Balancing Opportunities and

Challenges Long Distance Commuting for remote Australia and Canada

Professor Keith Storey

Memorial University Newfoundland, Canada And

International Advisor to the Enduring Community Value from Mining project

Presentation to the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation

(CRC-REP) Enduring Community Value from Mining Dr. Fiona Haslam McKenzie Principal Research Leader

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Jan 2009 - Mar 2010 7,890-10,600

Evolving Rationale for Onshore Commute Work

• No alternatives – remote locations • Cost incentives

– 1970s end of long boom; post-Fordist lean production

– No government support for resource towns – Environmental assessment

• Aboriginal land claims • Post-2000 resource boom • Labour/infrastructure shortages

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Present

1970s

Resource Camp

Urban Centre

Commute

Type 1: No Alternative -Construction

Resource Camp

Commute

Type 1: No Alternative -Production

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● Polaris, NWT 1980-2002 zinc, lead

Urban Centre

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Evolving Rationale for Onshore Commute Work

• No alternatives – remote locations • Cost incentives

– 1970s end of long boom; post-Fordist lean production

– No government support for resource towns – Environmental assessment

• Aboriginal land claims • Post-2000 resource boom • Labour/infrastructure shortages

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Present

1970s

Resource Camp

Urban Centre

Commute

Type 2: Regional Host Community -Construction

Resource Camp

Commute

Type 2: Regional Host Community -Production

●

● Fort McMurray, Alberta – oil sands, 1967-

Urban Centre

Regional town

Regional town

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Resource Camp

Urban Centre

Commute

Type 3: Residential Community -Construction

Resource

Type 3: Residential Community -Production

● Labrador City – iron ore, 1967-

Urban Centre

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Resource Town Resource Town

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Be careful what you wish for: Commute work and regional development in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo,

Alberta, Canada Keith Storey

Memorial University St. John’s, NL, Canada

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11 Source: Alberta Geological Survey http://www.ags.gov.ab.ca/energy/oilsands/index.html

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Fort McMurray

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Operating Construction Approved Application Announced

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Num

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Project Status

Oil Sands Projects and Upgraders 2013

Projects

Upgraders

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Host Community Issues

• Growth without development – Short-term “permanent’ residency – Fly-through community

• Commute workers cost rather than benefit host economies through use of:

– physical infrastructure – roads, airport, housing – social services – health, policing, social assistance

• Transient nature of commute work makes host communities less attractive places to live

– Fly-over community • Commute workers and business by-pass local communities

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Municipal Development Plan Regional Growth Management Objectives/Strategies to 2030

• Promote permanence and long-

term residency • 40,500 additional housing units • Development of rapid transit

system • Consolidation of camps north

and south of Fort McMurray • No increase in the work camp

population

231,000

116,000

50,000

Source: RBWB Municipal Development Plan 2011 17

Source: RMWB MDP 2011

Location Population Percentage

Urban 72,944 62.6

Rural 4,192 3.6

Camps 39, 271 33.7

Total 116,407 100 Source: RMWB Census 2012

Proximity to Fort

McMurray

Operations Jobs

% Operations Jobs

Within 50 km 13,891 27.9

Within 75 km 32,271 64.8

Within 100 km 45,787 92.0

Assumptions and Comments • Growth will occur as predicted

– resource demand; environmental issues; transportation; project costs

• Necessary infrastructure will be developed (housing; rapid transit; commercial/retail space)

– Province been happy to approve projects, generally failed to adequately anticipate/fund growth in RMWB

• current provincial deficit • CRISP for Athabasca Oil Sands Area unfunded • slow to release land • Highway 63 twinning

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19 Photo sources: Wikipedia; Epoch Times; Financial Post; jalnopik; Calgary Sun; CBC

Highway 63 Alberta Radway to Fort Mackay 426 km

Assumptions and Comments • Growth will occur as predicted

– resource demand; environmental issues; transportation; project costs

• Necessary infrastructure will be developed (housing; rapid transit; commercial/retail space)

– Province been happy to approve projects, generally failed to adequately anticipate/fund growth in RMWB • current provincial deficit • CRISP for Athabasca Oil Sands Area unfunded • slow to release land • Highway 63 twinning

• Industry co-operation – labour shortages likely to continue – competition for labour; temporary work permits – current/projected camp, airfield and other infrastructure investments

• Worker preferences (MDP calls for total camp population to be stabilized)

– Future workforce willing to live in Fort McMurray? • willingness to relocate • travel time means likely many will still have to live in camps • affordable housing constraint to in-migration • high percentage of operations workers currently willing to pay own travel

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Worker preferences • Alberta

– 2005: only 1 in 4 interprovincial workers relocated to Alberta in next 5 years (Statistics Canada 2013)

• Fort McMurray production workers – 35% of Shell, 25% Syncrude fly in at own cost – Decision factors: housing costs; place preference

• Queensland Resource Council • 2012 survey of 2000 Queensland workers

– 71% of non-resident workers would not change their accommodation arrangements

– choice of employment accommodation important to employee decision-making

– both residential and non-residential options need to be available to recruits to maximize available sources of labour

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Conclusions • Commute work likely to be with us for foreseeable future

– communities can’t ignore it or make it go away – can’t reject it outright, need to work to optimize outcomes

• Government priorities – need to decide on importance of regional growth/regional

development • development decisions; shared benefits; infrastructure investment

– act or be left behind by industry decisions

• Workforce preferences – while labour in short supply need to recognize significance of

worker preferences for community/regional planning

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