FORT MCMURRY – Ten months ago, the Quality Inn in Fort McMurray was the site of a signature drive to launch a vote on Alberta independence. Now, dozens of voters are walking through the same doors to cast advance ballots that could determine whether the province remains part of Canada or moves toward a binding referendum on separation. At this polling station off Highway 63, the voters are overwhelmingly male. Many wearing dirt-stained overalls or fluorescent safety vests on a break from work. The second largest group of voters walking by CTV’s cameras appeared to be retirees. The voters in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo are among the most well-off in the country. Oil sands development drives the Alberta economy. According to the data from the 2021 census, the median income of a full-time worker in the region in 2020 was $126,000 annually. That’s double the median national income. As he was leaving the polling station, 18-year-old Julian Mule told CTV News that he voted for “Option two” because he believes Alberta can do better on its own. “If we were separated – we wouldn’t be subject to giving our money to Canada which would then go to other countries when we have problems of our own that we could be fixing, right?” Mule works as a general labourer but aspires to become an apprentice and to learn how to fix heavy machinery. He believes Canada is losing the trade war with the U.S. and fears Alberta will just get “dragged down.” “I have a vision that Alberta can separate and build a better future for itself. I want to be part of that future,” said Mule, who recently moved to Fort McMurray from Nova Scotia. That type of thinking doesn’t make sense says Maureen Dreher. The 72-year-old self-described “Conservative” was born and raised in Wild Rose Country. She says Alberta can’t survive without being part of the federation. “If we separate and we have no defence, no army, no health care. Who is going to pay for it? The federal government pays so much. Albertans are going to have to pay.” Fort McKay First Nation is built on the shores of the Athabasca River. It’s 45 minutes north on Highway 63, just past Suncor’s bitumen processing plant. This past week, Chief Raymond Powder urged his community of 1,000 people to turnout in force to vote to stay in Canada and reject any future for Alberta separation. “We do not align ourselves with separatists. We do not align ourselves with any other government. We determine our own sovereignty.” Chief Powder says Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party, was not elected by Albertans to pursue independence, and is imposing an “illegitimate” vote on the First Nations. Fort McKay is part of Treaty 8; a historic agreement signed in 1899 with the federal Crown representatives. That Treaty enables Fort McKay to develop an oil sands project. Natural resource revenue pays for new housing, a modern school, and a health-care centre on the reserve. A separate nation of Alberta could trample those indigenous treaty rights. “Our country and our sovereignty were based on that treaty,” Powder said. “It’s not based on the province.” The division caused by the referendum is coming at time when Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo is finally bouncing back after a decade of struggle. The region’s latest census figures from 2025 show that the population has grown 1.6 per cent to 107,740. It’s the first time Fort McMurray’s permanent population has increased since a forest fire ravaged the town in 2016. The costliest natural disaster in history forced 88,000 people from their homes. Then came the 2020 floods that destroyed much of the downtown, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although some analysts say if the separation movement isn’t blocked, economic growth could be slowed, the municipality’s leader refuses to speculate. Wood Buffalo’s mayor Sandy Bowman says the residents of his community deserve a say in their future. “This is a hardworking community of men and women and families from across the world, across Alberta and across Canada… Canadian soldiers, rural Canadians all fought in the wars so that you have the freedom to vote,” Bowman said. “This is democracy. And it gives the community a chance to vote.”
