Fort McMurray Minute: Issue 133

Fort McMurray Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Fort McMurray politics

📅 This Week In Fort McMurray: 📅

• Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Common Sense Fort McMurray. We're grateful to everyone who supports our work, especially our loyal Fort McMurray Minute readers. We hope you're enjoying a lovely long weekend with family and friends.
  
  
• Administration is recommending that funding for registered helipads in Conklin, Janvier, and Fort McKay be included in the 2027 Capital Budget, an item on the agenda when Council meets tomorrow at 5:00 pm. Council asked in May for an assessment of emergency landing spaces for air ambulances in rural communities. Administration estimates each helipad would cost between $500,000 and $1 million to design and build on existing municipal land, with a fenced 100-by-100-foot site, lighting for night landings, a remote weather station, and a small fuel cache, ideally beside the community's fire hall. Ongoing costs for inspections, snow clearing, and lighting upkeep have not yet been estimated. The three communities were chosen with input from the Local HERO Foundation's medevac operators, and Janvier has had 23 helicopter uses this year up to September 18th, compared with 5 in Fort McKay and 3 in Conklin.
  
  
• Administration is also recommending that Council drop the idea of an outdoor community gathering space in Gregoire Lake Estates. Council asked in May for a feasibility review of a passive-use gathering area with amenities such as picnic tables and fire pits. Administration says the preferred municipally owned site is a fire break established in 2016 and sits above a steep bank down to the waterfront, so the project could need access from Highway 881, parking, stairs, and washrooms. It estimates the cost would start at about $2 million for a limited project and could approach or exceed $4 million, and the site would also need environmental and historical resources approvals because Gregoire Lake Estates lies within a Caribou Protection Area. Of the 111 Gregoire Lake Estates residents who answered the survey, about 86% opposed the proposal. Residents commonly said existing recreation and lake-access amenities already meet their needs and raised concerns about traffic, noise, trespassing, and privacy.
  
  
• Administration is recommending that the Municipality invest in the McMurray Dirt Riders Association's existing track along Highway 63 instead of building a new dirt bike track in Anzac. Council asked in May for a feasibility review of a track in Anzac. Legal Services and Insurance Services advised that any track be run by an experienced third party, as the Municipality's insurance excludes liability from motorized racing, and many possible sites near Anzac are low-lying muskeg within a Caribou Protection Zone. The cost of improving the Highway 63 track, which sits midway between Fort McMurray and Anzac, has not been confirmed, and Administration notes that the Association, which has operated for more than 50 years, has not applied for the Municipality's Community Investment Program funding in recent years. In public engagement, 68% of survey respondents supported a track within the hamlet and 73% one about a kilometer outside it.
  
  
• Council has approved an operating plan to re-open the Fort McMurray Heritage Village to the public in spring 2027. The Heritage Village and Shipyard and the Fort Chipewyan Bicentennial Museum have been closed since their operating societies were dissolved and their assets absorbed by the Municipality, after missing funds and financial irregularities at the Fort McMurray Heritage Society were reported to the RCMP in November 2024. An individual has since been charged with allegedly defrauding the Society. Site visits with the Alberta Museums Association in March 2026 also revealed significant concerns with how the collections were being stored and preserved. Under the plan, the Village will open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm until the fall, facility rental bookings will open on January 4th, 2027, and Christmas at Heritage Village will return on December 11th and 12th. The Heritage Shipyard will stay closed until 2028 because of flood mitigation work on Clearwater Drive, while the Fort Chipewyan Bicentennial Museum will remain closed, with next steps expected at a Council meeting later in October.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

Did you get a chance to weigh in on the proposed dirt bike track in Anzac or the potential community gathering space near Gregoire Lake Estates?

The Municipality has an online engagement page that we check regularly to keep up with opportunities for residents to have their say!

You can check it out at the link below:

🪙 This Week’s Sponsor: 🪙

This week's sponsor is you! We don't have big corporate backers, so if you like what you're reading, please consider making a donation or signing up as a monthly member.

Having said that, if you are a local business and are interested in being a sponsor, send us an email and we'll talk!