Changes will send chills through municipal councils and create a lot of grief for MLAs  It has been very interesting to watch over the past week how Premier  Danielle Smith ’s United Conservative Party government has unrolled its suite of changes to municipal governance and local election laws, and ...

Director of Urban Design and Standards position will provide expertise and support for development matters The Municipality of Jasper is creating a new director position to help guide its planning and development challenges into the future. A recommendation to create a new full-time permanent Direct...

Wildfires, smoke hazards, freezing rain and extreme heat are predicted to increase in Jasper over the next 30 years, and the town can expect the daily average temperature to never drop below minus 30 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. This, according to a recently released Climate Risk Asses...

Proposed Parks Canada policies for murals in Jasper would stifle art and compromise a burgeoning local festival, proponents say. On March 21, at Jasper National Park’s Planning and Development Advisory Committee meeting (PDAC) , Parks Canada will present proposed amendments to Jasper’s Architectural...

Jasper Municipal Council will backstop a fundraising shortfall to ensure the community gets the skatepark it deserves. Councillors voted unanimously in favour of loaning up to $150,000 to the Jasper Skatepark Committee. The recommendation came at their March 12 Committee of the Whole meeting. “This ...

Parks Canada is inviting Canadians to speak to the year that was, and the year that will be, in Jasper National Park. On March 12 and 13, Parks Canada staff will host the 2024 Jasper National Park Annual Public Forum—in-person, and on-line, respectively. The events provide an opportunity to speak di...

The Municipality of Jasper is looking to build a home for public transit. The MOJ’s Tuesday, February 27 Committee of the Whole meeting saw councillors approve, by a 4-3 margin, a motion to direct administration to issue a request for proposals (RFP) to build Jasper’s first ever public transit fleet...

Province wants to double tourism revenue by 2035; visiting officials recognize tourism-community challenges Premier Danielle Smith was in Jasper this week to announce a new provincial tourism strategy and on St. Valentine’s Day had adoring words for Jasper’s welcoming nature. “Jasper and Banff are t...

Jasper Municipal C ouncil to consider expanding Jasper Transit Parks Canada wants Jasper Transit services to extend to Maligne Canyon. In a February 9 letter to the Municipality of Jasper, Jasper National Park Superintendent Alan Fehr said that Parks Canada is trying to encourage alternative modes o...

Paid Parking is Jasper’s cash cow that keeps growing The Municipality of Jasper's administrative team is suggesting to council that Jasper can get more out of its paid parking program. CAO Bill Given is putting forward that Committee of the Whole recommend council expand the town's paid parking prog...

Recommendation helps local professionals meet Parks Canada's eligible residency requirements To an artist, there’s nothing like a blank slate. And last week, a cadre of local creatives got the official word that their collective canvas has been primed for painting. On January 18, Jasper-based cerami...

To: Alan Fehr Superintendent, Jasper National Park Dear Mr. Fehr, I read in the Jasper Local that you have again refused the offer of a fully funded bridge over Simon Creek on the Athabasca Pass Trail. Oneexplanation for the refusal was to "ensure that the ecological integrity of the area will be ma...

In the wake of the Christmas holidays, Jasper’s residential recycling depots are full-to-bursting with plastic packaging, flattened cardboard boxes and licked-clean cranberry sauce cans.  Unfortunately, in harmony with the bloated waste streams, a quick peek at local social media platforms shows tha...

Not all onboard with transit plan   Jasper municipal councillors have approved Jasper’s 2024 operating and capital budgets, but members of the local tourism bureau remain concerned for Jasper’s fiscal future.  After six marathon sessions to deliberate on what administration presented to them on Nove...

Despite asbestos issues, larger-than-anticipated demolition scope and "rats' nests" of wiring" to untangle, renovation is still more cost effective than total rebuild, project managers say A facility tour of Jasper’s under-construction recreation facilities has opened local officials’ eyes as to the...

Council will attend to unfinished budget deliberations on Tuesday, December 12. On December 7, the Municipality of Jasper provided notice of a Special Meeting of Council to address remaining agenda items from council’s regular meeting on Tuesday. At the December 5 meeting , councillor Rico Damota vo...

Proposed budget doesn’t recognize what businesses are facing: JPCC       Local business owners aired their grievances on the proposed budget to Jasper Municipal Council recently.  Representatives from the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce were among a dozen or so people in attendance for council’s Dec...

Dear Editor, This year, our school children are riding a white bus that is not following provincially legislated school bus rules, because it is, according to the Municipality of Jasper, a public transit bus providing select ridership for a special school route. This new town school route and servic...

Tourism Jasper has serious concerns about the Municipality of Jasper’s proposed 2024 budget. Representatives from the Destination Marketing Organization tabled a statement on the potential increases to Jasper’s tax requisition during the November 28 Committee of the Whole meeting . “We feel we must ...

Administration requesting five new staff positions; utility rate plan paying off; paid parking generated $1M in 2023 Jasper councillors recommended supporting most of the proposed 2024 municipal budget that town administrators presented to them on Tuesday and Wednesday (Nov 21 and 22). The $36.4 mil...