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Oil Sands Discovery Centre

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Oil Sands Discovery Centre - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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• (1.06 mi) Radisson Hotel & Suites Fort McMurray
• (7.84 mi) Best Western Plus Sawridge Suites
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Fort McMurray Like You've Never Seen It Before

Experience the side of Fort McMurray you never knew existed. The city offers aerial tours to give you a bird's eye view of the city and oilsands, visit the Oilsands Discovery Centre or see the Northern Lights on a guided tour with a professional photographer.

Flying High

Aerial Tour $374 per package (Thursday to Sundays only)

McMurray Aviation offers aerial tours of the city, oilsands, Boreal forest and float plane adventures.

Learn more by visiting McMurray Aviation's Aerial Adventures website .

Oil Sands Discovery Centre

Covering more than 142,000 square kilometers, the Alberta Oil Sands is the world’s largest single oil deposit. The ingenuity and scale that went into tapping into the rich resource is a thrill to experience.

Learn about how the government and corporations are working together to preserve the environment and build a sustainable energy project. The Oil Sands drive a global Canadian economy, so visit the Discovery Centre and learn how the oilsands came to be and how it works today.

Admission includes:

• Demonstration of the extraction process
• “Quest for Energy” and “Pay Dirt - Alberta’s Oil Sands: Century in the Making” Films
• Access to the exhibit halls

Click here to visit their website.

Alta-Can Tour

The northern lights are a marvel to behold, particularly as you move further north. The Alta-Can Aurora tours provide a great opportunity to take in a guided exploration of this natural phenomenon.

• Guided tour service
• On staff photographer and astronomer
• Meals included
• Optional skiing, oil sands tours and shopping
• Comfortable accommodations with Sawridge Inn

For more information, view the Alta-Can website at www.altacan.ab.ca

Experience the Energy Tour

Marvel at the sheer power and technology that goes into one of the world’s biggest industrial projects. Take a guided tour of the Suncor Energy operations and get a firsthand understanding of how this organization is driving the Alberta economy in a sustainable way.

This guided tour is fun and educational, something that is perfect for a family outing. Take a guided Bus tour of Suncor Energy and visit the Oil Sands Discovery Centre for an interactive look into the Athabasca Oil Sands and Heritage Shipyard to experience Fort McMurray’s unique and vibrant past.

Tour Details:

• Guided tour of Suncor Energy
• Admission to the Oil Sands Discovery Centre
• Admission to Heritage Shipyard

Note: The Energy Tours are suspended until further notice.

For more information on tours and events in Fort McMurray, visit Fort McMurray Tourism's website .

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Phoenix Heli-Flight offers tours of Fort McMurray, the Oilsands, and the Wood Buffalo region. For custom tour pricing please contact our office at 780-799-0141 or  [email protected] .

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EC120 (max. 4 passengers)

Town Tour – 24 minutes – $747

Town & Suncor Tour – 36 minutes – $1,110

Town, Suncor & Syncrude – 42 minutes – $1,291

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Town Tour – 24 minutes – $1,087

Town & Suncor Tour – 36 minutes – $1,621

Town, Suncor & Syncrude – 42 minutes – $1,887

Clearwater River Valley & Whitemud Falls – 1 hour – $2,687

H130 (EC130 T2) (max. 6 passengers)

Town Tour – 24 minutes – $1,366

Town & Suncor Tour – 36 minutes – $2,039

Town, Suncor & Syncrude – 42 minutes – $2,376

Clearwater River Valley & Whitemud Falls – 1 hour – $3,385

Call us at 780-799-0141 or email us at  [email protected]  to make your booking!

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The NCX seat post has been engineered and built for years of comfort and performance.

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Featuring a 50mm range of travel and stainless steel bushings . The SR SUNTOUR NCX seat post is best in class for performance and value. 

This is a must have accessory for any cyclist looking for the ultimate in comfort. Alleviate back pain and saddle soreness today. 

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• SP12 & SP17 are identical in design
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Oil Sands Discovery Centre

Top ways to experience nearby attractions

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Oil Sands Discovery Centre - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

• Wed - Sun 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
• (1.56 km) Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham Fort McMurray
• (1.36 km) Super 8 by Fort McMurray
• (1.45 km) Travelodge By Wyndham Fort McMurray
• (1.69 km) Radisson Hotel & Suites Fort McMurray
• (12.55 km) Best Western Plus Sawridge Suites
• (0.75 km) The Den
• (0.80 km) Sweet Basil
• (6.64 km) Mitchell's Cafe
• (1.34 km) Brewskies Pub
• (1.62 km) Table 63

Fort McMurray residents dubious as Trudeau waves the flag for oilsands, pipelines

Justin trudeau says he was able to get a pipeline from alberta approved while the conservatives failed.

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As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau toured a Fort McMurray oilsands mine and met with energy and Indigenous leaders, some residents of the northern Alberta city seemed less than impressed with the visit and what it all means.

"I was surprised he came to visit," said Edward Luski, getting off a bus at the downtown terminal after a day's work. "I don't think he's very loved for here."

The Friday visit, part of Trudeau's tour of Western Canada, saw him continuing to applaud his government's efforts to get controversial pipeline projects off the ground while keeping a mindful eye on environmental protection.

"We actually approved a pipeline that for the very first time is going to get our oil to new markets," Trudeau told reporters after his tour of Suncor's new Fort Hills oilsands site, one of the largest oilsands projects in the region.

• Fort McMurray mayor to put pipeline delays on agenda as Trudeau visits Alberta city​
• Trudeau's environment and economy balancing act to play out on western tour
• ​Anti-pipeline protesters in Vancouver march ahead of Justin Trudeau appearance

"Moving our resources to market is not just a priority for Albertans, but, for Canadians, and we are going to do that in a responsible way."

Trudeau says there will always be protesters in politics

With Suncor CEO Steve Williams as his tour guide, Trudeau met with workers and answered questions about the Liberal government's plans to impose a national carbon tax.

The prime minister played down concerns that government policies are slowing down investment in the oil and gas industry while capital is fleeing to the United States.

"You know what gives Canada a competitive disadvantage not being able to get our oil resources to new markets?" Trudeau said. "For 10 years Stephen Harper talked the oilsands up and weren't able to get [pipelines] done."

Following the tour, Williams without hesitation said he believed the Trans Mountain pipeline will get built.

Through the day, Trudeau met with other energy sector leaders, Wood Buffalo's mayor and the region's Métis and First Nations leaders.

Ron Quintal, president of the Fort McKay Métis, noted the significance of the three key parties - Treaty Indians, Metis and the federal government - being in the same discussion.

Quintal said all the parties recognize the importance of working together.

"In the circumstance of economics, there's a really big pie," Quintal said. "And we don't want to fight over that pie."

Allan Adam, chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation &amp; Ron Quintal, Fort McKay Métis president, say today is the first time Indigenous groups from the region are meeting a Canadian prime minister together <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ymm?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ymm</a> <a href="https://t.co/NPz8BOcGik">pic.twitter.com/NPz8BOcGik</a> &mdash; @CBCDavid

After the meeting with the prime minister, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation chief Allan Adam announced that the region's First Nations want to work together with pipeline builders.

"We want to be owners of a pipeline," said Adam, who has in the past been critical of the oilsands. "What we are looking for is potential partners to come and join with us and thus we can start lobbying the government in a proper way.

"We think that the pipeline is the most critical component to the oil and gas sector especially from this region."

'Most people are disappointed in him'

While Trudeau toured and met, Fort McMurray's residents were watching and listening.

Frances Jean, owner of a downtown car wash, was tuned in to the day's news coverage.

The well-known businesswoman, historian and a supporter of Alberta's right leaning political parties, said Fort McMurray has a historic distrust for Liberal politicians - and in particular prime ministers named Trudeau.

"I think most people are disappointed in him because he has not cared about Fort McMurray or cared about the place that has given most of the money to the rest of Canada for the past several years.

Robbie Picard, a pro-oilsands and pipeline activist, said it wasn't enough for Trudeau to come to town and talk about his achievements.

"He needs to own it like it's his project," Picard said.

Fort McMurray wants a prime minister, Picard said, who champions the oilsands for its environmental and technical achievements.

• MORE FORT McMURRAY NEWS:  'Absolutely dismal': Northern Alberta Métis community grapples with housing crisis
• MORE FORT McMURRAY NEWS:  Alberta First Nation fears for bison herd if mega oilsands mine opens

In British Columbia on Thursday, Trudeau met with Canadian Coast Guard members aboard the Sir Wilfrid Laurier to discuss marine safety and spill prevention, in Victoria. He was then met by 300 to 400 protesters in Vancouver while attending a Liberal party fundraiser.

Unlike that visit, he was only met by about a dozen pipeline protesters at the entrance of the downtown Fort McMurray hotel where he met with energy sector and Indigenous leaders.

Follow David Thurton, CBC's Fort McMurray correspondent, on  Facebook  and  Twitter , or email him at  [email protected]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Senior reporter, Parliamentary Correspondent

David Thurton is a senior reporter in CBC's Parliamentary Bureau. He covers daily politics in the nation’s capital and specializes in environment and energy policy. Born in Canada but raised in Trinidad and Tobago, he’s moved around more times than he can count. He’s worked for CBC in several provinces and territories, including Alberta and the Northwest Territories. He can be reached at [email protected]

With files from The Canadian Press

Related Stories

• Fort McMurray mayor to put pipeline delays on agenda as Trudeau visits Alberta city
• Anti-pipeline protesters in Vancouver march ahead of Justin Trudeau appearance

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Companies hoping to sell gas stations struggle to find buyers

Amid electric-vehicle mandates, such as Canada’s commitment to having all new vehicles be battery-powered by 2035, there are predictions that 80 per cent of the global fuel retail network as it exists today will be unprofitable roughly a decade from now. Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

The road to an all electric-vehicle future may still be a decade or more away, but the move away from gas-powered cars is already imperilling a staple for road-trippers and a profitable business for small-time owners and chains alike: the gas station.

While individual stations are still attractive to entrepreneurs looking to be sole proprietors, companies hoping to sell large retail gas networks are struggling to find buyers. Hundreds of locations across Canada from big-name companies such as Suncor, Irving and Parkland are up for sale with no one so much as kicking the tires.

As electric-vehicle mandates – such as Canada’s commitment to having all new vehicles be battery-powered by 2035 – advance around the world, there are predictions that 80 per cent of the global fuel retail network as it exists today will be unprofitable roughly a decade from now.

Suncor Inc. SU-T faced that reality in 2022, when it failed to find an acceptable price for its Petro-Canada network, deciding to retain the chain in defiance of an activist investor’s demand for a sale. Irving Oil has had its nearly 1,000 refuelling stations across the East Coast on the auction block for almost a year. Most recently, Parkland Corp. PKI-T has brought in some big guns to assist with selling 157 gas stations spread across six provinces.

Their challenge, as Suncor and Irving have already learned, will be finding a buyer who sees a long-term strategic rationale in owning services designed for a technology in decline. Certainly many gas stations will remain in use long after 2035 as older combustion-based cars will still be on the roads, but the days of retail gasoline being a growth business are already long gone.

Calgary-based Parkland said last week it is working with Colliers Canada and NRC Realty & Capital Advisors LLC to search for buyers. The Parkland stations, which operate under various brands including Chevron, Ultramar, Pioneer, Fas Gas as well as the On the Run convenience store chain, were first put up for sale in February.

Those sites “no longer fit our long-term strategic objectives,” Parkland said in a statement. The company, which owns 800 gas stations across Canada, is committed to selling $500-million in assets by the end of 2025.

When Suncor gave up trying to sell its Petro-Canada chain, then-interim chief executive Kris Smith said two-thirds of the 17 global industry players the company approached about a possible deal passed. The remaining third offered to purchase only a portion of the network or offered a lowball price, Mr. Smith said, noting Suncor anticipated gasoline demand to fall by as much as 25 per cent over the next two decades.

Irving, as a privately-held company, is under no obligation to publicly disclose any progress it may or may not be making on the strategic review it announced last June. In fact, University of New Brunswick economist Rob Moir told The Globe and Mail in October that the company’s decision to publicly announce the review itself represented an increased effort to find potential buyers.

Nate Heywood, an energy infrastructure analyst for ATB Capital Markets, said part of buyer hesitation is because the most likely acquirers of large numbers of gas stations – those with large networks of their own – are “focused more on being convenience store providers.” That means putting whatever money they have into improving the size and quality of the stores attached to the stations they already own, as opposed to spending capital buying more stations that would then require costly upgrades.

The idea now, Mr. Heywood said in an interview from Calgary, is to make existing stations an attractive place for EV drivers to stop and rest for the 20 to 30 minutes it takes for their vehicles to charge. Suncor, for example, installed an off-leash fenced dog park at its Cookstown Petro-Canada location in 2022, which is located along one of the most common routes drivers from the Greater Toronto Area take to reach Muskoka cottage country.

“Positioning for the EV transition has been a consideration” for potential buyers as well, Mr. Heywood said. “They want to see how that plays out and how the economics work in terms of certain locations and what geographies and markets work best for electric-vehicle charging.”

While some locations near highway rest stops like Cookstown are ideally suited for conversion to EV charging stations, urban gas stations, which will have to compete with home-based chargers and the increasing number of charging stations in parking lots and office buildings, will find it much harder to stay financially viable.

Already, the urban gas station is starting to disappear in some cities, despite the shift to EVs still being in its earliest stages. The 2017 sale of a Chevron station in Vancouver left the city’s downtown core with only a single place to gas up – an Imperial Oil-owned site at the corner of Burrard and Davie Streets – while other cities such as Kelowna have recently proposed banning the construction of new gas stations within city limits.

Insatiable demand for land to build housing has also contributed to the demise of gas stations located in downtown cores. Real estate developers are able to offer generous prices for urban gas stations because they are often located in areas zoned for high-density residences.

The Chevron station in downtown Vancouver that sold in 2017, for example, was most recently assessed to be worth $29.5-million. Anthem Properties ended up paying $72-million for the property, with plans to build a 33-storey condominium tower on the lot.

The total number of retail gasoline stations across Canada peaked at roughly 20,000 in the late 1980s, before falling nearly 40 per cent between 1988 and 2008, according to the National Retail Petroleum Site Census, published annually by Kalibrate Technologies Ltd. Since then, the number has stayed relatively flat, hovering around the 12,000 level.

Even for those gas stations located in places EV drivers would consider convenient to stop and charge (and maybe even buy a snack from the attached convenience store, which is where those businesses make most of their profits), installing the type of fast chargers that can fill a battery from zero to 80 per cent inside of 30 minutes is an expensive proposition.

According to ChargePoint Inc., which installs and manages EV chargers at different kinds of commercial properties, the hardware and software requirements for a single fast charger starts at US$50,000. Factoring in the costs of labour, permits and adding more electrical capacity to the site usually doubles that total.

And that is for a single charging station. But just as most gas stations have more than one pump, conversions to service EV drivers will typically involve multiple chargers.

Parkland, for its part, appears to have accepted the relatively low likelihood of finding a single buyer for all 157 locations it has up for sale. In a statement, Colliers and NRC said they have invited “convenience store operators, small business owners and entrepreneurs” to bid on single or multiple sites either online or by calling a toll-free phone number.

Parkland has said each location will be packaged with long-term fuel supply agreements in hopes of appealing to “experienced, entrepreneurial operators.”

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Panoramic City Tour. This Moscow tour is a great start to your trip and the best way to get acquainted with many of the city’s major highlights. Our professional guide will...

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Head to the heart of Moscow with a professional guide on a 4-hour private walk through the city center. See Tverskaya and Old Arbat streets, Theatre Square with the world-famous...

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This is a very interesting and insightful tour. You will visit places connected with Stalin’s terror - a time of great repression and fear. You will be shown monuments to...

Soviet and Post-Soviet Moscow Tour

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Tretyakov State Gallery Tour

This world-famous gallery contains masterpieces of Russian art beginning in the 10th century up until today. You will view exquisite Russian icons and paintings from the 18th and...

Jewish Heritage of Moscow Tour

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Vodka Museum Tour with transport (excursion only)

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What is the best time to visit moscow.

Any time of year is fine depending on what you plan to do. Summertime is pleasantly warm, ideal for exploring the city and its vibrant atmosphere, but Moscow will be much busier and accommodation is more expensive. Winter can be quite cold but beautiful nonetheless, and this is unproblematic if you intend to spend most of your trip in museums and galleries. There are also various festivals and events organised throughout the year. For more information about the best time to visit, read our guide

How many days are enough in Moscow?

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As Russia’s capital city, tourists are well accommodated in Moscow. There should be English-speaking staff in restaurants, bars, hotels, shops and attractions in tourist hotspots, and there are also English-speaking tourist police. Transport services have English translations on their maps and English announcements via intercom; alternatively, order taxis from the Yandex Taxi app (Russian Uber), though it’s unlikely that your taxi driver will speak English. If you get stuck and cannot communicate, it’s fine to use Google Translate.

Is it safe to travel to Moscow?

It is no less safe to travel to Moscow than to any European city if you exercise common sense and look after your belongings. As with every city some regions can be more unsavoury than others, but no tourist attractions are located there. The traffic in Moscow is notorious, so exercise caution when crossing roads. Do not take unlicensed taxis; book in advance or take public transport, which is widespread and perfectly safe. If you encounter any problems, look for the special tourist police who can help you. For more information, read our guide about staying safe in Russia .

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