Northern Alberta residents waiting for promised homes as housing crisis worsens

Leaders from a northern Alberta community are calling on the region's municipality to speed up permit approvals to build new homes and address the housing crisis. 

A new report by the Rural Development Network says the hamlet of Conklin, 350 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, is lacking housing supply and residents are living in unsafe housing conditions.

Conklin is located in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and is about 150 kilometres from Fort McMurray. 

The community has 15 prefabricated homes ready for assembly, said Scott Duguid, CEO of the Conklin Resource Development Advisory Committee, but he needs them to pass inspection with the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

"They've cancelled on me five different times to even come out and do the inspection," Duduid said at a news conference Wednesday. "It just doesn't seem like a priority for the municipality."

Municipality response

In a statement, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo said that the Conklin Resource Development Advisory Committee is now at the stage of construction completion certificate approval, which ensures that private developments were done following approved infrastructure plans. 

The municipality said there were still problems with the homes. 

"While there were delays inspecting the site for the construction completion certificate, the inspection occurred on November 29, 2023, and deficiencies on the part of the developer were noted, including grading of the site. These deficiencies must be remedied in order to apply for development permits with [the municipality's] planning and development," said the statement to CBC News on Thursday. 

The homes are located in the Pine Lane subdivision in Conklin, which has been in the works since 2020. 

According to the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, the original raw land was vacant and needed infrastructure such as utilities, roads, water, and sewage to name a few, to support residential development.

To facilitate this, the lands had to go through the municipality's subdivision process, which includes eight steps. 

Six of these eight processes are completed according to the municipality. 

Cenovus funding

In 2020, Cenovus Energy Inc. pledged $50 million to build homes in six Indigenous communities near its oilsands projects in northern Alberta, including Conklin.

In a statement to CBC News on Friday, Cenovus said Conklin is scheduled to see its first houses next year. 

"We are hopeful that the necessary permits will be in place shortly, and as always, we're happy to assist the community," the statement said. 

The Calgary-based energy company says they have funded more than 100 homes as part of their Indigenous housing initiative. 

"[We] are looking forward to Conklin seeing their much-needed homes soon."

Duguid said Wednesday that the community deserves better. 

"We're sitting in the heart of Alberta's principal wealth-generating region and living in poor conditions," Duguid said. 

"We're sitting where the wealth-creation machine is and not benefiting from that same wealth."

Residents without heat, running water

Duguid said the nearby Chard Métis Nation, which is also included in Cenovus Energy's community housing investment, is seeing faster progress because they're working with Indigenous Services Canada.

According to the new report by the Rural Development Network, out of 66 online surveys that were completed, 86 per cent of respondents identified as being housing insecure. 

Five years later, conditions haven't improved. Findings in the new report correlate to 2018 survey results when 85 per cent of respondents identified as being housing insecure. 

Grace Richards, a Conklin resident, says she doesn't have running water or electricity at her home. She gets power through an extension cord from her next-door neighbour and uses a propane cook stove top to heat her home.

"In the wintertime, I can't leave. Because if I do leave, I have to turn off my stove and if I do that, everything freezes," Richards said. 

"I'd love to be able to walk into my home, turn on a light switch, turn on the running water. It's not like that right now."