Danielle Smith: “We will rebuild Jasper despite the bureaucracy”

by Marzio Pelù

JASPER (Alberta) – “We will rebuild Jasper. You will return to your homes”. Prime Minister Danielle Smith solemnly promises it to the inhabitants of the small Alberta town devastated by the fire that swept through the entire area, leaving behind only ash and smoke. A disaster, after which Smith will push the federal government, Parks Canada and the City of Jasper itself to accelerate the reconstruction of the picturesque Rocky Mountain location.

“Sometimes permit approvals can be complicated, long” Smith told reporters in Calgary. “We don’t want to wait three or four years” she added.

Jasper, a town of about 5,000 people, lost a third of its homes and businesses. The fires forced the city’s population and around 20,000 visitors to flee Jasper National Park. People left homeless were directed to evacuation centers in Edmonton, Calgary and Grande Prairie. The fire in the city was put out, while the one inside the National Park remained out of control, until rain provided some relief. But the emergency is not over, given that drier conditions will return in the next few days. And the summer is still long.

While rain and cooler temperatures in recent days have helped firefighters put out more than fifty fires in Alberta since last week, there is still much work to be done on the larger blazes that have forced 17,000 people abandon their homes, including, in fact, those of Jasper.

Joe Zatylny, spokesperson for the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, told reporters there is no timetable yet for the town’s residents to return home: they will return once the area is safe, he said. City officials have also stressed that Parks Canada must confirm that the fire is no longer an imminent threat to Jasper. It is also necessary to restore emergency services, especially health services, as well as critical retail services, such as grocery stores and petrol stations. “We know and hear that residents want to come home and we will make that happen when it is safe to do so” reads a post on the City’s Facebook page.

On Twitter, however, after an inspection of Jasper destroyed by the fire, Prime Minister Danielle Smith published some sadly significant photographs: a destroyed church (above), houses razed by flames. And she wrote: “These images are going to be tough to see. Jasper, with its unique and irreplaceable memories for so many of us, lies scarred by this merciless fire. Our gratitude is boundless for those who bravely stood against the inferno, protecting this precious town and averting further tragedy. It is nothing short of a miracle that no lives were lost. We will rebuild the Town of Jasper and support those who have lost homes and businesses so they can rebuild their lives. We will do this together as Albertans”.

Here below, the video published by Danielle Smith on her Twitter profile, on July 27th, after touring Jasper