Mountain Girl

Wow currently in South Korea.

You folks might find it a little chili here.

Good luck with your move though. With you property allowance you should get the pick of the crop.

ann m

Welcome to BE - I think either city would give you a great life, temporarily or not !

MonkeyMagic

Welcome to the forum

Like you we're considering Alberta, so it's interesting to see answers to questions we haven't thought to ask yet

I've also spent some time in South Korea, and it can get quite cold there, seen plenty of snow in Seoul, not as much in Pusan.

Good luck with wherever you choose.

stu

comet555

I can't comment too much on Calgary or Edmonton. I just wanted to say I was happy to read that you had ruled out Fort McMurray. It saves me writting a long winded speech trying to talk you out of it!

Jingsamichty

Ha ha! Saved you some needless typing there then. How long have you been in Ft McM and what is so bad about it?

Actually, even though I would hope to end up in Edmonton, there would probably be regular visits required to FM. What's the journey like? Hotels in FM?

And, I agree, South Korea can get pretty chilly too, though this has been by far the mildest of the 3 winters I 've had here.

comet555

We've been in Fort McMurray for almost 5 years. I don't like it here because it's 4.5 hours from Edmonton (nearest big city), the services in town suck, housing is ridiculously expensive, childcare is very expensive and hard to find and the town is not built for the current population.

The drive from Edmonton to Fort McMurray is 4.5 hours on a 2 lane road (1 lane each way). There are a lot of drivers on that road that speed and drive carelessly (140+ km/h), most go about 120 on a 100km/h road. Aside from that the journey is very boring. The last 2.5 hours is straight north with NOTHING around. It can feel like you're driving nowhere.

The hotels aren't bad, there are MANY to choose from. A lot of workers pretty much live in the hotels so they are generally fairly full. The mines are about 30-60 minutes north of town so even if you are staying in a hotel it would be a fair drive to get onto the site.

That's about it. I won't even get started on the housing since you won't be living there

Judy in Calgary

I have never been to Fort McMurray, but I work with people who go there regularly.

In addition to the points that comet555 has made, I have heard the following:

• Facilities are anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours' drive out of Fort McMurray. Some people commute anything from 45 minutes to 2 hours, each way, from Fort McMurray to their worksites.
  
  
• When people work at more remote sites, they stay in field camps. The quality of the accommodations and food at these camps is said to vary. Some are good, and some are bad. (I'm told that having a sober cook helps.)
  
  
• Comet555 mentioned the road from Fort McMurray to Edmonton, but there also are the roads from Fort McMurray to the facilities (mines, processing plants, power stations, etc.). Again, the roads are 2-lane, undivided roads. Apparently traffic on them is busy.
  
  
• It is a major challenge for employers to find enough workers. One facility that I know about currently is 30% understaffed.
  
  
• Alcoholism and drug addiction are major problems amongst the workforce. It is tough enough for employers to find enough workers of any calibre. Finding sober ones is even more difficult.
  
  
• Housing is very expensive. One hears stories of people paying astronomical rents for a bedroom with a fridge in it. One hears other stories of workers living in campgrounds that were designed for tourism. One hears the occasional story about a family living in a bus or the like.
  
  
• A guy with whom I work has told me that he occasionally has had to sleep in his truck for a couple of nights. This has happened when he has been called to a job at short notice, unexpectedly early, and the camp at which he has been supposed to stay has been full.

As I said, all this is hearsay, but it comes from first hand accounts of people with whom I work in Calgary.

Also, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that Fort McMurray is that much further north than Calgary and Edmonton, so it is colder and has fewer daylight hours in winter.

That said, it apparently does get good views of the Northern Lights.

comet555

That's pretty accurate Judy! Although the highway out to the mines is now 4 lanes in some places. It's still a long drive though. My husband drives about 70 minutes to work each way to get to work.

Alberta_Rose

We had some friends from England drop by a week or two back. He is a long-distance truck driver with loads of experience in NZ, Australia and Europe and now thinks North America would be great!

He only wants a year or two's contract though, like you, doesn't want to stay permanently anywhere right now, and he came across a problem...

He had an interview with a guy in Lethbridge, S.Alberta, and this guy openly said that he was prepared to help immigrants with paperwork for jobs etc, but did not really want folks on work permits. He admitted that he had had to turn down good drivers cos of this policy, but that was where he stood, and so my mate was rather discouraged!

I have no idea whether this applies to your industry, but thought I'd mention it anyway....

Judy in Calgary

Jingsamichty, if it's any consolation, my husband currently is working with a bunch of British engineers whom his client head hunted from the UK in early 2005. They are in Canada on work permits, and their employer jumped through all the necessary hoops (submitting paperwork for labour market opinions, etc.). The company is an engineering, procurement and construction company that serves the oil industry.

I mention this because you said at the outset that you were an engineer in the oil and gas industry. Alberta is desperate for people like you.

Someone recently told me that Alberta industry needs engineers so badly, it even has resorted to head hunting them from China.

But then I don't know if the work permit thing is even an issue in your case, Jingsamichty. I got the impression from your initial posts that you would be coming to an Alberta on an intra-company transfer or something like that (if I understood you correctly). I thought your only issues were deciding if you would in fact accept employment in Alberta and, if you did, which city or town you would live in.

Morwenna, if it helps your friend from the UK, some companies are listed on the Truck Driving in Canada page of the BE Wiki. My understanding is that some of those companies are amenable to hiring drivers on work permits and to doing the necessary paperwork to support their work permit applications. I say that in case your friend is willing to pursue the matter further, and not stop with the "rejection" (if that's the right word) that he received from the guy in Lethbridge.