RMWB supports motion ending work camps; will draw up bylaw next.

[16hypen3sp]

RMWB voted earlier tonight to deny new camp construction and deny permit renewals for existing camps within 75km's of Fort Mac urban centre. The days of work camps are beginning to come to an end it seems.

Here is an article regarding it.
https://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/ne...-fort-mcmurray

As some of you may know, I'm a FIFO worker working in the oil sands. I enjoy camp life. There is no day to day commute. It's nice and simple. Plus I get more rest.

I have serious, serious issues with what the RMWB is doing. I do not want to live in Fort Mac. My family doesn't. My girlfriend doesn't want anything to do with it. This is forced relocation by the municipality. The only option that I see, if this becomes law, is renting a place which is going to be a huge added expense. I'd have a rental in Fort Mac as well as a mortgage at the same time in Central Alberta.

Things will get a lot more complicated if this goes thru. The province should step in and stop this because those idiots have lost their god damn minds. These morons want to prop up the real estate market so some can get their cash and bail. I'm assuming all the councilors own real estate in Fort Mac. It should be a conflict of interest on those grounds.

[dirtsniffer]

I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the surface I'm happy that it will be harder for people from other provinces to work in the region, but it obviously impacts Albertan's as well. I'd have to see the break down on demographics.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...alo-mayor-says

Seems like it will impact 60,000 Albertan's and 30,000 Canadians. Tough issue for sure.

[AndyL]

Just means more crew houses... Because I worked at all the sites, and in town we all lived in a company provided house in town.

But the daily drive out to firebag etc really sucked.

I get the feeling this is more a tax grab than a well thought out plan.

[ThePenIsMightier]

Maybe they should ban hotels & motels, too. Seems reasonable.
So well thought out.

[dirtsniffer]

There is a lot more to this than just the price of housing. The town wants to support local people. Restaurants, grocery stores, trades and services.

It would be hard to see unemployed local people when 100,000 people are staying in camps.

[ExtraSlow]

This will murder people on the roads. Hwy 63 north of town will be a graveyard.

[lasimmon]

How many big camps are within 75 km?

Move them 75.1 km away from Fort Mac?

The city can't honestly think people will actually move there...

[bjstare]

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This will murder people on the roads. Hwy 63 north of town will be a graveyard.

This is true.

[killramos]

Not to mention companies don’t want people living in the towns. They want people in dry camps, close to work, on limited term contracts.

[lasimmon]

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Not to mention companies don’t want people living in the towns. They want people in dry camps, close row rock, on limited term contracts.

How many camps are dry these days? I only have a couple friends still doing the FIFO thing and a couple of them can drink at their camps.

[HiTempguy1]

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This will murder people on the roads. Hwy 63 north of town will be a graveyard.

Everytime I come up, there is at least one rollover a day.

The roads yesterday were some.of the worst I've ever been on, pure ice, -30*c, at 90km/h the back end of the truck would step out with winter tires just trying to maintain the pace, gusts of wind would kick it sideways.

There is no way this happens, Ft Mac will be a shitshow. Why do municipalities vote for such retards?

[ExtraSlow]

If it's 75 km radius, that includes basically all the big mines according to my (admittedly limited) google maps skills. If it's road distance, then I think the Fort Hills project would be excluded for sure. To the south this would cover Nexen (CNOC) Long Lake for sure.

[Xtrema]

This is the most NDP thing I have seen out of the region and is surprised.

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This will murder people on the roads. Hwy 63 north of town will be a graveyard.

1st thing out of my head too.

[jwslam]

Was talking to someone about this and they said the companies should just strike a deal and build camps on Native land.

[Perfect Dark]

It's definitely the added volume of traffic on the highway north of that shithole that would worry me, you're talking about thousands of extra vehicles in the changeover commute.

[nzwasp]

How come they have never twinned that road the whole way, or provided decent road lighting?

[Misterman]

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How many camps are dry these days? I only have a couple friends still doing the FIFO thing and a couple of them can drink at their camps.

Basically all of them. Other than maybe Clean Harbours camp, I can't think of another one that isn't dry.

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If it's 75 km radius, that includes basically all the big mines according to my (admittedly limited) google maps skills. If it's road distance, then I think the Fort Hills project would be excluded for sure. To the south this would cover Nexen (CNOC) Long Lake for sure.

North of town this affects nobody. Syncrude has a camp, but it's basically just for shutdown workforce. And sites are still allowed to use camps for extenuating circumstances....................like shutdown work. All the actual FIFO camps north of town are outside the 75km radius, which is exactly why the original motion of 120km got voted down I assume.

To the south Nexen I think is the only one affected. And the don't offer FIFO anyway. Pretty sure any other sites out that way have camps around Mariana Lakes which is 100km south of town.


This motion is nonsense and does almost nothing. The part that is worrisome, is that the article I read says they want to phase FIFO workers down to 10% by 2030. If they are talking about all FIFO workers in the region and not just this silly 75km radius, then they are shooting themselves in the foot big time. With the pipeline debacle already sending investment dollars elsewhere, making business harder for these companies by ensuring they won't have reliable workforce is just going to be another nail in the coffin for investment into the RMWB region.

[nzwasp]

The camps that used to serve the Shell Albian project back in the day weren't dry. I dont know if that is still the case now that CNRL has taken over.

[Misterman]

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How come they have never twinned that road the whole way, or provided decent road lighting?

What do you mean by the "whole way"? It is twinned all the way to Syncrude now, has been for some time. I think it is even twinned past that point now. Other than Syncrude Aurora traffic there shouldn't be much going past base site.

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The camps that used to serve the Shell Albian project back in the day weren't dry. I dont know if that is still the case now that CNRL has taken over.

Shell Albian made the switch to dry awhile back.

[nzwasp]

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What do you mean by the "whole way"? It is twinned all the way to Syncrude now, has been for some time. I think it is even twinned past that point now. Other than Syncrude Aurora traffic there shouldn't be much going past base site.

All the way to forthills obviously, where the road ends. I dont consider syncrude even that far out of town.