The Jasper re-entry on Friday will now be for residents only, officials announced Wednesday.
Previously, the incident management team had said there was no way to keep non-residents from returning to town on Friday.
They have now walked that statement back.
“Re-entry on Aug. 16 is for residents only,” Parks Canada said in a post on its website on Wednesday.
“Resident security concerns have been heard. Your safe return is our priority. We are in this together.”
Hopefully the fact that this was a national park that was affected will make the federal government start considering a federal wildfire fighting program.
Firefighting is in the province’s purview, so they would have to sign on to the fed’s taking control … which will never happen.
Edit to add … On a good note DeHavilland is building a manufactuting plant in Calgary to pump out the “DHC-515 Firefighter … to build on the history of the Canadair CL-215 and CL-415 aircraft” source. That’s good news for the whole world as the 215 and 415 continue to be the workhorses of forest fire fighting.