It continues:
“Parks Canada will continue to contribute to visitor, Jasper residents, and adjacent community understanding and support of the Jasper National Park Mountain Pine Beetle Management Plan.”
Well, judging by the fact that only by chance did I find the plan by using the right key words when Googling it, it becomes quite legitimate to wonder whether these two gentlemen have had done their job properly over the last two years.
I am still, as others residents, waiting for Mr. Fehr to coordinate an evening session. Is this not an important part of the plan that he approved to keep, among others, residents informed, to keep people aware? Even though we notice this week some effort to update Parks Canada’s “Fire information and updates” web page, we are still far away from what should have been done. Do visitors know what to do in a possible evacuation? Are visitors aware of behaviours to avoid, such as being responsible with their cigarette butts? As suggested by Mr. Ken Hodges, professional forester in his letter on May 30, why not have signage throughout the park regarding fire conditions, the fire ban and behaviour to adopt in relation to the risk? Furthermore, despite the fact that Mr. Hodges and Mr. Begin (two BC researchers) have never provided any reports only letters and emails to Parks, it is hard to understand why Mr. Fehr does not consider their expertise and recommendations as they wrote letters more than once to express their concerns about the fire threat to the town of Jasper. Between the two of them, they have over 80 years of forest management experience in BC and they think Jasper is due for a catastrophic forest fire.... According to Mr. Hodges in his letter [of] May 30: “Seasoned BC firefighters had never seen the explosive fire behaviour or ecological damage when fighting recent fires in forests exhibiting similar conditions to those in Jasper.” Still according to him “Parks actions should include more efforts in protecting the community and infrastructure by setting priorities for logging strategies throughout the park this summer.
As also stated by Mr Allan Carroll, Jasper national park decided to consider the pine beetle a “native disturbance agent” and because of that, was not intending to do much about it.... This article also states that “Foresters along the park's edge have seen a tenfold increase in beetle infestation in just months, and some scientists wonder if Parks Canada could have done more to control the invasion a few years ago”. I suppose we can all answer that question.
Not only does Parks Canada have the authority to go on with logging because of their Guiding Principles and Operational Policies, Mr. Fehr has the responsibility to protect the town of Jasper, period. Updating their website is one thing; they have to start logging right now.
Mr. Alan Fehr, Mr. Salman Rasheed, we are giving you the chance to do better by not holding a protest next Saturday since you seem to be taking action as we speak. It is the time for you both to shine, to prove and demonstrate that you have and will have the situation in hand. Are you the two who will be known for having taken the right measures in order to keep our town safe or are you going to be remembered as those who failed and let our town burn?
That is the end of the quote.
That was the letter from a local Jasper resident. Are the Liberals going to call Marie-France names? Are the Liberals going to falsely claim that she was lying?
The Liberals continue to say that Conservatives are spreading misinformation by giving voices to experts. These are not our words, though. These are the words of the witnesses who have been brave enough to testify at the Jasper wildfire investigation and to speak truth to power. Every time the Liberals falsely claim that we are politicizing—