Alberta Wildfire conducts Hazard Reduction Burn
Alberta defends wildfire response after critical Jasper report
EDMONTON — Alberta is pushing back against a report commissioned by the town of Jasper into the 2024 wildfire that damaged parts of the community, arguing the province’s role was substantial, coordinated and wrongly minimized.
In a joint statement, Premier Danielle Smith and several cabinet ministers defended Alberta’s response, pointing out that the fire began within Jasper National Park, a federally managed area under the jurisdiction of Parks Canada. Alberta says it provided personnel and equipment from the first day and only assumed a management role after the fire breached the town’s limits.
“Alberta’s swift deployment of crews, emergency funding and operational support played a critical role in protecting lives and infrastructure, and these contributions are either minimized or ignored entirely,” said the statement, which also included comments from Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis, Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen, and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon.
The province detailed its efforts, which included Alberta Wildfire crews, municipal firefighting teams, search and rescue operations, and health and housing system mobilization. Vulnerable residents were evacuated from hospitals, long-term care homes and lodges. Alberta also opened evacuation centres, provided payments and temporary accommodation, and sent mental health and social services teams into the area.
The Emergency Management Cabinet Committee met daily during the crisis, eventually approving $181 million in disaster assistance along with property tax relief. Alberta said it also coordinated regular town halls, supported aerial hot spot monitoring for weeks after the fire, and helped fill funding and logistical gaps.
The statement was critical of the report and media coverage surrounding it, calling both politically motivated and selective. It also took aim at what the province called a long-standing failure of forest management in federal parks, citing a lack of fuel reduction and forest health measures that Alberta says has increased wildfire risk in places like Jasper.
“The report fails to seriously address the broader and ongoing issue of forest management practices within national parks,” the statement read. “This is a federally controlled area, and the risks associated with unmanaged forests are real and growing.”
Despite the criticism, the province said it supports ongoing reviews of emergency responses and reiterated its commitment to intergovernmental cooperation in future emergencies. “Alberta remains committed to working with all levels of government to ensure communities are protected and responses are effective, now and in the future,” the statement said.
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