21 lobbying meetings, three members of Parliament, six BC ministries, and zero commitments to economic recovery funding.
Over a year after the Jasper wildfire sent thousands of evacuees into Valemount overnight – and precipitated highway closures that sent local businesses into freefall – the village has yet to receive any financial support from the BC and federal governments, says Valemount Mayor Owen Torgerson.
When he recalls the night when he received a text about the fire from Jasper mayor Richard Ireland and the following weeks of fallout, Torgerson remembers unclear communication from the BC and Alberta governments, and the stress of running an emergency operations centre on a skeleton crew – but he also remembers how community members and business owners stepped up for their neighbours.
“Businesses – to their credit, and to my gratitude – they shut off their tills, they turned off cash registers, and they just fed people,” he said. “Kind gestures like that from the business community went a long way.”
Between sheltering and feeding evacuees and a subsequent lack of tourism due to highway closures, the village’s economy has been left in a tailspin since last summer. According to Strategies North – a consulting firm the Village hired last November to develop an economic recovery strategy – Valemount businesses would need an estimated total of $1.5M in funding to recoup losses from last July and August.
The Village, Strategies North and Simpcw First Nation Chief George Lampreau had nearly two dozen meetings with officials from the BC, Alberta and federal governments.
The team faced several hiccups when trying to schedule lobbying meetings. The BC elections last fall meant cabinet ministers were gone for weeks on end, and the federal election in April also caused delays in meeting with federal departments.
Torgerson said once Village staff could finally meet with senior levels of government, every elected official they spoke to was happy to offer lip service – but the Valemount team came away from each meeting empty-handed.
“There was a lot of gratitude… but in the end, it was just, ‘Thanks, way to go,’” he said.
The team was told that there are no funding programs in place for a municipality suffering the economic effects of a disaster located outside of its own province. Torgerson says this is an oversight in the economic recovery facet of provincial and federal emergency management authorities.
While Valemount’s situation was seemingly unprecedented at the time, it won't be unique forever, Torgerson said. When discussing the situation with Tony Baldinelli, MP for Niagara Falls, Ontario and Shadow Minister for Tourism, Torgerson pointed out that Ontario municipalities hosting evacuees from Manitoba will likely be in the same boat within a year. He worries choosing not to fund Valemount’s economic recovery may discourage other small municipalities from helping their cross-provincial neighbours in the future.
“If you don’t do this, what message does that send to other rural municipalities along the border?”
To keep local economies intact in the face of increasingly frequent natural disasters, provincial governments will need to establish economic recovery funding that can protect communities impacted by disasters in another jurisdiction, Torgerson said. Valemount could be a case study in how to support small towns that step up to help communities from across a border, but it doesn’t seem like the Province is taking that opportunity, he added.
BC’s Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness gave the Village nearly $60K to hire a consulting firm for its economic recovery strategy, but has not provided financial support otherwise, according to documentation from Strategies North. In an email to The Goat, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Kelly Greene said she is thankful for the Robson Valley residents who opened their homes to evacuees.
“Wildfires show no regard for provincial borders – and neither does BC when it comes to emergency response,” the statement continued. “Events like the Jasper wildfire have only strengthened the spirit of cooperation between BC and Alberta. We remain committed to working closely with our neighbours, learning from one another, and standing ready to help wherever and whenever we’re needed.”
Alberta’s government was the first to offer support to Valemount when it agreed to allow the Village to submit expenses to the Municipality of Jasper. The Municipality will forward those expenses to the Ministry of Public Safety and pass the reimbursements back to Valemount.
The Goat reached out to the Alberta Ministry of Public Safety, which sent a press release from Premier Danielle Smith in lieu of a response to specific questions.
Valemount’s struggle was also felt by the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George. In an interview with The Goat, Electoral Area H director Dannielle Alan said the Province only reimburses emergency operations expenses when an emergency occurs in the regional district’s province.
“In order for us to activate emergency services, we need a task number from the Province,” she said. “When we get a task number, we can bill for opening up the rec centre, the extra staff hours, everything like that… With Jasper, it was a different province. There was no provincial task number.”
To prepare for a similar situation in the future, Alan put forward a motion to keep reserve funds that can cover expenses for emergencies that aren’t in BC’s jurisdiction.
“We went and put together a $25,000 fund that we passed in this year’s budget to be more nimble on the ground. If there’s an emergency that we don’t have a task number for… that’s our funding,” she said. “It’s not much, but it’s enough to staff the rec centres and open up the community halls.”
While it’s unlikely that Valemount will find itself in a similar situation in the near future, Torgerson hopes businesses here and across Canada know to keep scrupulous records of the expenses they take on. He added that Valemount’s economic crisis should signal to governments that they need to take economic recovery funding seriously.
“We might have paved the way, but paving the way sucks. It’s terribly inefficient,” he said. “You make mistakes, but in the end, you try and identify what you could have done better and make sure that policymakers at both the federal and provincial levels are well aware of current programs and the gaps that need to be addressed down the road.”
Despite the struggle to make Valemount businesses whole again, Torgerson takes pride in the community members and staff who stepped up in Jasper’s time of need.
“Not only did people open up their homes to friends and family, but to complete strangers. Evacuations aside, it was awesome to see,” he said. “If we ever had to do an evacuation like that again, it would be with the team I have.”
