The road to recovery is starting to clear for businesses and the tourism in industry in Jasper, Alta., a month after some 25,000 visitors and residents were forced to flee a raging wildfire. While Jasper National Park and the town are still closed to visitors, late last week the park service reopened the road south through the Rocky Mountains that is a key draw for tourists.
“Getting the Icefield Parkway Highway 93 open all the way between Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff was really important,” said Paul Hardy, owner of SunDog Transportation and Tour Co.
The route adds to the full reopening of Highway 16 earlier in the week, which has ushered in teams of service workers to help rebuild the community, bringing businesses closer to reopening.
SunDog restarted its shuttle route from Edmonton to Jasper on Friday as well, though for now it’s just for residents and workers, said Hardy.
“As far as our company goes, that’s a big milestone in terms of the rebuild and the restart.”
There are signs of reopening in town, too. The grocery store, pharmacy and gas stations were open to welcome residents who started returning a week ago, while the Crazy Elk Café also opened for residents on Friday, said Hardy.
“It’s a good sign…I really do feel optimistic about both the near term, and certainly the longer term.”
Supports for businesses are also starting to take shape. Community Futures West Yellowhead, which provides business coaching and entrepreneurial support to the region, is launching a $5,000 to $15,000 low-interest loan program to help tide businesses over, said general manager Nancy Robbins.
The organization is working to understand just how big a toll the fire has taken on businesses, conducting a survey with the Red Cross and the Alberta government to get data that they can then turn into more supports.
An earlier survey conducted by the Tourism Industry Association of Alberta gave some sense of scale, estimating daily revenue losses as high as $4.5 million a day during the peak summer months.
SunDog Tours lost two staff houses in the fire along with its administrative building, just a few of the 358 structures making up about a third in town that were destroyed.
Some businesses expect to see a spike in business ahead as the rebuilding gets underway but are largely on hold for now as town and the park work out building codes and planning issues as they look to reduce future wildfire threats.
And while there are signs of reopening, some businesses have already said they won’t be able to reopen in the near-term, a reminder of the toll the fire has taken on many operators.
Jasper Raft Tours, for one, said it will be closed for the remainder of the season.
“We have lost everything. We are devastated,” the company said in an emailed response, adding that they look forward to welcoming clients again in the future. “I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but we will be back.”