Roughly 200 Jasperites marched through their recovering town on Friday (Jan. 24) to demand the Alberta government provide interim housing.
Brooklyn Rushton, who organized the rally with Sabrina Charlebois and Lindsey Gartner, said this was their first time organizing a protest and was pleased with the sizable turnout.
“I knew that there’d be a lot of people, because this is a very central issue, and it’s stalling our recovery,” Rushton said.
Protesters gathered in Robson Park before marching to the northeast corner of the townsite where an empty lot awaits the long-promised housing. Along the way, they chanted slogans such as “Housing is a human right.”
Rushton emphasized housing was the first step in a community’s recovery post-disaster and that this was prioritized for Fort McMurray and Slave Lake following their wildfires.
“There was no political bargaining going on,” she said. “Temporary trailer-style units were in Slave Lake within four months. Six months later, we see nothing, and we have land serviced.”
Last summer, the Jasper wildfire destroyed roughly 30 per cent of the townsite, including 820 residential units, compounding the preexisting housing deficit of 600 units. More than 600 families have applied for interim housing.
While the Alberta government previously promised to deliver 250 modular homes by early 2025, land negotiations between the province and Parks Canada have since come to a standstill.
The Alberta government has been insisting on permanent, single-detached units, whereas Parks Canada and the Municipality of Jasper are pushing for high-density solutions.
Although Rushton was lucky enough not to lose her home in the wildfire, she knew plenty of people who had nowhere to go at the end of February or who were getting kicked out of their places in April, making the need for housing all the more pressing.
“Not only do people need it for a basic necessity, but our tourism economy can’t restart without having people that are living and working in the economy, so we definitely need to have housing here as soon as possible,” Rushton said.
She added the province’s housing plan was impractical since there wasn’t enough land available, and since the town was located inside a national park, any attempt to expand its boundary would require an act of Parliament.
“It seems pretty clear that we just need a house, some kind of roof over someone’s head at this moment, and then we can start to think about what we want our community to look like in five [or] 10 years and start building that out,” she said.
Janis Irwin, the Alberta NDP’s housing critic, joined residents to call on the UCP government to deliver housing immediately.
“They feel a little alone right now after being abandoned by the UCP government,” Irwin said.
Irwin noted Premier Danielle Smith and Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon were both blaming other orders of government for the delay, even though the provincial government had been able to build housing quickly for other disaster-stricken communities in the past.
“It’s been six months, and here we are on a fully serviced lot ready to go, and there’s nothing here, so put the politics aside and get going,” she said.
Hayley Petrie was one of many Jasper residents who lost their homes. She is currently living with her partner in the basement of a Hinton house and has to commute an hour to get to her job in Jasper.
After having waited six months for housing, she decided to join other displaced residents in calling for the Alberta government to act.
“There’s been a lot of different promises made about housing coming to our community, but nothing has been done yet, and we’re all just rallying to show that we still are here,” Petrie said. “We still need support.”
Minister Nixon along with Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver issued a joint statement on Friday (Jan. 24) accusing the federal government of blocking any houses from being rebuilt and not responding to the province’s calls for help.
“Alberta’s government remains ready to build homes for displaced Jasperites, but we can’t do that without land,” the statement read. “If the federal government decides to step up and make land available, the province is ready to build the homes.”
The statement added the federal government would soon begin bringing in single-bedroom trailers for displaced residents. Parks Canada has also outlined its own plans to provide housing by the end of February.
