energysolutions

Hi, thanks for the comprehensive answer

Not sure what Tarpon has planned for me but I would prefer site work as thats what I`m used to and dont like being stuck in one place

Im glad you speak favourably of Edmonton as thats one of the areas we like - does anyone know how warm the summers get and how long summer/winter lasts?

Thats encouraging that there is lots of companies should the worst happen

I assumed that Fort Mac was pretty much all FIFO as its so remote and everything is so expensive (same problems as most mining/oil towns), truth is I would only consider working or living there if the cash was exceptional and even then it would only be short term as I have a wife (and most likely kids at some point) to consider

Thanks again for the pointers - it always helps to hear from those "on the ground"

energysolutions

Jeeez - $200K/year minimum for a couple? It must be ridiculously expensive there? Its the same story the world over, anywhere that is booming (via commodities etc) and paying good cash suddenly becomes prohibitively expensive to live so really you never get ahead financially and most of these places are in places that, lets be honest, you would probably never consider living in were it not for the lure of cash

So is the bitumen smell from what is being extracted in the area?

Novocastrian

Well yes, rather. What did you think the tar sands are. Oh, yes, bitumen.

BTW my brother in law works in the oil (exploration) industry. He always works FIFO, anywhere his company sends him. Only once in 40 years has he relocated his OH (before their first kid was born) and that was to Singapore, a far cry from either Labrador City or Fort Mac.

gryphea

WEll OK I'm sure plenty of people are on less than 200K per family; but then loads live in small condos and trailer parks. There is a lot of money in fort mac and it drives the price of everything up. Plus I understand there is a shortage of labour to do poorer paid jobs which means getting anything done is a nightmare.

energysolutions

Having never been there I didnt know, hence the question

energysolutions

Your description is just how I imagine it to be

Nikki Ian

Summers are hot, 20 deg all though the night sometimes, avg highs of 25-35 in summer, in winter avg lows 0f -20 to -35 ,

In general snow arrives in Edmonton area end oct/Nov worst gone by april.

All the above is worse the more north you go, Bugs in the summer can be a issue for some, however the bugs up north near the oil sands are something else, size of small aircraft some of them, you know if they bite you.

Traffic in Ft Mac is bad, main Highways are grid lock at rush hour(s) Even service industry jobs pay high money. House prices are double that of Edmonton, thats why so many people travel and work 2 weeks on 2 weeks off ect and stay at camps. Most of the camps have improved a lot, think Travel lodge with a shared bathroom. Full catering, Rec rooms. Camps are dry, transport provided to and from camps to sites.

I have met some guys who live in Mexico and fly in, live cheap in the sun and earn huge money.

Atlantic Xpat

RE. Lab City/Wabush and IOC. Yesterday, an appartment complex nearing competion burned to the ground. The mayor was interviewed on the radio this morning lamenting the huge setback this will be to the town. 180 appartments aimed for new workers to IOC gone. No time to start rebuilding this construction season as snow is already on the ground. The resource boom in Lab West is stretching housing & other infrastructure to breaking point. Really mirroring what is going on, at a far larger scale, at Fort Mac.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...city-1105.html

energysolutions

I have went/would go there for a holiday but I prefer to live somewhere more civilised (Mexico looks dodgy enough right now with the war on the drug cartels still in full flight)

So there is potentially 70C temperature difference between summer and winter - you guys must have a wide and varied wardrobe!

Somehow I dont fancy living in Fort Mac but would (reluctantly) consider doing FIFO if the cash was good, the conditions dont sound too bad - when you say the camps are "dry" I assume you are referring to alcohol and not leaky roofs!

energysolutions

Thanks for the link - very informative (particularly the "comments" afterwards)

One thing I couldnt deduce was were these buildings for sale to prospective newcomers or were they being built by the company for their employees to use/entice them to come as part of the remuneration package?

Atlantic Xpat

I imagine they were either going to be rented to employees directly or through the company. Either way IOC is struggling in recruitment because they simply can't find places for prospective hires to live.

jp11

Hi Guys,

Can someone breakdown the provinces and what they have to offer?

would be very beneficial.

christmasoompa

Please start your own thread, rather than hijacking the OP's.

If Google can't answer what you want to know about a province, then this forum usually will, but it would be very helpful if you could be more specific about exactly what it is that you want to know.

Thx.

Almost Canadian

Google is your friend. Failing that, lots of threads about various locations on this forum. The search facility is your friend.

comet555

My husband currently works FIFO in Fort McMurray for a contractor. Our family lives in a smallish town in Ontario (approx 25,000 people). It's on the 401 so there's decent services and an 45-60 minutes to two larger centres and 3 hours to Toronto. To give you an idea of house prices the house we are living in now would probably cost 3-4 times as much in Fort McMurray.

We are both Canadians and have lived in Fort McMurray for 5 years prior to moving to Australia (and then back to Canada). I wouldn't say it's a terrible town but it really is in the middle of nowhere. It's about 4.5 hours to Edmonton the scariest highway I've ever been on. We travelled it many times without incident but the fact that it's only single lane coupled with masses of people coming/going to town for shift changes means it can be pretty deadly (add in the snow in winter as well!).

Living in Fort McMurray is different. It has less services/selection then you'd expect of a town that size and the service is terrible. Yes the people at McDonald's probably make $20 an hour but no one wants to work there when they can go out to the mines. When we lived there they were experiencing major staff shortages in all the places that are your typical minimum wage type job. I don't imagine it's much different now. The other thing I want to mention is that I lot of people are just there to make lots of money and move on so it's always work, work, work. There are of course plenty of people just trying to raise a family as well. But on the whole the work/family life balance is different.

So for us, I'm quite happy to live away from Fort McMurray and have a really nice house at 1/3 or 1/4 of the cost. Given my husband's very specific job (mining engineer) we don't really have the luxury of living anywhere we want. We're pretty much stuck with living in a mining town or doing FIFO roles so for us fly in fly out is the lesser of the two evils. It works out ok although it's not forever. My husband has been doing it for almost 2 years now and is starting to get sick of it. He's hoping a change in sites and jobs will help. We'll see, but for now it works ok. We have two young kids (ages 6 and 8) and they seem to be ok with it. He has a 2 week on and 16 days off schedule, which is unique and it was the only way he would agree to do it. Most of the time the ratio is more like 2 weeks on and 1 week off.

For the OP, I would suggest picking a role in or around Calgary or Edmonton as they are decent places to be and there's lots of work. If you want to do FIFO work then most places will have flights going to these locations. So you could always start out doing FIFO for the money and then go for something more local if you don't like it, or the other way around.

On another note, there should be lots of opportunities coming up at Kearl Lake, so for anyone interested in FIFO work then check the website once in a while. This isn't where my husband works but his company may end up transferring him to that site.
http://www.imperialoil.ca/Canada-Eng...l_careers.aspx