After a wildfire destroyed a third of the Jasper townsite last year, builders are revving up to begin reconstruction by early or mid-summer.
Kevin Read, president of Encore Master Builder, an Edmonton-based home builder, said how quickly development and building permits are approved would ultimately determine when ground was broken.
“I’m anticipating early summer,” Read said. “But it all depends on when the paperwork gets stamped and sent back to us and we get released to the land. That’s the unknown for us.”
Since last July when the wildfire broke out, Jasper has added 17 new planning and development staff in anticipation of the rebuild.
Debris has so far been removed from more than 93 per cent of lots affected by the fire, with the remainder expected to be cleaned up by May, according to a recent report from the Jasper Recover Coordination Centre.
Since August, 95 development permits have been approved, including rebuilds of seven fire-impacted homes, one condo complex, one apartment building, three outlying hotels, one commercial building and one structure at Lake Edith.
Read described many of their Jasper clients who lost their homes were initially unsure about the process, such as what they needed to put down in their scope of work with their insurance company.
“Obviously, this isn’t something you go through multiple times in a lifetime, so no one really has experience with it,” he said. “And so, we sit with them and mostly make it so they’re aware that we have been in business for a long time. We have been building houses for 40 years, so that part of things we have down pat.”
Read noted the limited space for laydown areas and a lack of housing for workers would be a challenge.
To help address this, Parks Canada is planning on setting up a work camp south of town, and Jasper council recently allowed the municipal storage lot in the industrial park to be used as storage by contractors and trades.
Kim Gibbons, executive vice president of Encore Master Builder, added working with their Jasper clients had been “very fulfilling.”
“We are truly, truly enjoying getting to know these people, and for Kevin and I, because we’re the ones handling this ourselves as the company owners, it’s been just remarkable,” Gibbons said. “I’m really enjoying it and looking forward to having some really great looking houses for these people and really making them happy.”
BILD Alberta, which represents 1,300 businesses in the residential construction industry, initially responded to the Jasper wildfire by providing residents with information on how to verify who was a licensed builder and best practices to undertake.
“Previous to Fort McMurray, there was really no licensing regime or regime that tracked companies,” said BILD Alberta CEO Scott Fash. “You could show up with a pick-up truck, have never built a home before and potentially get a contract signed by a resident, and the resident had no way of verifying whether that was a licensed builder or not.”
While residents have the ability to secure their own builder, insurance companies will often have a pre-approved list of builders, and BILD Alberta has provided its own list to the Municipality of Jasper.
Fash reported he had not heard of any reports of fraud in Jasper but emphasized the importance of getting out ahead of it.
BILD Alberta now serves as a conduit between Jasper officials and 13 to 20 different builders that will be involved in the reconstruction.
“Being a national park, there are some slightly different requirements that exist there versus what would be if you were developing or building in any other part of Alberta,” Fash said.
For example, the association got clarity on how builders would be following the Alberta building code rather than the national building code. It was still working to determine where builders could dump excess fill and dirt.
Fash confirmed the first construction projects would likely begin mid-summer and ramp up in the later months.
“I know it’s really difficult,” he said. “Probably everybody wishes everything was happening a whole lot faster, and I think we all wish it was too, but there are a lot of people working really hard to try to do this, to try to do this right and to try to do it as fast as possible.”
Although the rebuild is expected to take years, some builders will be able to provide expedited housing for displaced Jasperites.
Paradigm Panels CEO Philipp Gruner described how his B.C. company preassembles all the wall components in their factory and brings them to the site where the building lock-up can be set up onto the foundation within several days.
“Basically, the way to envision that is you’re getting a wall that has exterior siding on it, windows put in, fully insulated and the inside is ready for drywall,” Gruner said, adding how this reduced the need for laydown areas.
Many of Paradigm Panels’ houses are pre-designed, and it was working with Parks Canada to see if its standard homes could be pre-approved to expedite the process. Gruner noted they can offer custom houses, but it would take longer due to the design phase and permitting.
Over the last few years, Paradigm Panels has undertaken multiple rapid housing projects for the federal government, most recently building 18 housing units in 11 months for the First Nation of Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw near Chase, B.C. following the Bush Creek East fire in 2023.
Jasper will be the fourth community that Paradigm Panels has helped rebuild in the wake of a natural disaster.
“Our team on site and from project management is very determined to get people back into something permanent long-term,” Gruner said. “And I think we’ve [got] a really good product that’s a high-quality product and energy-efficient product but also something that is has a huge longevity and not just a temporary trailer solution.”
