Being the Hub of the North

I am concerned by the way that Police Chief Rod Knecht’s comments (and my comments) have been interpreted this week, but Wood Buffalo Mayor Melissa Blake’s comments present an opportunity to clarify some of the challenges Edmonton faces as a service centre for Northern Alberta and Northern Canada.

There is considerable evidence that when unemployment rises, we see a rise in domestic violence. Add in the complexity of this impact to families where a worker has travelled for work, and this represents further disruption and stress for households.  Also, when casual workers who have been employed elsewhere in resource extraction or related service industries become unemployed, many travel to the “big city” to look for work. Economic stress doesn’t always manifest as crime, but too often it does, and there is a case to be made that it happens in Edmonton more so as a service centre with a big shadow population. This can be everything from domestic violence to social disorder to property crime to economic crimes. I believe this was the Chief’s point.

I’m not surprised at all to hear that crime is falling in Wood Buffalo. Its shadow population has fallen with the reduction in investment in the energy sector. More importantly, however, the permanent residents of the Wood Buffalo are committed to building a great quality of life and a safe community for their families. I have great respect for that community spirit, having met many of the community leaders responsible for it, including Mayor Blake, and having seen it first hand at MacDonald Island Park, at Keyano College, and among the voluntary sector and Chamber of Commerce alike on my visits to Wood Buffalo.

In contrast, part of our challenge is that workers from Edmonton who have been laid off from remote jobs are in more difficult situations, causing stress in our community that can impact policing. Additionally, that shadow population that was living in Wood Buffalo and many other northern communities has gone home to Edmonton, St. John’s, Saskatoon and elsewhere. Having spoken to other mayors, this return of unemployed workers has created stress in many different communities around the country.

That’s not a criticism of Wood Buffalo or the energy business or anybody else. It’s simply a feature of our current economic situation.

Life in the big city means dealing with these shadow population impacts during good times and bad. In fact, we’ve long shared those same impacts with Fort McMurray, and I’ve heard from Mayor Blake that it acts as a hub for northeastern Alberta, with its own considerable shadow population pressures during boom times.

My comments regarding the challenges of ‘policing Northern Alberta’s problem children’ was not about Wood Buffalo. I went on to say the same thing I’ve said many times before, which is that we see an influx of many vulnerable people and families in difficult circumstances, coming to the city looking for services, or work, or housing because they can’t get what they need to be successful in their home community.

This supporting role, which drives greater housing need, greater social services need, and yes – sometimes – greater policing need, is one of the big issues we’re looking to address with the Provincial government through the City Charter.

We play this service centre role on a large scale for much of Northern Canada, just as Fort McMurray does on a regional scale in Northeastern Alberta. In fact, Wood Buffalo was amalgamated with Fort McMurray in recognition of some of these same kinds of issues.

So, we’re in this together – and I think we’ll get further in securing the needed support from the province for everything from policing to housing to infrastructure if we work together, mindful of the heavy lifting we’re both doing to support large shadow populations over large service areas.