Non-resident workforce no good for Fort McMurray: U of A study

Fly-in, fly-out workers are resented in community, researchers find

FORT MCMURRAY A study by the University of Alberta on the commuter workforce in the oilsands concludes the “fly-in, fly-out” practice hurts the long-term sustainability of Fort McMurray, confirming arguments residents and local politicians have been making for years.

It found the transient workforce had little interaction with the local community, and concluded this was the root of many of the social and economic grievances against them.

Researchers also found residents resented the workers. They argued the workers strained infrastructure and services, such as retail and health care, while not paying local taxes and spending most discretionary income in their home community.

“This temporary workforce is not optimal and creates some tensions, but it is necessary,” said Leith Deacon, assistant professor in the university ’s urban planning program, Tuesday. “This group of workers is not going to change anytime soon. When the economy goes up, they’ll be required again.”

The report, based on interviews with 25 Fort McMurray residents, studied how the community views the mobile workers, commonly referred to as “FIFO” for fly in, fly out. It is part of a broader project run by Social Community Planning Development, which has been studying how a transient labour force impacts communities dependant on resource development.

While only 25 people were interviewed for this paper, Deacon says he has interviewed approximately 45 to 50 people as a part of the broader ongoing project. A total of 180 people have been interviewed in resource communities in Newfoundland, Alberta, B.C. and the Northwest Territories.

The researchers also took aim at outside media, who often chose to interview camp workers with a limited knowledge of Fort McMurray rather than actual residents. The interviews promoted “a sense of notoriety” that residents felt presented “an inaccurate snapshot of local conditions.”

The solution to many of these problems, said Deacon, is that communities must find ways to include temporary workers in the community, or at least encourage them to give it a chance.

“A lot of people criticize Fort McMurray for lots of reasons, but they’ve never been there,” he said. “There’s rivers and a stunning landscape. Try to sell that, for instance.”

As oil prices climbed at the start of the new millennium, the city expanded northward and westward, while dozens of work camps for the oilsands’ commuter workforce sprouted throughout the boreal forest.

In 2015, these bustling camps housed 43,084 workers, a population larger than Fort McMurray’s in 1999, according to the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo census.

This temporary workforce is not optimal and creates some tensions, but it is necessary.