JASPER, ALBERTA — A bright green Welcome Home banner still hangs on the awning of Nesters Market on the main drag in Jasper, Alta.
It’s been three months since residents were allowed to return to the Rocky Mountain tourist town, after a devastating wildfire hit the national park and scorched one-third of the community’s homes and businesses. An estimated 2,000 people were displaced.
A construction site on the east edge of town, one of four where crews are working overtime to put up quick-form housing, was briefly covered in snow Friday. Many snowfalls are expected to blanket the area over the next few months.
The new public housing, which is costing the province $112 million, isn’t expected to be ready for renters until spring.
On the west side of town, blue wire fencing with asbestos warning signs protects passersby from a grey expanse of burnt out vehicles and what’s left of entire blocks of single family homes and what used to be gas stations and hotels.
Debris removal is ongoing as insurance claims get settled, but those fences aren’t expected to come down any time soon.
In the middle of town, largely spared by the fire, life goes on.
The laughing and crying of children during school recess rings loud, coffee shops bustle with catch-up chatter and those taking advantage of free internet, and tourists walk slowly with sticker-covered water bottles advertising where else they’ve been.
Jasper’s long-tenured mayor, Richard Ireland, estimates between 60 and 70 per cent of the town’s 5,000 residents are back home.
Whether the remaining residents have chosen not to come back or can’t because they lost their homes or businesses, or both, is one of many unknowns on Ireland’s mind as the season changes.
“That is a hard number to quantify,” he said in an interview at the local library earlier this week.
“It’s like trying to catch smoke with nets.”
Ireland said many are adapting to a new normal, including himself. He also lost his home in the fire.
“My life is starting to resemble a little bit more what it did back in June and early July, but some profound differences,” said Ireland, who is also a lawyer. “I lost a home but not a business.”
“Although I haven’t been able to return to my business in a real way until the last couple of weeks, that return to something that I’m used to is really sort of calming and positive.”
One of the main things on Ireland’s plate as winter approaches is finalizing the municipality’s 2025 budget. It’s a daunting task, he said, as about $283 million in property value was lost to the fire.