Dear Editor: A number of decisions in Jasper National Park, including not replacing the Simon Creek Bridge, make one wonder if senior management has lost sight of what a park is for. Environmental quality matters, of course. But so does public safety and public enjoyment of a park's natural beauty. ...

Confession time: for as long as I can remember, I’ve been a Calgary Flames fan. It’s not my fault! When you’re eight-years-old and your dad is dancing and cheering along to a radio announcer calling the final countdown to a 1989 Stanley Cup victory, fandom kind of imprints itself onto your DNA. Late...

re: Fully funded bridge proposal rebuffed by Jasper’s superintendent (May 5, 2023)  Dear Editor, The Athabasca Pass Heritage Trail is a Canadian icon worth maintaining for its historical value and its pristine wilderness. To backpack the entire trail from Alberta's Jasper National Park to the Jeffre...

Re: Fully funded bridge proposal rebuffed by Jasper's superintendent (May 5, 2023) Dear Editor, This is an excellent article in The Jasper Local. I am thrilled to see it. Thank you for writing and publishing it. I also was happy to see Tania Millen’s recent article ( A bridge too far: Neglect of bac...

Re: Bear destroyed after dog mauling incident (April 24, 2023) Irresponsible dog owners responsible for deaths of bear and their own dog …..might have been a more accurate headline for this story about the bear killed after an off lead dog encounter. I don’t believe in dogs in the parks but a strong...

On-ice antics overshadow community hockey event Hundreds of hockey fans in Jasper came out for Super Sunday March 12, the culmination of a winter’s worth of rivalries between the six teams which make up the Jasper Hockey League . The community event is an opportunity for players in the league to sho...

I love living in Alberta and having the Canadian Rockies in my backyard. I am fortunate to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big city and within hours be surrounded by the breathtaking beauty of the mountains. As an Albertan, my go to has always been Jasper, where its rustic charm and small...

Dear Editor, The world is made up of ordinary people yet we seldom see them on the big stage. But for once, for four days, we did. They came to say goodbye to an extraordinary lady: Her Majesty The Queen. They came in their thousands. They waited for ten, twelve, fifteen hours or more. Every colour ...

There’s a cute book in the Jasper Museum called Bears in the Alley . It’s a compilation of stories, mostly by Jasper old timers, who regale readers with recollections of life living with black bears. Back in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, not only were there plenty of bears in Jasper’s alleys, but there we...

Gregory is dead. Long live Gregory Guest columnist: Joe Urie To those peacock provocateurs, Jasper’s Joe Urie asks: Where is the outrage for the national park’s native species that are destroyed every year? “News is history shot on the wing. The huntsmen from the Fourth Estate seek to bag only the p...

Dear Editor I’ve heard of the amendments that were being proposed to how Private Home Accommodations (PHAs) are regulated. Over the last 40 years, I’ve stayed in likely 15 different PHAs in Jasper. None of the places we stayed in were hazardous. They were clean, contained fire alarms and featured la...

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, exceptdeath and taxes.” So said Benjamin Franklin , and while not as catchy as Destiny Child’s Bills Bills Bills , Franklin was certainly correct, as Jasper residents were reminded last week when they opened their utility statements and just about ke...

Andrea Ziegler, Publisher Andrea Ziegler has built and led digital media companies for over twenty years. Working exclusively in digital media since 2000, Andrea has been on the front lines of the transition of businesses to the digital economy, including community media, classifieds, music, and tel...

A message from the publisher Andrea Ziegler, Raven Community Media Bob Covey and I started discussing the future of community media in the spring of 2019. I reached out to Bob in his capacity as a successful entrepreneur in the challenging business of community media. We discovered that we share a p...

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...

I know it’s a pilot project but Paid Parking in Jasper isn’t exactly off to a soaring start. We all laughed when the MOJ had to delay the initiative due to damaged signage, but since it began in earnest, I don’t hear a lot of chuckling. It was bound to be a tough transition for locals—we’d never had...

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...

You know that dream where you’re sitting in your old high school classroom and you’ve got a test in front of you but you haven’t studied and you don’t remember seeing any of the course material before and the test is actually in hieroglyphics and—oh no—you’re not wearing any pants? I hate that dream...

Who opposes the province’s decision to allow open-pit coal mining in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains? Basically everyone. So suggests Edmonton-based writer and political watcher, Dave Cournoyer ( daveberta.ca ). Cournoyer lists ranchers, farmers, environmental organizations and recreational groups among t...

Jasper’s vulnerability is on full display in the height of the COVID pandemic’s second wave. Local officials are taking pains to protect our community’s health and safety while trying not to upset the applecart that is our economic viability. It’s a delicate dance, particularly because our municipal...