Jasper’s FireSmart program can breathe a little bit easier after receiving word on Monday (Sept. 14) of receiving the Forest Resource Association of Alberta Fire Smart Grant (FRAAFSG).

The town has been waiting to hear about the grant for a few weeks, as well as one from the bigger Western Economic Diversification Community Adjustment (WEDCA) fund. There were a lot of applicants for both grants, but Todd Nash of FRAAFSG said that Jasper’s was one of the better ones. “The proposal was very strong and well organized and it’s good work,” he said.

According to the WEDCA fund, nothing for the FireSmart grant has been announced, although other grants have.

Meanwhile, the town continues to not meet the criteria for the provincial FireSmart Community Grant Program through the Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) due to its location in a national park.

The SRD grant is offered to municipalities throughout most of Alberta’s forested areas, excluding Jasper and Banff National Parks.

Jasper fire chief Greg Van Tighem says the town has been trying to get the provincial grant for some years now, as they are a municipality in the province, and it is provincial money, but they simply aren’t eligible.

“We’ve always argued that point that what difference does it make if we’re in a national park. If a fire catches in BC, it’s not going to stop at the park boundary. If it catches in Jasper, it’s not going to stop outside of Hinton. Fires don’t know boundaries.”

According to Tracy Price, FireSmart Integration Forester with SRD, the municipality of Jasper, as well as other communities, don’t fall within the forest protection area of Alberta SRD, which is the sole contributor to the fund.

Every year SRD allocates $250,000 to multiple communities at a $50,000 maximum per project, and Price says every year they have more than double the number of requests for funding than they have money to allocate.

“I was really happy to see that they (Jasper) would have those opportunities (for other grants) because we do have restrictions on the grant program, and it’s oversubscribed every year, by at least double,” she says. “We really just don’t have enough money to go around, period. If we had more funding than we would consider going to a broader area, but we don’t.”

The WEDCA is also oversubscribed. With 56 applications worth $26 million, the FireSmart grant only has $5.7 million to give out. Van Tighem says Jasper’s application was for $1.4 million.

“This is something that Alan (Westhaver of JNP FireSmart) and I are trying to find ways to continue since the program isn’t finished yet. And then we came up with these two grants, and we thought it was really positive. We were quite positive that we were going to get at least one of them,” he says. “I’ve gone so far as to write the MLA (about the provincial grant), the mayor has talked to various people about it. It’s just a dead end for us, we just don’t meet their criteria because we’re in a national park. It’s fairly disturbing to me.”

Up until now Parks Canada has been funding the FireSmart program, but as those resources are running low, the town and Jasper National Park have been looking elsewhere to keep the program running.