I live up here in Fort McMurray.

A lot of what some people are saying isn't true:
- The ratio of men to women is more like 55/45 or 60/40 at the worst. The ratio does get skewed when you go to the 'poorer' areas of town though. Then it is nothing but dudes (Waterways & Downtown. Women generally don't like those areas)
- "nothing to do except work and meth" is borderline retarded. If you want drugs, you can find it in any town you want in the country. It's all about the company you keep. My friends and I never touch drugs and are never exposed to it.
- People don't shun you for not doing drugs. To the guy that said they did probably had a sketchy group of friends.
- As for people coming back more introverted and awkward, I don't think that has anything to do with location. If people change when they move to another City within Canada, they were probably just weak people to begin with and very impressionable.


Now to the good or factual.

- If you are planning to rent a place on your own, expect to pay anywhere from 1800-2400 a month for something decent in a 1 bedroom configuration.
- Being a general manager I would imagine would be very difficult in this city. Simply because turnover is very high here with the average income sits around $90k a year and people are always jumping ship from job to job. Especially those who work in town and know people or get jobs on one of the sites close by.
- Not sure who you are working with, but I would try to negotiate them renting you a small SUV or something to drive while you are up here. Put company decals or some shit on it. This year we had a 6 month winter and having AWD or 4x4 in my opinion is almost a necessity.
- Food at grocery stores is very competitive as the big stores like Walmart keep it that way. The food cost increase comes at Restaurants and fast food joints.
- Expect to wait in line when going to restaurants too. They are always packed, and it is only going to get busier up here.
- I can see this place getting back to how it was before where you'd walk into a grocery store or Walmart and the aisles would just have pallets of products plunked down and not put out due to staffing being so low. I literally had to dig through boxes to find deodorant one day. This doesn't happen often, but it does happen.
- If the living allowance they are paying is less than $1000 a month, ask for it increased.
- You will probably be surprised by the amount of good looking women up here too.
- You might not see it at first, but this town is very generous and has a good sense of community (Provided you get involved too). There are lots of good people out here who are trying to make this place home.
- The theater here sucks.
- You will probably do a lot more online shopping with the selection here being pretty minimal.




If you can afford to, I would suggest buying a place right away. I 100% think you can't go wrong buying in this town right now if you plan to leave in 3 years.

OP. If you want, you can feel free to shoot me a pm if you have any questions or anything.


This place is a lot better than most people think.

I feel as if OP has already made his decision. He's career driven and is motivated by the jump/potential.

I say he's over-thinking it, maybe wants the finer details worked out (wage/accommodation/travel,etc), so he get's a good deal on this relocation.

All the best OP.

The following is a reply from the anonymous original poster

Thanks, I honestly have been trying hard to justify it to myself.
due to the nature of the offer I couldn't talk to many co-workers about it, out of the friend's i've talked to, its split 50/50, but seems like all the reasons for me not to go is social aspect.

yea, I guess 3 years is not so bad

The hard part will be controlling my spending and actually bank some of the money.

Thanks, this really puts it into perspective....


Would thank you 100X if I could, yes I realize it will be VERY difficult from a work standpoint, the average tenure of part time staff at the store that I will be taking over is 4 weeks. So turn over is extremely high.

Most of the part time staff go there to work in retail until a better opportunity comes up w/ one of the oil companies that pays a lot more $.

I will definitely look into buying a place, will PM you once everything is solidified.


Thank you, most likely will sign the contract, but you are right, I am concerned about the fine details. Not sure if I forgot to negotiate anything into the contract, never had an offer negotiation like this before.

I know Money isn't the main factor, but I do not want to get "ripped off" at the same time, but by the sounds of everyone in this thread, their offer to me is very reasonable and I really shouldn't expect much more.


Overall, I want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread, RS has once again come through and helped me A LOT in making this decision.

I will update everyone after I visit Fort Mac. And hopefully by then I can do it no through an anonymous post.

Yea 95%+ I will sign the contract after seeing the place....

I moved here recently and agree 110% with everything scizzmoney said. I'm here for 2 years at least.

-I live in the worst part of town and haven't had any issues. I give the homeless my milk jugs as I drink a lot of milk and they are worth 25cents. Lots of them just sit on a milk crate and drink all day by the river and wave as you drive by.
-I notice no major difference in food prices/gas etc
-Rent for 1bd is approx. $2000
-If you want a roommate usually around $800 for a room
-I miss princess auto
-Everywhere you go it's busy like Christmas holidays in Vancouver
-First day I arrived here I filled up with gas and there was a girl in her 20's in spandex suit filling up and every guy in the parking lot was whistling like a pack of hyenas haha
-There are drugs in any city but it all depends who you hang out with

^ pretty much what it is really, there's some really good looking girls when you get groceries too :D
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I have worked up here for a few years, but I have never lived in town. That being said, I would never, ever want to live here. I hate the incredibly cold winters though. This will probably be my last year up here if I can help it.

^ I'm leaving CNRL soon lol
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Question to all the oil guys. How much experience do you think I would need, if for example I start off as a leasehand/roughneck and wanted to travel to another country to continue this line of work.

I'm considering working there for 6 months then moving down to AUS on a year work visa.

Spending my last summer here in Vancouver before I move in with a friend in Calgary this September. He's letting me stay at his place for free since he has $$$.

Shouldn't really need any experience. Just apply online to a bunch of drilling contractors and follow up by phoning and looking for their recruiters or coordinators and ask what rigs are looking for Leasehands or Roughnecks. I personally would recommend starting at a Roughneck. 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire' is the best way in my opinion.

I would also recommend either Edmonton or Grande Prairie though if you're looking to work on drilling or service rigs. There is activity near Fort McMurray but more closer to the other locations.

Drilling companies I'd look into:
- Home
- www.ensignenergy.com
- Precision Drilling Corporation - Welcome
- Akita Drilling Ltd.
- Jomax Drilling Ltd.
- Treo Drilling Services - Welcome to Team Treo
- Trinidad Drilling Ltd. - Oil and Natural Gas drilling rigs

As far as I know, most of these companies run a two week in, one week out schedule. When I worked for Ensign, they let the Rig Manager dictate the schedule.

The starting wage now I think is $30/hr as a Roughneck. Which seems fucked because I started at $16.50 and that wasn't that long ago, haha. I know $30/hr doesn't seem like much, so I'll break down the way the pay structure generally works. You will usually start on a Wednesday (They do this so you start halfway through a week to pay you less overtime)

(8 regular time x $30) + (4 OT hours x $45) + $140 LOA/Day = $560
Since you would start mid-week, the first 3 or 4 days that is what you would get paid. Starting Sunday, you will get paid:
(40 regular time x $30) + (44 OT hours x $45) + $980 LOA/week = $4160
Then, the Sunday - Tuesday you'd get the $560/day again.
You'd get roughly 8000 bucks before taxes for the two weeks you work. Out of this you usually have to find your own accommodations, that is what the LOA is for (Hotel, open camp, etc.). If you happen to get to a rig where they are in camp the LOA is cut down to $50/day, but your camp is covered by the company. Rig camps are usually very very good. Small 10-20 man camps are usually way way better than the 5000 man camps (food sitting in warming trays, less attention paid to the rooms, etc.)

I would look into which of these companies have Rigs down in Aussie Land. I think Ensign and Precision both do, I could be wrong though.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Thanks man.

Just trying to gather all the info I can before I head out this september.

Pretty excited to move on.

The following is a reply from the original anonymous poster

So guys, I just got back from a 2 day trip to Fort McMurray
Ended up going to Calgary on my way back to finalize the contract details
So I have signed the contract with me starting on Sept 2nd.

Now I will probably head back up in August to find a place to live.
After checking out the area, it seems like the Timberlea, Thickwood and Eagle Ridge areas on the North side of the bridge are quite nice.

So I will try to find a place to live on that part of town.

Thank you everyone for your help in helping me make this decision.

good read, thanks for all the input guys.

See you there, have an interview lined up ;)

Shit this is getting close. I got my moving details down. First time I'll be leaving Vancouver. Got a job too! Can't wait to start and finally be able to make some money without living paycheck to paycheck. 3 weeks away :o

Great thread, for information purposes as well!!

Sticky worthy?

Glad to see more people giving Fort Mac a shot, it's worth it especially if there are free flights involved. Otherwise, it'll take some time to get used to to live here.
Posted via RS Mobile

Very informative. Always been to "sketched" out to give it a shot my self but am really tired of letting my welding ticket and safety tickets go to waste...that, and I really could use 100k a year.

What ticket do you have?

Was going for my B Level but decided to spend the money on CWB SMAW All position. Had a few on and off jobs around town, nothing concrete, though.

For those that want to come out here, make sure you get these minimum. OSSA fall protection, h2s, Standard first aid + CPR and the cats -09

You can also do ground disturbance and confined spaces but I recommend the ones above.

There are jobs everywhere. I haven't found one yet but I have interviews lined up.
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So you moved there without landing any jobs?
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Yep. Better economy younger boom city.

Fuck BC.

EVERYWHERE IS hiring. It's not just drilling rigs, you have construction, rig assembly, coil tubing, then you have safety companies, and any entry level trade you can think of.

Remember Alberta is 5% GST, and there are less income type taxes here.

People here complain about cost of living, but Its still cheaper than Vancouver.

^how long have you been in ft mc?
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I moved to Calgary. I don't think it matters if you are in edmonton/hinton/airdrie /ft mac tbh. There are recruiters EVERYWHERE. The company I just got an interview for is in Airdrie (about 20 minutes out of the NW) and they fly you out.

My friend at talisman is helping a bit too. I got a couple of calls from recruiters. Also reddit is a good source too ;)

I might just move out there in 3-4 years when i get my ticket.
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