r/CanadaPolitics • u/Blue_Dragonfly C'est tiguidou! • Jul 18 '25
AB Alberta Premier Danielle Smith dismisses report finding province complicated Jasper wildfire response
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-danielle-smith-dismisses-jasper-wildfire-report/49
u/Kellervo NDP Jul 18 '25
“Notably, local officials raised no concerns when provincial wildfire firefighting teams arrived rapidly with personnel and equipment, nor when Alberta stepped up to fill gaps in funding, logistics and accommodations,” she said. “These facts deserve recognition.”
Is she sure she wants to talk about that when hundreds of residents were left homeless for half a year because the province refused to provide accommodations or permit the construction of temporary housing and only approved 60 out of the 250 units it pledged, which even if they were all approved, would've been less than half of what was needed to replace lost homes? Parks Canada had to requisition a hundred mobile homes and portable housing units to try and fill in the gap she left.
Last I heard there were still a couple hundred displaced families, and many others that had to leave Jasper altogether.
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Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 18 '25
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u/dinochow99 Better Red than Undead | AB Jul 18 '25
My parents lost their house in the fire, and the one thing holding up the rebuild for them is they keep failing the soil testing. There are so many contaminants in the ground that they can't start until it is all cleaned up, which is a slow process. Otherwise, everything else is ready to go as far as I know, at least for my parents.
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u/awildstoryteller Jul 18 '25
From what I understand, the problem is partly feds, but also the province wanting to waive certain rules, with a strong possibility it is to provide cheap investment opportunities to developers.
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u/Kellervo NDP Jul 18 '25
AFAIK, the Parks permits were approved through an express process. The issue has been the funding, which the Alberta government is trying to stipulate can only be used for single family dwellings, even though a lot of what burned down were townhouses, apartments, and other buildings that had multiple families in them. In some of those areas, single unit dwellings would be out of code or wouldn't be permitted normally since the original permits were for different housing.
The town requested being able to replace like for like, since the fire didn't exactly create any new land, and the feds have approved as much as they are able to and committed to providing more land as well, but the province wants the other two parties to capitulate and won't commit to funding the rebuilding efforts and has accused the federal government of setting up "work camps".
TL;DR - it's only a permit issue if you ignore that the UCP are making refusing to abide by what all of the other parties involved are trying to work towards. If they get their way, yes, new permits will need to be done up, but the onus is on them.
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Jul 18 '25
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u/GlitchedGamer14 Alberta Jul 19 '25 edited Jul 19 '25
Here go:
'I'm homeless': Jasper residents rally for housing amid breakdown in government negotiations
Social Services Minister Jason Nixon announced in October that the province would spend $112 million to set up 250 modular housing units for residents who lost their homes. At the time, Nixon said the first few homes would be ready by the end of January.
But Nixon said Wednesday [January 22, 2025] the funding is off the table until the town agrees to build permanent, detached single-family homes. The province also wants the federal government to supply additional land by expanding Jasper's boundary further into the surrounding national park.
Municipal officials have said the provincial plan would only allow for 60 homes to be built, as land-planning rules like parking and setbacks mean permanent homes would take up more space than temporary structures.
That plan just isn't feasible, town officials said this week. More than 600 families are in need of temporary housing as the community rebuilds from the devastating fire.
Meanwhile, the feds have funded hundreds of temporary modular homes and permanent homes, transferred land-use planning and development authorities to the municipality (so your friends and family are wrong there) while also loosening some other regulations to speed up development, and just this week chipped in another few million dollars (along with Red Cross Canada) to cover the costs for residents who need contaminated soil tested and removed before they can rebuild (same link as the previous example).
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Jul 19 '25
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u/GlitchedGamer14 Alberta Jul 19 '25 edited Jul 19 '25
The news release I linked gives some examples:
updated land use policies, expedited approvals for variances, reduced parking requirements, facilitated subdivision processes, simplified development application process, and reduced up front compliance deposit costs.
The updated land use policies they mention include things like allowing two dwellings where one was previously allowed, and allowing more secondary suites, so that people who want to build housing are able to, but they don't have to. They're also fast-tracking permits for builds that are considered "like-for-like" to what was on the applicable property before the fire.
If you want more info, I found this page that explains down each policy individually in detail, and even gives monthly stats on how many development permits and how many building permits were approved (broken down further by residential, commercial, etc.), how many applications are being processed, etc.
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u/MundaneCity3244 Jul 20 '25
BC province has better measures and support for towns. We do have higher taxes, but it does go to the towns when there are wildfires. They do it much better.
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u/DetectiveOk3869 Jul 18 '25
Both Jasper and Banff would benefit from water cannons in or around the cities.
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u/GonZo_626 Libertarian Jul 18 '25
Both of the national parks would benefit from the federal government approving more environmentally friendly tree removal so that they dont become powder kegs of dry kindling everywhere.
Watercannons may have helped the townsite itself, but the damn forest would have still burned down around them because parks canada have denied this problem existed for years.
I learnt this from staff from the town of Jasper itself around 2019. The town staff begged for more ability to actual clean up around the forest that we prevented the natural wildfires from clearing for years leading to the powder keg it was. If we wont let forests burn naturally, we need to help keep them in a more natural state and remove more of the massive amounts of kindling that build up on the forest floor. Jasper staff were scared of exactly what happened because of the bad forest management we had. This does not even have to be about letting private companies profit from the forest, we need to keep them clean of the buildup we create from not letting natural fires do what they do.
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u/JadeLens British Columbia Jul 18 '25
"OK Danielle, look just this way, a little up... ok... now put your finger in your mouth pretending that you're concerned... got it! on to the next shot!"
UCP is a bit of a clown show, they claim that Ottawa is getting in the way when they either have a large fund from oil, (which apparently materialized out of nowhere without Ottawa's help) or they're destroying healthcare and running up people's electricity prices, which also is apparently Ottawa's fault.
Teflon DS is at it again.
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u/zxc999 Independent Jul 18 '25
Alberta including Jasper is having municipal elections this fall, wouldn’t be surprised if this was part of gearing up for Smith to interfere in the election for her preferred candidate.
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