“Our mission is to take all steps to ensure residents are not required to vacate,” Richard Ireland says

As trees burst into flames on a mountainside 15 kilometres from the townsite and with neighbourhoods shrouded in darkness, Jasper’s mayor is stressing the acute nature of the community’s wildfire emergency.

In a two-page missive addressed to residents on September 7, Mayor Richard Ireland underscored the point that Jasper’s power situation is precarious and that the ATCO generators currently running the town’s critical infrastructure do not have the capacity to support the demands of our busy tourism community.

Three days ago, a wildfire, ignited by a September 1 lightning strike high on Chetamon mountain, grew exponentially in size and knocked out the community’s power transmission lines. Since Monday, power has been restored to Jasper’s critical infrastructure and services but much of the residential grid has been without power for most of that time. Today, ATCO crews estimated it would take weeks to repair the transmission lines.

“This is a most serious incident, and it is far from over,” Ireland said.

At its best, Ireland said, the generated power supplied by ATCO will be subject to more issues and outages, suggesting it may barely be enough to provide critical and essential services to residents. Already, Jasper’s wastewater treatment plant has been put on its own, separate, generator.

“Without a wastewater treatment plant, the town truly will be closed: to visitors and residents,” Ireland said.

Ireland noted that many in the community have already been severely impacted; seniors have been relocated to Hinton; schools have been closed; some businesses and homes have been without light, heat, hot water and refrigeration for 63 hours.

“The technical complexities and load limitations of the temporary generators have become increasingly evident,” he said.

While the community’s current challenge is the power outage, Ireland reminded residents that wildfires have surprised officials in other forested communities in Alberta. His letter cited the Slave Lake (2011) and Wood Buffalo/Fort McMurray (2016) wildfires which destroyed billions of dollars worth of infrastructure after catching officials in those communities off-guard.

“We recognize that the fire situation could change at any time,” he said.

The two-page, unprecedented letter from the Mayor’s desk strongly suggested the business sector unite with the Municipality of Jasper and Parks Canada in delivering the message to visitors that now is not the time to visit. 

“We would expect that business operators, interested in maintaining Jasper’s untarnished reputation as a safe and reliable destination, would join with us in delivering that message,” Ireland said.

Ireland said that should demand for power exceed capacity, the municipality will be required to make decisions to limit demand to ensure critical services can be supported.

“Our mission is, in fact, to take all steps to ensure residents are not required to vacate the community.”

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com