Some business owners in Jasper say they are feeling the pressure to get back up and running after July’s wildfire ripped through the town site.
While some businesses managed to avoid significant damage others were not so lucky.
Scott Eady spent 30 years building up Jasper Raft Tours as general manager before recently selling the business.
“It was very, very difficult, but you soon get through that, and there’s work in front of you,” Eady told CBC in an interview at the burned site of the compound, which started in 1971.
“We purposely store our rafts in two locations … in the event that something happens. And yes, our launch site did get destroyed.”
Everything from the dock, to rafts and life jackets were destroyed by fire.
“A lot of the raft guides from decades ago are part of the initial fire crews and whatnot. So there’s the informal telephone that goes around and the information circulates,” Eady said.
“When the fire was coming down through the valley, we knew that it was coming through our launch site, which is located 16 kilometres south of town, and it was coming fast and wasn’t good.”
Like many other Jasper businesses, the rafting company is now in the process of assessing damage and working with insurance companies to determine how to move forward.
Eady said time is of the essence and the clock is ticking when it comes to getting ready for the 2025 tourism season.
“The international operators were contacting me, saying, giving their sympathies, of course. And then moving right along to next question, we have contracts for 2025 … are we going to be looking at them?” Eady said, noting 75 per cent of their business is with international tour groups.
New rafts have already been ordered to meet an April deadline with staff anxious to get back to work, Eady said.
“We love what we do, and we want to share that with people.”
Other businesses in Jasper were lucky to have suffered minimal damage.
Astoria Hotel is a fourth-generation family business that survived the wildfire with limited impact.
“I was expecting the worst, but I was happy to see that place is in good shape for the most part. There’s a little bit of dust and a little bit of an odour from the smoke, but other than that, it’s good to go,” general manager Oliver Andrew told CBC.
Andrew said the municipality has been doing work to ensure water and gas lines come back online.
“I’s just the deep cleaning, and it’ll be calling all the staff back. Fortunately, our staff are all ready to get back to work, so once we feel like we’re manned and kind of all ready to go, we’ll get things fired back up.”
Despite the hardships in front of the business, Eady said the support from other businesses been phenomenal.
“The boys down in Banff offered eight to 10 boats and all the life jackets, equipment.”
“There’s a huge rafting community here. There’s multiple rivers … This is a tourism-based town, and there is a sense of community that way,” Eady said.
“It’s a brother and sisterhood … the rivers in your blood and and you help out any which way you can.”