Community & Ecomonic Profile - Town of Drayton Valley

Key Industries
Energy
Production of oil and gas in the Pembina
Oilfields began in the early 1950’s with the
discovery of oil located a few miles
southwest of Violet Grove. Since then,
over 8,000 wells have been drilled with
5,500 still in service today. Forty-five years
later, over 300 wells continue to be drilled
annually. Numerous oilfields exist such as
Bigory, Brazeau, Carrot Creek, Crystal,
CynPemb, Keystone, Peco, Pembina,
Pigeon Lake and West Pembina. The
Pembina Oilfield is Canada’s largest and
most prolific oilfield (more than 900 m 2 ).
The pipeline system (owned by Pembina
Pipeline) gathers production from all these
fields and transports to Edmonton and also
picks up oil volumes from the Niton field
area to the northwest and from the
Willesden Green field located
approximately 65 km south of Drayton
Valley. Condensate is gathered at several
gas plants in the Drayton Valley vicinity.
Presently, about 13,500 m 3 of crude oil per
day and 3,000 m 3 of condensate per day
move through this pipeline system to the
Edmonton terminals. More than 90 wells
were drilled last year and 100+ wells are
expected this year. The area has been
steadily growing since the 1980’s but the
latest surge is the biggest yet.
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Forestry
The Drayton Valley area, located within
portions of two major forests
(Rocky/Clearwater and Whitecourt), is
home to a thriving and growing forest
industry. The local Weyerhaeuser Mill is a
major manufacturing plant that produces
lumber. As the largest single employer in
the area, the plant directly employs
approximately 320 people with a similar
number employed by logging and hauling
contractors. The sawmill uses spruce,
pine, and fir. This makes the harvesting
operations much more efficient and less
wasteful.
Wood wastes boosts the province’s power
grid by an extra 10.5 megawatts of
electricity each year due to a partnership
between Drayton Valley Power and
Weyerhaeuser. Prior to the partnership,
waste material and board used to be
burned on the site. This results in a
reduction of particulate emissions, nitrogen
dioxide, carbon dioxide, and other volatile
organic compounds.
Although Weyerhaeuser dominates the
Forestry industry in the area, opportunity
exists for smaller sawmills. Tall Pine
Timber Co. Ltd. began operating in 1968
and it was the first sawmill in the
Rocky/Clearwater forest region to produce
wood chips for sale to pulp producers.
Unger’s Sawmill was established in 1976
and is comprised of small timber permits,
salvage, and deciduous trees from private
land.
DRAYTON VALLEY ECONOMIC & COMMUNITY PROFILE
www.draytonvalley.ca
Agriculture
Presently there are over 500 farms in the
region which are mostly mixed operations.
Cow/calf operations make up most of the
areas agricultural base. These farms have
grain and forage production for their own
requirements. Crop production ranges from
pasture to oil seeds with major crops being
of hay and oats. This area has some of the
best forage and pasture producing land in
the Province.
Agriculture development in the area is
expanding with a trend towards larger
commercial farms and land is in high
demand. There are several game farm
operations with exotic animals including
elk, bison, wild boars, ostrich, llama,
miniature donkey, white tail deer, yaks and
exotic goats. Other operations farms
include small-scale aquaculture operations
in dugouts, small fruit and berry production,
pork (farrow to finish), several small dairy
farms and a multitude of small on farm
businesses ranging from mechanical to
fabrication.
Type of Farm 1996 2001
Beef Cattle 372 329
Field Crop 81 64
Grain & Oilseed 20 10
Dairy 13 6
Livestock 12 5
Hog 4 3
Poultry & Egg 4 1
Fruit 2 1
Wheat 2 0
Vegetable 0 0
Misc. Specialty 92 85
Other 6 7
Total Farms 608 511