Jasper woman learns her residency in question for working outside national park
A 53-year-old woman who has lived in Jasper for 32 years has learned she doesn’t meet the residency requirements to live there because she works outside the national park.
Stef Dolan has been working at a mine south of Hinton, Alta., for 12 years.
Hinton is about 25 kilometres east of the park.
“It was the only way that I could see that I could afford to live here and maintain my daughter’s relationship with her family,” Dolan said.
But when the land lease, where her trailer sits, came up for renewal with Parks Canada, her eligibility came into question.
National parks operate under the National Parks of Canada Lease and Licence of Occupation Regulations, which outline eligible residency requirements.
An eligible resident is someone who is employed within the park, owns a business within the park or is a spouse of someone who meets those requirements.
The requirements are to ensure there’s enough housing for park workers, rather than for recreational or second-home visitors.
Dolan said she is in favour of the regulations, but she said they shouldn’t stop people from finding work outside the park once there.
“We need those rules. We can’t have a house sitting empty for rich doctors in the city to come up and occupy,” Dolan said. “The rules are legit, everyone agrees with that. I totally agree with the rules. They just need to be reopened and reviewed.”
Dolan hasn’t received an eviction notice yet, but she hasn’t been allowed to renew her land lease either. For now, she’s leasing her home under her 22-year-old daughter’s name.
Parks Canada response
They plan to present the paperwork to Parks Canada by Thursday, and she said she hopes she’ll be able to stay in the park and live with her daughter.
Parks Canada would not comment on this specific case, citing privacy reasons, but it provided a statement to CBC News on Tuesday.
“When reviewing eligible residency requirements, Parks Canada ensures each case is evaluated in a fair, consistent and compassionate matter with the best interests of both the community as a whole and the national park,” the statement said.
“Unfortunately, Parks Canada cannot consent to lease issuance, renewal or replacement without acceptable substantiating information of eligible residency.”