“We’re trying to solve both the short term and the long-term things. We put a bunch of money on the table. We’re just looking for permission to do all that good,” said Ric McIver, Alberta’s Minister of Municipal Affairs.
The message hasn’t changed since the province first declared it was at an impasse with the town of Jasper and federal government over interim housing plans.
Back in October, the province promised $112 million to build 250 housing units for the town, which lost a third of all buildings in a devastating wildfire last summer.
The province, however, has tied that money to building permanent single-family homes, which would need to follow rules for parking and setbacks.
“We still have available $112 million, which we hope to be able to build 250 homes with it if we are provided service land. We’d love to do that, but we have not been provided service, land and permission to build it on that land,” McIver said this week in an interview with Global News.
The town has prepared land to house the 600 residents who lost their homes when a wildfire blazed a path of destruction through the Alberta mountain town in July 2024. Site servicing for all parcels was completed by Dec. 6.
The province is on hold, McIver said, because he said the land is not enough space for the permanent homes the Alberta government says should be built.
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Instead, Parks Canada announced on Jan. 17 it was procuring its own interim units and is now installing around 220 temporary homes.
McIver said the federal government should open up more land and money will flow.
“It’s an emergency. I think anything could be sped up if it’s important enough.”
Ifan Thomas, associate superintendent of Jasper National Park, said in an interview earlier this month that expanding the town’s boundary was not needed to accommodate interim housing since there was enough space, provided there was a…
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