Jameson Berkow

Reporter

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PART FOUR OF BNN'S WEEK LONG SPECIAL COVERAGE: CANADA'S NEW ENERGY

Now that Canada’s oil sands boomtown has gone bust, Arianna Johnson wants Canadians to offer support for Fort McMurray instead of the usual slander.

“We have bolstered this country up for many, many years and we are in hard times right now,” Johnson, executive director of the Wood Buffalo Food Bank (which includes Fort McMurray and the surrounding area), told BNN from inside her organization’s food warehouse. “The country needs to understand that we are not the devil; we are not the destruction of the country; we have done a lot to support everyone in this country and every one of its economies and so now it is important that the rest of this country step up and provide us with a little bit of support, even if it is just to stop picking on us.”

“We as a country need to live as a village right now and take care of each other and if we can do that we will make it through this,” Johnson said.

The northern Alberta city has been struggling to take care of itself as the crash in crude oil prices has continued to take its toll. As recently as a year ago, the community was surrounded by what appeared to be ceaseless expansions of oil sands operations, creating tens of thousands of new, well-paying jobs in the process. Those expansion plans are now on hold and tens of thousands of positions have already been eliminated as the industry adapts to the so-called “lower for longer” oil price environment.

Unemployment in Fort McMurray has skyrocketed as a result. It is down from the highs it hit earlier this summer when mass layoffs saw hundreds of workers get handed pink slips in waves, yet the jobless rate remains near eight per cent or about double where it was a year earlier. The food bank has seen demand rise to record levels as many locals who have lost their livelihoods are now unable to afford groceries.

“August is historically our quietest month but this year it was a record breaking month for us in the history of the food bank with 422 hampers, which is 134 per cent more than in August of 2014,” Johnson said. “Certainly food banks in any community can be a barometer for what is going on in your economy.”

It isn’t only slowing oil sands growth outside the city that is pushing unemployment higher. The Casman Group, one of the largest construction outfits within the city itself as well as one of the largest local employers, has cut its total headcount in half.

“Last year I think on average we were up at about 600 employees but this year we are down to 300 employees right now,” said Ben Dutton, the company’s chief executive. “Now the revenue is not proportional to that decrease in the employee base.”

Conversations at the Tim Hortons just off Franklin Avenue – Fort McMurray’s main drag – have become focused on the local fallout of the crash in crude.

“That is all we talk about all the time,” said Dave Bonello, a 54-year-old construction worker originally from Ontario. “Oh, I lost my job, oh so and so lost their job… a lot of people lost their jobs; a lot of people.”

Many of the newly unemployed have had no other option but to leave the city that, during better times, was affectionately known as Fort McMoney. Melissa Blake, the mayor of Wood Buffalo, believes that is the right decision as the city itself lacks the resources to provide adequate services for everyone affected.

“The giving we see in this community and supporting agencies… is the greatest support,” Blake said, adding they can help “those that are in a time of transition until we are able to get back into a more normalized situation here.”

“Otherwise people are going to have to look for work elsewhere,” she said.

For now, Bonello is planning to stay in Fort McMurray. He is still employed, but that could change depending on how long the downturn lasts. If it ends up taking several years for oil prices to rebound enough to justify new oil sands projects – as a growing chorus of experts have warned – his plans may quickly change.

“If I end up losing my job I’ve got to go back to Ontario,” Bonello said. “I’d have no reason to stay.”