Fort McMurray's mayor wants a $6.5 billion oilsands project temporarily shelved, saying her region is already stretched to the limit.

Melissa Blake and members of the Wood Buffalo region's municipal council went before a regulatory panel in Edmonton Tuesday to make their case to delay the latest mega-project slated for Alberta's oil rich north.

The explosion of oil sands development has already caused a housing crunch, stretched social and hospital services, and created traffic problems and a full dump, said Melissa Blake.
(CBC News)

Quality of life issues are at the forefront of the municipality's concerns about Imperial Oil's Kearl proposal, which would see on average 300,000 barrels of bitumen a day mined.

The panel hearings, which began Nov. 6 and run until Friday, is made up of a federal representative and two members of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board.

Blake told the joint panel that if the project is approved, local communities will suffer.

People who live in Fort McMurray will receive hardly any of the wealth the project will generate, but will shoulder the negative impacts, she said.

The explosion of oilsands development has already caused a housing crunch, stretched social and hospital services, and created traffic problems, she said.

Workers will live in remote camp

Imperial Oil spokeswoman Kim Fox said the Kearl site is about a two-hour drive from Fort McMurray, so workers would live at a fly-in camp.

"And we have about $400 million worth of infrastructure that we will be building to support our operation," she said.

"The project's actual impact on the community will be quite minimal because our workers will live and work on our project site outside of the Fort McMurray area."

Blake said after the meeting that Imperial's idea of flying workers into a camp means the company won't be contributing to the community, heightening the transient image of Fort McMurray.

"The fact that we don't have these employees coming and staying in the region, they don't bring spouses, they don't bring children we don't have a supplementary workforce that flows from that."

The joint panel's decision on the project is expected in the spring.

Similar concerns raised about Suncor expansion

Blake raised similar concerns at a hearing into Calgary-based Suncor Energy Inc.'s plan to develop a surface mine and bitumen upgrader near Fort McMurray.

Last week, Alberta's energy regulator warned the provincial government that it must ensure oilsands development doesn't further strain the infrastructure in the Fort McMurray area.

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board gave the warning in its decision to grant conditional approval  to the project.

The regulator said the provincial government must ensure the municipality can service the region's booming population by helping address a lack of land, housing, health care, sewer and water, and other services.