Province says Jasper’s promised housing on hold, citing lack of cooperation from town and feds

A photo posted to social media on July 25, 2024 appears to show damage in the town of Jasper after wildfire ravaged the community. (Source: Kenneth Smith)

The province says “its heart breaks” for Jasperites who lost homes in the 2024 wildfire, but its “hands are tied” when it comes to building the homes it promised in October.

The $112 million, for the construction of 250 modular homes, was originally slated to be ready to rent in January. On Friday, Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services Jason Nixon said in a statement the province won’t be moving ahead due to “roadblocks” from both the town and national park.

“This includes significantly reducing the land available, requiring high-density solutions that would take years to build and only making enough land available for eight permanent houses,” Nixon said.

“Parks Canada and the municipality also made unreasonable demands such as asking us to build outside of the national park, and expecting the province to tear down and throw away over $100 million worth of housing once the town is rebuilt.”

Parks Canada reports there are just over four hectares of land (each about the size of a Canadian Football League field) that have been serviced since Dec.6. On its site, the park said leases would be put in place to enable the province to start building right away.

Jasper director of recovery Michael Fark said in a Friday statement the need for 600 units of housing was “urgent and unprecedented.” The province’s offer to build permanent single-detached and individually-titled units is appreciated, he added, but it won’t work.

“The realities on the ground—including limited land availability- means that this approach would not be enough to meet the community’s urgent housing needs and would significantly impact the ability to meet long-term housing challenges,” Fark said.

“For example, with the Government of Alberta’s requirement for permanent single-detached units, using all of the serviceable 4.25 hectares of available land would only yield approximately 60 single-detached units, far below the 250 units of housing support announced.”

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Mayor Richard Ireland told CTV News on Wednesday that the province wants to expand the town’s boundaries to build housing, but that requires an act of parliament.

He said, while there was an existing housing deficit in Jasper, what the town needs now are interim solutions to address the current “emergency.”

“There are some hard deadlines that we’re looking at,” Ireland said at a press conference Friday, adding provincial funds for transitional housing run out in about six weeks.

“Then into the spring, there are other people who will be required to vacate existing housing that is accommodated in hotels, because those hotels have to get ready to start welcoming the visitors that we need to drive our economy through the summer.”

In addition to servicing land in town, Parks Canada said it’s working on high-density temporary housing options.

Those include a 120-unit camp at Marmot Meadows, the procurement of 50 duplex units (a total of 100 housing units), and the purchase of four pre-built homes that are ready to be delivered to the town.

Ireland said he’s fully committed to continuing to work with the provincial and federal government to address the current challenges, while Nixon said there’s nothing the province can do at this time.

“We cannot build housing without the cooperation of the park, the federal government, and the municipality,” Nixon said. “Ultimately, what we have heard is that Parks Canada and the Municipality of Jasper do not want to accept our offer to help and are pursuing alternate options, like work camps, that they deemed more appropriate.

“We remain concerned about the feasibility of those options but wish them success.”

Premier Danielle Smith sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December, outlining the province’s concerns about the current situation. She had yet to receive a response as of Friday.

Parks Canada said its priority remains to “install as many housing units as quickly as possible” and that units could be ready by the end of February.

“Parks Canada supports the Municipality of Jasper’s desire to ensure that interim solutions meet urgent housing needs and do not limit its capacity to plan for long-term housing solutions and increased density,” it said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson