The remains of a home smouldering in Jasper, Alta., on July 26.AMBER BRACKEN/The Canadian Press
Dozens of Jasper residents returned home for the first time since a wildfire tore through their community to see the wreckage firsthand on Monday, while Alberta Premier Danielle Smith asked Ottawa for support to aid the town’s recovery.
Ms. Smith, during a news conference, said 62 people loaded into three buses to tour Jasper, some of whom had to confront the reality that their homes had been damaged or completely destroyed by the blaze.
Business owners have separately been allowed to enter Jasper with an escort to assess the damage and needed repairs as required by insurance companies. More than 350 residential structures have been lost within the town, Ms. Smith added.
“Once re-entry is possible, we will need to tackle many urgent priorities to ensure the needs of residents are being met,” she said, adding that temporary housing will take precedence and that it will be essential for the federal government to do its part.
“Not only is that going to be important for the residents that lost their homes, but also the seasonal workers, and on top of that, all the work force that is going to be needed to help rebuild.”
Ms. Smith was joined by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier on Monday to visit the Jasper wildfire command centre in Hinton. The pair received a situational briefing by leaders of the command unit, including Parks Canada. Mr. Trudeau was expected to meet with fire crews and evacuees during his visit but not tour the town of Jasper itself.
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An emergency wage subsidy for Jasperites was among the requests made by Ms. Smith to Mr. Trudeau, in addition to the suspension of lease payments for a few months to help businesses avoid layoffs and additional funding from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund so that Jasper can take on extra land-planning responsibilities.
“I also made it clear that working together will only become more imperative as we look to recovery after the fires,” Ms. Smith said. “In fact, we heard this reiterated many times by those in command, that the integration of all three levels of government has been one of the finest examples of us working together on these kinds of incidents and they hoped that it would become the standard.”
Mr. Trudeau, on X (formerly Twitter) following their meeting, posted: “We’re making sure Alberta has everything they need to respond to these fires and help rebuild Jasper.”
An estimated 25,000 people, including residents and visitors, were forced to evacuate the town of Jasper and surrounding area on July 22, two days before a fast-moving fire ripped through the town. The blaze is still burning out of control in the area, estimated at about 34,000 hectares in size, but is no longer an immediate threat to the townsite.
Tours of Jasper were postponed to Monday out of respect for a 24-year-old firefighter who died over the weekend while battling the wildfire. The fallen firefighter, who lived in Calgary, was struck by a falling tree on Saturday. His identity has not been released.
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More than 560 residents have so far registered for a tour of Jasper, Ms. Smith said on Monday. The tours are escorted by police and residents are not allowed to exit the bus. Mental-health support workers are onboard for support as needed.
Parks Canada has said operators of critical services and critical retail, such as gas stations, grocery stores, pharmacies and schools, were also expected to visit their sites starting Monday for initial damage assessments. The agency explained the visits would help get those services restarted quickly, once conditions allow for the safe return of residents.
Ms. Smith said she met with some evacuees on Monday but none who were part of the tours. She described speaking to a couple who had just rebuilt their home a few years ago only for it to be burned down again but said they were in surprisingly good spirits.
“There’s a real sense of ‘let’s get on with this, let’s get on with rebuilding,’” the Premier said. “I think there’s a lot of real hope.”
With a report from The Canadian Press