Bill Armstrong is a 50-year-old trucker who says he's hoping Brian Jean, the Wildrose leader and a candidate in Fort McMurray-Conklin, becomes the next premier. He says the PCs, who he's long supported, have been mismanaging the province's oil money.Dakshana Bascaramurty/The Globe and Mail
This article is part of a year-long Globe project about Fort McMurray, Alta., which has come to be the emblem of Canada's energy sector, and all the issues that surround it.
Bill Armstrong, his eyes shadowed by the brim of his white camo-print Ford F-150 baseball cap, peers out the window of the Tim Hortons in downtown Fort McMurray. Just a few dozen metres away is a line of cars on Highway 63, the bright evening sun glaring down on them.
"This is the nightmare of my life," says Mr. Armstrong, a 50-year-old truck driver, gesturing at the road that connects the city to communities in southern Alberta.
A long expanse of the highway is a single lane in each direction, and people in the region – including some local politicians – have said many, if not all, of the fatal head-on collisions on it could have been avoided if the road was twinned. Mr. Armstrong knew several people, including close friends, who died while driving it.
From 2003 to 2012, the more than 400-kilometre span of highway had 92 fatal collisions, according to Alberta Transportation. One, in 2012, claimed seven lives.
The federal and provincial governments have pledged a total of $1.2-billion to twin 240 kilometres of the highway, which the province says should be completed by next fall. But Mr. Armstrong cannot understand why the project was not finished years ago.
"We had millions and millions and millions of dollars worth of equipment sitting on that highway for what was like two years, not moving, but we were still paying for it," he says.
The situation with Highway 63 is one of the many reasons Mr. Armstrong's long-term support of the Progressive Conservatives is unravelling. In the past few months, the curtain has been lifted on what he sees as a history of mismanagement by the party that has been in power for 44 years.
Fort McMurray has been ground zero for the sharp drop in oil prices, and the impact can be seen in cutbacks and layoffs not just in oil sands projects, but across the region. Locals are wondering why the government, which easily filled its coffers for decades with the oil royalties generated in their boomtown, cannot seem to weather this downturn.
Shawna Anderson, who has lived in Fort McMurray since she was a teenager, has been confused over the deficit the province is running and the unpopular budget it tabled this spring – especially the cuts to health care and the reintroduction of the health-care premium. She does not accept the government's contention that this is the result of the drop in the price of oil.
"A few months of low oil prices shouldn't really be making that much of an impact," says Ms. Anderson, 29, a stay-at-home mom.
Both Ms. Anderson, who is in the Fort McMurray-Conklin riding, and Mr. Armstrong, who is in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, have always voted PC. For the first time, they are unsure of whom to support on May 5.
Mr. Armstrong believes newly named Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean, who is running in Fort McMurray-Conklin, would be a good agent of change not just for the region, but the province as a whole.
Mr. Jean has been a harsh critic of how the PCs have managed the biggest economic driver in the region. He argues that a more hands-on approach to managing the oil patch could protect the province from the boom-and-bust cycle.
"I think he'd be good for the province, especially this end of it," Mr. Armstrong says.
Mr. Jean is well known in the community, having served as an MP, but he faces a tough race against PC incumbent Don Scott, minister of innovation and advanced education, who collected half the votes in 2012.
Fort McMurray-Conklin was created in 2010 when Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo was split in two. Candidates have campaigned as though the ridings are two parts of a whole. Mr. Jean and fellow Wildrose candidate Tany Yao have appeared together at campaign announcements, as have Mr. Scott and his counterpart, incumbent Mike Allen. NDP candidates Ariana Mancini and Stephen Drover's lawn signs are staked side-by-side in both ridings.
Robert Cossette has little faith that a change in government would pull Fort McMurray out of its slump; only a steady lift in the price of oil will do that, he says.
He was laid off as a truck driver on oil sands construction projects in October, and finding a good job since then has been an ongoing struggle for Mr. Cossette, 33, who lives in the Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo riding. He has had a few short contracts, one of which took him to Grande Prairie, but nothing long-term. He estimates he has applied for 75 to 100 jobs in the past few months.
It was easier to get through rough times when he was in Montreal five years ago, because living in the city was so cheap. Here, his income has dropped significantly, but the cost of living is still high. In Wood Buffalo, housing and groceries cost about 50-per-cent more than the provincial average.
Many of the people he worked with in the oil patch – in on-site work camps and in town – have left Fort McMurray.
Work loads for members of the Fort McMurray Construction Association have dropped in the past six months, too, says association president Charles Iggulden. Instead of $100-million contracts, they have been getting $5-million or $10-million ones. But as he sees it, this should be a busy time for construction crews.
His hope is that after election day, the party that comes to power will find a way to make lemonade of this economic slump.
"[The Progressive Conservatives] always said they'd wait to do infrastructure projects during the downturn. They can buy better during the downturn," he said.
Dakshana Bascaramurty