace opportunities it would take them years to earn in an older city. “[Because of] the pace of growth, you can almost see planning happening in real time.” Envision Wood Buffalo is a three-stage process, of which the first two phases are now complete. Phase 1: public engagement. Phase 2: plan development. The next phase is implementation, monitoring and assessment. “Implementation of Envision Wood Buffalo will occur over several years,” says the municipality. “An implementation plan will be developed in 2010 [and will] commence in 2011 and 2012. Departmental business plans should align with Envision Wood Buffalo by 2012–13.”

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Recycling

Program

Begin

again by Melanie Collison photos by Jeffery Borchert

Community recycling has caught on strong in Wood Buffalo

ast year, residents of Fort McMurray recycled four times as much material as they did in 2005. That’s evidence of strong public buy-in for a young program that is seeing positive results. The overall recycling goal for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) is to divert half of its waste stream from the local landfill by 2012. In 2005, the municipality established seven recycling depots in Fort McMurray and launched its educational program, which is growing successfully. Jarrod Peckford, solid waste and landfill supervisor for the RMWB, anticipates a similar participation curve for Wood Buffalo’s rural communities once construction of transfer facilities for their waste is completed. “We’re still establishing the culture,” he says, adding that it took two or three years to see great results in the urban centre, and the municipality is just starting to educate its smaller populations. Aging landfills in the rural communities lack the impervious clay liners of modern facilities, so the municipality has decided to use a central site at Fort McMurray for all communities except Fort Chipewyan. “We’re now closing off Conklin and Janvier,” Peckford says. “Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan, five hours away on winter roads, will be the only ones remaining. Fort Chipewyan will always have its own landfill.” Fort McMurray’s curbside garden waste pickup program, new last year, has already gathered over 35 tonnes of grass clippings and garden waste.

20 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

That’s impressive in a place where the growing season is only 95 days long and only two months of the year are deemed frost-free, despite 18 hours of sunlight on the longest days. To compost the material, landfill workers heap the collected yard waste into long rows — what’s called the “static windrow system” — and turn the piles periodically to mix in the oxygen required by the bacteria that break down the plant fibres. Bacteria also need heat, so to maintain the core temperature of the windrow as the days grow shorter, workers increase the depth of the material and reduce turning, Peckford says. It can take as long as nine months to complete the composting process at the 56th parallel, compared to 10 to 12 weeks in a warmer climate. Electronic waste, such as old televisions and computer monitors, is packed into sea cans and shipped to the City of Red Deer Waste Management Facility. Red Deer is the designated collection site for the provincial government’s recycling program. Fort McMurray collected 78 tonnes last year. Having achieved a 13 per cent recycling increase in 2009 over 2008, the RMWB is weighing the benefits of curbside pickup of recyclables in the urban centre. Officials were delighted that 2,500 people responded to a telephone and online survey last winter. Collection programs at schools and municipal worksites raise awareness, but householders have been driving the momentum of the recycling program, including pitching in their hazardous waste such as batteries, paints and solvents.

The regional landfill at Fort McMurray is increasingly filled with household items on their way to recycle. Wood Buffalo has committed to diverting 50 per cent of its waste from the landfill by 2012.

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 21

Program

Recycling

Top row: Propane gas cylinders are one of many hazardous household wastes that can be sent for recycling from Wood Buffalo; crushing used concrete to create new construction aggregate â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the municipality saved about $2 million in August 2010 through this process; a touch of nature peeks out at the landfill.

22 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

Bottom row: A new transfer station is under construction at the regional landfill, which will enable increased and more efficient waste processing; the landfill is one of seven recycling dropoff sites in Fort McMurray.

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 23

Program

Recycling

The Wood Buffalo recycling program has won a number of awards regionally, nationally and internationally. Suncor Energy has been a key partner in the initiatives since 2005.

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24 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

We see the possibilities. As an Operations Manager at Suncor Energy, Stephen Young is one of more than 12,000 employees who have seen how innovation can turn possibilities into reality. Like turning tailings ponds into solid ground. Suncor has developed a gamechanging technology that reclaims former oil sands mines into natural habitat decades faster than before. We’re also marking a significant milestone with the return of our first tailings pond to a solid surface in 2010. Developing these kinds of solutions begins with seeing the possibilities. And we’re just getting started.

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1,182

hectares of land reclaimed to date

3.5

million trees planted on Suncor’s site since 1967

energy innovation commitment

Find out more about Suncor’s track record and how we are planning to responsibly develop North America’s energy supply. www.suncor.com/sustainability

Think Big Do More As the operator of the Long Lake integrated oil sands facility, Nexen congratulates the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on your 15th anniversary. Our 500 employees are proud to call this dynamic and growing community our home. Nexen is a Canadian energy company with international assets. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re building a sustainable future with unconventional resource developments and world-class operations. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re at the forefront of industry innovation with our oil sands, shale gas and deep-water projects.

Nexen, a company you can believe in. www.nexeninc.com

Bag Ban

Plastic

BYO...bag? by Leisa Vescarelli

Wood Buffalo enacts the most comprehensive single-use bag ban in North American municipalities

YOB is now a must in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB), but this particular bring-your-own mandate pertains to conservation rather than libation. As of Sept. 1, the municipality enacted what has been called a plastic bag ban, but is actually a ban against the distribution of all single-use bags including paper, plastic and certain types of biodegradable bags. The intent of the initiative is to eliminate the use of the

“convenience” bags so often distributed at retail stores, and just as often seen billowing from tree branches, plastered against fences or clogging up gutters and waterways. Litter reduction is but one consideration in eliminating the ubiquitous disposable bags from the area. “It’s also the consumption of raw material, the energy to produce the bags and the resulting greenhouse gases,” says Jarrod Peckford, solid waste and landfill supervisor for the RMWB. NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 27

Bag Ban

Plastic

Hence, the decision to include paper bags in the ban. Though not initially part of the proposed bylaw, Peckford says the scope of the ban was amended after an initial assessment found that the environmental impact of switching to paper bags would have been comparable to continuing with the use of plastic bags. “Rather than debate which was better, we just eliminated all single-use bags.” The bylaw was initially brought forward by council in 2008, but Peckford explains that after a detailed review, the initiative was temporarily shelved, to be reassessed when the municipality’s solid waste master plan had been more fully implemented. In 2009, a local student lobbied the municipal government by collecting a petition with over 2,000 signatures, which reactivated the discussions. The bylaw was unanimously approved by council that December. Other municipalities around the world have implemented similar initiatives, but no municipality in North America has implemented such a comprehensive ban. It is a hefty undertaking, considering society’s dependence on the handy little bags — Canadians use about 10 billion every year — and the totality of the ban. However, Kevin Scoble, RMWB director

WHERE ENERGY MEETS NATURE

of environmental services, says there was actually minimal resistance to the initiative, and any concerns were promptly addressed. “We’ve worked very closely with the businesses here that have had concerns or have contacted us with questions. We did have an open house for all businesses, and probably 20 or 30 showed up there. When contacted, we did personal visits to help us understand their business and concerns so we could implement a solution and provide clarification.” To bring the BYO bag messaging to the public, Wood Buffalo launched an extensive public awareness program, which included a radio campaign, door-to-door mailers, advertisements, a billboard and the distribution of 3,000 reusable bags. Residents carrying bags they already possessed need not worry about any repercussions. Enforcement efforts are focused on retail outlets. Peckford explains, “We wanted to make sure this was manageable. It would have been outside our resources to enforce bags coming from other places. We’re looking to make sure local retailers are not distributing bags, and at the same time allowing residents the time and option to use up or reuse any bags they already have.”

Enbridge is partnering with the Nature Conservancy of Canada to protect our country’s biodiversity. Our Natural Legacy Program allows us to partner with a variety of environmental and conservational organizations, helping them reach their goals. We work with Tree Canada, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Trout Unlimited Canada, the Alberta Emerald Foundation and many others who are working toward sustainability. Through these partnerships, we invest in land conservation, habitat remediation and programs that raise awareness about our land, plants and animals. Focusing our energy on the environment is just one of the ways we deliver on our promise to help build sustainable communities. Visit enbridge.com to learn more.

28 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

Plant

Waste Water

Waste water Fort McMurrayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new processing plant is designed to high standards and for continued population swell

Clockwise from top left: Municipal sewage goes through the treatment process; the view from the roof of the new facility, overlooking compost and catching the old treatment aerated lagoons in the distance; a beforeand-after look at Fort McMurrayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s waste water; bacteria works its treatment magic.

30 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

by Leisa Vescarelli photos by Jeffery Borchert

for the future D

esigned to meet the needs of up to 62,000 residents, at the turn of the 21st century, the rapidly expanding City of Fort McMurray’s waste water treatment plant had decidedly outlived its usefulness. “Originally, all we had for waste water treatment were aerated lagoons, and those are the simplest form of waste water treatment. You still get treatment of the water of course, but it’s a very basic form,” says James Sacker, waste water operations supervisor for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB). “As the municipality continued to grow, it was decided by Alberta Environment that we had to start stepping up our treatment to meet new standards, so we worked cooperatively to develop a new plant.” This May, Fort McMurray officially opened its new waste water treatment facility, just east of Highway 63 as one travels north past the city to the major oilsands installations of Suncor, Syncrude, Shell, Canadian Natural Resources and others. Construction of the $220-million project began in 2004, and it was designed to be built out in three phases. Phase 1 was projected to serve 85,000 people with a capacity of 52 million litres per day. One of the major challenges of the project was in defining the population forecasts for an area experiencing rapid and often unpredictable growth patterns. The RMWB has seen a practically sustained economic boom for the past nine years, with increased investment in oilsands activity the primary contributing factor to higher-than-average migration rates and overall population growth. Sacker explains that due to this trend, there was a midproject decision to proceed with the second phase and parts of the third phase early on to meet anticipated demands on the facility.

“The design of the waste water treatment plant went back about two or three years prior to the construction part of the project, so [it was] very difficult at that early point to predict or project the population in this region,” he says. “It just made sense once we had the contractor on site and we were pouring concrete to continue building the additional phases, with the way the population was spiking at the time.” The original contract was simply amended and extended to cover the additional phase work. The decision has proven to be a wise one, given that the population of the Fort McMurray urban service area alone is currently around 73,000, and showing no signs of slowing down. The facility is now equipped to service a population of 133,000 at the capacity of 52 million litres per day, and Sacker says it is performing extremely well. So well, in fact, that during a tour of the new plant, plant manager Hugh Crawford was widely quoted as saying that he believed the effluent water from the facility to be cleaner than the water in the Athabasca River. It was a project objective to build the facility to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver standards, and the somewhat lengthy certification process is underway. Building to LEED standards is unique with regards to construction of waste water facilities, and Sacker says that commitment is indicative of the RMWB’s foresight and initiative in regards to environmental stewardship. In another example of environmental foresight, a composting facility has been incorporated which allows previously unused bio solids to be processed into useful, environmentally safe compost that has the potential to be used by oilsands operators for reclamation and reforestation applications.

waste water

“The design of the treatment plant prior went back about to the construction part of the project, so [it was] at that early point to predict or .” project the population in this

two or three years

very difficult

region

– James Sacker, Waste Water Operations Supervisor, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 31

Plant

Waste Water

Clockwise from top left: A sampling area in the waste water treatment plant; operators Trudy Gillis and Jen Shelley use bikes to get around the long maze of corridors; solid waste is transferred to truck; the final stage of the process uses ultraviolet light; pumping equipment; pointing out some of the automation features of this less than oneyear-old facility.

32 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 33

Plant

Waste Water

The Fort McMurray waste water treatment plant is unique in Canada as one of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only waste water facilities designed to be at a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard.

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The Fort McKay Group of Companies would like to congratulate the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on 15 Successful Years! Fort McKay Group of Companies Ph: 780-828-2400 Fax: 780-742-0038

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34 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

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Sponsors

Thank You

Sponsors On behalf of council and the residents of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB), thank you for sponsoring the 2010 Oilsands Celebration Banquet and for honouring our region as we celebrate 15 years of working for the collective interests of the more than 100,000 people that call the region home.

Thank You

This year marks a special time in our evolution as Canada’s largest municipality — an occasion that highlights a unique partnership central to the ongoing success of both the RMWB and Alberta’s energy sector. Wood Buffalo is indeed the heart of Canada’s energy future, rich in natural resources, and our people are the backbone it requires to survive. The world needs our oil, and in order to deliver it we need to work with the other levels of government and our industry partners to make this region a desirable place for the citizens who live and work here. As a municipality, we intend to show the rest of Canada, and the world, that it is not simply the energy from our oil that makes us a valuable national asset but also the energy of our people. In the past 15 years, we have seen tremendous growth and change. We have faced unique challenges and realized numerous accomplishments. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to share our story, and for showcasing the “Big Spirit” of our people. They truly are our most valuable resource. Sincerely, Melissa Blake, Mayor, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo

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HALLIBURTON

the Métis

Centuries of hard work and

Year of

unique culture by Melanie Collison

The Métis helped shape Wood Buffalo and now face the “double-edged sword” of development

Photo: CEMA

he Métis — the mixed descendants of First Nations and Europeans — played an instrumental role in the development of the West, including in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, where they can trace their roots back to the 1700s and the fur trade. Earlier this year, the Métis National Council declared 2010 the “Year of the Métis.” Why? Because it is the 125th anniversary of the Northwest Resistance and the execution of Métis leader Louis Riel, who fought for Métis rights in Canada and is recognized as one of the founders of confederation. Fred Fraser relishes his family saga, which links him to George Simpson, known as the Emperor of the North, the larger-than-life governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Fraser says with

a laugh that Simpson wanted to be greeted with fanfare when he arrived at settlements to bargain for furs. So this “pompous dandy,” as the historians describe him, travelled to England and got permission to hire a piper, then set up a competition in the Orkney Islands offshore Scotland. Simpson, a Scot, demanded that the pipers be able to tramp 20 miles without a rest, something one Colin Fraser proved best able to do. “Colin Fraser travelled with George Simpson throughout western Canada,” says his greatgreat-grandson, Fred Fraser, leader of the Métis community in Fort Chipewyan, where Scottish surnames abound. “When they were approaching a settlement by boat, he would play. People could hear all this racket and would come to greet them.”

A number of Métis individuals took part in the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA)’s annual Elders Workshop south of Fort McMurray this summer, as part of CEMA’s Traditional Environmental Knowledge working group.

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 39

the Métis

Year of

Racket is right. The way sound carries across water, the skirl of the bagpipes would have scared the fur-bearing animals right back into their dens. Fraser’s great-great-grandfather eventually got released from his contract to Simpson and went on to marry and have a large family. He named one of his sons after himself. The young Colin, Fred’s great-grandfather, moved to Fort Chipewyan towards the end of the 1800s and became a fur buyer. Colin’s three sons, in turn, expanded his trading network by setting up stores throughout the Lake Athabasca region. They hauled furs out and returned with the building materials used in Fort Chipewyan’s earliest houses. “They would fill a scow — a flat-bottom boat — with furs, and pole [southwest] across Lake Athabasca,” Fraser says. “Once [they reached] the river, they had to walk [more than 500 kilometres] to Athabasca. Six to eight guys with ropes, called trackers, would be pulling it upriver. Two more in the scow would pole to keep it away from shore. They’d go up the rapids and everything,” Fraser says with admiration. “[My great-grandfather] would sell his furs and build more scows, fill them with supplies he needed in Fort Chipewyan, and drift back downriver. He knocked the scows apart, took the lumber and used that for building houses.” With the fur trade declining by his generation, Fred’s father made his living hauling the Fort

Chipewyan doctor by dogsled to visit settlements all along Lake Athabasca. From Fort Chipewyan to Stony Rapids at the far east end of the lake was a circuit that stretched beyond 600 kilometres. He later handled dogs and dog teams for Wood Buffalo National Park for more than 30 years. Fred, now 72, worked for the federal government managing buffalo, then the provincial government, before he was elected president in the 1990s of the Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation, known as Local 125. The Fraser family story is so much the story of the Métis Nation in Alberta, people descended of marriages of, in this region, primarily Cree, Chippewa and Saulteaux with Scottish and French. These days, Fort Chipewyan is about 1,000 strong, home to people of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan, Dene and Métis. Established in 1788, it’s the oldest permanent settlement in Alberta, initially a Métis town where surrounding First Nations people came to do business. The Scottish names in Fort Chipewyan date back to the 1600s when Orcadians — people from the Orkney Islands in the North Sea 16 kilometres north of Scotland — formed the overwhelming majority of employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Living at the same latitude as Fort Chipewyan, although in a climate moderated by the Gulf Stream, the Orcadians knew long winter nights and the buffeting of a constant wind.

Congratulations to the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on its 15th anniversary as it celebrates the pioneering spirit of its citizens and looks to a future filled with opportunity and prosperity.

40 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

They had boat-handling skills equal to the rigours of the North. Their bloodlines carried Viking toughness alongside Celtic resilience. And like today’s Métis, they spoke a dialect cobbled together from their ancestors’ tongues. When the government of Alberta revamped improvement districts into regional municipalities 15 years ago (creating the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo), it tied Fort Chipewyan to Métis settlements as far as 300 river kilometres away — Anzac, Conklin, Chard, Janvier, Fort McKay — and with Fort McMurray, which makes for a push-pull in government financing. But the Métis culture is one of adaptation and resilience, says Bill Loutitt, whose great-greatgrandfather was also brought to Canada to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company. “We’re very innovative, we don’t give up and we don’t leave. We’ll still be here long after the oil is gone,” Loutitt says. He is the Fort McMurray–based president of Region 1 for the Métis in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. “As you move ahead with development, something else has got to pay for it. In our case, it’s the environment. A lot [of Métis still] trap and fish and hunt, and that’s being decimated as we speak.” From its roots in the fur trade, freighting on the river and cutting wood on its shores, the Métis Nation has evolved into a nation of business people and tradespeople. “It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” Loutitt says. “If you don’t get involved and try fighting

it, you’re going to miss out, so a lot of people have adapted.” Besides the Michif language, which is a combination of Cree and French, the nation is pulled together by a flag that’s been flying since the War of 1812.

“We’re very innovative, we don’t give up and we .

don’t leave

We’ll still

be here long after the

oil is gone.”

— Bill Loutitt, President, Region 1 Métis, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo

Its culture is hard-working, hard-playing, and above all, competitive. Its touchstones are fiddling and jigging competitions, but Loutitt says competition within the large families is the greatest of all. “When you’re working, you’re concentrating on getting more work done than the next guy — the competition thing — but you have fun when work is done.”

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 41

Housing

Affordable

by Melanie Collison

Innovating affordable and

comfortable growth Wood Buffalo Housing and Development goes the extra mile in developing communities rather than simple neighbourhoods

n the land of super-sized oilsands salaries, housing is just plain too expensive for the regular people who keep a community humming: the teachers, social workers, police officers, health-care workers and municipal employees. If one makes $60,000 per year, one doesn’t really expect to qualify for — or to need — affordable housing, but that’s life in Fort McMurray. “Affordable housing made it possible to live here and raise my children here,” says Judith Slattery, executive director of the Community Network Association, a not-for-profit entity that handles provincial funding for adult skills-oriented non-credit courses throughout Fort McMurray. She also manages a literacy program with a substantial English as a Second Language component. Slattery is the single mother of two fledgling adults. Not only has Wood Buffalo Housing and Development provided her family with safe, affordable housing, it went the extra mile to ensure their home was unusually allergen-free, and as a matter of course it sent in tradespeople to do the inevitable repairs. That makes all the difference, she says. “When it’s booming, you can’t get somebody to fix your furnace; you can’t get a plumber. If you were struggling to make ends meet, how would you deal with that?” Slattery asks. “My son has severe allergies and asthma. I probably wouldn’t have been able to access the kind of environment I needed for him if I hadn’t been supported.” The housing authority removed the carpet from his room and painted the bathroom with mildewretardant paint, two examples Slattery points to of the extra care — but it’s more than that. 42 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

“It’s the opportunities they create by having affordable housing,” Slattery says. “They make it possible for young families to come here, so the guy’s not living in camp and the rest of the family living someplace else.” In the face of escalating demand nine years ago, the arm’s-length authority was created with $400,000 in seed money from the provincial ministry responsible for housing. “You shouldn’t have to spend more than 30 per cent of your gross income on housing,” says Bryan Lutes, president of Wood Buffalo Housing and Development. He says that one would need $69,000 in annual household income to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Fort McMurray, at a monthly cost of $2,000.

“We have touched the lives of around 20,000 people since we opened our doors,” says Lutes, who left the private development sector nearly six years ago to take on a challenge that fit his values. “My motivation comes from working with, and for, for-profit developers and seeing the greed that was there. All a guy has is his reputation. I’m doing something that I feel good about at the end of the day.” Lutes is proud of the corporation’s skill in using private-sector financial leverage techniques to build its assets. “When I took over, it had $82 million in assets and I’ve built it into $313 [million],” he says. “[That includes] $66 million of net assets — no debt — and $8 million in cash. We could easily double that and potentially triple it in the next five years, all to meet the need of housing.” Photo: Jeffery Borchert

The newest community under the Affordable Home Ownership Program, Hawthorne Heights at Eagle Ridge will consist of 130 two- and three-bedroom condominiums. Possession is expected in spring 2011.

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 43

Housing

Photo: Jeffery Borchert

Affordable

Bryan Lutes, president, Wood Buffalo Housing and Development

The $8 million in the bank, for example, is leveraged to build another 100 to 110 affordable units. The agency was set up as a not-for-profit under the Companies Act. Its income must be reinvested to provide affordable housing. About 85 per cent of its 1,150 units serve people who have what Lutes calls “good and viable middle-class jobs.” Besides that core, in Fort McMurray the corporation owns and operates a 100-bed homeless shelter, nearly 200 social welfare units and a 42-unit seniors’ lodge. It has a lodge in Fort Chipewyan as well. It also administers a second mortgage mechanism, lending up to 30 per cent of the total value of a dwelling at a moderate interest rate to help people buy into a market where $500,000 is a starter home and the average sale price of $660,000 will get buyers 1,000 square feet, if they’re lucky. The province owns all of the land around Fort McMurray, so the corporation has to plan and propose developments that will pass muster with its government overseers. “Being a not-for-profit,” Lutes says, “to be sustainable, we do anything we can to get money.” It’s all about innovation.

“Four years ago, we [developed] a 100-acre subdivision. We took the money and put it into affordable housing. We built an eco-industrial park, selling it off and putting the money into affordable housing. It’s not as green as we wanted it to be, but it has a green bent to it. “Three years ago, we built 93 townhouses using geothermal heat and cooling, and are under construction on 125 geothermal/solar units, using offsite modular construction to reduce the carbon footprint and give us a stronger, longer-lived building. We hope to have heating bills 70 to 75 per cent lower. We’re partnering with the University of Alberta to verify outcomes so we can do more.” It’s not just the quantity and innovation that are points of pride, it’s the quality. “They put so much into planning and development so it addresses real needs,” Slattery says. The corporation looks at what it takes to make a neighbourhood work and how to get people to become a real part of their community, she says. “They build neighbourhoods, and each one has a different feel to it.” In hers, for example, all of the vehicular traffic and parking are at the back of the homes, and all of the units’ front stoops open onto treed boulevards with wide, curving sidewalks and shared garden seating. “When you get home from work on Friday, you can park your car and not use it again until Monday. You can walk to the bank, the grocery store and the meat market.”

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Happy Anniversary & Congratulations!

w w w. keyan o.ca 44 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

Wood Buffalo Affordable Housing’s properties in Fort McMurray’s lower townsite.

That the corporation creates communities, not just units or housing projects, makes Lutes proudest of all. “Because we don’t have the pressures of having to pay dividends to a shareholder, we are able to do things,” he says. “In our 100-acre

subdivision, we put in sidewalks, parks and trees that private developers don’t want to do.” The real value of this investment goes beyond the safety and comforts of day-to-day living. Creating communities for raising today’s children will pay off tomorrow.

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NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 45

Housing

Affordable

“My kids will probably both come back here and not work in the oilsands but will provide quality support services to the community,” Slattery says. Her daughter is living her dream as a kindergarten teacher and her son is studying to become a high school science teacher. “They wouldn’t have this option if they hadn’t grown up in a safe and healthy environment that allowed me to work,” Slattery says. “A lot of the people using the services of Wood Buffalo Housing [and Development] are providing the support and services a community needs for people to be out in the oilsands doing what they do. The housing authority makes that possible, so it improves the quality of life for the community as a whole.” Living in an urban centre jam-packed with opportunity gave Slattery’s children the experience of growing up making friends from many different cultures. That made them unusually prepared for their chosen careers, which will entail working with a great diversity of people. Given its successes, Wood Buffalo Housing and Development is looking to be a model for other parts of the province. “We openly share any of our best practices and problems,” Lutes says. The province recently took over a project proposed by the housing authority that would have

seen it put sewer, water and roads into two parcels of land, then sell pieces to developers to finance building 4,000 affordable units. “We were working with five ministries creating the business plan,” Lutes says. “The province decided to do it on its own and give us 15 per cent of the units, 2,200 to 2,400 units, to help meet our needs for the next five years.” That frees up staff to work on redeveloping a 42-unit social housing site downtown into a longterm care, assisted-living project for seniors. By closing roads and alleyways to consolidate six full acres, the authority believes it could economically create 600 units in a four- or five-storey building plus three 15-storey towers. Located close to the hospital, the towers would be suitable for support services and would free up space in the hospital for medical needs. The seniors’ assisted-living component would have self-contained units where couples would not have to be separated, as so often happens now. Separate quarters for respite would allow the caregiving spouse a break. “It helps the mental health of the healthy spouse but provides for the needs of the incapacitated spouse” in an economical way, Lutes says. “We would put social housing back in, plus affordable housing, plus have space for nongovernmental organizations at an affordable rent. Anything beneficial to the community would get a preferential rate.”

Meeting the world’s energy demands will require one thing. The world.

Congratulations to the regional MuniCipality of Wood Buffalo on its 15th anniversary 46 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

The world’s population grows by 250,000 people every 24 hours. It’s expected that 8 billion people will occupy the earth in 2030, up from 6.5 billion today. Affordable and accessible supplies of energy are essential to economic growth and a reasonable standard of living. With oil and natural gas expected to meet some 60 percent of the world’s demand in 2030, it’s a global challenge. Which is why Marathon is at work applying technology and building unique partnerships to deliver the energy people need. From our multibillion-dollar investment in Canadian oil sands that contribute to North American energy security, to our significant exploration, production and development projects around the world, Marathon is committed to not only producing energy, but doing so in an environmentally sustainable way that creates long-term, mutually beneficial results. Responding to realities. That’s Marathon.

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Oil Sands Banquet

9/17/10 9:34 AM

Wood Buffalo Affordable Housing’s properties in Timberlea, one of Fort McMurray’s residential neighborhoods.

In a place where growth is a given, such innovation has a great chance of coming to fruition. Population projections fluctuate in tandem with oil price projections, but despite the long, cold, dark winters, “We’re at least going to double by 2028,” Lutes says. “It took us 20 years to double

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the last time; it could be triple in the next 20 years. By this time next year, we could have no singlefamily lots to build on and be a year away from getting some. Watch prices go up again.” And just watch Wood Buffalo Housing and Development cope.

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10-09-16 3:29 PM NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 47

Authority

New Airport Photo: Joey Podlubny

On the tarmac at the Fort McMurray airport, which is working on a $110-million redevelopment to better serve travellers, who are currently using a facility pushed significantly beyond its capacity.

48 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

Flight

plan by Renato Gandia

Establishment of a new Airport Authority pushes the much-needed Fort McMurray terminal redevelopment in the right direction

ort McMurray’s small-but-critical airport has clogged waiting rooms, a small baggage area, lacks in retail space, has a serious parking shortage and is facing more than one million passengers annually in the next two decades — all with a current design limit of 230,000 passengers each year. But, the airport has a multi-million-dollar flight plan with its new airport authority board piloting the grand facelift. With all the massive growth in the area in the past 10 years, one might say that a new airport terminal with all the bells and whistles is long overdue, and one would go unopposed. Fort McMurray Airport Authority chief executive officer Scott Clements says that if the oilsands industry is to successfully continue to grow into the future, the airport redevelopment and expansion — currently pegged at $110 million — is a crucial piece that must be in place.

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 49

Authority

New Airport

“I think it’s vital,” says Clements, a former lieutenant general in the Canadian Forces with close to 50 years of experience in aviation. He was appointed to the airport’s top post last year. “If we project that there would be continued growth in oilsands investment, as I expect everybody will concur, then the airport is just inadequate right now, never mind 5 or 10 years from now.” Fort McMurray’s aviation centre is Canada’s busiest regional airport with a single runway. It forms part of the gateway to the Wood Buffalo region, and it’s the key to the transformation of Fort McMurray from a small town to a dynamic city. If the oilsands hub wants to be more accessible to national and international passengers, as well as welcome charters to holiday destinations around the world, there’s no question that an expansion is in order. Fort McMurray airport ranks No.15 in Canada in terms of the number of passengers going through it annually, a significant leap from below No. 35 about five years ago. Thoughts of expanding Alberta’s northernmost regional airport became pressing in 2005, when officials saw a 300 per cent increase in annual traffic over the year 2000. Each year since, airport passenger traffic has increased by approximately 100,000 people, with 752,000 people projected to go through the airport in 2010.

The existing terminal is designed to hold a maximum of 200 people during peak hours, but actually takes in closer to 300 people currently when multiple flights land or take off. The numbers have completely outgrown the capacity of the terminal, which was built in 1985 — a decade before the oilsands really started to take off. The proposed design for the new terminal is in its seventh incarnation, and is expected to be endorsed by the authority this fall. One of the new features is the addition of expanded hospitality and retail vendors, and two larger baggage carousels. The new terminal will be built to incorporate future sideway expansions and will allow for some internal changes. It will even have an upper mezzanine for people to watch planes take off and land. Initial groundwork has begun, such as an upgrade to the water distribution system, but other work won’t be authorized until the expansion plan has been fully approved. Clements says he doesn’t know at this point how much the redevelopment will cost, but the latest public estimate was $110 million. Building the case for a new airport terminal appears to be a breeze, especially when the statistics back it up and the public demands it, but financing the improvement is quite another. So who’s paying for all the upgrades?

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“The users,” says Clements. “That’s the normal source for airport authorities in Canada; the source for capital is from the passengers.” That includes concession revenue, car parking, car rentals, ground leases and a host of fees such as airport improvement, terminal and landing. If the province and or the federal government want to chip in, the authority wouldn’t refuse it, says Clements. “I think we have a good case. We haven’t made the case, but we’re working on it. We won’t count on it, but it would be nice to get some help.” New Airport Authority boosts independence Regional officials did get some help in January 2010, with the formation of the Fort McMurray Airport Authority, the fourth in Alberta after Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer. Its board of directors has two representatives from the Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce, three each from the Oil Sands Developers Group and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, one from the Canadian Union of Public Employees and two from members of the public at large. Jeff Fitzner, chair of the Fort McMurray Airport Authority, says that one

of the advantages that the new structure has is to be able to enter into agreements without approval from a higher power. The former airport commission existed under the municipality, which in a way was restrictive because it was required to regularly get approval from the local government on many business matters. A governing municipality, for example, may restrict the commission from borrowing money, says Fitzner. And if a massive expansion is being undertaken that’s a hindrance and a headache airport officials don’t need.

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Vibrant communities We are proud to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo at the 2010 Oilsands Banquet.

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NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 51

“If we project that there would be

Authority

New Airport

continued growth

oilsands investment, as I expect everybody

will concur, then the right now,

airport is just inadequate

never mind 5 or 10 years from now.”

— Scott Clements, Chief Executive Officer, Fort McMurray Airport Authority “The authority is an independent legal entity that has no ties to the municipality or the province. If the municipality doesn’t like the decisions the board has made, it can rescind appointments of its own representatives.” Other groups represented on the board can do the same. “On the board we have individuals from the construction industry, oilsands industry, we have engineers, we have a private pilot, we have people with financial backgrounds, organized labour backgrounds and senior management levels,” says Fitzner. “We have highly experienced individuals who have managed hundreds of million dollars [in] projects.” As the first board chairman, Fitzner’s immediate top priority was to lead the group in establishing the authority’s governance structure and the tools it would need to effectively run. Once loose ends from the previous commission

to the new airport authority have been tied, the focus of the board officials can shift to the muchneeded expansion. From regional to international airport Although officials talk about redevelopment that will enhance the capacity of the airport to service national needs, doors are wide open to explore international service. That’s a whole different aviation goal, because it means setting up customs in Fort McMurray to open its doors to U.S. and other international flights. A more detailed timeline for this flight plan is yet to be determined and it’s expected to become more complex, but that’s just natural for an airport touted to be a future gateway to the riches of Alberta’s northern energy capital.

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52 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

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New ideas. New approaches.

Diversity

Ethnic

ort McMurray, the heart of Canada’s oilsands production, conjures up many different images to the uninitiated. Booming oil mecca. Environmental wasteland. High-octane party town. While none of these perceptions are complete, the city has been saddled with a multi-faceted reputation — for better or for worse. But there is another reality to Fort McMurray, a thriving community rich with cultural, ethnic and religious diversity. In many ways, it’s a story as old as Canada itself — people leave their homeland and arrive in a new one, in search of opportunity, prosperity and a new beginning for themselves and their families. As much as they leave behind, they also bring many things with them in the way of traditions, culture, religion and experiences. Luckily for Fort McMurray, the newcomers also happen

54 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

to bring a willingness to work hard, to learn and to provide the skilled labour that the booming oilsands industry and its supports require in spades. Since the early 1960s, Fort McMurray has had exceptionally robust job creation due to a proliferation of major projects operating 24/7. Not surprisingly, this demand has created a magnetic attraction for people from all corners of the world looking for a place where they can live and thrive, with virtually guaranteed employment opportunities. The region has experienced an average annual population growth rate of 9.9 per cent for the past decade. For a city of its size, Fort McMurray has grown and changed at a level that is on par with much larger urban centres, and has arguably come out on top in terms of embracing and celebrating diversity.

The jewels of culture and diversity thrive in the oilsands capital

The Fort McMurray by Leisa Vescarelli

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 55

Diversity

Photo: Joey Podlubny

Ethnic

Linda Ghobad, executive director of the Fort McMurray Multicultural Association.

While there is little official information pertaining to ethnic, cultural or religious demographics in the region, the anecdotal evidence paints a pretty clear picture — or mosaic, if you will. The presence of a multicultural association, dozens of churches, an Islamic Cultural Centre and an estimated 40 languages spoken, all attest to a surprising degree of diversity within this city of fewer than 80,000. For her part, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) Mayor Melissa Blake says that diversity in Fort McMurray is something she’s proud to promote to anybody who will listen. Having moved to Fort McMurray almost 30 years ago, this is the character that she has always known — what she calls a cultural Mecca for people from all around the globe. “When I moved here in 1982, I was coming from Quebec, so the cultural split there was English and French, but not so much by race or colour or religion,” Blake explains. “Of course, one of the first things I noticed was that there were a lot more people here of different backgrounds, but it was just nothing to me. It’s just the way it’s always been here, and it’s wonderful.”

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Blake notes that increasing oilsands development and the numerous employment opportunities that come with it are primary factors in immigration to the region, and she believes that this is a definite boon for business. “What you have now is a community that is made up of the best and the brightest people from all over the place, who are making this their home,” she says. “If you think about all the fresh perspectives coming into a workplace, from people with new ideas and new ways of looking at things, it’s pretty easy to see what an advantage that can be for the development and growth of a company.” Blake points out that oilsands development in the region is only one of the most recent contributing factors to the area’s diversity. It is a trend she traces back to Fort McMurray’s early days. “Certainly this region is diverse, and our history dates back to being the first European settlement in Alberta. Fur trading was one of the key drivers of the economy at that time, and if you think about the composition of the community then, as it was growing, there were people coming from all different places, and choosing to stay and make a home here.” Making a home for oneself away from home can be challenging, no matter how warm the welcome may be. For many immigrants, cultural associations and societies provide a source of information, familiarity and assistance with both the transition

Associated Engineering is proud to sponsor the 15th Anniversary Celebration honouring the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo

Photo: Claire Major

to a new community and with retaining ties to their cultures and countries of origin. Fort McMurray has a variety of cultural groups, including the Hindu Society of Fort McMurray and the Friends of Latin America of Fort McMurray. There are also many other residents who may not have an association specifically for their culture. The Multicultural Association (MCA) supports the community as a whole. The MCA was formed in 1984, following discussions between the municipality and members of local cultural communities on how to best meet the needs of a growing and increasingly diverse Fort McMurray. By 1985, the mandate and objectives had been set out, and the MCA was granted society status. Essentially, the MCA is an umbrella organization for the many cultural associations in Fort McMurray providing support, resources and education to their members and the public. A visit to its website — which is translatable to no fewer than 24 languages — reveals just how many different communities are self-defined within the community. MCA executive director Linda Ghobad explains that the association’s work fits into three broad categories. “We have programs that help with settlement, programs that focus on inclusion and programs that bring people together to look at similarities,” she says. “When you focus on similarities between people, you’ll find that prejudices and bias fall by the wayside.”

This summer the Fort McMurray Multicultural Association held a highly successful soccer event to help join different communities together.

Congratulations REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY of WOOD BUFFALO

on your 15th anniversary

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NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 57

Ethnic

Diversity

The settlement and transition phase can be especially tricky for newcomers. As Mayor Blake points out, “It’s even the little things. For example, if you think about knowing that you need to plug your vehicle in here in the winter, well for many people that’s a foreign concept. I mean, you just wouldn’t know to do that if you had never experienced it before.” While that is an example of a small detail, come winter and minus 40 degrees Celsius and below, it is an important one. Blake says there are several resources in the city specifically geared to assist with transition. Organizations like the MCA and the YMCA Immigrant Settlement Program help newcomers establish themselves in their new community by providing services such as translation, counselling, information, legal referrals and housing assistance. The Host Program at the YMCA even partners volunteer residents with immigrants so that they can learn about Canadian culture and adjust to life in their new home. Keyano College offers Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada, a program that is free to landed immigrants, refugees and live-in caregivers. The college also offers a number of other English as a Second Language programs depending on professional and personal needs, and immigration status. While successfully adapting to the new environment is crucial, it is equally important to celebrate and maintain cultural traditions as well,

and Fort McMurray’s cultural communities are no slouches when it comes to throwing a good party. There are a number of culturally based events, such as the Chinese New Year celebrations and South Asian Canadians Summer Fest, that catch the whole city up in the excitement. Smaller events can also prove quite popular, like the first multicultural soccer tournament hosted by the MCA in August, which Ghobad says was such a great success that many participants told her they would like to do it every month. “When you hear that, you know it’s done exactly what it was meant to do, which is to bring people together.” Mayor Blake says, “It’s such a unique situation we have here, and part of living is experiencing some of these cultural amenities and activities that really enhance the quality of life. You have these cultures not clashing, but rather mixing very well.” That is certainly the upside of bringing people together. However, there are often challenges in terms of combating discrimination and racism when ethnic diversity rapidly increases in a community. To that end, the region has taken an official stance against racism. In 2007, the municipality became 1 of 13 communities to join the Canadian Coalition of Municipalities against Racism and Discrimination, affirming their commitment and adherence to the 10 common commitments of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which are

Commitment Runs Deep

Congratulations to the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on your 15-year anniversary.

CONGRATULATIONS

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intended as guidelines to promote equality, diversity and inclusion in multicultural communities. Ghobad admits that discrimination is something one may encounter in Fort McMurray — as one might anywhere else — in individual instances, but says it’s not something she sees happening on a broad or commonplace scale. “You may hear people from other countries say that they’re overlooked for promotions, for example, but for the most part, the people I see on a daily basis are very open to diversity, and they welcome it.” Blake shares Ghobad’s perception that discriminatory or racist attitudes are not prevalent in the community. She goes one step further in positing that the city represents a fresh start for most of its residents, which facilitates an inclusive attitude for all. If this mindset prevails as Fort McMurray’s population evolves, it may very well prove that the true strength of a community is contingent on its ability to be both cohesive and diverse, or in other words to celebrate both the similarities and the differences among various communities and individuals. “People are all coming from somewhere else, which means when they come here, it’s a brand new start, and it’s not really a place to bring your baggage,” says Blake. “It would be my expectation that people are here for the opportunity and here with an open mind.”

There are currently more than 600 Muslim families living in Fort McMurray. The Fort McMurray Islamic Centre, one of the northernmost in the world, was established in 1983.

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ConocoPhillips is proud to be a sponsor of the 2010 Oil Sands Celebration Banquet, honoring the 15th Anniversary of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

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We view community investment in the oil sand s as an essential component of how we conduct our business. We invest in local communities because we want them to be healthy and sustainable for the long-term, whic h is especially important in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo becau se of the long-term nature of our projects. The projects we are developing now will be operating several decades from now , making it crucial for us to help build foundations for future generations. Please visit www.conocophillips.ca.

Centre

Oilsands Discovery

Photo: Joey Podlubny

25 years of discovery by Melanie Collison

uring the same four decades that the oilsands industry has been evolving into a vast commercial enterprise, museums have been transformed from dusty, stodgy places into self-contained worlds where exploration leads to discovery. One such place is the Oil Sands Discovery Centre in Fort McMurray as it explains the science of the oilsands’ deposition, relates the history of the industry and demonstrates the technologies of extraction. Feel the bitumen. Smell it. Taste it. Or not. “It’s hands-on,” says Nancy Dodsworth, the centre’s education officer, who signed a six-month contract in 1986 but wound up staying in Fort McMurray, as so many people do. Of the Discovery Centre, she says, “You can explore at your own pace and learn by whatever style suits you. We have

interactive exhibits, video, films, live demonstrations, guided tours, question and answer, children’s programs, information packages, information on the website, print material people can take home and the gift shop has [a variety of] souvenirs.” The Discovery Centre offers an introduction to the oilsands, whether the audience is Wood Buffalo residents, dignitaries such as Canadian or U.S. senators who periodically hit town, or visitors to the area who follow up a prowl around the centre with a half-day tour of the Suncor Energy surface mine site. And while staff don’t track how many of their 25,000 visitors per year are international, they do encourage guests to put a pin in a map of the world to show where they’re from. Exhibit hall text descriptions are available in French, German, Japanese and Braille.

The world’s only oilsands interpretive centre celebrates its first quartercentury of wonder

NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 61

Oilsands Discovery

Centre

The centre is pleased with such a high traffic count, because as Dodsworth says, “We’re not on the way to anywhere. People are coming specifically to see the facility, to take in the oilsands and see what it’s all about.” The exhibits in the main gallery are grouped by theme, beginning with information about the resource itself then moving on to surface mining and extraction, in situ technologies, upgrading and, finally, the environment. The exhibits spill out-of-doors, too. “The facility has an industrial equipment garden,” Dodsworth says. It displays equipment retired from companies when it was beyond maintaining or when it was overtaken by newer technology.

One of many educational attractions at the Oil Sands Discovery Centre is at the front portion of a lifesized heavy hauler, a replica of those used in oilsands mining operations.

“We have a full-size bucket-wheel excavator, loaders, a dragline bucket, a tractor, pump — different pieces that have been retired. People like seeing the real thing,” she says. “It’s another way of showing the history of the industry, and it gives people an idea of the size.” The Discovery Centre also serves as a valuable meeting place and repository of public record. Besides maintaining stacks of timely oilsandsrelated reading material such as Oilsands Review in its reference room, the facility houses all of the environmental impact assessments (EIAs) the regulators require of companies prior to development. These EIAs must be made available to the public as part of the application process for developing a land lease. “We are a provincial government facility run by Alberta Culture and Community Spirit,” Dodsworth says. The Discovery Centre falls under the branch that oversees all of the province’s museums and historic sites, such as Historic Dunvegan, Rutherford House, Royal Alberta Museum, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and the Royal Tyrrell Museum. “We are the only oilsands interpretive facility,” she adds. “Our site is unique because of the story we tell. We get a lot of international media.” The Discovery Centre works closely with industry to ensure its exhibits are up-to-date, accurate and engaging.

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62 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

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Centre

Oilsands Discovery

Nancy Dodsworth, education officer with the Oil Sands Discovery Centre.

Some companies provide regular support year after year. Shell Canada sponsors the schools program, Suncor Energy sponsors its summer camps, Syncrude sponsors the Syncrude Science Olympics for junior high students and donates a high school chemistry kit. For special events or to establish a new exhibit, the centre will approach industry for help. When it revamped its entire exhibit space and brought in the newest oilsands technologies in 2002, for instance, it called on close to 50 technical people in the industry as well as a team of creative services professionals. The revamp was supported by many organizations, including the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta, Shell, Syncrude, the Suncor Energy Foundations, Caterpillar, Finning Canada, Baker Hughes Inteq and Enbridge. Many other companies and individuals also contributed cash and gifts-in-kind to the $2-million upgrade initiative. An advisory committee that includes representatives of local government and educators as well

as industry ensures the community has input to keep the Discovery Centre fresh and relevant to the public. “We make little changes as we can,” Dodsworth says. The centre also incorporates suggestions from visitors. The facility has won various awards for its exhibits and education programs. Among them are a tourism industry award for its marketing partnership with the Fort McMurray Tourism Association, a Premier of Alberta Award for creative design and a multimedia award from the Alberta Petroleum History Society for telling the oilsands story in creative ways. One of those creative approaches is providing resources tailored to students from kindergarten to Grade 8 for teachers to use in their own classrooms. “We follow the school curriculum,” Dodsworth says. The kits incorporate science experiments and hands-on activities and make use of children’s natural inclination to learn through play. On Sept. 6, the centre celebrated 25 years of educating everyone from young children who play dress-up and pretend to dig and pump liquid through pipes, to “college kids [who] complain there are no dress-up clothes for them,” Dodsworth says, laughing, to seniors who “have a ball.”

Gibson Energy’s Oilsands Affiliates

Finning (Canada) is proud long to be part of ourFinning’s community term involveand to celebrate the ment and sup15th Anniversary of the port of the city Regional Municipality as it has grown of Wood or Buffalo the impact of the city’s growth

1-888-finning | finning.ca (346-6464)

1700, 440 - 2nd Avenue S.W. Calgary, Alberta T2P 5E9 Tel: (403) 206-4000 Fax: (403) 206-4001

www.gibsons.com

64 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

ElEctrical Powerline InstrumentatIon utilities & Distribution

IndustrIaL COnstruCtIOn & MAI N T E N A N C E

“Proudly SuPPorting our Community”

Celebrating 50 yearS

1962 – 2012

Congratulations to the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on your 15 Year Anniversary!

E L E C T R I C I N C.

Big Spirit

Wood Buffalo

66 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

big dreams, big potential, big community

Wood Buffalo’s image re-branding campaign continues with online videos and planning for a massive homecoming event

big spirit by Renato Gandia

As the saying goes, perception is reality — that’s why image is so important. For example, despite the vibrancy of communities in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB), from the outside they are often seen as the opposite — troubled, toxic and depressed — because the only messages getting out about them are negative. People in Fort McMurray, the heart of the RMWB and of the oilsands industry, wanted to start getting a different message out, so they started a campaign called Big Spirit. Launched in 2007, the image rebuilding program initially targeted Albertans and residents of select markets across Canada in an effort to balance the perceptions outsiders may have about the region. “Wood Buffalo, including Fort McMurray, is a regular feature in the media, primarily due to the controversy that surrounds the oilsands industry,” says Philip Cooper, a municipality spokesman close to the campaign. “One of the challenges the municipality has is a [perceived] image of our community which for those of us who live here isn’t necessarily the image we like to read about or see featured on broadcast media.” Big Spirit focuses on the people and quality of life found in the Wood Buffalo region. It tells stories that are different from what many outsiders have heard about Fort McMurray as merely a community of drug-driven transient types with

no roots or cares. The campaign chose community representatives whose stories debunk images that have floated around. Some of these Fort McMurrayites are profiled on the campaign website bigspirit.ca, including Aaron Lines, a popular country singer-songwriter, the National Hockey League’s Chris Phillips and Scottie Upshall, Hollywood actor and model Natasha Henstridge, and Canadian aboriginal actor Tantoo Cardinal. Visitors to the site can also find stories of those who are less glamorous but no less stellar in their own rights, such as that of local businesswoman Nicole Robinson. She’d be the first to tell you that Wood Buffalo is a long way from Newfoundland, but it’s a lot closer to The Rock in spirit than it is in geography. “There are so many people here from back home,” she says. “It really makes you feel like you are at home.” Robinson owns MiCasa Clothing, which began as a home-based business. It now supplies custom hair accessories to trendy children’s boutiques all over Alberta. In the years since she and her husband have lived in Wood Buffalo, they’ve been joined by her brother-in-law, who is an officer with the RCMP, as well as her husband’s parents, all coming to the area for the chance of a brighter future and better lives. “I’m able to do things here I would never had done back home. We’ve been able to make money, to save money. It’s opened up a whole new career for myself and my husband,” says Robinson. NOVEMBER 2010 | WOOD BUFFALO 67

Big Spirit

Wood Buffalo

Another story featured is that of Tim Reid, chief operating officer of MacDonald Island Park, a oneof-a-kind recreational facility in western Canada. Reid says he has found great professional success in the short time he has lived in Wood Buffalo, and the negative reputation that Wood Buffalo has been painted with is completely off the mark. “It’s a stereotype that’s really inappropriate: that there’s a sincere lack of community in Wood Buffalo. But the community is stronger-rooted and a much more enjoyable place to live than you’d think from the outside looking in,” he says. “The biggest thing that’s here is the drive to grow and improve. I think Wood Buffalo has gone through the challenges of an incredible boom, and because of that they’re investing in infrastructure and in the municipality. You see it with new roadways, with new urban developments, with new facilities like MacDonald Island. The political leaders understand that there’s a need to reinvest in this community if you want it to be a successful, sustainable region, and to me, that’s something to be proud of.” In addition to presenting the stories of successful Wood Buffalo residents and their views on the community, the Big Spirit campaign takes on some of the negative stereotypes about the region — specifically Fort McMurray — head on. These are images of the city being an out-of-control party town, crime and drug central, Alberta’s divorce capital, the most expensive Canadian community in which to live, and a terrible place to raise a family. Big Spirit admits that Fort McMurray is indeed a “party town,” but in a different way. “From world-class sporting events to an annual live-theatre festival, the wide array of familyfriendly celebrations show that local residents know how to have a good time.”

Apart from its natural beauty, Wood Buffalo Big Spirit campaign organizers want the world to know that the area is a safe and comfortable place in which to live and raise a familiy.

Photo: Jeffery Borchert 68 WOOD BUFFALO | NOVEMBER 2010

As for housing, the campaign notes that while its costs are higher than in other parts of the country, Wood Buffalo’s opportunities more than make up for it because it’s where one can find the highest average household incomes of any community in Canada at more than $160,000 annually. And residents are offered assistance to ensure their comfort. “To help offset housing costs locally, many of Wood Buffalo’s large employers provide living allowances to staff,” reads Big Spirit. “Likewise, home buyer programs such as those offered by the Wood Buffalo Housing and Development Corporation help make affordable housing an option for everyone. And finally, when it comes to groceries and supplies, many of the country’s largest retailers operate stores in Fort McMurray that follow national pricing guidelines, thus ensuring the cost of goods is comparable to the rest of Canada.” The campaign is advising naysayers who claim that marriage can’t thrive in Fort McMurray to take a second look, because its divorce rate per capita is only 14.5 per cent, lower than that of Edmonton at 17.6 per cent or Calgary at 15.3 per cent. And in terms of issues such as drugs and crime, Big Spirit offers that the region has its own share, but nothing more than what any growing community faces. Since the campaign was initiated, the Wood Buffalo community has inched forward towards rebuilding some of the destructive images hurled towards it by outsiders. But attacks on the oilsands industry, if not directly at the local community, haven’t abated, which has resulted in an increased challenge for the Big Spirit. For example, take the recent “Re-think Alberta” campaign, a smear project launched by Corporate Ethics International, which discourages tourists to come to the province because of the alleged environmental destruction of the oilsands industry. It’s a campaign not directly levelled against the community itself, but Wood Buffalo still feels the heat and is put on a defensive stance. Cooper says the stakes around defending the region from untruths or half-truths have become higher, but there’s some help coming from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and the province. “CAPP has been running very effective commercials on television, showing the other side of the oilsands industry,” he says. But for the image rebuilding of Wood Buffalo to be successful, officials believe their most important ally is the people who have the good news to tell. Cooper says these people have to take their positive stories wherever they go and, the municipality will do the same through some of its future planned activities — Big Spirit is about more than the print and radio advertising it has offered to date. Recently, campaign organizers sent a professional videographer to go around the area looking for people willing to share their personal

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Big Spirit

Wood Buffalo

“The

biggest thing that’s here is

the drive to

grow and improve.”

— Tim Reid, Chief Operating Officer, MacDonald Island Park experiences living in Fort McMurray. The series of videos, called Faces of Fort McMurray, will be launched this fall via a new website. Cooper says they hope the snippets of positive experiences will make inroads to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the likes, to combat unfavourable tales about the region. “We’re pretty confident this will assist us in engaging people in a conversation,” he says. Then, in January 2011, the next stream of the campaign, called The Turning Point, will be released on the web — a video telling the oftenheard story of Fort McMurray residents: that they only meant to stay temporarily but wound up calling it home for good. “A lot of people come up to Fort McMurray with a five-year plan. The video will capture why people have broken away from their plan [and] what caused them to stay in Fort McMurray,” says Cooper. Stories about falling in love, deciding to start a family, punching out all the negative

dialogues that surround the region will be front and centre. “We’ll show that people have decided to put down some roots and treat Fort McMurray as a place to live, rather than a place of transition.” And the campaign does not stop there. Big Spirit, Fort McMurray Tourism and other groups are organizing a massive grand homecoming event tentatively set for 2012. “We feel that there have been so many changes since 2003, with respect to how the community looks, with the improvements on major infrastructure, highways, bridges, buildings, [and] homes. A lot of people who may have lived here in the ’80s, ’90s and even this decade are probably out of touch with how much this place has grown,” says Cooper. “We would like to invite them, as well as Albertans and Canadians for that matter, to come and visit and spend their holiday time in Wood Buffalo.” Details are still in the works, but organizers want to schedule a week-long homecoming event either in the summer or early fall of 2012.

Congratulations! R EGIONAL M UNICIPALITY OF W OOD B UFFALO

Inter Pipeline Fund celebrates the spirit of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on its 15th anniversary

YOUR

15TH ANNIVERSARY!

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Celebrating 15 years as one big happy family. Happy anniversary Wood Buffalo. We are so incredibly proud to be part of the growth and success of our region. Syncrude and our more than 5,000 employees contribute in many ways to the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vibrancy, and we salute the countless others who share this commitment with us. By working together, all of us continue to make Wood Buffalo a great home for many â&#x20AC;&#x201D;including the noble animals who gave our region its name.

The Syncrude Project is a joint venture undertaking among Canadian Oil Sands Limited, Imperial Oil Resources, Mocal Energy Limited, Murphy Oil Company Ltd., Nexen Oil Sands Partnership, Sinopec Oil Sands Partnership, and Suncor Energy Oil and Gas Partnership.