Canada’s environment minister and other officials provided an update about the ongoing Jasper wildfires during a press event in Hinton on Thursday (Aug. 1).
With the wildfires remaining out of control and the townsite still under threat, Jasper evacuees will have to continue waiting to return home.
“Unfortunately, our main priority right now remains the fact that although fires are no longer present in the town, there's still fires around the town, and that's the number one priority,” said Steven Guilbeault, minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada and minister responsible for Parks Canada.
Guilbeault said officials would focus on getting the wildfires under control, continuing to protect critical infrastructure and working on scheduling re-entry for residents as rapidly as possible.
Officials are also promising bus tours for evacuees as soon as possible once the wildfire situation improves.
The Municipality of Jasper, Parks Canada and the Alberta government are working to finalize the details of a plan and will soon release a comprehensive package of instructions for residents.
Randy Boissonnault, minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages Canada, said his ministry has fast-tracked anyone who needs an unemployment insurance claim, Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement and child-care benefits.
“We’re going to bring the full weight of the federal government to this issue,” Boissonnault said regarding the wildfire crisis.
Federal and provincial governments will also match donations made to the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) 2024 Alberta Wildfires Appeal.
Boissonnault added that leases with Parks Canada would remain intact, and Parks Canada will expedite the renewal and replacement processes for leases nearing their expiration date.
Early Thursday (Aug. 1), Highway 16 reopened to commercial traffic after being closed to all traffic for more than a week.
Driving at night will still not be allowed, and there will be two three-hour intervals where the highway is completely closed so Parks Canada can more easily move personnel in and out without having to worry about the semi traffic, which is currently backed up.
Jason Nixon, minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services, briefly spoke on behalf of the transportation minister by saying every interprovincial route is important for the economy.
Nixon added that it was also important for moving goods and supplying firefighting efforts.
“The fact that we're able to now get Albertans who are in a situation where they would not have been able to travel to large portions of B.C., to come all the way around the Calgary or Grande Prairie to make it back home at home, shows how important that is, to make sure that we can connect all of our communities to each other and support each other.”
Officials also warned that it was still too unsafe for tourists to grab their recreational vehicles they may have left behind inside the park.
Nixon later spoke on the senior facilities in Jasper, noting that the continuing care centre and Alpine Summit Seniors Lodge were still intact, but Pine Grove Senior Citizens Manor had been destroyed.
The manor had been home to 32 residents, with 15 now in a Valemount hotel and 17 now with family.
Mayor Richard Ireland used the opportunity to clarify that while 360 structures have been reportedly destroyed, that number shouldn’t be equated with the number of residents who have been impacted.
He noted that some destroyed building had been apartments that had housed dozens of people.
“So, yes, we recognize information that has gone out that roughly 30 per cent of structures have been destroyed; that does not necessarily equate with the impact that this has had on our resident population,” Ireland said.
“We're still working on a lot of those numbers. Unlikely that many units [housed] a single person. It’s just not the style of living in Jasper, and it is known that many of those structures included multiple units with multiple people in each of them.”
