Booming Lloydminster
Lloydminster works through ‘growing pains’
An oil town wrestles with growing pains.
LLOYDMINSTER – Lloydminster fits the stereotype of a classic western boom town — a city full of transient young adults, an increase in drugrelated crime, and a new strip club just off the highway.
But that’s certainly not all there is to Lloydminster.
“A lot of people comment, you can almost divide Lloyd down the middle,” says Amanda Amundrud, who grew up here and opened a community restaurant and music venue in one of the youngest cities in Canada.
Lloydminster has its image problems, she said.
“There’s people who are rowdy and drinking, a little bit more aggressive. Then there’s this group of conscientious, like-minded people, these artists and musicians who are gathering, coming together and realizing, ‘Hey, you live here, too?’ ”
“People come in and say, ‘This place feels like an oasis in Lloydminster,’ ” says Amundrud, 32, looking around at the local art and crafts displayed in her restaurant.
“This is essentially a reflection of Lloyd. I want to always remind people of that.”
Lloydminster is a boom town that’s beginning to show its diversity.
Husky laid the groundwork for this current boom when it opened its Lloydminster upgrader in 1992. It’s the largest employer in the city, and spawned an even larger oilfield service industry.
“That was one of the larger things that started to create a critical mass,” said Ward Read, CEO of Lloydminster Economic Development, giving a quick tour of the economic hot spots.
Standing at the Universal Industries tank manufacturing facility, Read, 32, points across a field to Husky’s asphalt refinery, then to the plumes of steam from ADM’s Canola facility. ADM will add a 265-million-litre bio-diesel production plant in 2013, which will double Canada’s capacity.
The asphalt refinery is Husky’s second facility in Lloydminster. Its upgrader handles 78,000 barrels a day.
All this activity has led to a construction boom that can be felt in the growing southern suburbs where two new schools and a long-term care centre are under construction.
Total construction activity topped $180 million last year, far more per capita than in Edmonton or Calgary, said Read.
But that has brought challenges, too.
The oil boom pushed Lloydminster’s average age down to 31, nine years younger than the Canadian average, and drew a host of transient workers and uprooted young families from across Canada.
Gang and drug-related crimes increased with the boom. In the past couple of years, the level of violence has been scary, with stabbings, beatings and a grenade thrown into a residence, said RCMP Cpl. Shayne Hartwell.
“It’s growing pains. I don’t think it’s any worse than any other town,” said city Coun. Jason Whiting, 32, pointing to the new RCMP station under construction beside city hall. It’s six times the size of the previous station, and shows the city’s commitment to fighting crime, he said.
Anglican minister Michael Stonhouse led a community petition against a local nightclub’s decision to start bringing in strippers this fall, worried the city’s first strip joint in years might increase the activity of organized crime.
He also serves on the board for Lloydminster’s first homeless shelter, which opened four years ago and has already reached capacity on several nights.
Eric Benum, 20, lay in the foyer waiting for the doors to open on a recent Wednesday.
He’s been staying at the shelter for three months, unable to find an affordable apartment on the $400 paycheque he gets for pulling wrenches and sweeping up at a mechanic’s shop as he finishes his high school diploma.
But he’s grateful for the bunk bed and free meal, even for the breath test he takes before entering every night.
“I wouldn’t have been sober as long as I have been if it wasn’t for this place.”
Services in the town are stretched and many people at the bottom are struggling, Stonhouse said.
As for drive-by shootings and gang-related violence, “Who wants growth if that’s what comes with it?”
“To me, there are certain community values that are more important than growth. Foster a sense of community involvement and shared responsibility. That’s good.”
That community passion is growing. Amundrud’s restaurant The Root and the street dance it sponsored at harvest is one example, as is the Here Comes Santa Day that drew about 1,000 people downtown for sleigh rides, cupcake decorating and fireworks.
The community’s summer street festival has become a celebration of the town’s growing ethnic diversity, said Pat Tenney of the Chamber of Commerce.
Last year, when a Whitecourt investor threatened to buy and move the city’s Bobcats hockey team, members of the community stepped forward and bought 800 seasons tickets. In just a month, Friends of the Lloydminster Bobcats sold 100 shares worth $5,000 each to keep the Bobcats home.
Amundrud started her effort at community outreach one year ago.
“I just felt if I needed something like this, maybe others do, too,” said the former special education teacher who learned how to run a restaurant on the job.
“Lloyd’s grown a lot. It’s so different from when I grew up here,” she said.
“My purpose is really to unite our community through local food, art, music and movement,” she said, describing the teenagers now getting their first start with openmike Tuesdays. Strangers invite others to share a table on crowded nights, and the community is growing stronger.
“When you see people looking at each other and talking ... it just takes everything to a different level,” she said. “That energy together makes miracles take place.”