It began simple enough…. an email exchange between UC#3 and UC#1:
Gents- I know I’ve been a bit offline for WLBOTT, but I have a friend who is traveling to northern Alberta next week and she and I were talking and I recommended she take her engineering team to this restaurant in Fort McMurray. Looks yummy, but how in the heck did immigrants from Eastern Africa decide Fort McMurray was a good place to drop anchor?
UC#3
The criteria for getting a job in Ft Mac is simple: do you have a pulse?[1]
When I was in the oil hauling business it was not uncommon to see an African driver. Big money for a relatively simple task and they could drive 24-7 by working shifts with their cousins, brothers, friends, etc.
And it’s only 120F colder than Somalia.
UC#1
Canada, Why the Angst?
We can’t talk about Fort McMurray with getting into the oil sands biz. So let’s look at the big picture:
Or a mere 1.424124513618677% of the Canadian surface area.
US-Canada Relationship
Which brings us obliquely to US-Canada relationships.
This should be qualified by “for now”. The 2024 US presidential may change all that.
Ft. McMurray
From Wikipedia…
At WLBOTT, we like the nightlife. We like to boogie. Where does one go to boogie?
WLBOTT: If I were in Fort McMurray, Alberta, where would I go to boogie?
ChatGPT: As of my last knowledge update in January 2022, I don’t have specific information about current nightlife venues in Fort McMurray, Alberta. The availability of places to go for entertainment, including places to boogie, can change over time.
Is there anything else I can help you with? [i.e. I am the pinnacle of human intelligence. I will crush you when the singularity arrives.]
Tantoo Cardinal
Actress Rose Marie “Tantoo” Cardinal, was born in Fort McMurray.
Rose Marie “Tantoo” Cardinal CM (born July 20, 1950) is a Canadian actress of Cree and Métis heritage. In 2009, she was made a member of the Order of Canada “for her contributions to the growth and development of Aboriginal performing arts in Canada, as a screen and stage actress, and as a founding member of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company.”
Wikipedia
Tantoo has appeared in many movies, including Dances with Wolves, Smoke Signals, and Killers of the Flower Moon (where she was Nominated by the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture).
Smoke Signals is an especially poignant movie, which explores the idea of forgiveness. The soundtrack by Ulali is still a favorite at the WLBOTT corporate headquarters. Dr. Amanda Morris provides an insightful review of Smoke Signals here.
[April 2022]
But as of August 2021, much of the shrinking overall population comes from the commuter workforce shrinking by 17 per cent compared to 2018. About 89.95 per cent of the transient workforce is spread across 68 oilsands camps, down from the 109 facilities recorded in 2018.
Fort McMurray Today
Flood of 2020
[April 2020]
Fort McMurray resident Michelle Toner says it’s been a hectic, sad week in the northern Alberta city.
“Dealing with low oil prices, COVID-19 and now this massive flood that hasn’t happened in 100 years — it’s a lot, it’s a lot for people to take,” she said Wednesday.
Toner, 41, volunteered at one registration centre Monday, when officials evacuated much of the city’s downtown.
“I felt like I couldn’t sit at home and scroll Facebook all day and look at everything in town that was flooded,” she said. “Even though I have two small kids myself and there is a risk of COVID, I said to my husband, ‘If I don’t help and everybody doesn’t go, then who are the helpers?’
“Who was going to help all of these people?”
Nearly 13,000 were forced from their homes in Fort McMurray’s downtown this week after a 25-kilometre ice jam on the Athabasca River caused major flooding.
Eckville Echo
FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — An ice jam on the Athabasca River is nearly half the size it was earlier this week when it caused major flooding in Fort McMurray and forced 13,000 people from their homes.
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo says in a statement that the blockage was 13 kilometres in size Wednesday evening, down from 25 kilometres two days earlier.
Northeast Now
Semi-Sequitur: The Kankakee River
The Kankakee River is currently having a massive ice jam and flooding.
Kearl Oil Sands Project
WLBOTT Wonders: What is Bitumen?
The word derives from the ancient Greek ἄσφαλτος
Wikipedia
WLBOTT Wonders: What’s the difference between Asphalt and Bitumen?
Bitumen/asphalt are similar gooey things. Low end of the oil refining (and profit) ladder. Terribly hard to transport in large quantities and XOM has lost their shirt on Kearl – have to dilute the bitumen to transport via pipeline and trades very well below spot prices – I guess XOM has lost billions on this – we thought we were smarter than everyone else and didn’t do upgrading on site. And the Alberta government is imposing very high green house gas taxes. Rather than Saudi, I think shale production from Tx and NM are the rivals.
UC#3
Fort McMurray and the WLBOTT Beer and Cigarettes Index
Wood Buffalo Regional Library: Serving Fort McMurray
We clicked on the library’s link for directions, and got the full enchilada:
Cool…. leave a book, take a book….
[1]UC#1 Gives Focus to WLBOTT R&D
The criteria for getting a job in Ft Mac is simple: do you have a pulse?
UC#1
UC#1’s incisive comment made the board realize that we need to increase R&D funding for our twine-based artificial heart.
WLBOTT Wonders: How do we tap into this energy to support oil-sands greenhouse gas reduction?
2 replies on “Ft. McMurray, AB”
If you’re going to talk about Fort McMurray’s flood, you have to talk about its fire, somewhere around 2016. Devastated the city. There will be photos on-line of people trying to leave the city with walls of fire on both sides, with just one road out. Scary times!
There used to be a hand-painted sign just as you turned onto the road to Ft. Mac that read “No Exit”.