“We’re trying to solve both the short term and the long-term things. We put a bunch of money on the table. We’re just looking for permission to do all that good,” said Ric McIver, Alberta’s Minister of Municipal Affairs.
The message hasn’t changed since the province first declared it was at an impasse with the town of Jasper and federal government over interim housing plans.
Back in October, the province promised $112 million to build 250 housing units for the town, which lost a third of all buildings in a devastating wildfire last summer.
The province, however, has tied that money to building permanent single-family homes, which would need to follow rules for parking and setbacks.
“We still have available $112 million, which we hope to be able to build 250 homes with it if we are provided service land. We’d love to do that, but we have not been provided service, land and permission to build …