Liberal-appointed senator from Alberta, Paula Simons, has slammed critics of Parks Canada as “conspiracy addled." The Trudeau appointee and Chair of the Senate Agriculture and Forestry committee denounced what she called “back seat forest firefighters,"  mocking critics who dared to question the agency’s forest management practices.

“Many are explaining from their dining room tables all the things they think you did wrong, to the point where it’s become conspiracy addled,” Simons told Andrew Campbell, senior vice-president of Parks Canada Wednesday. 

Her comments come after a fire on July 24 razed a third of Jasper, destroying 358 buildings and 32,700 hectares. Parks Canada has yet to release data on their forest management leading up to the disaster, raising suspicions among locals and experts.

Critics remain unsatisfied, pointing to years of warnings over the “fuel load” from dead pine left standing after beetle infestations. At Parliament's Environment Committee Wednesday, former Conservative MP for Jasper, Jim Eglinski, spoke of a scientist fired for questioning Parks Canada's ineffective forest management. 

Eglinksi, a local, recounted the timeline of years' worth of ignored warnings he gave to the Environment Minister, Catherine McKenna and her Parks Canada officials about the dire risk of an imminent and catastrophic fire in the national park. 

The same sitting of the committee heard from the Alberta Forest Products Association's Brock Mulligan, whose organization began sounding the same alarms about fire dangers in 2017. 

The fire began inside the national park in late July and caused approximately $2 billion in damage. 

Parks Canada has been accused of turning away at least 50 private firefighters and 20 fire trucks as the fire swept into the historic townsite. 

Go Ad Free