Jasper’s mayor is pushing back on prevailing narratives that suggest the municipality’s transit system has been rushed, town capital costs are out of control and Jasper’s financial capacity is at its breaking point.

As he does every spring, on May 8, Mayor Richard Ireland took the stage at the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce’s annual State of the Municipality Address Dinner. This year, Ireland used the platform to suggest that Jasper is not overrun with costs, but rife with opportunity to collaborate.

“That is our opportunity: one community focused on shared values, designed to improve the overall experience for visitors and residents, strengthen community cohesion and increase prosperity,” he said. 

Ireland also used his time in front of the Chamber to address the “strained, misaligned relationships” that currently exist between residents and the municipality, as well as between council and some members of the business community. The biggest knot in that tension, he acknowledged, has been the ongoing static revolving around the town investigating the costs of establishing an electric bus system.

“This evening is an opportunity … to address head on…the elephant in the room: transit,” Ireland said. “And the larger issues of approach, trust and relationships.”

Ireland referenced a local petition which has been widely circulated—including by the JPCC itself—calling for council to “reconsider the decision to move forward on the EV buses project.” The petition quotes erroneous figures about Jasper’s year-over-year tax requisition and suggests, misleadingly, that the Alberta government is conducting a study into the reliability of EVs. 

Ireland said he understands how concerned people with good intentions can get innocently misdirected, but was clear in his message that “nothing has spiralled, no project is or was out of control…and according to an independent auditor, the municipality cannot be fairly described as in a precarious financial situation. Instead, we’re in good shape!”

And instead of sowing seeds of mistrust and creating dissenting factions within the community, Ireland invited those in attendance—and those watching via the municipality’s YouTube channel—to unite in the real challenges the municipality faces externally: looming legislation put forward by the province which threatens local democracy, and the ongoing push for more autonomy when it comes to land use in Jasper, for example.

“On all of these fronts we will require allies and advocacy,” Ireland said.

No where is the opportunity better for the public and private sectors to align, Ireland said, than in the advancement of the goals laid out by Tourism Jasper’s Destination Stewardship Plan. In November of 2023, Tourism Jasper presented to council a far-reaching document which maps out the priorities, vision and collective management of Jasper as a destination 10 years into the future. The plan outlines more than 50 initiatives which support the “products, people, planet, prosperity and policies” that are central to Jasper.

“The beauty of the plan is that no one owns it. The plan is simply that we need to collaborate to realize a mutually-beneficial future for the destination and for each of us.” 

Ireland wrapped up his address by reminding his colleagues that more than 30 years ago, when he first ran for elected office in Jasper, relationships between the town committee of the day and business leaders were much more strained and misaligned than the current state of affairs.

“In fact they were decidedly adversarial,” he recalled. “But we united as a community and fully achieved the goal [of municipal incorporation] we were chasing for decades.”

Today, in the wake of the economic turmoil heaped on the community by a three-year pandemic and the 2022 Chetamon Mountain wildfire, Jasper has shown that it can come together for the benefit of all.

Having demonstrated those collaborative capabilities, and with the Destination Stewardship Plan as a guide, Ireland said he is confident Jasper’s residents, business owners and public officials can once again align for the greater good.

“We are in a state of opportunity,” he concluded.  “Advocate, collaborate and unifi-cate.”