Energy hub enjoys boom
But Hardisty awaits decision on Keystone XL
This is the place, the tiny speck on the Alberta map made famous by a pipeline that might never get built — the controversial Keystone XL.
And that’s a little odd, because a handful of pipelines already feed oil into and out of more than 70 massive storage tanks on the hill near here. It cost billions to build that tank farm and the black gold it stores is worth even more. Keystone XL would only join that party, not start it.
In fact, Hardisty’s conversion from rail stop and farming town to energy hub began with one valve and one line more than 60 years ago, so they know oil around here and they know that one more project, however large, probably won’t change their lives. Because it’s the same little town it used to be, give or take a new motel, before Keystone started grabbing headlines.
But thanks to that $5.4-billion proposal, Hardisty has had its 15 minutes of fame — or infamy, depending where you stand on the pipeline debate. All the media coverage in the past three years mentions Hardisty as the northern terminus for a line that would take 830,000 barrels per day to Cushing, Okla. And it’s natural to picture Hardisty in mid-boom due to current and expected development. Construction cranes blocking out the sun, town officials widening sidewalks, money dripping from the taps — that sort of overt prosperity.
Media types have come looking for signs of largesse every now and then, and the locals have been waiting on the boom for decades.
But the petrobillions that flow into the tank farm built by Enbridge, Husky, TransCanada, Gibson Energy and others only trickle down the hill and into this picturesque town, its few quiet streets nestled between rolling hills in the Battle River valley, about 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton. Though plenty of residents are employed in the energy industry — and intermittent tank farm construction requires workers who must be fed and sheltered — that work, those employees and their disposable in- come have always been temporary considerations.
Now, town officials say the boom has descended. For evidence, they point to an explosion in the value of development permits; to the expansion of the R&R Inn and the impending construction of a competitor; to a fully occupied eight-bay shop that is the initial development on a 19-hectare commercial parcel; to the fact the town has but 16 residential lots in its inventory and is sold out of commercial and industrial land.
“We’re a miniature Fort Mac right now,” said an enthusiastic Kevin Miller, who is chief administrative officer for the Town of Hardisty and Village of Lougheed, 20 kilometres northwest on Highway 13.
“As exciting as that is, it’s scary in its own way, too, because we want to make sure we manage the development as well. We don’t just want everything to all of a sudden explode and then, what happens in 10 years from now with water infrastructure, sewer infrastructure? We need to make sure we do it right, but oh, we’re excited, and we’re open for business.”
He was so excited by a 483-percent increase in the value of development permits that he issued a news release in early November. The figure jumped from $1.7 million in 2012 to $7.7 million, with another $5.2 million pending before the end of December, related to a large work camp proposed by Horizon North. Most of the development growth is industrial and commercial, with residential permit value flat at about $1 million again this year.
Edmonton-based developer Trevor Federkiewicz and his business partner are planning to build four duplexes on Hardisty’s 48th Street — with enough beds for 56 people — and will likely rent all four to oil companies for housing employees on temporary assignment.
“I didn’t know where Hardisty was a year ago, honestly,” said Federkiewicz.
The town is in dire need of something more tangible and lasting than the temporary money it has seen.
“All we can hope is there is a little bit of consistency,” said Mayor Anita Miller. “That would be the best for us. That’s the dream. You have to think positive and you have to have your doors open, to listen to the proposals that these developers bring to you. You have to encourage it or they’re going to knock on somebody else’s door.”