The province of Alberta has rejected the Town of Banff’s $150,000 funding application for planning work required for a community fireguard to protect the tourist town in the wake of the devastating wildfires that destroyed a third of the Jasper townsite last summer.
The Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta (FRIAA), which is accountable to the minister of forestry, denied the $150,000 because the land for the fireguard is under federal jurisdiction. Parks Canada, however, stepped up last week to fund the necessary planning work.
Mayor Corrie DiManno said Banff’s failed bid for vital funding from the province was a “slap in the face” especially since the Town of Canmore has been successful in getting almost $1 million for its large-scale community fireguard.
“I was especially mad because we’d been encouraged to apply even though the fireguard would be on federal lands, and in the end, the reason it was denied was because the fireguard would be on federal lands,” she said.
“Despite being on and surrounded by federal lands, Banff is still a municipality of this province and the province has a very important role to play in helping us prevent wildfire. Similarly, they have a pivotal role if we were to be impacted by a wildfire.”
An expert panel completed its review, including for the first phase 1 planning stage and made a recommendation to the FRIAA board, which is doling out $19 million in funding for planning and construction of fireguards in at-risk communities.
A letter to the Town of Banff from FRIAA said funding was extremely competitive, adding the national park community was ineligible for provincial funding because the fireguard would be outside of the townsite on federal lands.
Following the provincial funding rejection, DiManno said Banff National Park superintendent Sal Rasheed informed her and Town Manager Kelly Gibson last Friday (Dec. 6) that Parks Canada would provide the $150,000 for the necessary planning work.
“We know community-level fireguards are an effective mitigating strategy to significantly reduce possible impacts of wildfire to high-risk wildfire communities, so we are grateful to Parks Canada for funding the plan for Banff’s fireguard,” she said.
Katherine Severson, director of emergency and protective services for the Town of Banff, said the work on the planning phase for a community level fireguard will be done in collaboration with Parks Canada, and aims to be finished in early 2025.
“There’s a tremendous amount of environmental considerations when we talk about cutting down this many trees and we’re also talking about a multi-year project to actually build a fireguard such as this,” she said.
“The sooner we can get the planning complete, the more shovel-ready we are, and so our request would allow for that plan to be built in early 2025 which would allow us to get started as soon as we had funding for the work itself.”
The actual construction of a fireguard is expected to cost millions and DiManno is also firing off a letter to the federal government requesting fire management and emergency resources be allocated to Parks Canada as part of the 2025 federal budget.
She said this was an action item coming out of meetings she and the town manager had with federal bureaucrats with the environment and climate change department in Ottawa last month.
“We asked what can we do to help Parks Canada be as prepared as possible and to have the resources that they need going into future wildfire seasons, and their suggestion was that we could submit a letter to the federal government in time for the budget process,” she said.
“I’d be more than happy to write this letter, and they’ve even offered they will help do a review of it before it is officially submitted, so I want to take advantage of the offer that the folks in the environment ministry have made to us.”
Coun. Hugh Pettigrew failed in his bid to have council write a letter to Alberta Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen over the denial of the FRIAA funding and get further clarification on the decision-making process given Banff was encouraged to submit an application.
“I found it disappointing even though there’s a silver lining from the federal government towards funding this program. I find it disheartening … we are part of the province under the Municipal Government Act,” he said.
Mayor DiManno said FRIAA has helped to support $600,000 of in-town work over the years, but FRIAA has already been clear the reason for the denial is because the fireguard would be on federal land.
“I also don’t want to end up in a situation where we’re caught in the middle between the feds and the provincial government’s sort of ongoing friction,” she said.
FRIAA awarded $192,000 for fireguard planning and another $750,000 to get started on the work for the Bow Valley community fireguard, which is being led by the Town of Canmore in partnership with the Municipal District of Bighorn and Kananaskis Improvement District.
Construction of the Bow Valley fireguard will occur in phases over the next three to five years, starting with a massive 2.2-km wide fireguard in the Stoneworks Creek area which began last month.
While every area within the Bow Valley is vulnerable to wildfire, work is being prioritized first at Stoneworks Creek, Harvie Heights, and the east gates of Banff National Park because typical wind conditions and topography suggest that wildfire will spread more quickly in these areas.
Minister Loewen's press secretary, Alexandru Cioban, did not address some of the issues, but said, unfortunately, as the land involved in the town’s final proposal is Parks Canada and beyond provincial jurisdiction, FRIAA could not approve the application.
“Alberta’s government is pushing hard for stronger wildfire mitigation measures on federal land, and we continue to work with Parks Canada and the federal government to ensure they have a wildfire mitigation plan in place for Banff,” he wrote.