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Alberta Oil Magazine takes an in-depth look at infrastructure challenges that persist for Fort McMurray, the centre of Canada’s oil sands industry, in the middle of a global bonanza.
Alberta Oil reports the situation isn’t surprising considering the community’s population has grown by 80% since 2000 and more than 32% of Wood Buffalo’s 104,338 residents are under the age of 25.
The birth rate in the city has also soared – rising from 600 per year in 2005 to 1,200 in 2009 and 2010. As more people come to Fort McMurray for the work a growing oil sands sector will bring, the number of births will continue to rise. So will the crowding in its schools if new ones are not built.
Economic booms are not kind to people looking to buy a house or rent an apartment. That’s certainly the case in Fort McMurray. According to statistics from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the average monthly rent for a bachelor suite in the city in April was $1,441. The average cost of a single family dwelling is $746,315.
Image of Sign welcoming to Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, on October 2, 2008 is by Frontpage | Shutterstock.com
3 Comments
Steve_mac2222
If the Alberta and Federal governments stopped pulling all of the cash out of the Wood Buffalo region and spending it in the rest of Alberta things would certainly be better in Ft. Mac. The center of the oil industry in the western hemisphere has a 2 lane highway leading to it that is commonly known as the highway of death due to the large number of fatalities on that highway. In Edmonton there are multiple overpasses being built that don’t even have constructed roads leading to them yet. Why is it taking years to build overpasses on the highway 63 intersections in Ft. Mac where the workers and residents of the area have to endure daily traffic jams in the mornings and evenings? It sometimes takes 1.5 hours to go 30 kms.
Why does the provincial government hold all the land around Ft. Mac and release it bit by bit to developers? Housing is grossly inflated in Ft. Mac due to the stranglehold on the land and greediness of the developers.
Why are there no rent controls? When I first came to Ft. Mac my monthly rent jumped from 3500/month to 4500/month at the time of lease renewal.
The opportunity in Ft. Mac is huge; both the federal and provincial governments need to stop treating it as a cash cow and reinvest the tax money back in to the community. Centralized governments don’t belong in Canada.
An oils sands worker.
Bjp457
Hey Steve_mac222
If you don’t like centralized government, just who do you think will implement your “rent controls”??
messiah
steve Mac2222 if you dont like the heat go back to Newfoundland where the population has decreased by 80 percent since 1995