Mr. Chair and committee members, the statement that I provide today will provide a shocking example of how mismanaged the Jasper fire was by Parks Canada and should warrant a deeper investigation into this agency's fire management and overall role as guardians of Canada's most important cultural and natural assets.
On the evening of Tuesday, July 23, 2024, Arctic Fire Safety Services was contacted by the Alberta Emergency Management Agency to deploy three type 3 fire engines and 11 firefighters to Jasper National Park. The request was later changed to two type 3 engines to Jasper and one to another fire.
The crews travelled up from Eckville by Highway 93 to Jasper. As well, some crews came in from Fort McMurray by Highway 16. We were informed that the crew were to bring tents and sleeping bags because there were no hotel rooms available for us in Jasper, so the crew had to sleep on the lawn of the Jasper fire hall for two nights.
On the night of July 24, in a verbal report, my crew informed me of numerous issues that occurred that affected the ability of firefighters to protect Jasper.
There was a back-burn that was under way by Parks Canada, and the status of the back-burn did not appear to be communicated to the structure protection specialist who was in Jasper from the ignition team with Parks Canada. All fire crews were sitting at the Jasper fire hall and were not at their preplanned positions when the main fire entered Jasper because they believed the fire behaviour observed was from the back-burn. It was not until reports that the buildings were on fire that fire crews deployed to save the townsite. The scene was described as extremely chaotic—