Edmonton MP Boissonnault appointed to lead federal government’s effort to rebuild Jasper

Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault has been tasked by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to lead the federal government’s share of the work to rebuild Jasper, Alta.

In July, a wildfire destroyed one-third of the Rocky Mountain tourist town and displaced some 2,000 residents.

Boissonnault, an Edmonton member of Parliament, will be responsible for coordinating federal resources with the Alberta government, the municipality and Indigenous groups.

“This role that the prime minister has asked me to play in terms of ministerial lead is important, but it’s a whole-of-government approach,” Boissonnault told reporters Wednesday.

He will be in Jasper this week meeting with local officials to get a better grasp of immediate needs, he said.

He added that one of the first tasks will be to see if the federal government can support Jasper in establishing temporary housing, which the province and municipality have been working on since August.

“My job tomorrow is to go do as much fact-finding as I can so that we can get moving on something very important, which is temporary housing,” he said.

Trudeau also appointed a group of cabinet ministers, including Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Housing Minister Sean Fraser, to support Boissonnault.

In an email, Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland said he’s happy with Boissonnault’s appointment and is looking forward to working closer with the minister.

“We enthusiastically welcome federal support that is committed to working collaboratively with provincial, municipal and Indigenous partners to accelerate the recovery process,” Ireland said.

“We all need to work together to help Jasper thrive again socially and economically.”

Hot topic in Ottawa

Two days after Jasper burned, politicians stood together, agreeing the blaze was an unstoppable force of nature.

Now, 15 weeks later, the July wildfire that destroyed 350 buildings in the mountain town is a hot topic for debate in Ottawa.

“Will the minister stand up and apologize to the people of Jasper for his failure?” asked Gerald Soroka, Yellowhead MP.

Federal conservatives allege the Liberal government didn’t approve enough prescribed burns to reduce wildfire risk and delayed access to some firefighters.

The feds say those firefighters worked for a private company, which showed up without a deal to fight flames in Jasper.

“To insinuate that because we didn’t want to do prescribed burns, that we did nothing, is simply false. In fact, we invested 40 times more in forest fighting capacities around Jasper than they did when they were in power,” said Guilbeault.

Alberta’s forestry minister spoke at a federal environment committee meeting Tuesday, also suggesting more prevention work could have been done.

“The mountain beetle killed trees undoubtedly contributed greatly to the tragic events in Jasper. The vast number of dead trees accelerated the wildfire making control efforts difficult, and arguably, impossible,” said Todd Loewen, Alberta’s forestry minister.

At that same meeting, Alberta’s public safety minister both thanked his federal liberal counterparts for help, and claimed communication and command confusion from Parks Canada.

Mike Ellis acknowledged changes already being made will help in future disasters, but he’s now asking Ottawa to reimburse the province for $149 million Alberta spent in Jasper.

“This is a fire which originated in the national park and then spread to the town of Jasper. Therefore, we need to have a discussion on the cost and the federal government may be responsible for the costs of this fire,” said Ellis.

Following his appointment to Jasper’s rebuild efforts, Boissonnault defended the fire response saying, “Even Todd Loewen, minister of forestry, said it’s the best unified command structure he’s ever seen.”