Alberta government asks Ottawa to reimburse province for Jasper wildfire recovery costs

The Alberta government wants the federal government to financially compensate the province for costs related to rebuilding Jasper after this summer’s wildfire.

Alberta’s minister of public safety and emergency services, Mike Ellis, told a federal committee Monday that the provincial government had reduced decision-making power during the immediate aftermath of the Jasper wildfire, but still must foot the recovery bill.

On July 24, a powerful wildfire ripped through the Jasper townsite, destroying one-third of the buildings there. Parks Canada and its partners established a unified command centre in the aftermath to deal with recovery.

“The park superintendent has oversight for all emergency management decisions, for both the park and the municipality,” Ellis said. 

“This places the province in a position where we can certainly influence but not decide, yet the province of Alberta is responsible for most of the bill in regards to the recovery.”

Ellis said the government was happy to help, and organized town halls for residents who had evacuated their homes, which he said residents greatly appreciated. 

He added that while the wildfire is within the national park, Alberta has approved a disaster recovery program with a budget of about $149 million to support Jasper’s recovery.

“However, under the [Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements], the DFAA, only a portion of Alberta’s costs are eligible for reimbursement,” Ellis said.

“We certainly ask that the DFAA cost-share formula be waived given that this fire originated in the national park, which is federal jurisdiction.”

Dane Lloyd, MP for Sturgeon River-Parkland, asked why Alberta wasn’t invited to the table in a decision-making capacity from the beginning.

Ellis said that he and his federal counterpart, Minister Harjit Sajjan, worked well together, but it wasn’t Sajjan’s decision whether or not the province could come on in a non-advisory capacity. 

Others argue province has responsibility to Jasper

Laurel Collins, the NDP MP for Victoria, said she’d heard many perspectives on the immediate aftermath of the fire.

“We’ve heard from the province that there were delays at being invited into unified command in a decision-making capacity, we’ve heard complaints that the provincial government didn’t have capacity or so on,” she said. 

“But really the kind of failure to collaborate effectively, people don’t care necessarily if it’s provincial or federal jurisdiction. They want their communities to be safe and firefighters want to make sure that they are safe.”

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James Gault, one of the six vice-presidents for the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, said the province has a responsibility to municipalities, including Jasper. 

“It’s a municipality as of 2001. The province has a responsibility to those members,” Gault said.