balancing opportunities and challenges: long-distance commuting for remote australia and canada
DESCRIPTION
Presentation to CRC-REP Enduring Community Value from Mining Project, by Professor Keith Storey from the Memorial University Newfoundland, Canada, and International Advisor to the Enduring Community Value from Mining project.TRANSCRIPT
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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
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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
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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
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Resource Camp
Urban Centre
Commute
Type 1: No Alternative -Construction
Resource Camp
Commute
Type 1: No Alternative -Production
●
● 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
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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
●
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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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Operating Construction Approved Application Announced
37
15
5
24
12
3
0 1
3
0
Num
ber
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
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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
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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
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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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