The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (abbreviated RMWB) is a specialized municipality in northeast Alberta, Canada. It is the largest regional municipality in Canada by area, covering ; this number includes the Wood Buffalo National Park of Canada. It is home to oil sand deposits known as the Athabasca oil sands.
History
The Municipality of Wood Buffalo was incorporated as a specialized municipality on April 1, 1995 as a result of the amalgamation of the City of Fort McMurray and Improvement District No. 143. Specialized municipality status was granted to provide "for the unique needs of a municipality including a large urban centre and a large rural territory with a small population."
“The Beast” Horse River Wildfire (2016)
From May 3, 2016 on, over 80,000 people were affected by evacuations, by May 3 at 6:49 pm, the entirety of Fort McMurray and surrounding areas were placed under a mandatory evacuation. making it Alberta's largest evacuation for a wildfire. It borders the province of Saskatchewan to the east; the Northwest Territories to the north; Improvement District No. 24 (Wood Buffalo National Park), Mackenzie County, and the Municipal District of Opportunity No. 17 to the west; and Athabasca County and the Municipal District of Bonnyville No. 87 to the south.
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;Towns
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;Villages
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;Summer villages
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The following hamlets are located within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo:
- Fort Chipewyan
- Fort McKay
- Fort McMurray (urban service area)
- Gregoire Lake Estates
- Janvier South
- Saprae Creek
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The following localities are located within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo:
- Almac Subdivision
- Beaver Lake-Young's Beach
- Bechtel Syncrude Camp
- Berdinskies
- Berny
- Big Eddy
- Billos
- Bitumount
- Brièreville
- Chard
- Charron
- Cheecham
- Christina Crossing
- Corbetts
- Devenish
- Dog Head
- Draper
- Egg Lake
- Portage
- Fitzgerald Local rivers include the Hangingstone River, Clearwater River and Christina River, a tributary of the Clearwater River.
The Hangingstone River drains an area of , which is dominated by muskeg, and flows into the Clearwater River just upstream of the Athabasca River at Fort McMurray. The river often experiences high flows in the spring during snow melt, during heavy rainfall events and when ice jams occur during spring ice break. The RMWB warns citizens of the potential for sudden flash floods "especially in populated areas adjacent to the Athabasca River, Clearwater River and Christina River." Water levels have been monitored by the Water Survey of Canada since 1970 (WSC station 07CD004). During the spring months there is increased monitoring of the "Clearwater River to the south of the urban service area to provide warning of an ice break" and the "Athabasca River upper basin, local river levels, precipitation and overall weather patterns."
The Clearwater River, designated as part of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System, flows from its headwaters at Lloyd Lake in northwest Saskatchewan into northeast Alberta before joining the Athabasca River at Fort McMurray. "The lack of significant oil sands developments means that the Clearwater River can be used as a baseline river system to provide information on the variability and characteristics of natural systems."
In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo had a population of 71,594 living in 25,659 of its 30,713 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 65,565. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.
Municipal census
{| cellpadding="1" style="float:right; margin-left:1em; border:1px #bbb solid; border-collapse:collapse; font-size:90%;"
|colspan=5- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="text-align:center;"| Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo population breakdown, 2021 a change of from its 2018 municipal census permanent population of 75,009. In addition, the 2021 municipal census counted a shadow population of 30,504 non-permanent residents for a combined population of 106,059,
! colspan="2" |2016
! colspan="2" |2011
! colspan="2" |2006
! colspan="2" |2001
|-
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
|-
| European
| 44,020
|
| 45,845
|
| 47,020
|
| 40,430
|
| 33,615
|
|-
| Indigenous
| 8,135
|
| 6,565
|
| 6,315
|
| 5,365
|
| 5,130
|
|-
| Southeast Asian
| 6,360
|
| 5,365
|
| 2,790
|
| 880
|
| 465
|
|-
| African
| 4,825
|
| 4,175
|
| 2,070
|
| 720
|
| 340
|
|-
| South Asian
| 4,770
|
| 4,980
|
| 4,085
|
| 1,780
|
| 640
|
|-
| Middle Eastern
| 1,505
|
| 1,940
|
| 1,215
|
| 830
|
| 475
|
|-
| East Asian
| 865
|
| 1,285
|
| 845
|
| 695
|
| 520
|
|-
| Latin American
| 645
|
| 925
|
| 1,035
|
| 570
|
| 75
|
|-
| Other/multiracial
| 650
|
| 400
|
| 295
|
| 140
|
| 105
|
|-
! Total responses
! 71,780
!
! 71,480
!
! 65,565
!
! 51,405
!
! 41,360
!
|- class="sortbottom"
! Total population
! 72,326
!
! 71,594
!
! 65,565
!
! 51,496
!
! 41,466
!
|- class="sortbottom"
| colspan="11" |
|}
Language
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin-left:20px;"
!Mother tongue (2016)
!Responses
!%
|-
|English||54,020||
|-
|Tagalog||2,920||
|-
|French||1,880||
|-
|Arabic||1,270||
|-
|Gujarati||1,070||
|-
|Urdu||1,035||
|-
|Spanish||805||
|-
|Somali||730||
|-
|Amharic||455||
|-
|Punjabi||425||
|-
|Hindi||415||
|-
|Mandarin||335||
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin-left:20px;"
!Knowledge of language (2016)
!Responses
!%
|-
|English||70,750||
|-
|French||5,125||
|-
|Tagalog||4,250||
|-
|Arabic||1,830||
|-
|Spanish||1,375||
|-
|Urdu||1,340||
|-
|Hindi||1,130||
|-
|Gujarati||1,130||
|-
|Somali||730||
|-
|Punjabi||640||
|-
|Mandarin||580||
|-
|Cree||535||
|}
Immigration
Wood Buffalo is home to almost 2,000 recent immigrants (arriving between 2001 and 2006) who now make up more than 3% of the population. About 21% of these immigrants came from India, while about 10% came from each of Pakistan and the Philippines, and about 9% came from Venezuela, and about 8% from South Africa, about 6% from China, and about 3% came from Colombia.
Religion
More than 80% of residents identified as Christian at the time of the 2001 census while almost 17% indicated they had no religious affiliation. For specific denominations Statistics Canada counted 15,880 Roman Catholics (37.4%), 4,985 Anglicans (11.7%), 4,225 for the United Church of Canada (9.9%), 1,730 Pentecostals (4.1%), 1,195 Baptists (2.8%), 965 for the Salvation Army (2.3%), 900 Lutherans (2.1%), 690 Muslims (1.6%), 350 Latter-day Saints (0.8%), and 320 Presbyterians (0.8%).
Economy
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo is home to vast oil sand deposits, also known as the Athabasca Oil Sands, helping to make the region one of the fastest growing industrial areas in Canada.
Attractions
Wood Buffalo National Park is adjacent to the Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo to the northwest.