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Doug Faulkner, who spent five years as a councillor and seven years as mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB), has died. He was 82.

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The news was announced by Mayor Sandy Bowman on Wednesday afternoon. Flags will be flown at half-mast across the Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo region.

“Born in Scotland and raised in Newfoundland and Labrador, Doug’s connection to Fort McMurray and the Wood Buffalo region is a common one,” Bowman said in a statement. “We often say that we are a place where people come from across Alberta, Canada and around the world to make a better life for themselves and their families, and Doug embodied that familiar journey.”

Faulkner was born in 1942 in Inverness, Scotland. He was raised in Bishop Falls, Nfld. and trained to become an auto mechanic at a family-run business. In 1964, Faulkner graduated from a Christian college and preached throughout Canada as a Pentecostal minister.

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He moved to Fort McMurray in 1979, where his first job in the booming city was driving a bus for Diversified. Two years later he worked at Syncrude as a purchaser. He was active in the community as a minor hockey coach, and served on the Court of Revision, the landlord and tenant advisory board, and the Fort McMurray Housing Authority.

In 1992, Faulkner was elected Alderman for the City of Fort McMurray. He was reelected in 1995 when the city and nearby hamlets merged into the RMWB. He won more votes than any other councillor in that election.

Faulkner became mayor in a 1997 byelection after former mayor Guy Boutilier left council to become a PC MLA. His term as mayor coincided with the start of another oilsands boom.

“He was a typical Newfoundlander: friendly, outgoing, kindhearted. He was a man of faith, hard working and was loved by a lot of people,” said Vaughn Jessome, who worked for Boutilier and frequently met with Faulkner. “He was very down to Earth. He was good with kids. He was definitely someone people saw as approachable.”

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As mayor, Faulkner sat on committees for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Alberta Association of Urban Municipalities. He spoke about Fort McMurray at conferences and to lobbyists across Canada and around the world.

Faulkner was criticized for his frequent travel to these conferences. He told reporters the meetings were needed to build connections and exchange ideas for the booming city.

He pushed for more funding for improved recreational facilities and the twinning of Highway 63. The provincial and municipal road networks in the region needed upgrades and expansions, he argued. Affordable housing, better retail, improved health care and stronger policing were common causes he pushed for as the population exploded.

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Critics accused the council of the day of being slow to react to these needs. Faulkner countered the federal and provincial governments were slow to fund Alberta’s growing cities.

“We’ve been struggling and struggling, lobbying and lobbying on Parliament Hill to get money for infrastructure, water and sewer … and they just look at you, these bureaucrats,” Faulkner said in a 2003 interview with Fort McMurray Today.

Faulkner was defeated in a 2004 election, which was won by former mayor Melissa Blake. A few weeks later he told Fort McMurray Today he was retiring from politics.

“I missed a lot of years (with my family) because I’ve been away … I’m going to sleep in, laze around and have breakfast,” he said after the election. “I’m so pleased to have been able to serve this community the way I have. It’s been by far the best years of my life. It’s been a wonderful, wonderful experience to have lived in Fort McMurray.”

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His time away from politics did not last long, though. Faulkner briefly returned to politics in 2012 to run as a Wildrose MLA in Fort McMurray-Conklin. The move to the Wildrose surprised some people because Faulkner ran as a federal Liberal candidate in the 2000 and 2004 elections. During both elections, he finished twice.

He finished second in 2012 to the PC’s Don Scott, another former councillor who would later become mayor of the RMWB. Faulkner was proud of his campaign, but was frustrated only 36.3 per cent of voters showed up to the polls.

Faulkner briefly visited Fort McMurray in 2018 from his home in Edmonton in 2018 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Golden Years Society. The ceremony was “outstanding,” he said, and it was when he first saw concept art of the much-anticipated Long-Term Continuing Care Centre at Willow Square.

“Fort McMurray has gone through quite a rough time these last few years, but I think it is rebounding again,” he said.

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