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Waterways is a locality within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in northern Alberta, Canada. It is now a neighbourhood within the Fort McMurray urban service area along the west bank of the Clearwater River, south of the river's confluence with the Athabasca River.
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History
The Alberta and Great Waterways Railway was extended to Waterways in 1921. Waterways was the northernmost point on the North American railroad grid until service was extended to Hay River, Northwest Territories.
Cargo for destinations further north was shipped to Waterways, and then transferred to barges. Fleets of tugboats were then employed to take these barges to destinations within the Mackenzie River watershed.
Legislation authorizing the construction of the rail line was passed in 1909. In the 1960s, the more northerly Hay River, on Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, became the northern terminus of the rail grid.
During the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, Waterways was critically damaged. According to fire damage reports on May 4, 90% of homes in Waterways had already been lost to the wildfire.
Demographics
The population of the Waterways neighbourhood in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo's 2006 municipal census was 750.