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Fort McMurray

Our CBC crew has now been to Fort Mac and Back

We asked them to give us impressions of the community now that they were on their way back.

Here's some of what they said:

When I got of the plane here in Fort McMurray, I felt like I was home in Labrador. The same climate, geography, friendly people and dirty pickup trucks were all here. And after a week, I still feel that there are many similarities between the two regions. People here have a real pride of place whether they have been here for two or 20 years or plan to leave tomorrow or stay forever, this is their home and they hate to see that it's getting a bad reputation.

But the difference between the two places is obvious: it's wealth. The place is always moving, people are always working or talking about work. Some have told us that they have no social life because they work so much. But that's what they came here for and for many it means that they will be able to go back home and settle into a comfortable lifestyle thanks to Fort McMurray.
(Host Cindy Wall)

Flying in, it's all flat and farmland then suddenly you hit a swath of what looks like black spruce and looks like home. The sunrise is phenomenal. The people I met were brisk, matter of fact, very busy, warm, helpful, and really intense about how they feel about the place. [They] intensely wanted us to see the good sides. I saw steaks as thick as my mattress, in the supermarket ... and I don't know what they feed the pigs up this way, but porkchops like badminton rackets.

You can really smell the bitumen. Once you calm down and realize its not your clutch - you get used to it.

Everyone has a fascinating story. Everyone has babies. Sixty-five are born each and every month. This is most clearly a city of growth ... and for me, that's the starkest difference between Fort McMurray and home.
(Producer Terry LeDrew)

I was also surprised at how multinational Fort McMurray is. You hear about people from Newfoundland and Labrador moving to Fort McMurray all the time. It's easy to think of this place as another Newfoundland city with so many from the province living here, but there's a large community of people living here from the Philippines, India, and many more places. I spent some time in a school classroom, where students' names ranged from the Newfoundland name 'Mercer' to the Middle Eastern surname 'Ahmed.' This surprised me. I thought of the city as a town with big dirty trucks, hard hats, and oil money.

The traffic problems here also surprised me. I had heard about them second-hand, but never experienced them. People in Fort McMurray avoid driving during shift changes on the oil projects because the highways become blocked. There was an accident on that highway a couple of days ago, and it shut the highway down for four hours. Traffic was at a standstill.

People are protective over their city. It may be facing huge challenges as it booms, but this is their home and they have nothing but good things to say. For them, the traffic is their major complaint. And they're very happy with what's here for children. One person I ran into from Newfoundland said he didn't like it here until he had kids. Then, he met a community of others who were also raising children. And this became home.
(Reporter Lee Pitts)