Alberta minister explains decision behind modular housing for Jasper residents

Jason Nixon, minister of seniors, community and social services speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about their investments in interim housing for Jasper.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: If you could paint us a picture of what this interim housing development will look like. Albertans might have an image in mind with that mention of that term, modular homes.

Jason Nixon: Often when we deal with these situations, in the past, this has not been the same challenge that we've seen in Jasper because you would have larger communities that were closer to the place that's experienced the disaster.

Often as you're dealing with those interim housing needs, there's a place close enough with vacancies that you could help people stay in, through their insurance programs, while their homes are being rebuilt. Jasper is remote, the only close place being Hinton, and so that adds some unique challenges.

We looked at using traditional oil field camps to try to address this issue early on. We realized it would be extraordinarily expensive because of the cost of food, because in those camps you have to then bring in food providers.

We recognize that in the past, they had not been well used for this type of an emergency so we decided to go different way. My department will be investing in $112 million worth of modular housing to immediately be put in place in Jasper.

It will remain owned by my department and we will then work to be able to make sure everybody can live in those units while their places are rebuilt. Then we will either keep those units in Jasper on a more permanent basis, selling them into the market for things like staff accommodations, there already was a high demand in Jasper, or we'll look at moving them elsewhere to deal with some of the affordable housing challenges that we're facing elsewhere in the province.

MH: That target of 250 homes, how close do you expect to come to meeting that demand?

JN: We're very confident we can get to 250. We've done a process with multiple manufacturers that make us comfortable we can accommodate that, as far as supply.

We also recognize that we may end up having to do more. We're prepared to ramp that up if needed. This is after doing an assessment with Jasper, the municipality of Jasper, and the Department of Municipal Affairs. This is the number that came back, very concrete, that there was for sure going to be needed.

We'll watch as people line up to be able to get into this housing and if we see that demand increasing we will take measures accordingly.

I will say there's about 300 structures, just a little over 300 residential constructions or structures that burnt down, so 250 is fairly reasonable inside that target place, and we'll again see how this progresses.

MH: Are there restrictions as to who can queue up to make use of this housing?

JN: This housing is intended for people that were living in Jasper that lost their homes. Certainly the highest priority are for essential workers working within Jasper.

Often when we say essential, people are thinking about nurses and paramedics and these type of key issues. Those are certainly essential, but what I mean by that is, people that are contributing to the economy and or to the rebuild of Jasper being the priority at the moment.

Over time, obviously we'll continue to see more and more people be able to return back to the community, but that's our focus right now.

MH: Given construction pressures province-wide, are there the trades to meet targets you've already set out for January? I believe during the news conference you referenced between 75 and 100?

JN: It's great question, and this is one of the reasons why we went this way, because what we need to do is find interim solutions that did not require us to house a lot of trades in Jasper.

Obviously that's the challenge that we're trying to fix and every time we diverted construction workers to build our interim housing, we were diverting them away from helping people get their permanent homes rebuilt and people that really don't want to wait any longer than necessary.

And so by going through this manufacturing process, it gives us two really critical opportunities because we'll be doing most of the manufacturing off site and then transporting up to Jasper. So we don't have to deal with as much trade housing challenges. And then second, we can continue to work through some of the colder months at a rapid rate, where we would not have been able to if we were doing as much construction on site.

MH: Mayor Ireland expressed deep gratitude to you and the government for making the funding available now, and in his words, putting aside partisan fights that we have seen in the past. Where do things stand with the federal government in terms of its involvement in moving this interim housing element forward?

JN: I've been in close contact with my federal counterparts during this process. We certainly would like to see them participate with us in all aspects of housing. Right now, the federal government's indicated that the best way that they think they can do that is through long-term insurance programs to their disaster programs and we will take advantage of that and we'll move forward right now with Alberta putting up the money.

I don't see this as a as a partisan issue. I'm no stranger to partisanship, and frankly, I’m prepared to do it when we need to defend our province, but I think we all just recognize Jasper's not only a crown jewel of Alberta, it's a crown jewel of Canada, and that we all need to come together to care for some Albertans that are going through a very, very tough time right now.

So my focus isn't on partisanship at all when it comes to this, I just want to see people get homes, get Jasper rebuilt, and then we could all look and know that we care for our fellow Albertans.

MH: If the feds do come to the table, are there some hard and fast numbers that you're looking at? Do you split costs down the middle?

JN: I think certainly that we would at the very least want to see costs being split between us and the Feds down the middle. I think long-term, on disaster recovery dollars, it's the position of the Alberta government that the feds should actually be picking up more, given the nature of the fact that they own all the land in this context. This is inside the National Park on federal land, it's their part.

We're going to have some conversations about what we think is fair. I know the Minister of Public Safety, Deputy Premier Mike Ellis, is working through that process with his counterpart. Again, my focus, while I support the work that he's doing, is not on that. I don't want to get delayed by any of those conversations. They're important, they should take place. My focus is working with my team in the town of Jasper to get people homes as fast as possible.

MH: MLAs are returning to the legislature next week (Oct. 28) for the start of the fall sitting. What will make this a pivotal session for your government where priorities are concerned?

JN: I think you're going to see a lot of bills about protecting Albertans, protecting Albertans rights, and then also, we're continuing just to advance the mandate that we got from Albertans a year ago.

Again, trying to make life more affordable and focusing on continuing to make sure that Alberta is the best place to live, play, and retire in going forward.

I'm really looking forward to getting back there with all my colleagues. For me, it's my favorite time of the year when we turn to the legislature, so it should be fun. Looking forward to seeing all the great results from the work from all 87 MLAs in the chamber this year.