Fort St. John expected to handle oil and gas boom well: mayor

By Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

Fort St. John, B.C., - which bills itself as "The Energetic City" - will be able to avoid many of challenges that have become synonymous with the oilsands boomtown of Fort McMurray, Alta., the city's mayor says.

Two enormous natural gas finds in northeastern B.C. - the Montney Trend and the Horn River Basin - have piqued the interest of a number of big U.S. and Canadian oil and gas names and sent a massive amount of investment pouring into the region.

"I think we'll see a direct impact. It's hard to say how big, but I feel it's good for us," Mayor Jim Eglinski said.

"We are the service sector of the northeast. As both of these plays are in the northeast, we should get some good spinoffs."

The city of 18,000, about a 15-hour drive from Vancouver and about half that distance from Edmonton, will probably not see the same breakneck population growth as Fort McMurray, since many of the oil and gas workers commute from Alberta, Eglinski said.

"I don't think that we, as a city, will be impacted harshly regarding needing extra housing or accommodating workers," Eglinski said.

"It may put a little bit of a strain on some of the apartments, but generally we don't see large increases because a lot of the workforce is already transient types. They fly in, fly out."

Fort St. John is working hard to make sure its infrastructure, workforce and housing market can keep up with any growth that does take place, said Andy Ackerman, president of the city's Chamber of Commerce.

"I think the whole region itself is going to take off and become extremely busy," he said. "As far as planning goes, it's on track and I think the city is well prepared."

Roads are being improved, subdivisions are being built and phone companies like Telus are already planning on laying down new cables, Ackerman said.

The city is also building a new regional hospital and a massive sports complex, he added.

Fort McMurray, whose population has doubled over the past decade, has been struggling with acute labour shortages and skyrocketing housing prices.

Fort St. John is facing similar challenges, but to a much lesser degree, Ackerman said.

"It's a constant battle up here, as with other places like Calgary and Fort McMurray, to find employees," he said.

Some of the city's restaurants and taxi companies are actively recruiting foreign workers and many local businesses have gone to job fairs as far east as Toronto, he added.

Jeanette Karasiuk, a counsellor for Employment Connections, a local job-search service, said it has been hard to fill the demand for skilled tradespeople.

"There seems to always be an abundance coming up to the area who are a lower skill level. But trades-specific people, there is definitely a shortage," she said.

Some potential workers are turned off by spectre of long working days and the idea of living in camps, which are part and parcel of many oil and gas jobs.

There is also a great deal of competition among employers to keep wages competitive.

"What happens is the other sectors have to pay higher because the oil and gas is paying higher," Karasiuk said.

Housing prices are also on the rise, with the average house selling for $300,000 compared to less than half of that in 2004.

But Rich Petersen, the owner of Remax Action Realty in Fort St. John, doesn't expect to see the same rampant cost runups faced by Fort McMurray, where a single-family home can go for more than $600,000.

"We still have lots of affordable homes," he said.

"I always said if you want to move to Fort St. John to buy a house, you should do it in the next six months."