Parks Canada and the Municipality of Jasper are making Jasper’s rebuilding process simpler. Yesterday the joint agencies released new, streamlined policy to guide the community’s recovery. “This is an important step forward in recovering from … the hardest challenge we have faced together,” said Jas...

“Hope is not just the future, but also the present.” Canada’s Governor General was in Jasper this week, bringing a message of hope, admiration and empathy to the community after it was devastated by fire in July. Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon said the people she met during her Octob...

When the Derksen family lost their home in the Jasper wildfire, they knew that chances were slim that the precious reminders of their lives were spared from the flames.  Photos of the Derksens’ home on fire, with the iconic, yellow and brown “Jasper BrewPub” VW bus parked outside, were some of the f...

The Jasper wildfire was a fiery furnace, temperatures reaching almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt copper and gold.  With such atomic obliteration, will we ever see the forest come back within our lifetime, certainly within mine? In four days in August I would have my answer.  There ...

The production of 250 modular homes is being fast-tracked by the Alberta government to support Jasper residents who lost their homes in the July 24 wildfire. Yesterday (October 21), alongside Mayor Richard Ireland, West Yellowhead MLA Martin Long and Evergreens Foundation CAO Kristin Chambers, Minis...

Record dryness, extreme heat, high winds, and a lightning storm. This summer in Jasper National Park, all of the ingredients of a recipe for disaster were in place. Now, two and a half months after that disaster came to pass, another set of circumstances— misinformation, toxic politics and facts-sta...

As local officials shore up millions of dollars worth of resources to help the community recover from the July 24 wildfire, a small team of advocates has been ensuring hundreds of workers in Jasper don’t slip through the cracks On July 22, when the community was evacuated due to the imminent threat ...

Residents with damaged homes must obtain residential demolition and debris removal permits or authorize a third party to do so on their behalf Jasperites who lost their homes in the July wildfire are being encouraged to participate in the community’s mass debris removal process being facilitated by ...

Rrrrip. Rrrrip. Rrrrip. The distinct crackling of duct tape being peeled from its roll permeates the air on a hot September afternoon in Jasper. A white truck drives by. Then another. In the west end of the Jasper townsite, service vehicles have become ubiquitous. All of the neighbourhood’s sightlin...

Jasper is at a crossroads. Like its residents, legislators in Ottawa must come together today to expedite Jasper’s rebuild “Will there just be crumbs, dad?” We were driving back to Jasper—for the first time since the fire. We were passing through the community’s west gate, trying to prepare the kids...

Nearly seven weeks after a series of lightning strikes ignited a tinder-dry forest on a hot, gusty evening, officials have the Jasper Wildfire Complex under control. “The fire perimeter today is 100 percent controlled,” Jasper National Park officials told media members Saturday, September 7. “The wi...

My husband and I had just returned to Jasper, one week after the official date of return. At our end of town, there is no avoiding the damage caused by the inferno. We had seen the images, of course, but viewing the damage in person was overwhelming. It was sensory overload, and we knew it would tak...

DISCLAIMER: Views, opinions and actions of Jasper Local contributors do not represent those of Jasper Local staff and/or publishers. Monday July 22 was another hot day. The day before was even hotter: at 38 degrees Celsius (100 F) Jasper was the hottest place in Alberta—excluding my apartment! (The ...

A former Jasperite has a juicy idea for a fundraiser in the wake of the Jasper wildfire. Roger Bailey—known to his friends and family as Woody—is right now (Tuesday, August 27) driving a truck full of B.C. cherries from his farm in the Okanagan to the Jasper Legion, where staff and volunteers have b...

More than 40 millimetres of rain over the weekend has helped wildland firefighters get a handle on the Jasper Wildfire Complex. The wet weather, which started on August 23 and continued throughout the next day, will speed up crews’ ability to extinguish deep, dangerous hot spots throughout key, acti...

On the day of a fallen firefighter’s memorial, the Jasper Wildfire Complex has been downgraded from “out of control” to “being held.” On August 17, as the family and friends of Morgan Kitchen gathered to celebrate the life of the 24-year-old firefighter who died in the line of duty, a significant mi...

As questions arise about the townsite re-entry process, community leaders are assuring Jasperites that their concerns about privacy and security are not falling on deaf ears. On Monday morning, messaging from the Incident Management Team indicated that the scheduled re-entry date of Friday, August 1...

For the most up-to-date information on the wildfire and for information and resources for evacuees, visit the Municipality of Jasper’s  website  and the social media channels of the  MOJ  and  Jasper National Park . Friday, August 16 will mark the start of Jasper’s re-entry phase. On that day, Incid...

Critical details of the staged re-entry into the Jasper townsite for residents will be available on Monday, August 12. Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland made the announcement on Saturday at an 11 a.m. (MST) media briefing. “My hope is that the knowledge of the pending announcement will provide a bridge a...

It took me some time to wake up out of the shock of the fire, to come out of a numbness. Slowly, I began to connect to survivor’s guilt: the guilt one feels for surviving an event that others did not. Survivor’s guilt can present very much like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) , with similar sy...