FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. - The mayor of Fort McMurray is trying to make sure a new oilsands boom doesn't bring a repeat of the boomtown mentality that marked the last one.
Melissa Blake says this time, she wants the developers to do all they can to ensure their employees live in the Alberta community -- and not in fly-in work camps.
Blake says Fort McMurray is a place where people live in -- not simply cash in.
She says oilsands companies must be careful in doling out living allowances -- perhaps reserving them for only long-term employees who agree to make their home in the city.
Blake commented at hearings into Total's proposed Joslyn mine, which is expected to be the first of a series of new oilsands developments.
