Residents say amendments to private home accommodations will shut families out of home ownership.

UPDATE: 5:58 p.m., Friday May, 20

Parks Canada has issued an emailed update announcing the are WITHDRAWING the proposed PHA amendment package

“Effective today, Parks Canada is withdrawing the proposed amendment package and is committing to undertake further consultations to collaboratively identify amendments that will address life safety code issues, preservation of residential areas, parking and compliance issues,” the email reads.

This story is in progress. Stay tuned to The Jasper Local for updates.

A proposed series of amendments to private home accommodations (PHA) regulations in the townsite have sent shockwaves through the community.

Presented as the belated enforcement of long-existing regulations, the proposed amendments amount to a sudden policy shift that will pull the rug out from under home-owners who rely on PHA income to pay their mortgages.

Residents of Jasper who operate PHAs are being told by Parks Canada that the rooms they rent to tourists could soon no longer be legal.

“This will crush our family,” said Eric Dietiker, who last week received a letter from Jasper National Park’s realty and municipal services office notifying him of impending changes to Jasper’s land use regulations.

Stipulations of the amendments include that sinks, fridges, cupboards and kettles will all need to be removed; Parks Canada will require that the PHA will need to be accessed through the primary dwelling (no “back door” access); and the agency will enforce a requirement that PHAs must take up a maximum of 10 per cent of the home’s floor area.

Additionally, licenses for PHAs will only be issued for three years at a time, a consequential detail because families use the income from a PHA as a major consideration when deciding whether or not they will take on a large mortgage. Losing that PHA income will make families eminently more “house poor,” said Karen Phillips, treasurer of the Jasper Home Accommodation Association.

“Jasperites who operate PHAs have made major life and financial decisions based on having income from their small businesses,” Phillips said. “Young families have taken on huge mortgages; older folks rely on PHA income to supplement retirement income.”

The amendments are intended to address unsafe conditions for guests and tenants, mitigate parking issues and free up housing for Jasperites, according to the document dated May 12.

“Three major challenges have been identified with regards to PHAs in Jasper,” says the document, which is signed by Dave Kreizenbeck, Senior Realty and Development Advisor in Jasper National Park. “Life safety code issues; excessive commercial floor area in residential areas; and on-site parking and compliance issues.”

“PHAs are meant to consist of a private bedroom within a resident’s dwelling,” the document continues. 

Having previously approved dozens of PHAs with backdoor access, kitchenettes and en suite bathrooms, Parks Canada claims that “PHAs are meant to consist of a private bedroom within a resident’s dwelling.”

“Historical practices, unclear policy, and administrative errors have led to a number of existing PHAs within the community that mimic a self-contained hotel room,” Parks Canada said, adding that these configurations require stricter adherence to life safety codes than a simple bedroom.

The document also suggests the preservation of residential areas is a priority for Parks Canada, and that PHAs erode potential community residential housing and character.

“PHAs…cumulatively contribute to a reduction in space that could be used for long-term residential use,” the letter states.

Phillips, who has lived in Jasper for 40 years, said a lack of housing is indeed a chronic issue in Jasper, but getting rid of PHAs and disrupting the lives and finances of more than 140 families isn’t the answer.

“Most will not have the financial ability to do renovations to convert their PHAs to legal secondary suites,” Phillips said.

Dietiker, a red seal journeyman carpenter who has spent more than $150,000 on renovations to his home to make his two PHAs safer and to comply with Parks Canada’s rules, is now being told if the proposed amendments go through, he has until the end of the year to remove his appliances. His business helps make Jasper National Park more accessible to Canadians, which is part of the government’s edict, he said. Turning his welcoming suite into an institutionalized dorm is hardly in keeping with that mandate.

“And the next year I have to remove my countertops, cupboards and sinks,” he said.

Lisa Darrah and her husband operate a guiding company in Jasper. They also operate a tourist room to help pay the mortgage on their Tonquin Street home. Darrah says Jasper’s middle income families, who have scraped together enough capital to purchase a home and who service large mortgages with the income they earn on their PHAs, will be financially crippled by the proposed amendments.

“These people 100 per cent depend on that PHA income,” she said. “This proposal will make ownership for middle income earners very, very difficult moving forward.” 

On Friday, May 13, board members of the Jasper Home Accommodation Association held an emergency meeting to discuss the proposed changes. The JHAA board has written to Parks Canada to ask for an extension on the June 13 deadline for feedback. 

“Given the scope of the amendments and the rapidly-approaching busy summer tourist season, it’s not reasonable to expect PHA hosts to be able to offer thoughtful feedback on such a short timeline,” Phillips said.

Jasper Municipal Council has likewise asked for a deadline extension; as a “key stakeholder” the municipality was sent the draft amendment package for council’s review and feedback. In their brief discussion on May 17, councillor Helen Kelleher-Empey called the issue a “very hot topic.”

“This is very important to our residents,” she said. “This is where we really do have to have community engagement.”

That’s the root of the problem, Dietiker suggests: the lack of proper engagement or communication from Parks Canada. By not debating the proposed rule changes in public, and instead deciding on them arbitrarily, besides being disruptive, contradictory and impractical, the proposed rule changes become undemocratic, he said.

There was a public engagement process on secondary suites and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in 2019. PHAs were discussed. Dietiker said it took Parks Canada three years to pick the things they liked from that process and now they’re giving the community four weeks to respond.

“I’m not in love with our government but I still believe in democracy,” Dietiker said. “This is authoritarian.”

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com