Alberta’s thin-skinned premier clapped back at Jasper for daring to release a consultant’s after-action report about last July’s devastating fire that criticized her government’s response.
Clearly the report’s indication some of the 300 or so firefighters and officials interviewed by SATYA Inc. thought the province made things worse when its officials interfered with efforts by Parks Canada and community firefighters to control the fire got right up Danielle Smith’s nose.
Obviously irritated, Smith responded sharply to reporters’ questions at an unrelated news conference by demanding that the town withdraw the report and apologize. Unfortunately, none of the reporters followed up on what she proposes to do about it if Jasper officials won’t comply with her demands.
The premier also accused Parks Canada, which had nothing to do with the report, of using it to deflect blame for the fire and the town of playing politics. She repeatedly attacked Parks Canada’s forest-management policies, which are designed to maintain the natural environment within the park.
“This was a federal fire,” she barked at one point during the outdoor newser overlooking downtown Edmonton. “It took place in a federal park, and it was a federal Parks Canada response.” It’s probably lucky the heat she was generating didn’t ignite a grass fire.
“Alberta Wildfire had no part in the management of the wildfire until after the fire breeched (sic*) the town,” the government said in its similarly defensive 525-word news release, a point the premier made repeatedly despite the fact the report made it clear the problems perceived by firefighters continued right up until residents began to return to the town.
“Jurisdictional overlap with the province created political challenges that disrupted the focus of incident commanders, leading to time spent managing inquiries and issues instead of directing the wildfire response and re-entry,” said the report, which was posted Thursday on the Jasper municipal website.
“What I think went wrong is that they didn’t do adequate fire protection and fire guard clearance, and then they didn’t call in for unified command early enough,” Smith complained.
“I would like to see that we would work with them to clear away the deadwood in all of the forest parks areas so that it does not continue to create a hazard for the rest of the province,” she said, a view she expressed last summer as well that seems to have been inspired by some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s past musings about forest fire prevention.
Instead of “pointing fingers at others … they should be looking at what they can do to improve their own response,” she complained, notwithstanding having just spent a considerable amount of time finger-pointing herself. “We all have to look at what we have done in the past and how we can improve. And I don’t think that Parks Canada and the Town of Jasper have done an adequate job of that.
“I hope they go back to the drawing board,” she said.
Smith also suggested the province should take over fire management inside the park. “What I would like to see is Parks Canada recognize that we have more capability, more experience than they do.” Well, it’ll be interesting to see what Parks Canada – or perhaps a retired Parks Canada official who can speak his or her mind – has to say about that.
Smith’s ire during the newser was not restricted to Jasper, Ottawa, Parks Canada and the report, either. She responded sharply to a reporter’s question about Lou Arab’s recent comment that she was “full of it” when she argued it was OK for her husband to attend government meetings about a proposed rail megaproject because she’s married to him.
Arab, of course, is uniquely qualified to comment on this issue because he is married to Rachel Notley, who used to be Alberta’s premier.
Smith put a lot of energy into diverting attention from Arab’s point that her husband, David Moretta, ought not to have been at the meetings by arguing that she could talk to him privately about anything she pleased.
“Maybe the former premier’s husband doesn’t understand what the Lobbyist Registry says if you are getting paid by somebody to lobby government, then you have to register as a lobbyist,” Ms. Smith argued, presumably intentionally missing the point. “He was getting paid by CUPE, and he never stepped down from his position the entire time his wife was premier. My husband, on the other hand, quit the media when I became an elected official.”
“There’s no one paying my husband to give me advice. I ask for his advice because I value his opinion.”
Arab understands perfectly well what the rules set out in Alberta’s lobbying legislation are, as he made clear in his original comments on social media.
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