Maybe this is corporate Alberta’s attempt to move the discussion on energy away from the realm of publicity stunts and blistering Internet blogs. Maybe it is a matter of creating a forum for public discourse that the oil industry, at its peril, long tried to avoid. Or maybe ConocoPhillips Canada just likes Fort McMurray in the fall.

Whatever the reason, the company’s roving “conversation on energy” campaign is symptomatic of industry desire to improve relations with the public and, measured by any of those objectives, it appears to be a success.

“Our industry has lost touch with the public,” ConocoPhillips Canada president Kevin Meyers remarks. “Opinion polls rank us very low in credibility and show that the level of public trust in the industry to keep its commitments has fallen in each of the three last years.”

Only seven per cent of respondents in a 2006 Harris poll said they trust the oil industry to look after their welfare. Only one in four adults believed oil companies would improve their standard of living. Oil was rated as least likely of six industries, including chemicals and pharmaceuticals, to be perceived as ethical.

Most importantly, especially for tonight’s discussion in the bitumen belt capital, was a finding that the oil industry ranked as least likely to care about communities and the environment.

Not one of the few dozen people who brave the weather to attend the ConocoPhillips Canada event disagrees with Meyers about the energy sector’s failure to connect with the public. Most seem surprised to be partaking in an industry-initiated debate on issues they hold near and dear to their hearts.

“I think it is pretty courageous for those guys as an oil company to talk about their public perception and say ‘OK, ask me questions,’” says discussion panel speaker Marty Giles, owner of a Fort McMurray car dealership.

Other panelists include Meyers, ConocoPhillips Canada operations manager Kelly Hansen, Chief Vern Janvier of Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation and RCMP officer Tonia Enger. This combination of corporate personnel and local representatives is an original twist to the town hall meeting and one that had been well-received in the first Alberta conversation on energy held in Grande Prairie.

The Fort McMurray audience raises questions about company involvement in the community, concerns over water usage and complaints about being forced to buy drinking water. Many questions begin with thanks to the oil executives for hosting the event and providing the public with a chance to speak. Concerns about crime and aboriginal issues are deftly referred to other panelists. The evening seems to end on a positive note. Meyers looks pleased.

“It was exciting to me because there was such a diversity of questions and a diversity of issues and also people were very rational and there were very thoughtful questions,” he says.

He also acknowledges the job of restoring the industry’s reputation is only beginning. “What we’ve got to do is continue to meet with community and aboriginal leaders. We have got to talk about our development plans. We have to look at how we can keep the impact of those plans on the community to a positive sense and look at how we can keep the impact on the environment to a minimum.”

And at least one community member voices his intention to keep him to his word. “What I got was a promise and they said they will live in the community and they always want to make it better than it is,” says Giles. “I am going to believe them. But I am also not, all of a sudden, not going to watch.”