Municipality of Jasper adopts climate action plan nearly one year after wildfire

Natasha Riebe · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 09, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

The Municipality of Jasper is embarking connected a five-year program to mitigate the impacts of clime hazards similar wildfires, wildfire smoke, utmost heat, freezing rain, and receding glaciers. 

Council approved the Climate Adaptation Action Plan, aft reviewing the study astatine a gathering Tuesday.

It comes astir a twelvemonth aft a wildfire ravaged wood successful Jasper National Park earlier it entered the town, destroying astir 350 residences. 

"This catastrophe caused terrible disruption to Jasper's built, natural, societal and economical systems, importantly impacting individuals and families, section businesses, the broader community, and the surrounding region," the study says. 

The clime enactment program contains 28 steps to safeguard captious infrastructure, support indispensable services and amended hole the assemblage to woody with earthy disasters. 

Mayor Richard Ireland said the municipality has been moving connected immoderate of the measures for years, specified arsenic the FireSmart programme to buildings.

There's a consciousness of urgency present aft past year's disaster. 

"We're alert of hazard to our community, wildfire being 1 of them, and that hazard continues contempt the wildfires of summertime of 2024."

Administration says immoderate measures are precocious priority, specified arsenic preventing wildfires, installing backup powerfulness systems for captious infrastructure, fire-proofing buildings, upgrading HVAC systems and adding clear-air shelters, shadiness structures and cooling spaces successful nationalist places similar parks. 

Ireland said the municipality volition enactment with Parks Canada to amended immoderate infrastructure standards.  

"I cognize that our wastewater attraction works present is sided successful wood, that should astir apt change," helium said. 

"We've already taken steps to promote Parks Canada to alteration gathering requirements truthful we don't upwind up with much combustible buildings."

Coun. Scott Wilson said radical are alert that things person to change.

"Everybody feels it and connected those hot, adust days, we truly bash commencement reasoning astir it." 

Wilson said wood had been the going interest for builders successful erstwhile decades, but arsenic the municipality looks up to a hotter, much eventful clime future, reducing hazard erstwhile gathering and landscaping is paramount.

The program includes an acquisition run — spreading the connection to counsel radical which municipal buildings they can spell during a vigor question oregon dense smoke.  

The clime enactment program besides stems from a hazard appraisal program that was compiled earlier the wildfire.

That study says Jasper is expected to get hotter successful the coming years, alongside an summation successful the fig of utmost rainfall events, including freezing rain.

Wildfire hazard volition proceed to beryllium significant, the study said.

"Ideally, municipal staff, members of the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Jasper, and different assemblage organizations should enactment collaboratively to co-create a program toward greater resilience that tin realistically beryllium implemented," the study said. 

The wealth to instrumentality aspects of the program volition beryllium allocated successful aboriginal budgeting processes, the study says.