RCMP from across Alberta head to Jasper for disaster response

By Brett McKay, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

RCMP from across Alberta are being pulled into the Jasper region to help with the ongoing disaster response.

Officers started arriving on July 22 when out-of-control wildfires pushed dangerously close to the town, helping direct traffic as 25,000 residents and tourists fled the area, and conducting door-to-door checks for people left behind.

Now the situation in Jasper has stabilized, members of the force are focusing on security roles, carrying out patrols, restricting access to the area, and investigating suspicious activity.

When asked which detachments currently have members assisting in Jasper, Const. Lyle Korver, with the RCMP Tactical Support Group, said the list would likely be shorter to say where officers weren’t coming from.

Four RCMP members live in the town of Jasper, but all are currently dealing with the ramifications of the evacuation along with the town’s other residents, said Trevor Daroux, assistant commissioner with Alberta RCMP.

“They’ve all been evacuated as well. So, it’s important to deal with the trauma, not only of the community, but for our members as well. This is their community. This is, quite frankly, where they live. They’re as excited about rebuilding as everyone else,” Daroux said.

Korver, normally based out of Innisfail, responds with the Tactical Support Group to major events throughout the province. In 2016, he was part of the team evacuating Fort McMurray residents in the fire that eventually destroyed 2,400 homes and businesses. Many of the roles performed by RCMP in the two fires were similar, but on the ground it is difficult to compare the size and scale of the two disasters, he said.

“When you’re face-to-face with a fire, it looks the same —a fire here or a fire there looks the same,” he said. “When you’re in the middle of it, the intensity is very similar.”

Members are drawn from areas that aren’t immediately responding, and where they are in a position to spare the resources. Fort McMurray was initially unable to send members, as it was dealing with wildfires of its own up north. Now those fires are under control, members are standing by ready to be deployed, Korver said.

The extra police presence and additional security measures in Jasper could be in place for weeks, creating staffing challenges during the busy summer season.

“We all have home-unit jobs we come from. We volunteer to be a part of the Tactical Support Group, but we all come from home units elsewhere. So, there are pressures at our home units to maintain our current jobs there and be here. One of the pressures will be just to maintain resources. But we will work through our upper RCMP management, and various districts will support that as well,” Korver said.