Trudeau makes post-evacuation visit to fire-damaged Jasper area

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Hinton, Alta., to get a briefing on the status of the Jasper wildfire, as well as meet with the province's premier and evacuees who fled the blaze that destroyed a third of the town.

Trudeau toured the mobile incident command centre in Hinton on Monday, but was not expected to tour the town of Jasper itself. He was expected to meet with evacuees later in the afternoon.

Wearing a blue shirt with rolled up sleeves and blue jeans, Trudeau walked into the command centre, where he greeted Premier Danielle Smith and the province's public safety minister, Mike Ellis.

He also shook hands with wildfire officials and military personnel and participated in a moment of silence to honour a firefighter who died over the weekend.

Trudeau did not speak with reporters while he was in Hinton.

After meeting with Trudeau, Smith told reporters there is work to do collaboratively with the federal government to help Jasper rebuild, and she gave temporary housing as an example.

"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 workforce that is going to be needed to help rebuild," she said.

More than 20,000 people were evacuated from the town and Jasper National Park nearly two weeks ago as a wildfire inched closer to the area. The national park and townsite remain under an evacuation order.

Christine Nadon, incident commander for the municipality of Jasper, said being able to provide temporary housing to those who lost their homes is standard practice in cases like this.

The town is expected to take charge of those supports, she said Monday.

“There are active conversations between all levels of government at this stage, but we don't have a timeline or a specific plan for temporary housing at this time,” Nadon said.

Smith said it is important to have a unified command, involving the municipal, provincial and federal governments. She said she hopes the collaboration continues through reconstruction.

She wanted Trudeau to see that “unified command works,” she said.

“We'll be able to … do things a lot faster with all three levels of government working together,” she said.

Bus tours of the devastation for residents whose homes were lost or damaged began Monday, after being postponed on Sunday due to the weekend death of a firefighter who was battling the blaze.

The 24-year-old who lived in Calgary died Saturday after a tree fell on him. His identity has not been released.

Trudeau has said he is heartbroken by the news and is thinking of the man’s family, friends and fellow firefighters.

“He served Albertans with unwavering bravery, and his loss is deeply felt,” he said in a post on X on Saturday.

Smith said 563 people have registered for the bus tours, with 62 people taking one of three buses that departed Hinton and Edmonton on Monday. Residents aren’t allowed to get off the buses while in the town.

When asked why Trudeau wasn’t planning to tour Jasper itself, Dean McDonald, an incident commander for Parks Canada, said the prime minister wanted to provide space for evacuated residents as they tour the area themselves.

“We were getting a lot of folks (who) were evacuated in buses, getting in to see their homes for the first time,” he said. “That's a pretty sensitive piece.”

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 restart those services quickly, once conditions allow for residents to return safely.

The fire risk across Alberta remained high to extreme over the weekend.

Christie Tucker, a spokeswoman for Alberta Wildfire, told a provincial news conference on Monday that cooler temperatures have meant wildfires across the province did not experience significant growth.

Parks Canada said in an emailed update Monday that the Jasper wildfire is about 340 square kilometres in size, unchanged from a day earlier.

Ellis said he spoke with the incident command centre about the Jasper fire. He was told there are concerns about warmer, drier weather in the forecast. Monday was cloudy, with a bit of rain.

"That's good. However, to say that's going to put out a fire is certainly not something they're anticipating," he said.

"They do have some concerns about the forecast ahead. I think it's forecasting some clearer, drier, warmer temperatures, so obviously they're going to be prepared for that."

Parks Canada also said in its update that evacuees located in British Columbia were able to travel to Alberta on Monday on Highway 16, which runs through the national park. It said travelers were escorted by RCMP during scheduled times and were not allowed to stop along the way or go into the Jasper townsite.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Monday, Aug. 5, 2024.