Parks Canada to provide Jasper, Alta., with total of 320 interim housing units
100 duplex trailers, 120 dorm-style rooms for residents displaced by wildfire
Hundreds of Jasper, Alta., residents scattered after last summer's monster wildfire could have temporary housing in or around town before March.
Parks Canada has committed to setting up 100 duplex trailers — up to 200 housing units — and 120 dorm rooms by Feb. 26. The duplex trailers would be for families, the dorm rooms for individuals and couples.
"We are bringing interim housing. We're bringing as much as we're able to," Michael Fark, the municipality's director of recovery, said during Jasper's committee-of-the-whole meeting Tuesday.
"It's not going to be sufficient to meet the overall demand, so we're trying to find other creative solutions to allow that."
The news of some temporary housing comes after a couple of hundred people rallied in Jasper last Friday, calling on the provincial government to deliver its promised housing.
In July, a wildfire destroyed one-third of Jasper's homes and businesses, displacing many residents from the town about 365 kilometres west of Edmonton.
This week, the Insurance Bureau of Canada reported the wildfire caused $1.23 billion in damages, making it the second-costliest insured fire in Canadian history, at $1.23 billion in damages.
During an information session on Jan. 23, members of the Jasper Recovery Coordination Centre (JRCC), a partnership between the municipality and Parks Canada, disclosed details of temporary housing Parks Canada was working to obtain.
A day later, in a joint statement, Alberta cabinet ministers Jason Nixon and Ric McIver said they had heard that that the federal government was sending interim housing of some kind to Jasper.
Nothing was confirmed until Wednesday, however, when a document posted on the municipality's website laid out details of the different Parks Canada units.
The duplex trailers will be placed on four parcels of land within the town limits: two lots in the northern tip, and two south along Connaught Drive, Jasper's main street.
Households of two or three people will be able to rent one side of a duplex for $1,000 per month, including utilities and internet. Households of three or more will pay $1,500 to rent both sides.
Regardless of how many units are rented, the damage deposit will be half a month's rent for tenants who don't have pets, or a full month's rent if they do have pets.
Various companies are supplying the trailers, and sizes may differ. But they come with kitchen appliances — a microwave, oven, fridge and freezer, coffee pot and toaster — plus four stackable chairs, a shower with a curtain and a double bed (without linens and pillows).
Each duplex has a washer and dryer, shared with both sides. There are emergency exits in each bedroom.
The trailers have limited storage. Parks Canada is looking into outside storage options, the document says.
Dorm-style units
The dorm-style units, which will rent for $500 per month, will be located south of the townsite at Marmot Meadows, near Whistlers Campground. The damage deposits, like those for the duplexes, will be half a month's rent for tenants without pets and a full month's rent if they have pets.
They have a shared kitchen and laundry, but each unit has a bathroom and vanity, as well as a flat-screen TV. The bed size may vary by unit, between single, double and queen, but each comes with a duvet, according to the document.
The dorm units will be set up similarly to a work camp site, replacing the Parks Canada site that burned down in the same location, said Amy Cairns, the JRCC's Parks Canada director, during last week's information session.
They will be double the size of the units that once stood, and are suitable to live in year-round, Cairns said.
Jasper residents who need interim housing need to apply through the municipality's program.
Sabrina Charlebois, who is living in a hotel room after losing her home in July, was grateful to learn about the temporary housing.
"This is going to be able to help a lot of people," Charlebois told CBC News on Thursday.
"I can breathe again," she said, adding that she and others have looming deadlines to move out of their current lodgings.
"A lot of people are going to feel more settled when they move in to these trailers, even though it's not, obviously, a luxurious place to stay."
The asking rent is quite reasonable, too, she said, noting the hotel room in which she's living costs about $2,400 per month.
Town still waiting for province's housing
The Alberta government announced in October it would spend $112 million on single-family housing units. At the time, some of those dwellings were expected to be ready by the end of this month. Construction hasn't started yet, though.
Ottawa has offered land outside Jasper National Park, but the provincial government wants land near Jasper. Doing so, however, would require an act of Parliament to expand the town's boundaries because the community is within federal jurisdiction.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament until March 24, suspending federal government activity.
At the same time, the municipality has said it needs higher-density housing options more than single units.
"We don't care whether we build single-family or multi-family [units] except for the fact that we can build the single-family a lot faster," McIver told CBC News on Sunday.
The builders the government has consulted suggest they the single units could be built within a few months, whereas the high-density housing could take up to a couple of years, McIver said.
"Since it's an emergency, we believe that matters," he said.
McIver noted that Jasper had a housing supply shortage before the wildfire, so the promised housing is supposed to be permanent, not temporary.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Acton Clarkin