Parks Canada is stepping in to provide interim housing for Jasperites who lost their homes to wildfire.
The federal agency will install two camp-style facilities with capacity for more than 200 people, according to Jasper National Park associate superintendent Ifan Thomas.
“We’ve secured a camp that will be coming into place early in the new year and we are looking to secure a second camp facility,” Thomas told the CBC yesterday (Thursday, December 19).
Parks Canada is also in the process of procuring four interim housing units, constructed by CorCan, a subsidiary of Corrections Canada.
Those four build forms will include one three bedroom home, one one-bedroom home, one studio apartment-style home and one canister-style home with three beds.
“Our first priority remains getting as many housing units in place as quickly as possible,” a December 29 statement from Parks Canada said. “We are at the same time committed to working through matters with longer term implications for the future of the community.”
The Jasper Recovery Coordination Centre, comprised of planners with Parks Canada, the Municipality of Jasper and working alongside the Province of Alberta, has identified four parcels within the townsite to build interim housing after the July 24 Jasper wildfire destroyed more than 360 structures, including more than 860 housing units in the community.
Parks Canada says those four parcels—which constitute approximately four hectares of serviced land—can fit between 100 and 140 single detached interim homes, but because of lease requirements such as setbacks and spacing, only fit between 40 and 50 single detached permanent homes.
A survey conducted in September 2024 by the MOJ and the GOA identified a post-fire gap of 580 housing units.
In October, the province committed $112 million to supporting wildfire-displaced Jasperites. Minister Jason Nixon said 250 housing units would be delivered to Jasper, with the first of those structures to be deployed after Christmas.
Since that promise, negotiations with Parks Canada have been ongoing but as of December 20 no further details have been announced. Nixon has said that the majority of the units would be two-bedroom homes. He and Premier Danielle Smith have called on Parks Canada to expand the boundaries of the Jasper townsite to facilitate the GOA’s plans and criticized the federal agency for not acquiescing.
“[Parks Canada] doesn’t want to expand the boundary of the town so we can put up temporary housing,” Smith said on her regular talk radio show segment on December 14. “At this moment Parks Canada is a real problem.”
Parks Canada says it is continuing to work with the Municipality of Jasper and the Province of Alberta to advance interim housing plans.
Alberta’s Municipal Affairs Critic, MLA Kyle Kasawski out of Edmonton, told The Jasper Local earlier this month that the province is putting unfair pressure on the community of Jasper to accept the parameters of the GOA’s rebuild.
Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
