Municipal affairs critic says province is bullying Jasper into accepting their rebuild parameters 

The Government of Alberta is ratcheting up the pressure on local planners in Jasper to sign off on leases where interim housing is slated to be built.

But local authorities want clarity on what those build forms will look like, and negotiations are ongoing to strike a deal that helps house those who lost their homes in the July wildfire, and also doesn’t impede the ability for the community to meet its housing needs into the future.

Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services, Jason Nixon told The Jasper Local on Thursday that the GOA is still on track to set up approximately 100 modular housing units in the New Year, but only if they get cooperation from town planners.

“We will not be on track if the national park service and the municipality does not meet our ambitions and give us the things we need from them,” Nixon said.

Recently, councillors have told leaders with the Jasper Recovery Coordination Centre (JRCC) that the community needs clarity on what type of housing will be built. The province has pledged $112 million to house those whose homes burned, and has said the crisis affords an opportunity to help alleviate Jasper’s historical housing crunch—the high-end modular housing will be integrated into the community’s general rental housing stock, Nixon said in October. 

“These 250 units would be needed even if there wasn’t a fire,” Nixon said. “This is one of the unique opportunities from this solution that the province is presenting for Jasper.”

But whether or not the promised 250 units will even fit on the four parcels of land designated for interim housing in Jasper hinges on what style of units are built; housing density depends on the type of units installed and whether or not the land is subdivided.

Single family dwellings take up more space per household than multi-family units such as apartments and townhomes. However, they’re easier to build and deploy, Nixon said.

“My number one goal is to get interim housing up in the community of Jasper,” Nixon said. “The reality is that the more multi-families that we do, the longer this will take.”

Nixon also said the province doesn’t want to pull trades and construction resources away from Jasper’s rebuild.

“That will limit multifamily options,” he said. 

Members of the official opposition have suggested that the GOA is prioritizing selling those interim housing units, down the road, at a profit, over the well-being of Jasper’s long term housing needs (single-family homes offer more price appreciation and longer term equity growth, in general). NDP Shadow Minister for Municipal Affairs, Kyle Kasawski, said the UCP dictating how Jasper is rebuilt is another example of how this government wants to take power away from local decision makers. 

“Very quickly, in almost a ham-fisted way, the province has come in and said ‘we’re going to build interim housing on your available sites,’” Kasawski said. “That’s going to take away the opportunity for Jasper to plan and build out to higher densities. It’s really constraining for local decision makers.”

In the spring, the UCP government introduced the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, a bill which covers a broad swath of changes to how municipalities operate. Bill 20 empowers the provincial cabinet to not only strike down municipal bylaws it feels are inappropriate, but remove elected members of local councils where and when it feels it is warranted. The bill has received widespread criticism from democracy watchers. It also puts local authorities in a difficult position when negotiating with the province. 

Following the wildfire that destroyed nearly a third of the town and resulted in a loss of $300 million in assessed value, the Municipality of Jasper is anticipating $9.3 million in lost revenue between 2025 and 2027. The municipality has since been asking the provincial government for financial stabilization funding. But Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver has said leases need to be in place before tax relief is made available, a condition that Kasawski says wasn’t imposed on Slave Lake and Fort McMurray when those cities were rebuilt following devastating wildfires.

“They are really holding the town hostage for an agreement they’re asking from the federal government,” Kasawski said.

Nixon said McIver wasn’t threatening to hold back recovery money, but acknowledged the GOA expects Jasper planners to move the red tape out of the way and “make sure we have the leases we need.”

“Part of our expectation is assurance that Jasper and the national park service will cooperate with the Government of Alberta,” Nixon said.

With more than 500 unique housing applications in the queue from residents who lost their homes in the July wildfire, and as the municipality faces the prospect of not getting financial relief for its tax revenue that went up in flames, to Kasawski, that sounds like an ultimatum.

“Municipal leaders and Albertans should know how unfairly Jasper is being treated right now,” he said. “This is not a usual situation.”

With files from Peter Shokeir, Local Journalism Initiative, Jasper Fitzhugh

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com