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 ...

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Dear Editor, Jasper National Park management has closed large parts of formerly prime backcountry ski terrain as part of a larger program to protect and restore caribou populations that have sharply declined over the past century. JNP offers the hypothesis that ski tracks facilitate wolf movements a...

All of Jasper may have tuned into ABC’s The Bachelor Monday night, but I’m saving my screen time for an even juicier watch party. Even though I am DYING to see if true love blossoms in the Canadian Rockies and whether or not Bachelor Joey Graziadei’s polar plunge in Lac Beauvert will shrivel his cha...

Brian Sutherland, 1963-2024 “ Can ’ t stop what ’ s coming.” That was the message Brian Sutherland would, for many years, send me at some point in the summer. A 2012 "Can't stop what's coming" message. Sutherland was in BC when he sent his warning. The text was usually accompanied by a photo of a tr...

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...

Recipe for a Parks Canada consultation 1. Combine one part outdated regulations with two parts perfunctory dialogue 2. Sprinkle liberally with jargon 3. Stir awkwardly (by as many Parks Canada cooks as can fit in the kitchen) 4. Serve cold. Tell whoever has to swallow it how good it is for them  Wil...

What’s it going to take for Jasperites to start managing their wildlife attractants responsibly? All this fall, once again, bears have been running amok in Jasper. Morning and night—and even in the bustle of midday—bears are darting in and out of residential neighbourhoods, feasting on the easily-ac...

There’s been a bit of a muted response to a really exciting new initiative in Jasper, and I’m trying to figure out why that is. It doesn’t take a major study to figure out that many Jasperites could benefit greatly from the establishment of a public transportation system which services town, the Jas...

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. ...