In Fort McMurray, Alberta, Everything is Big...Even the Mosquitos
Don’t forget your shovel if you want to go to work
oh, don’t forget your shovel if you want to go to work
don’t forget your shovel if you want to go to work
or you’ll end up where you came from
like the rest of us, diggin’ diggin’ diggin’
– Christie Moore,
Irish Ballad Singer
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
Fort McMurray in Alberta has the energy and the oil. This vast region of northeast Alberta is a land of rich resources and if you really want to work and make money, Fort McMurray - or fort-make-money as it is otherwise known – is a town with big opportunities.
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RONAN DEANE is the sixth boy in a family of six boys and one girl. He is shown here (centre) with his brothers (L-R) Mark, Don, Jim and Eoin Deane.
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In fact everything is big in Fort McMurray. The specialized trucks used by the oil sands industry are among the largest in the world, and the size of the mine sites defies all imagination. While the oil sands plants are major employers, residents are also engaged in a wide section of professions and occupations.
By 2011 Alberta’s oil sands are expected to generate nearly two million barrels of crude oil per day – representing more than half (56 percent) of Canada’s projected total crude oil production, which will generate 60,000 jobs by 2020. And with every job created in the plants, three more jobs are created in the region which are not exclusive to the oil sands.
Syncrude and Suncor are already supplying more than 25 percent of Canada’s energy demand. The Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River oil sand deposits hold more oil than Saudi Arabia with 300 billion barrels of recoverable bitumen. In effect, Alberta’s oils sands hold the position of being North America’s number one supplier with enough resources to provide 50 percent of Canada’s energy needs by 2010.
Fort McMurray is a young community where the average age is 30 and less than 2,000 residents are over 60 years of age. More than half of the population – which includes a large representation of former Newfoundland residents – are connected to the oil industry. Not surprisingly, there are 10 percent more men than women in Fort McMurray.
There are also many young Irish in Fort McMurray, including Ronan Deane from Cork City who recently spoke to The Celtic Connection about living and working in this oil-rich Alberta town.
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MEN are dwarfed by an enormous storage tank ready for unloading at the Suncor plant in Fort McMurray.
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Ronan works for Jacobs Catalytic Limited, a maintenance, construction and a world-wide engineering company. He said, “we have about 900 people on site and at the moment we are in the middle of a turn-around at Suncor.
“A turn-around is basically a maintenance shut-down of the plant. What we do is open all the valves, clean things out, repair pipes that need repairing or replacing and basically clean out all the pumps and whatnot in the plant. We have a deadline to finish the job because when you’re in a turn-around production stops...so oil companies don’t like production being stopped for any length of time.”
Speaking about the current high cost of gasoline at the pumps, Ronan said, “we pay a lot for gas up here in Fort McMurray. Actually it’s cheaper in Edmonton and the reason for that is that the oil is piped down to the refineries in Edmonton, and then it’s sent back up to the gas stations here. There are pipelines all over North America....it’s like a spiders web.”
In Fort McMurray the wages are high but so is the cost of living and the infrastructure isn’t really keeping pace with the present demands and the influx of people. Ronan said, “I think officially people will tell you there are 47,000 people living in Fort McMurray, but there are probably 65-70,000 people all together; between transient people living in camps, hotels and living 12 to a basement.
“I guess the problem with all this success is that you’d think you were living in Vancouver with the prices of houses. The infrastructure isn’t really ready for it and they are trying to do something about it, but it’s pretty knee jerk at the moment...it’s a crazy place. Houses and apartments are being built as fast as they can. You can pass by a green field one day, and the next day there’s a 400-room apartment block there...it’s incredible!”
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A WINTER’S DAY in Fort McMurray. The town sits in the middle of the muskeg which is a huge forest.
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Because of the big drug problem in Fort McMurray most of the job sites have introduced random alcohol and drug tests for employees. 𠇊 lot of money’s worth of drugs comes up the highway every day,” said Ronan, “cocaine and crystal meth are a big problem here but the biggest and scariest problem is people using these drugs and going to work.
“If someone is under the influence and hurts someone else at work, then that’s a sign of a problem. The companies try to get the workers to look after each other and if you come forward and say, ‘look, I think I have a problem’, then they will try to support you. So, it’s a pretty compassionate situation up here.
“But you can’t take chances with safety and safety is the most important thing in Fort McMurray. There was a time when it was all about production – don’t get anybody wrong, production is still a big deal – but production at the expense of somebody’s finger or hand or life isn’t worth it...absolutely not, and that’s the attitude at the work sites.”
Fort McMurray is a nice place said Ronan, “it’s in the middle of the muskeg which is a huge forest as far as the eye can see for miles around. In the summertime, the forest gets very green and you get big blue skies and long evenings – actually sometimes the evenings don’t end.
“In the wintertime you get a lot of snow and cold, but you also get the other end that’s pretty nice.” Then he laughed and said, “the mosquitos are huge up here. You don’t use a swatter but a gun to get them. They’re big bad guys. They’d pick you up and carry you away. The airport up here gives a mosquito report every so often.”
There’s also a ton of work in Fort McMurray for both men and women and Ronan said, “if you come to Fort McMurray and spend any more than four days looking for a job...then you don’t want to work.”
Ronan is an avid Gaelic football player and he has recently introduced the game to Fort McMurray. On June 4, Fort McMurray will hold its first Celtic Festival and Ronan is hoping to showcase Ireland’s national game at the event. Teams from Edmonton and Calgary will be on hand to compete. On June 11 and 12, there is a Gaelic football tournament taking place in Calgary and the Fort McMurray team will also take part in that.
On July 2 and 3, the Vancouver Irish Sporting and Social Club will host a two-day Gaelic football tournament in White Rock and again Ronan and his Fort McMurray team will be on hand to compete with teams from Vancouver, Seattle, Edmonton and Calgary.
Ronan Deane is from a family of six boys and one girl. He is the sixth boy in the family and he said, “I’m the sixth son of a sixth son, which is pretty cool.” When he left Ireland he initially emigrated to Australia where he met Jenn Ramsey from North Vancouver. Ronan followed her to Vancouver in 2001 and when they couldn’t get jobs in British Columbia, they went to Alberta where they both had jobs within four days. Ronan and Jenn were married in Cuba last September and plan to eventually call Vancouver home.
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