We just received an email from a local resident in Jasper who wrote to former environment Minister Catherine McKenna in 2018. She stated in her email that she never got an answer from Catherine McKenna at the time, back in 2018, while she was the minister in charge of Environment and Climate Change from 2015 to 2019. She guessed her concerns were not important enough for the department. She then stated, “If you are willing to have me testifying based on what I know and wrote back in 2018, let me know. I'm terrified, but I'm ready if you have to. My town, my house, my whole life could disappear if we do not do anything to protect the town from the west, and this is the fact.”
It's people like this who understand the importance of the Jasper wildfire investigation. They are the people actually living there. This isn't about politics. It's about accountability and their future. Minister Boissonnault must be held accountable.
In 2018, local Jasper resident Marie-France Miron raised concerns with the mismanagement of Jasper National Park in a letter to the editor. I'm going to read her letter into the record so that Minister Boissonnault better understands the mismanagement in Jasper before he testifies. She wrote:
Dear editor,
Mr. Fehr remained silent and for more than three weeks he ignored not only articles written in the Fitzhugh about Jasper's fire threat but also residents' letters personally addressed to him. It took him however, just 82 minutes to reply to a possible protest to be held regarding this serious issue. I’m very pleased as I also noticed that the Information and Fire Updates web page was updated twice and the first time was on June 1, exactly two days after I sent that email to him. Did you know we now have a link to the current fire danger rating which was updated on June 4? I wonder if it is only a coincidence.
The “Mountain Pine Beetle Jasper National Park Management Plan 2016” recommended by Mr. Rasheed, resource conservation manager and approved by Mr. Fehr mentioned by myself on May 17 states that because the [mountain pine beetle] pose a threat to the national Parks and also Jasper townsite, intervention is necessary:
“Active management is recommended when the structure and function of an ecosystem has been altered and manipulation is the only possible alternative available to restore ecological integrity. Intervention is triggered when there may be adverse effects on neighboring lands, major park facilities, public health or safety will be threatened or the objectives of a park management plan cannot be achieved.”
I now therefore know for a fact that Mr. Rasheed and Mr. Fehr proposed and approved, on July 22, 2016 to apply Parks Canada’s “Guiding Principles and Operational Policies” (Section 3.2.3). The plan states as well: “Ensure that threats posed by mountain pine beetle to Jasper townsite and visitors coming to Jasper are mitigated to the extent possible.” The total failure of Parks Canada to put strategies in place to reduce the wildfire risk on Pyramid Bench as planned for Fall 2017 is simply unacceptable. We most definitely need more than one plan that is ready to go at any given time when you consider the speed with which this disease is spreading around our town and throughout the park.
These two gentlemen also agreed on the importance of “educating”, “informing” and “ensuring” that the public understands the state of the [mountain pine beetle] as well as the actions that should be taken by Park Canada to neutralize the situation: “Parks Canada will continue to contribute to visitor, Jasper residents, and adjacent—