As boom spreads across province, McMurray will lose its advantage
Column: Gimme Some Grammar appeared in Fort McMurray Today June 9, 2006
By MICHAEL HALL
Today staff
Alberta is booming.
We all know that. The trouble is, we're all focused on the boom that's a lot closer to our homes and workplaces: in Fort McMurray.
At Today, we contribute to this self-centred attitude by writing about the Fort McMurray Factor and how it hurts everything from public facilities to oilsands plant upgrades.
We're not off base. The stories are true. The Factor is real. It directly hurts the quality of life here.
But, as someone I talked to recently pointed out, is it the whole story? Is there more?
He made the argument that what we're really looking at here is the Alberta Factor -- maybe you could call it the Wild Rose Factor after our province's official flower -- and we're not the only victims.
Traipsing around Edmonton, I've noticed there are as many help wanted signs in windows as here, it seems. I checked the Calgary Real Estate Board's website, and their home prices are neck-and-neck with ours.
My wife and I recently visited family in a small Alberta town we used to live in -- population about 1,500 -- and were told by relatives there have been 10 home sales.
"10 so far this year?" I asked.
"No, 10 last week," they replied.
When I lived there, whole years would go by without 10 sales. Whole years would go by with no new homes built.
This is amazing.
There are two driving forces. No. 1 is Wood Buffalo. The growth here is not contained within our borders -- it's spilling over. No. check that -- the growth is cascading past the municipality's borders faster than the Niagara River is tumbling over the Horseshoe and Niagara Falls.
Those big vessels coming up Highway 63 are built elsewhere in the province by skilled trades that are probably paid the same as workers here, minus the LOA, of course.
Those trailers, and even a new, two-storey home I saw recently, that are hauled up here are built by Albertans.
No. 2 is growth elsewhere. Corporations are moving their head offices to Calgary. People are coming west (or east, from B.C., although there's growth there, too) looking for better job prospects.
The boom is not just here. It's everywhere.
That's forcing growth pressures down south, too.
The news that the cost of a major interchange on Edmonton's south side had grown from $70 million to $120 million even before work started -- and that it could end up north of $150 million -- was the icing on the cake.
It's not just the Fort McMurray Factor, or even the Edmonton Factor anymore.
So what?
We lose our special status.
Last year's so-called "business case" put together by oilsands companies and the municipality made the argument that we're in a special situation here. It lobbied for $1.2 billion in infrastructure funding because of growth.
I support the conclusions, if not the bland, generic name of the study. I feel this region is not getting the respect it deserves from its contribution to the province's wealth.
The struggle was always with competing voices. Guy Boutilier is one MLA. His voice, no matter how insistent, gets drownedout by the rest of the Progressive Conservative caucus.
With the explosive growth elsewhere in Alberta, we may be losing the foundation of our argument -- that our infrastructure needs are not keeping up with the industrial and population growth.
Calgary, with two dozen MLAs, might make the same point. The same with Edmonton. And Red Deer. And Grande Prairie. And others.
The growth is good news for Alberta. It's a horror story for the next premier, who must sort between competing voices and demands on the provincial treasury.
It might be time for a new study to push our point home to Ralph Klein's successor.
But please, a more dynamic title for the document.
We don't want to get lost in the shuffle.
- - -
We have another new face to welcome to the Today newsroom.
Randy Edison, who hails from Springdale, N.L., arrived this week to take up the position of our Specials Editor.
Randy will be in charge of the many sections we publish during the year, from the big Extracting Energy supplement (you'll see the spring issue arriving in your mailbox in a couple of weeks), to sections that focus on specific themes, from graduation to housing.
Randy was manager and editor of the weekly Nor'wester newspaper in central Newfoundland, and I know his long experience there will put him in good stead for his work here.
Please welcome Randy and his fiancee to Fort McMurray.
© Copyright 2006, Fort McMurray Today.
By MICHAEL HALL
Today staff
Alberta is booming.
We all know that. The trouble is, we're all focused on the boom that's a lot closer to our homes and workplaces: in Fort McMurray.
At Today, we contribute to this self-centred attitude by writing about the Fort McMurray Factor and how it hurts everything from public facilities to oilsands plant upgrades.
We're not off base. The stories are true. The Factor is real. It directly hurts the quality of life here.
But, as someone I talked to recently pointed out, is it the whole story? Is there more?
He made the argument that what we're really looking at here is the Alberta Factor -- maybe you could call it the Wild Rose Factor after our province's official flower -- and we're not the only victims.
Traipsing around Edmonton, I've noticed there are as many help wanted signs in windows as here, it seems. I checked the Calgary Real Estate Board's website, and their home prices are neck-and-neck with ours.
My wife and I recently visited family in a small Alberta town we used to live in -- population about 1,500 -- and were told by relatives there have been 10 home sales.
"10 so far this year?" I asked.
"No, 10 last week," they replied.
When I lived there, whole years would go by without 10 sales. Whole years would go by with no new homes built.
This is amazing.
There are two driving forces. No. 1 is Wood Buffalo. The growth here is not contained within our borders -- it's spilling over. No. check that -- the growth is cascading past the municipality's borders faster than the Niagara River is tumbling over the Horseshoe and Niagara Falls.
Those big vessels coming up Highway 63 are built elsewhere in the province by skilled trades that are probably paid the same as workers here, minus the LOA, of course.
Those trailers, and even a new, two-storey home I saw recently, that are hauled up here are built by Albertans.
No. 2 is growth elsewhere. Corporations are moving their head offices to Calgary. People are coming west (or east, from B.C., although there's growth there, too) looking for better job prospects.
The boom is not just here. It's everywhere.
That's forcing growth pressures down south, too.
The news that the cost of a major interchange on Edmonton's south side had grown from $70 million to $120 million even before work started -- and that it could end up north of $150 million -- was the icing on the cake.
It's not just the Fort McMurray Factor, or even the Edmonton Factor anymore.
So what?
We lose our special status.
Last year's so-called "business case" put together by oilsands companies and the municipality made the argument that we're in a special situation here. It lobbied for $1.2 billion in infrastructure funding because of growth.
I support the conclusions, if not the bland, generic name of the study. I feel this region is not getting the respect it deserves from its contribution to the province's wealth.
The struggle was always with competing voices. Guy Boutilier is one MLA. His voice, no matter how insistent, gets drownedout by the rest of the Progressive Conservative caucus.
With the explosive growth elsewhere in Alberta, we may be losing the foundation of our argument -- that our infrastructure needs are not keeping up with the industrial and population growth.
Calgary, with two dozen MLAs, might make the same point. The same with Edmonton. And Red Deer. And Grande Prairie. And others.
The growth is good news for Alberta. It's a horror story for the next premier, who must sort between competing voices and demands on the provincial treasury.
It might be time for a new study to push our point home to Ralph Klein's successor.
But please, a more dynamic title for the document.
We don't want to get lost in the shuffle.
- - -
We have another new face to welcome to the Today newsroom.
Randy Edison, who hails from Springdale, N.L., arrived this week to take up the position of our Specials Editor.
Randy will be in charge of the many sections we publish during the year, from the big Extracting Energy supplement (you'll see the spring issue arriving in your mailbox in a couple of weeks), to sections that focus on specific themes, from graduation to housing.
Randy was manager and editor of the weekly Nor'wester newspaper in central Newfoundland, and I know his long experience there will put him in good stead for his work here.
Please welcome Randy and his fiancee to Fort McMurray.
© Copyright 2006, Fort McMurray Today.
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