Right now, the face of progress in Jasper is a proposed high-density apartment complex that will push parking issues to the brink and house 144 prospective tenants in units so small that developers need special permission to build them. The Municipality of Jasper has hired contractors to tie in util...

The Jasper Community Housing Corporation was supportive of the release of land for private apartment rental development, according to meeting minutes obtained by The Jasper Local. At the June 17, 2021 Planning and Development Advisory Committee (PDAC) meeting, proponents of a high density “micro” un...

Shirley Dorin didn’t have any children, but she had hundreds of kids. The longtime community ambassador, staple of concessionary care and kindness, giver of treats, baker of butter tarts and rememberer of young people’s names passed away October 6.She was 70-years-old. Shirley had an uncanny knack f...

You won’t see Richard Ireland on the campaign trail. Even though, for the first time in two decades, Ireland is facing a serious threat to his six-term run as Jasper’s only mayor, the incumbent is not canvassing for residents’ votes, handing out fliers nor booking any advertising spots. Other than t...

Whichever way the election turns out, Jasper mayoral candidate Paul Butler says his single regret will be that he will no longer will have the opportunity to work alongside fellow 2021 candidate Richard Ireland. If Butler wins more votes than Ireland, Jasper will have a new mayor for the first time ...

National Truth and Reconciliation Day event an opportunity for learning together On National Truth and Reconciliation Day Jasper will have the opportunity to learn the Truth about what transpired a century ago when the Indigenous People practicing a traditional lifestyle here were evicted from the a...

A blockade protesting the planned harvest of 3,500 hectares of old growth caribou habitat has been erected 75 kms south of Grande Cache near the Berland River. Last week, land defenders erected a rudimentary barrier to stop West Fraser Forest Product workers from accessing the Moon Creek forestry ro...

As a youngster, Guillaume Roy wanted to be mayor of the small town he grew up in. “I’ve always liked to talk politics, share ideas and opinions,” said Roy, who grew up in Mascouche, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal. The 28-year-old will have no shortage of opportunities to engage in political discourse....

A Grande Cache Metis organization is preparing to seek a prohibitory injunction to halt a Hinton-based logging company’s planned harvest of 3,500 hectares of critical caribou habitat. The Mountain Metis Nation Association, an umbrella organization of the Metis Nation of Alberta, says the Moon Creek ...

Stocked fish poisoned to protect native trout in Banff’s high alpine From the August 15, 2021 Jasper Local Hunkered down on a flat rock high above Dolomite Pass in Banff National Park, I dig through my pack and locate my cheap pair of Bushnells. Chomping a sandwich and glassing the surrounding mount...

August 2 update: Andrew Cotterell finished his hike of the 1130 km Great Divide Trail in 20 days and 7 hours, a new fastest known time. This story is from the August 1, 2021 Jasper Local Every time that Canmore’s Andrew Cotterell told a fellow hiker that he was headed to Jasper National Park’s Skyli...

Parks Canada has approved variances for a 144-unit apartment complex at the south entrance of Jasper, 801 Connaught Drive. After their July 17 meeting, Jasper’s Planning and Development Advisory Committee (PDAC) recommended, and the park superintendent subsequently approved, the granting of three va...

March 15, 2021 A proposal for a paid parking pilot project was seen as too tentative by Jasper municipal council and administration was sent back to the drawing board March 9. Newly minted CAO Bill Given admitted the scheme was conservative by design but suggested the plan would garner important dat...

Mayor Richard Ireland in the 2017 Tour of Hope. // JASPER LOCAL FILE PHOTO Richard Ireland will run for Mayor in Jasper again.  The only Mayor that the community has ever known filed his nomination papers yesterday, July 29.  The decision to offer his services as mayor for the seventh time was based...

UPDATE: On June 1, council passed second and third reading on a bylaw to set the tax ratio at 5:1 A move to reduce Jasper’s commercial/residential tax ratio has Jasper council split. Introduced during discussion of Jasper’s required tax rate bylaw for 2021, the idea of reducing the tax burden from n...

Two climbers are dead after an avalanche on Mount Andromeda on Sunday, May 30. Parks Canada confirmed the deaths today (Sunday, May 30). Spokesperson Steve Young said EMS ambulances, STARS air ambulance and Alpine helicopters responded to an accident at around 8:30 a.m. Two strike teams from Jasper ...

Most of us had a favourite teacher from school. I had a few. Mrs. Royer, in elementary school, was warm, accessible and caring. She treated all of her students equally, and I’ll never forget how hard she laughed at Grade 6 camp when my friend jumped out of his sleeping bag in his undies while she tr...

A freshwater ecologist specializing in Alberta’s native fish says a recently-issued Critical Habitat Order to protect Bull Trout in Alberta does not actually protect critical habitat or Bull Trout. David Mayhood is a director of the Timberwolf Wilderness Society , based in Pincher Creek, Alberta. Ma...

After whittling down yet another amended budget put forward by municipal administrators; after cutting and/or reallocating money for social and emergency services; and after once again postponing action on perilously underfunded municipal reserves, Jasper Municipal Council has passed a 2021 operatio...

Jasper’s Jakub Sebela wasn’t always interested in woodworking. When he was young, growing up in a tiny town in the foothills of the Czech Republic, Sebela wanted to be a mechanic. He thought woodworking was too messy. “I wanted to be clean,” the 32-year-old said. “I didn’t like the dust.” But his pa...