As Fort McMurray residents begin to return home, the City of St. Albert is winding down the services being offered to evacuees.
Several services were being provided free of charge to evacuees, including transit and recreation access. Free RV and trailer parking areas were offered as well, along with temporary on-street parking permits.
The services offered through the city will wind down June 10. A standing offer from the St. Albert Public Library to provide either a free library card or honour Wood Buffalo Regional Library cards will continue throughout the summer.
Interim city manager Chris Jardine said the move is being made in co-ordination with other capital region communities that were offering supports.
Jardine said there were a couple of factors in the move. One is that many residents are being allowed to return to the northern community, if they wish.
A secondary point is that there has been what Jardine called a diminishing uptake on people accessing the offered services.
“It’s reaching a natural petering out point,” Jardine said.
Some of the city’s offers have been better used than others. For instance, free parking spots for RVs saw only a couple of spots used, and that was for the short-term.
Admission to recreation facilities such as Servus Place or Fountain Park were better used, Jardine said. But the city doesn’t have a count yet on how many people accessed those services.
St. Albertans reached out in a variety of ways during the wildfire evacuation.
In addition to the services offered by the city to welcome evacuees, residents and businesses did everything from offer free meals and other deals to collecting donations to taking families into their homes.
Jardine said we might never know how many evacuees found refuge in St. Albert. He said at one point there was an estimate of 400 to 500, based on local campgrounds and hotels, but that wouldn’t have included everyone.
“I don’t know that we’ll ever have an accurate count,” Jardine said.
He praised the community’s response to the emergency.
“I really appreciate everybody in the community, everybody who basically stepped up and were willing to do something. It was pretty impressive to help our sister city get through this,” Jardine said.
