Residents and business owners in Jasper, Alta., are getting a clearer picture today of the devastation wrought by a wildfire that tore through their historic town. Below, we have more on Jasper’s pain, and the role the area plays as a waypoint along Canada’s economic journey.
Up top
- Banks: Canadian Western Bank’s acceptance of a $5-billion takeover was influenced by an enticing acquisition premium and Laurentian Bank of Canada’s failure to sell itself in 2023, according to merger filings. Tim Kiladze reports.
- Jobs: Canada’s jobless rate has been marching higher as the economy gets squeezed by higher interest rates, Matt Lundy writes. But the number of people getting Employment Insurance benefits has barely budged in recent months.
- Charges: A California judge has dismissed three of eight claims by a former BlackBerry Ltd. female executive suing the company and CEO John Giamatteo for sexual harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination, Sean Silcoff reports.
- Rates: Central banks in the United States, Japan and Britain announce decisions on their respective key lending rates this week. As Bloomberg reports, the announcements are among “the world’s biggest agglomeration of decisions for 2024 to date,” including judgments on the cost of borrowing for six of the 10 most-traded currencies.
Word of the day: Agglomeration. “A large group of many different things collected or brought together,” according to Merriam Webster. Eg: An agglomeration of synonyms with fewer syllables that are perhaps more broadly recognized.
In focus
Jasper’s unique place in Canada’s economic landscape
Melted chairs outside the destroyed Maligne Lodge on Friday.AMBER BRACKEN/The Canadian Press
Before the wildfires burned homes and businesses in Jasper to the ground, the town was already trying to pick itself up from the depths of the pandemic.
Hotels and restaurants were emptied by COVID-19 restrictions, essentially grinding the town’s economy to a halt. But its community leaders saw a desperate moment for what it could also be: a chance to learn, “and a window of opportunity for transforming how we do things here in Jasper.”
The ambitious 10-year “Jasper Destination Stewardship Plan” that followed proved both prescient and tragic. Aimed at protecting the town’s economy from forces beyond its control – as well as the increasingly unpredictable nature of weather – the strategy must now be considered in the context of a fire that levelled about 30 per cent of its 1,113 structures.
Beyond Jasper
Ken Hughes, a former federal and provincial politician who sits on the board of the Banff Canmore Foundation, which is raising money for the town’s relief, said Jasper’s loss is one that affects all Canadians – “economically, culturally and symbolically.”
“It’s well beyond Jasper,” he said in an interview. “It’s a real emotional attachment that Canadians and a lot of people outside of Canada have with a town they see as representing a country.”
Jasper and the towns nestled in the Rockies are among Canada’s most iconic and widely known destinations around the world – and key draws for international tourists who pump money into the mountain towns and drive up demand for labour and goods from coast to coast.
It’s early days, but estimates are putting damages from the Jasper fire at around $700-million, compared with the roughly $480-million in losses from last year’s McDougall Creek fire in West Kelowna, B.C. It remains to be seen exactly how much of those damages are comprised of the business facilities in the town’s tourist centre, but some have already said their buildings have been destroyed.
A challenge for Canada
As Rachel Ludwig, Tourism Canmore Kananaskis chief executive, wrote in an e-mail to the association’s members on Friday, the wildfires highlight the vulnerability of mountain communities to natural disasters. Hotels were seeing cancellations, while rooms were being booked elsewhere. Members were assured crisis plans were in place “if necessary” and encouraged to share with guests ideas for indoor activities.
Given the outsized role in Canada that the area plays in welcoming visitors – who often continue their travels elsewhere – that vulnerability is one policy makers from coast to coast may want to consider. A report in 2022 found that the mountain towns of Canmore, Banff and Jasper generated $2.3-billion in visitor expenditures in 2019, $2-billion in gross domestic product and thousands of jobs.
The financial impacts of the mountain towns are most often measured as a whole. But doing that now would be ignoring a very particular place Jasper holds in the lives of residents and Western Canadians.
Though Jasper might not be as big, though it might not have the upscale accommodations of its better-known sister townships, and though it might not carry the same global cachet, the town is no less important to those who grew up in its orbit. It might even be more important because of those reasons. As Kelly Cryderman writes: “It’s the place where people learned to ski, got engaged, or first camped.”
Or as reporter Carrie Tait told me at the end of a week covering the fires: “There’s just something about Jasper.”
The trail forward
Hughes, who grew up in southern Alberta and has spent countless hours hiking and cross-country skiing mountain trails, including those near Jasper, said that emotional connection will play a role in how quickly the town recovers. No matter the scale of the damage, people are going to step up, he said. “It’ll come back. It’ll come back quicker than you might anticipate.”
The Banff Canmore Foundation is working with a local non-governmental agency called the Jasper Community Team Society. Both are accepting donations.
“It’s heart-wrenching to see what you see coming out of Jasper and people are going to be immensely supportive to help them recover,” he said.
Charted
Think small
Since mid-month, when U.S. inflation numbers took a surprising dip, the small-cap stocks of the Russell 2000 have thumped the big-cap stocks of the S&P 500. Investors seem to be betting that smaller companies will benefit the most from falling inflation and the lower interest rates that are likely to ensue. That’s one optimistic outlook. But Ian McGugan asks: is the U.S. stock market about to face a Wile E. Coyote-style fall?
The lookout
On our radar and reading list
In the United States: On Wednesday, markets are expecting the U.S. Federal Reserve to keep its short-term lending rate steady while teeing up a cut in September. Markets will also have U.S. employment data to absorb on Friday.
In Paris: Why LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury conglomerate, is sponsoring the Olympics.
In suspense: Microsoft reports earnings on Tuesday, followed by Meta on Wednesday, and Apple and Amazon on Thursday. Disappointing numbers could worsen investor fears that the AI boom fuelling the stock-market’s growth is unsustainable.
ICYMI: How former child TV star Robby Clark’s crumbling real estate empire has left hundreds of private lenders on the hook.
Morning markets
Global stocks climbed at the start of a heavy week for earnings and central bank meetings from the U.S., U.K. and Japan.
Wall Street futures were up and TSX futures were also in the green.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.38 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.64 per cent and Germany’s DAX rose 0.34 per cent. France’s CAC 40 was down 0.3 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose 2.13 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 1.28 per cent higher.
The Canadian dollar traded at 72.25 U.S. cents.