Parks Canada, Jasper refuse housing support from Alberta gov’t

'We [have] 250 homes ready to be deployed, but Jasper rejected us,' claimed Premier Danielle Smith, as did Parks Canada, she said.

The aftermath of Jasper’s devastating wildfire last summer continues to face hurdles, as the municipality and Parks Canada — who have jurisdiction over the land — have denied support from the province, rendering hundreds of families homeless.

Premier Smith addressed growing concerns from the public over delays on housing support from the province. More than six months following the disastrous wildfire, some 600 Jasper families are without accommodation.

“We [have] 250 homes ready to be deployed, but Jasper rejected us,” claimed the premier. “The municipality said they didn’t want them.”

Parks Canada, the agency which oversees wildfire management across national parks, did not want the new builds either, she said.

“We said right from the beginning that we would love to be put through orders in Cabinet,” she said, committing $112 million to build single-family homes.

“What we needed was to have land to put them somewhere, and part of the problem with the way that legislation works in Jasper is they have a set townsite and are not prepared to clear any additional space for us to put those houses up,” continued Smith.

Jasper cannot build outside the town boundaries within Jasper National Park, owing to current regulations. Alterations to that boundary would require a Cabinet bill to be passed, though that could take several months.

Only 60 of the promised 250 homes could be built on the land already available, reported CBC News.

Another caller asked if the province would annex the land since Parliament has to authorize further land development. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s prorogation stifled all federal business through March 24th. 

Smith said that pursuing ownership of federal land would be “complicated,” calling it an area of frustration for many involved, including the residents of Jasper. 

“They [the municipality] want it to be multi-family housing,” clarified the premier, who urged concerned residents to contact Mayor Richard Ireland and Parks Canada to explain the delay. Ireland did reply to a request for comment by the state broadcaster.

In a prior statement to CBC News, a Parks Canada spokesperson said advancing interim housing options for Jasper National Park remains a top priority. “This includes making land available [inside and outside the town boundaries], … and removing barriers so that residents have somewhere to live during recovery,” it reads.

However, the statement also says, “changing the town boundary will not result in providing people places to live now. As with any municipality the delivery of municipal infrastructure outside the town boundary would require a long period to put in place.”

“If they don’t want them, there’s nothing we can do — it’s not our jurisdiction,” the premier said. “We still stand by,” Smith reiterated, “ready to deploy these 250 homes.”

The municipality wants to pursue short-term housing as it develops permanent high-density units, reported CBC News, noting the process could take 18 to 24 months.

Jason Nixon, Alberta's minister of community and social services, told reporters the money cannot be spent if there isn’t a housing project that meets their requirements.

“If we don’t end up doing this project, it would not be utilized, but there are other areas where we would be investing in other ministers’ budgets,” he said.

“We’ve already invested hundreds of millions to date in Jasper’s recovery,” Nixon continued. “The province is prepared to continue to do so.”

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Alex Dhaliwal

Calgary Based Journalist

Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.

COMMENTS

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  • Bruce Atchison
    commented 2025-01-29 19:19:32 -0500
    Danielle Smith must push for Jasper and Banf to become provincial parks. We saw how mismanaged both were over the previous few decades. But I guess that makes too much sense so it won’t happen.