Oilsands capital of Fort McMurray no crime capital: study

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. – A study suggests that Fort McMurray doesn’t deserve its reputation as a crime-ridden, wild and woolly boomtown.

Neil Boyd, head of criminology at Simon Fraser University in B.C., says crime in the oilsands capital is a lot lower than the Canadian average.

Fort McMurray’s robbery, break-and-enter and sexual assault rates are well below the Alberta and Canadian averages.

The study, paid for by the Fort McMurray municipality, also indicates those crime rates are falling faster in the city than elsewhere.

Boyd says previous crime rates were calculated without taking into account the region’s substantial work-camp population.

He suggests the large numbers of young men in those camps are there specifically to work and get into less trouble as a result.