Alberta pointing fingers at Ottawa for Jasper’s delayed recovery efforts

It was a widely celebrated commitment — 250 interim homes — bought by Alberta taxpayers to be used by people who had theirs destroyed by the Jasper wildfire.

But just 10 weeks later, the premier says the $112 million plan has come off the rails with the province blaming Ottawa.

“We’ve been told that our help is not wanted, that they do not want us to build temporary homes in Jasper, so we’re trying to sort through how we’re going to manage that,” said Alberta’s premier Danielle Smith, in a government video posted Thursday.

Alberta’s minister for seniors, community and social services also pointed his finger at Jasper during a Dec. 20 press conference.

“We continue to see roadblocks from both federal government, and frankly at times from the Municipality of Jasper,” Jason Nixon told reporters at an unrelated press conference in Calgary.

“The federal government in Ottawa has been in a state of chaos for an extended period of time.”

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Jasper’s website has a map for interim housing and application forms. But nobody from the municipality would agree to an interview Friday, or provide a timeline for when people can move in.

A statement from Jasper says interim housing is its top priority, but they want to make sure any modular units placed now don’t impact permanent growth options in the future.

Parks Canada says it made land available, is working with Alberta to get the housing units permitted, and plans to buy some of its own.

But Minister Nixon, insists the priorities are out of order in Jasper.

“Concerns about ground squirrels or these types of issues, which we think can be worked through. But we need to do this recognizing the main goal which is to get people housing who have lost their homes in a fire,” he said.

As for Ottawa, CityNews reached out to the federal housing ministry for an update but didn’t receive a response at this time.

“We’re just very disappointed. It’s a revolving door of ministers who are taking the lead on this. I think it started with Harjit Sajjan, went (Steven) Guilbeault, went over to Randy Boissonnault, went for a time to Sean Fraser. Now, I don’t know who’s in charge,” said Smith.

Nixon says the lots are already serviced and Alberta is ready to move interim housing into Jasper as soon as the end of the month, if Ottawa and local politicians get on board.