It’s been six months since Jasper was evacuated due to the threat of a massive wildfire roaring down the Athabasca Valley.

On Friday, January 24, it will be exactly six months since thousands of Jasperites learned that their homes, businesses and everything in them burnt to the ground.

And on Saturday, January 25, it will be exactly six months since Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wept openly on national television for Jasper, pledging to be there for the community as it recovers from its darkest days.

“Jasper, we will continue to stand by you,” Premier Smith said through tears, looking directly into the cameras. “We look forward to recovering.”

Many of us believed her. 

Now, however, following her Minister’s claims that the province’s hands are tied when it comes to interim housing, that Jasper is outside of the province’s jurisdiction, and that Parks Canada and the Municipality of Jasper have rejected the province’s offers of housing help, Premier Smith’s promise appears to be going…up in smoke.

I’m no Parks Canada booster. But while Premier Smith declares Parks Canada “a real problem,” refusing to honour her Ministers’ commitment on housing if Jasper doesn’t expand the town boundaries into the protected national park or build on old, contaminated dump sites (in contravention of provincial regulations), it’s easy for me to see who is truly working for this community’s future. 

It’s the federal agency, not the province, which has procured high-density units, including 120 work camp style accommodations to be located adjacent to Whistler Campground. It’s the feds, not the GOA, making land available at campgrounds and converting decommissioned staff accommodations into interim housing. It’s Parks Canada, not the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, listening to local planners. 

And while the province helped lead the fight against the wildfire, has put up displaced residents in hotels and provided disaster relief funding to resource Jasper’s rebuild, at this point, local officials aren’t even sure if the GOA will buck up for the servicing of the interim housing parcels, let alone the building of the housing units themselves. 

That work—a $5 to $7 million undertaking—was done with the expectation that the province would pay for it. In good faith, in other words.

But provincial officials don’t seem to be acting in good faith.

At this moment, more than a dozen excavators are in Jasper scooping up what’s left of the earthly possessions of folks who built a life here.

Contractors are hosing down and trucking away the potentially asbestos-contaminated remains of the rooms where families and friends gathered. Downtown, where once-thriving businesses used to invite customers, fenced-in pits and boarded-up buildings loom inertly.

Insurance adjusters, remediation experts and utility workers buzz about the town. As do grief counsellors and outreach workers. 

And right now in Jasper, living arrangements are unprecedentedly untenable. Retired couples who were entering their golden years are living in basement suites. Families with young children are crammed into hotel rooms. Residents who every day contributed to their home community are adrift across the province—some living in neighbouring towns and commuting, others hunkering down until some news of housing in Jasper comes down the pipe.

“Jasper, we will continue to stand by you,” the Premier said six months ago.

Spring is normally a time of hope. This year, however, when the snow melts and Jasper’s secondary suites and hotel rooms are needed for visitors, for hundreds who lost their homes and don’t yet have a housing plan in place, the warm weather will bring fresh dread. The best case, for some, will be living in their camper for the summer.

The hard truth, for many more, is that they won’t be able to make it work. 

Beyond the social upheaval, there are economic consequences to this housing shortage. First, it will hamper the community’s chances of recovery. Then businesses will go bankrupt. Finally, Jasper will be bought up by those who can pay. Even now, we see the pattern being established: with the surge in demand for housing, rental prices are being driven through the roof to unsustainable, unfair rates. 

On July 25, Premier Danielle Smith told Jasperites that she and her government would stand by them. 

Many of us believed her. Maybe that’s on us. 

But being promised help and not receiving it is one thing. Constituents across the world are used to that from politicians. 

However, it’s another thing entirely for that lack of support to be pinned on Jasper because local planners simply want to address the community’s urgent housing needs with locally-led solutions.

Watching Jasper burn was a nightmare. But it’s the gaslighting coming from the province which will have lasting, deteriorating consequences.

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com