THE REGION - BIG LAND OF BIG OIL, BIG RIVERS AND BIG SPIRIT

Aerial photo of Fort McMurray, courtesy of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.  In the foreground, 

Timberlea, a relatively recent residential and commercial development area; under construction is the 

new bridge crossing the Athabasca River and, in the background, the urban service area of Fort McMurray.

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo:  Where we live, work, play and stay!

Our region is located on the largest single known oil deposit in the world, the Athabasca Oil Sands. An estimated 1.7 to 2.5 trillion barrels of heavy oil called bitumen lie under a thin blanket of muskeg. 

The oilsands are a natural mixture of sand, water, clay and bitumen, which is oil that is too heavy or thick to flow or be pumped without being diluted or heated.  At 10 degrees C, bitumen is as hard as a

hockey puck.  Some bitumen is found within 200 feet from the surface, but the majority is deeper underground.  The distinctive feature of the Athabasca oilsands is that compared to the Peace River and Cold Lake deposits in Alberta and Saskatchewan, the oilsands are at the surface near Fort McMurray, but deeper underground in the other areas.

Oilsands are recovered using two main methods, mining and ddrillir, or, in situ.  Eighty per cent of oilsands reserves are too deep to be mined so are recovered by ddrilling wells.  Twenty per cent are close enough to the surface to be mined using large shovels and trucks.

It's also one of the largest municipal regions in North America.  The population of the region, including work site camps and the workers who regularly visit the urban service area of Fort McMurray is morethan 100,000, making Fort McMurray and Red Deer challengers for the title of third largest city in Alberta.  

We have a rich history and cultural heritage as well, with Five First Nation communities and seven Metis Locals.  A recent study showed that Fort McMurray Public Schools are enrolling children from 52 countries around the world and that does not include a survey of the Temporary Foreign Workers, the largest contingent in Canada.  Our Muslim population, which has it's own Mosque and school of Islam, comprises 10 per cent of the Fort McMurray population.  With our rich aboriginal heritage and the fact that we are attracting people from around the world, with the exception of the metropolis of Toronto, we proudly boast we are a United Nations of Canada.

With most media headlines focused on the oilsands, the world at large is relatively uninformed about the beauty and the majesty of the region--or our diversity.

Fort McMurray is located at the confluence of the Athabasca and Clearwater Rivers.  Historically, canoe travel served to open up the area and gain a foothold for trade and commerce by fur traders and gold seekers.  Today, paddlers travel from around the world to arrive in Fort McMurray in order to take a run on the Clearwater River.  Remote, relatively untouched by progress,  the Clearwater River flows 295 kilometres from its headwaters at Broach Lake in northern Saskatchewan to its confluence with the Athabasca River at Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Its upper banks are raw and rugged, towering over a narrow streambed punctuated with boulder strewn rapids, rocky ledges and dramatic waterfalls. Downstream, the river calms and widens, as it leaves the Precambrian Shield on its way to the Interior Plains.  Though it originally heads southeast, the Clearwater makes a sharp turn to the west, halfway along its Saskatchewan course.

It is this abrupt change of direction that defined the river's legendary role in the development of the western fur trade.  For an entire century, an army of voyageurs, traders, explorers and adventurers followed the Methye Portage across the continental divide to the westward-flowing Clearwater and its link with the Arctic waterways. Today, in the unspoiled lands of the Dene people, the traffic of trade has subsided, but the spectacular beauty and natural abundance of this Canadian Heritage River remains, a delight to canoeists, rafters, naturalists and eco-tourists seeking a genuine wilderness experience.

Big Spirit is the term embraced by the leaders and residents of the region as a description of what it is that sets Wood Buffalo and the north apart from other regions and other communities.  Those who choose to live in Wood Buffalo, like the early explorers, have a sense of adventure, they enjoy the outdoors and its recreational opportunities, summer and winter, and they seek career and financial opportunities that are unavailable elsewhere.

Wood Buffalo is recognized as not only one of the most 'giving' communities to United Way Canada, but also, that 81 per cent of the population own their own homes and its residents garner the highest per household income in Canada as well as the highest disposable income.

For more information on the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, go to www.woodbuffalo.ab.ca, or, bigspirit.ca.