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NAMAO, Alta. – It’s a brisk, bright autumn morning when Julie-Ann McNeilly comes barrelling down a dirt road, steps out of her van and dives deep into the history of Johnny’s Store.

Built in 1902, the shop is believed to be one of the oldest in Alberta and has long served as a gathering spot in the hamlet of Namao, just north of Edmonton. At one time, it also housed a post office, and McNeilly’s grandmother worked as one of Alberta’s first postmistresses.

Its ownership changed hands a few times, she says. Her family took possession in the 1930s, after her great-uncle became shopkeeper.

“My grandpa bought it in 1949 and his name is John, so it became Johnny’s Store,” she says. “We decided to leave the name, because everyone knows it as Johnny’s Store.”

McNeilly and her brother Brendan have spent hundreds of hours bringing new life to the shop. It’s been closed since 2018, after briefly serving as a craft market, and is set to reopen by Nov. 28.

The space is to offer general store essentials, a coffee shop and a bar.

Inspiration came after McNeilly’s father died in 2020. It had been on the market for a time, but selling the store didn’t feel right, even after an offer was made.

“We were raised coming into the store and getting an ice cream and seeing our family be a part of the community,” she says. “It was very important to us to keep that legacy going.”

McNeilly says she and her brother have done extensive updates to honour the store’s history while bringing in modern amenities. Peeling back crinkled wallpaper revealed early 1900s barn board. Antique decor lines the walls. Remnants of knob-and-tube electrical wiring hang from the ceiling.

Even the floors slope down.

McNeilly has added a coffee nook at a bay window with bistro tables and bench seats. In the back, a new bar has Johnny’s own light lager on tap.

Indoor plumbing is also a new addition that the pair is slowly adapting to, McNeilly says.

“My brother still runs to the back (outside) to go to the bathroom.”

McNeilly says Johnny’s design is a product of its time, which is why the storefront — with its white facade and round Coca-Cola signs — has been featured in several movies and TV shows.

American actor Kathy Bates directed scenes from the 2003 TV movie “Fargo” at the store. The Canadian series “Blackstone” was also filmed there for a time.

One day, a couple friends texted McNeilly to tell her they saw the store in a Netflix movie.

“It was a Liam Hemsworth movie called ‘Cut Bank’ with Billy Bob Thornton,” she says, referring to the 2014 crime drama.

“Liam Hemsworth drives in front of the store, runs to a fake phone booth outside, takes a call and speeds off again. So there’s things that the store has been in that I didn’t even know about.”

With no outside help, restoring Johnny’s to its former glory has been a labour of love, McNeilly says. It’s also been a homecoming of sorts. McNeilly left Edmonton about 20 years ago but came back for the project.

It’s also made McNeilly feel closer to her brother.

“There’s not been a day where my brother and I haven’t loved coming here,” she says.

“It just all has really come together and feels really special.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2024.

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JASPER, ALBERTA – A bright green Welcome Home banner still hangs on the awning of Nesters Market on the main drag in Jasper, Alta.

It’s been three months since residents were allowed to return to the Rocky Mountain tourist town, after a devastating wildfire hit the national park and scorched one-third of the community’s homes and businesses. An estimated 2,000 people were displaced.

A construction site on the east edge of town, one of four where crews are working overtime to put up quick-form housing, was briefly covered in snow Friday. Many snowfalls are expected to blanket the area over the next few months.

The new public housing, which is costing the province $112 million, isn’t expected to be ready for renters until spring.

On the west side of town, blue wire fencing with asbestos warning signs protects passersby from a grey expanse of burnt out vehicles and what’s left of entire blocks of single family homes and what used to be gas stations and hotels.

Debris removal is ongoing as insurance claims get settled, but those fences aren’t expected to come down any time soon.

In the middle of town, largely spared by the fire, life goes on.

The laughing and crying of children during school recess rings loud, coffee shops bustle with catch-up chatter and those taking advantage of free internet, and tourists walk slowly with sticker-covered water bottles advertising where else they’ve been.

Jasper’s long-tenured mayor, Richard Ireland, estimates between 60 and 70 per cent of the town’s 5,000 residents are back home.

Whether the remaining residents have chosen not to come back or can’t because they lost their homes or businesses, or both, is one of many unknowns on Ireland’s mind as the season changes.

“That is a hard number to quantify,” he said in an interview at the local library earlier this week.

“It’s like trying to catch smoke with nets.”

Ireland said many are adapting to a new normal, including himself. He also lost his home in the fire.

“My life is starting to resemble a little bit more what it did back in June and early July, but some profound differences,” said Ireland, who is also a lawyer. “I lost a home but not a business.”

“Although I haven’t been able to return to my business in a real way until the last couple of weeks, that return to something that I’m used to is really sort of calming and positive.”

One of the main things on Ireland’s plate as winter approaches is finalizing the municipality’s 2025 budget. It’s a daunting task, he said, as about $283 million in property value was lost to the fire.

“All the properties that have been destroyed, of course, all those taxes just won’t be available,” he said, adding that the town will take a further hit since property taxes for businesses are largely based on revenue.

“Income is going to be way down, so assessments are going to be down, which is another unknown hit in quantity. But we know it’s coming,” Ireland said.

“We are faced with a huge loss of revenue, but our expenses will continue and, in fact, increase, given all that’s happening.”

Back in September, town council passed a motion asking the province for funding specifically to offset that loss of revenue to prevent municipal service cuts and prevent tax hikes for remaining properties.

Ireland said talks are ongoing, and he expects the Alberta government to make an announcement soon.

Another major unknown looming over the tight-knit community is just how many winter visitors to expect.

There was cause for celebration for many local business owners this week as Marmot Basin, a ski resort about 20 kilometres south of town, announced its slopes would open next week.

“I can’t stress this enough: if Marmot Basin had not opened this winter, I’m not sure that our business could’ve survived,” said Mike Day, a local restaurant owner.

“Honestly, I don’t know what we would do.”

Tyler Burgardt, general manager of the Jasper Planetarium, agreed an onslaught of skiers and snowboarders would be a much-needed boost to the economy.

The planetarium and its high-tech telescopes are housed on the grounds of Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. In the winter, Burgardt said, a team of guides offer nighttime stargazing tours and more.

He said the facility’s equipment survived the fire, though it had to be sent to Quebec City for cleaning and refurbishment. A house with five rooms for staff accommodation was destroyed.

The planetarium is currently operating at reduced capacity, matching the reduced visitor count seen across town, Burgardt said.

“The goal for winter is just keep on going and we’ll get what we get, regardless if we have smaller groups than we did last winter,” he said.

Day said about 25 per cent of the town’s hotel capacity was lost, but the overwhelming message the local business community has for the world is that visitors are wanted.

“Please come out and visit,” Burgardt said.

“It’s not the same Jasper. It’s still beautiful, it’s still awesome. But it’s different — and that’s great.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2024.

OTTAWA – Canada’s elections chief wants a ban on the misrepresentation of candidates and other key players in the electoral process through manipulation of their voice or image without consent.

The proposed change to the Canada Elections Act is among several measures chief electoral officer Stéphane Perrault is putting forward to address the use of deepfakes and other artificially created content to fool voters.

In an interview, Perrault said he is “hoping to convince” MPs to expand an electoral reform bill, currently in a House of Commons committee, to include some new elements.

Brazen meddling tactics such as deepfakes have become part of the public conversation in the United States, but they are still “a bit of a shock to the system” in Canada, he said.

“We have to acknowledge that there are all kinds of issues that happen during an election, and be prepared to talk about that.”

Perrault makes the legislative proposals in a report on protecting threats to the electoral process that was recently submitted to both Parliament and a federal inquiry into foreign interference.

Synthetic images, video and audio are becoming easier to generate through applications driven by artificial intelligence, allowing people to spread false information and sow confusion.

Such deepfake trickery can involve replacing someone’s face in a video with that of a different person and manipulation of the person’s voice.

“AI images of people doing things they never did, audio of them saying things they never said or created videos can threaten democracy and make it difficult for a voter to know what is real and what is a deepfake,” Perrault’s report says.

“While the risks arising from the rapid evolution and availability of AI are not limited to foreign interference, it is clear that foreign state actors could leverage the power of technology to create deepfakes in order to influence or undermine the electoral process.”

Currently, a section of the elections law covering impersonation forbids falsely representing oneself as the chief electoral officer, an election officer, a candidate, or a representative of a party or riding association with the intent to mislead, the report notes.

However, the report adds, the law does not cover a scenario in which someone manipulates the voice or image of a party leader, or any of the other designated key players, to create a deepfake.

The bill making its way through Parliament proposes changes to the provision on impersonation and a related one on misleading publications by clarifying that the prohibitions apply regardless of the medium, or the manner or place in which the false representation is made.

But these minor adjustments “do not address in any way the threat of deepfakes,” the report says.

Perrault recommends expanding the impersonation provision to cover misrepresentation using voice or image manipulation. He also advocates making the relevant provisions apply outside an election period.

Perrault concedes it is healthy for people to voice concerns about the electoral process or its integrity, even if the basis for their concern turns out to be false. But he has been pushing for some time to outlaw false statements intended to disrupt the conduct of an election or undermine its legitimacy.

The current bill would add a provision to protect against the spread of inaccurate information, but the tweak does not go so far as prohibiting statements that have the purpose of undermining the legitimacy of the election, the report says.

“Given that this is the very objective being pursued by some foreign state actors and that is perhaps the most damaging form of foreign interference for our democracy, it needs to be addressed.”

Perrault suggests amending the elections act to forbid false information that is knowingly being spread to undermine trust in an election and its results.

The chief electoral officer’s report also calls for changes that go beyond the scope of the current bill, and therefore would need to be considered in fresh legislation.

These include suggested amendments to the law to increase the transparency of communications about elections and to bolster the integrity of political nomination and leadership contests.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2024.

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