[Newsbot]

Title: Fort McMurray welcomes $20B oilsands mine proposal, but not its plan to fly in workers
Category: Business
Posted By: DrCaleb
Date: 2017-06-28 07:26:16
Canadian

[Freakinoldguy]

$1:

Teck's Frontier mine would be located 110 kilometres north of Fort McMurray and would generate an anticipated 7,000 construction jobs, according to the Vancouver-based company.

So does Fort Mac expect the workers driving 110 km every day from that city rather than flying in and out from various other points? The reason I ask this question is because if it's at all like the other mines in Northern BC and the NWT gone are the days of paying for everyone's flights all the way into camp. Now the employee is responsible for flying to the collection point which is usually a small city and then the company fly's them into camp from there. So it's not like Fort Mac won't see "any" economic benefit because alot of these workers will spend money during their layovers and hey some may even stay there for their off time.

But, after reading the article it appears what the powers that be in Fort Mac want is all these workers to disrupt their lives and "move" themselves and their families to Fort Mac just so they can help their ailing economy. Well, sorry the world doesn't work that way and if they want the workers for this mine to stay in their community they'd better offer a better life than the places these people now live especially for the temporary ones who are building the site.

[herbie]

Of course it doesn't work that way. They'll promise you local hiring, do Powerpoints on how much your community will grow, get your endorsment then when they build it they'll chew your roads to shit, sucker the province into a new hydro line and rail extension, turn that proposed subdivision into a parking lot 'collection point' for a shuttle to the mine.
When they've dug out every penny, they'll leave a polluted mess for you to clean up too.
It never works out any other way

[Thanos]

Teck won't care not when, on terrible winter days, the workers are going to be doing two hours travel time in one direction heading out of town. They aren't going to want their people on the highway if they're falling asleep at the wheel driving back and forth from the site. If they're building a landing strip and a giant camp town to avoid problems like that then they're going to do it. And despite the complaining from Ft. McMurray it's the right thing to do.

No pity for Ft. Mac on this one. For years they indulged in the monetary benefits of all the outsiders spending money in town, but at the same time they constantly complained about all the "negatives" we allegedly brought to them. Like the drugs, prostitutes, and other crime weren't already well established there long before the boom happened. They can't do anything to stop Teck, or any other company, from doing fly-ins, so this is all really just whining in front of media cameras for the sake of making the politicians look like they're standing up for the city.

[BRAH]

Fort Mac always had fly-in crews which kept the airport supporting surrounding services, why would that change now?

[Thanos]

They want people to buy up the neighbourhoods full of abandoned 1100 square foot houses that originally cost a million dollars each so they can keep the property tax bonanza going. I understand their concerns. It's a real problem for them. Thing is no one in their right mind is going to commit to a permanent life in McMurray these days if all they have is a temporary job on a construction site. It's different if they get hired as plant operators or plant staffers with some long term stability, but those jobs are few and far between right now with the way the companies have frozen hiring.

People up there are going to have to get used to the fact that it isn't a place to go to anymore to build a future for a family. The bottom didn't just fall out of the job market there with the oil price collapse, it was totally obliterated. The companies are not going to spend the money on salaries anymore that they had to from 2000 to 2014 when labour and staffing was at a premium. It's a 180-degree reversal today, and the prospective employee has zero power now on negotiating wages and benefits to work in the oil sector.

These jobs are goin', boys, and they ain't coming back, said the wise old singer. This is the new permanent reality in Alberta and unless someone was born with a lucky horseshoe up their ass the fun is over for good.

[BRAH]

Ft Mac jobs could go the way of contract work and that means the city has to adapt to the new reality.

[Thanos]

When the realtors, two thirds of whom fled Mac when things bottomed out, start returning because they think it's a safe place to invest again then the average guy can think of going there. Until that happens it's a place to stay away from because the job market there will still rip the rug out from underneath those who don't fit into the plans of the companies.

[BRAH]

The job market in BC is the same way, companies will use you long as they need and when they're done with you, bang you're gone like a virgin on prom night making room for the next victim.

[herbie]

What I said.
As I sit looking across at the parking lot where the promised subdivision was promised and all the homes that were for sale for $100,000 more the week before the mine opened.

On the other hand I'm not cringing at the $363 property taxes due July 2 either....