Fort McMurray doesn't have enough public services to deal with the growing number of senior citizens moving to the northern Alberta boom town, a seniors advocate warns.

More and more seniors — many of them from the Atlantic provinces — are relocating to Fort McMurray to be near their children, who have moved there to work in the booming oil industry.

Kay Boland, from Holyrood, N.L., is one of them. After her husband passed away, she moved west to be closer to her son, who works for an oil company.

"He said, 'Why are you here all alone, Mom, with all of those expenses? Why don't you come to Fort McMurray and live with us?'" Boland said.

Denise Nahirney, director of the Seniors Centre in Fort McMurray, said many of the older generation in her town are in similar situations.

Nahirney said she's glad to see more seniors in the community, but is worried that there aren't enough services for them in the community of 65,000.

She said Fort McMurray doesn't even have a long-term care facility.

"We have to do a lot of catch-up here in Fort McMurray because we do have quite a lot of seniors up here," Nahirney told CBC News.

Nahirney said politicians promised a facility before the March 3 provincial election and she's now counting on them to keep their word.