Western Standard - August 06, 2024


Smith says feds should create subsidies for Jasper businesses affected by wildfire


Episode Stats


Length

3 minutes

Words per minute

167.90149

Word count

559

Sentence count

22


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Learn English with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis. Minister Ellis and Mayor Mike Ellis discuss the impact of the fires in Jasper, Alberta and the need for a unified command when dealing with the national parks.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Earlier today I joined Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and our Public Safety and Emergency
00:00:04.800 Services Minister Mike Ellis along with the Mayor of Jasper in Hinton to receive an update
00:00:11.280 from the command centre and to speak with some of Jasper's evacuees. We had a conversation on
00:00:15.600 Jasper's recovery and the need for a unified command when dealing with the national parks
00:00:20.240 to ensure both governments are fully coordinated. In my conversation with Prime Minister Trudeau
00:00:25.120 today I expressed our thanks for Ottawa's continued collaboration during this crisis. I also made it
00:00:30.960 clear that working together will only become more imperative as we look to recovery after the fires.
00:00:36.320 In fact we heard this reiterated many times by those in command that the integration of all three levels
00:00:43.200 of government has been one of the the finest examples of us working together on these kinds
00:00:48.800 of incidents and they hope that it would become the standard. Once re-entry is possible we will need
00:00:54.400 to tackle many urgent priorities to ensure the needs of residents are being met. Right now it's
00:00:59.440 estimated that upwards of 350 residential structures have been lost within the Jasper municipal boundaries.
00:01:06.400 Temporary housing will be an overriding priority once residents begin to return and it will be
00:01:11.040 essential for the federal government to be as flexible as possible to keep housing cited within
00:01:15.840 the town site or to be flexible on the boundaries of the town site. Given the town's reliance on tourism
00:01:21.680 and its inherent challenges with hiring I've encouraged the federal government to explore an
00:01:25.680 emergency wage subsidy as well as to suspend lease payments for a few months to help businesses avoid
00:01:31.200 layoffs. This will allow businesses to reopen faster so that tourists can return as soon as possible and
00:01:37.360 Jasper can start recovering economically. I've also asked for Ottawa to consider additional federal funding
00:01:43.360 under the four billion dollar housing accelerator fund to help Jasper take on additional land planning
00:01:49.040 responsibilities. Increased local control and resourcing will be crucial to speed up the redevelopment
00:01:55.040 process. They were already in process on doing this but this should be an opportunity to accelerate that
00:02:00.000 local decision making. I've also indicated to the Prime Minister that owners of critical businesses have
00:02:06.720 as of today been permitted to access their businesses to begin assessing damages and necessary repairs.
00:02:13.120 as required by their insurance companies. We have also seen the beginning of bus tours as well for those
00:02:20.320 who are most impacted, those who have lost their homes. There was one bus from Edmonton and two from Hinton
00:02:26.880 today as well as we're going to be hosting another telephone town hall for residents tomorrow evening to
00:02:33.920 get any other additional pieces of critical information out to them. Owners of businesses were given access
00:02:40.960 today as I mentioned. Overall I think that we had a productive conversation today and I look forward to
00:02:47.760 building on this with discussions in the near future on how we can collaborate further. Before I turn it over
00:02:53.680 to Minister Ellis for a situation update I'd just like to reiterate our government's commitment to the
00:02:57.920 people of Jasper and to all Albertans impacted by these wildfires. We're here for you, we're thinking of
00:03:03.840 you. We will do everything we can to support you in the days and weeks and months ahead.