Jasper mayor stands by critical wildfire report, expects no bad blood with province

The mayor of Jasper says he stands by a report commissioned by his town that criticizes Premier Danielle Smith’s government response to a wildfire that destroyed a third of the Rocky Mountain community.

Smith has demanded the report, issued last week, be retracted and that the town issue an apology.

Mayor Richard Ireland says the report has been misrepresented and was never intended to be, in his words, political.

“It was not intended to ascribe blame, it does not ascribe blame, and it is not a political instrument,” Ireland said. “Our regret is that it has been used as a political instrument.”

The third-party report surveyed front-line firefighters and other officials to determine ways to improve future fire responses and found the province’s interference disrupted the focus of fighting the fires.

READ: ‘Full box of emotions’: Rebuild progress slow in Jasper one year after wildfire

Ireland made the comments as the town approaches the one-year anniversary of the fire this week, and he says he’s not concerned the bad blood will interfere with the two sides rebuilding the community.

Smith’s office says they share Jasper’s concerns that the report was misrepresented and appreciates the town acknowledges it was not intended to criticize her government’s contributions.

Some who live in Jasper, and others who love to visit, think the premier is out line.

“We’ve been through enough, it’s been a hard enough time,” said Jasper’s Meg Markulin. “Expecting an apology over a report that was done is a little insensitive.”

“That’s kind of a crazy thing to want an apology for,” added Andrea Ketty, who lives in Edmonton. “But I don’t know the whole inner workings of it. But the whole thing is just really sad. I mean, Jasper got torched.”

Of the 358 buildings that were destroyed, none have been rebuilt. But 65 building permits have now been issued, meaning a construction boom is coming soon.

‘Nothing we could have done’

For some, the wounds are still fresh.

“For myself and seven other members of the department that also lost their homes that night, it was pretty difficult to work the incident knowing that we’ve lost our stuff,” said Matthew Conte, the Jasper fire chief. “But we are all professional in what we do, we persevere, we move on, and we know that there’s a job to do.”

The fire chief says the anniversary brings mixed emotions.

Officials are now determined to learn from what happened and to do better next time.

But there is resignation that the power of nature is sometimes simply unstoppable.

“I do believe there’s nothing we could have done,” said Christine Nadon, the Jasper director of protective and legislative services. “There’s no amount of resources or firefighters or air tankers that could have stopped that fire. The fire behaviour was so intense, the winds were so intense, the conditions were so dry.”