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tuesday, january 1, 2019 // ISSUE 136
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page A2 // the jasper local // issue 136 // Tuesday, january 1, 2019
Local Vocal With 2018 in the bag, it’s time to take note of what the heck we were doing for the last 12 months. Yes, it’s The Jasper Local’s annual Looking Back issue, and while the tradition may well be a premise for more Christmas candy munching and less deadline crunching, the Year in Review edition also serves a higher purpose: reflection—on where we spent our energies as a community, on what we were most interested in and on which individuals garnered the most “ink” as we tracked the news cycle that is unique to Jasper. Of course, by now you know that this newspaper is more inclined to cover caribou calving than car carnage; you’ll find juicier details about a life-altering trip on the trail than the loss of life on the highway; and we’d rather profile a mountaineer who spends her time bagging peaks than a racketeer being sentenced for petty theft. Our rationale for our selective culture cultivation has always been predicated on the idea that Jasper has a rich tapestry of stories and characters which are infinitely more interesting—and arguably, more important— than the day-to-day dramas which come out of ambulance chasing, court reporting and police pressers. Having said that, we’re not so rigid in our mission to ignore the complicated currents as life swirls on around us. And as much retail outlet to open, thanks to a poorly-executed roll-out by the as folks like to claim nothing ever changes in Jasper, a peek province. Perhaps 2019 will be the year of the Rocky Mountain through these pages proves anything but. This year saw the budtender? announcement of Hostelling International’s long-anticipated in-town hostel, and the speed at which it’s been assembled has New festivals and events descended on J-town while some been something to behold. 157 new, low-rent beds will have got bigger and bolder. Chuck in the Craft Beer Summit and untold effects in Jasper—on our carrying capacity, mostly, but the Marmot’s Revenge Ski Mountaineering competition in the also on our traditional accommodation markets and our ability former category; the Jasper Pride Festival and the Jasper Folk to cater to a new, pennywise traveller. Music Festival in the latter. Multisports Canada made more interesting inroads into the community this year, combining Several new businesses opened up in Jasper this year—surely competition with community—laudably, with every fondo and a welcome sign during a downturn in Alberta’s economy. With footrace, they fundraise for a worthy cause. young, energetic folks behind the tills and grills of fun and funky new retail and restaurant outlets, we’re starting to see We showed our true colours with the installation of a rainbow Jasper’s greatest strength—our diversity—better represented in crosswalk and we got props as a sweet ski town by USA Today the business community. readers. We saw CN pony up for a new community stage and the best freestyle skiers in the world throw down at the The steady march of big corporate, on the other hand, is less national championships. celebrated, but whether its ATCO’s ambitious interconnection project which will see Jasper hooked up to the provincial All in all, 2018 was a pretty big deal around here. Thanks for power grid or the mega-harvest of beetle-affected timber on looking through our lens to view it. the Pyramid Bench, it’s safe to say that the forest we’ve come to bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com know around the townsite won’t ever look like it did The Jasper Local // Jasper’s independent alternative newspaper before 2018. 780.852.9474 • thejasperlocal.com • po box 2046, jasper ab, t0e 1e0 Thankfully, neither will the park’s east gate, where facility improvements are finally being made so Published on the 1st and 15th of each month that park pass holders, residents and through-traffic Editor / Publisher can carry on rather than wait in an interminable, Bob Covey.................................................................................... bob@thejasperlocal.com bureaucracy-laden lineup. No longer will our Art Director weekend warriors have to start their weekend Nicole Gaboury.................................................................. nicole@thejasperlocal.com warring bumper to bumper with fellow holidayAdvertising + sales seekers. ..............................................................................................................ads@thejasperlocal.com As expected, cannabis coverage munched-up a cartoonist Deke.................................................................................................deke@thejasperlocal.com fair amount of newspaper coverage as the federal government decreed the plant’s recreational use facebook.com/thejasperlocal @thejasperlocal a crime no more. Jasper’s still waiting for our first
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2018 best of deke //
tuesday, january 1, 2019 // issue 136 // the jasper local// page A3
2018 Best of Deke As much as we in the editorial room like to think our stunning photos, engaging stories and witty headlines grab readers’ attention, there’s no doubt that Deke always gets the first
read. Deke endears himself to his audience by drawing it like he sees it. In 2018, Jasper’s favourite satirist had plenty of inspiration to draw on. Here are a few of our favourite ‘toons.
// FEB 15, 2018
// MARCH 1, 2018
// MAY 1, 2018
// AUG. 15, 2018
// JUNE 15, 2018
// DEC. 1, 2018
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page B1 // the jasper local // issue 136 // tuesday, january 1, 2019
looking back at 2018 //
JANUARY 2018
MP Jim Eglinski won't seek re-election Yellowhead’s Conservative Member of Parliament, Jim Eglinski, is hanging up his political sash. On January 9 he announced he won’t seek re-election when federal parliament is dissolved. “I had a long talk with my wife,” said Eglinski, whose riding office is in Edson. “I want to spend more time with my family.”
Eglinski’s entry into federal politics was abrupt. The 69-year-old former RCMP member and Mayor of Fort St. John, B.C. was elected to represent Yellowhead in a 2014 byelection. He was re-elected in 2015. “I had to learn fast: How do I present? How do I speak on a bill?” he recalled.
PASKO SA // THE 2ND ANNUAL FILIPINO CHRISTMAS PARTY HELPED RING IN 2018 WITH COLOUR AND CHEER. // SUPPLIED
PERFECT PAIRING //ESTELLE BLANCHETTE CREATED JASPER FOOD TOURS IN 2018.//BOB COVEY
FEBRUARY 2018 Jasper Beer and Barley Summit taps into craft beer craze The first ever Jasper Beer and Barley Summit brought more than two dozen breweries and beer makers to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge for three days of tasting, talking and toasting to craft suds. Needless to say, there were a lot of beards.
New HI hostel to break ground next spring
Hostelling International’s long-awaited Jasper project will finally see the light of day. Alistair McLean, CEO of HI Canada Pacific Mountain Region, had his Parks Canada development permit in hand on Tuesday, February 27. The three-storey, 157-bed lodge will constitute nearly 25,000 square feet. Two other buildings will house up to 15 staff while another will act as a maintenance building and will serve HI’s JNP wilderness properties.
// JASPER’S WINTER PENTATHLON WAS ANOTHER SNOWY SUCCESS IN 2018. THE FUN-FIRST EVENT IS FOR ALL AGES AND ABILITIES. SIGN UP FOR THE 2019 FESTIVAL TODAY! // B COVEY
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monday, january 1, 2018 // issue 112 // the jasper local// page B2
// looking back at 2018
M A R C H 2 0 1 8 Residency requirements squeeze
life long Jasperite out of town
Kyle Darroch grew up in Jasper, however, when he tried to get
for five consecutive years before retirement.
a mortgage for a house on Connaught Drive, Parks Canada officials stepped in, saying his primary employment in another community meant he no longer met eligible residency requirements here.
Darroch feels like he’s being punished for growing up.
According to Parks Canada, eligible residents must have primary employment within the park, or have worked in the park
“I feel like I’m being penalized for going to school, trying to get a job in my hometown and trying to buy a condo here,” he said.
Geothermal energy potential: A tale of two towns
A DETERMINED GROUP OF FAT BIKE RIDERS CYCLED FROM JASPER TO THE COLUMBIA ICEFIELDS IN MARCH. AMONG THEM WAS FIRE CHIEF GREG VAN TIGHEM, WHO WAS TRAINING FOR A SOLO RIDE ON ALBERTA’S ICE ROAD, A FUNDRAISER FOR MENTAL HEALTH/ V DOMAINE
Two communities on either side of the Continental Divide are drilling into the viability of geothermal energy.
lies beneath the Rocky Mountain Trench, but that’s about where the similarities end.
Hinton, AB and Valemount, B.C. are both are hoping to tap into the potential of what
Valemount, on the other hand, which has no natural gas production, announced
Hinton recently announced $1.2 million geothermal exploration grant.
a $1.5 million geothermal energy demonstration project will soon be piped into the village. Both communities are dreaming big when it comes to accessing the “heat beneath our feet.”
APRIL 2018 Jasper’s east gate to undergo major improvements Jasper’s east gate is undergoing major surgery. On March 27, Parks Canada began a $4.5 million project to
Yellowhead Highway. The improvements will include a third kiosk entry lane, a fourth lane to act as a bypass for through traffic and overhead electronic signage.
reconstruct the east gate of Jasper National Park on the
Museum to install permanent geology exhibit The Jasper Yellowhead Museum and Archives is hoping a new exhibit will become the bedrock of the institution.
conducted much of his field
The museum is planning to
Funding for the exhibit comes
create a geological education
from a donation from the
area, a permanent showpiece
family of the late, preeminent
which will pay tribute to
geologist Eric Mountjoy.
work in Jasper National Park. “People would be able to touch the rock samples, kids would be able to climb on them,” she said.
a Canadian geologist who
EIGHT YEARS AGO, DWAIN GILZENE WAS A TEMPORARY FORIEGN WORKER WHO ARRIVED IN JASPER FROM JAMAICA WITH A DREAM AND A DRIVE. IN APRIL, HE OPENED THE SPICE JOINT WITH HIS WIFE, ADDING VARIETY TO JASPER’S FOOD SCENE. // BOB COVEY
bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
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page b3+B4 // the jasper local // issue 136 // tuesday, january 1, 2019
2018 // YEAR IN REVIEW
MAY 2018
Grizzly killed by train
For the first time in two decades, a train has killed a grizzly bear within the Jasper National Park boundaries. Parks Canada confirmed to The Jasper Local that a male grizzly bear was struck and killed by a CN train near the
Brule tunnel on the weekend of Ma
A Parks Canada employee who did to be named said the bear was eatin along the tracks when the accident
End of an era: Freewheel bids farew On May 1, Freewheel Cycle closed its doors. The community bike shop was a mainstay in Jasper for 35 years but recently the financial realities of keeping the lights on in a hardscrabble business took their toll.
“We miss the trails we don’t see eno we miss the peaks we haven’t stood of for far too long. The amount of st last little while has been enormous negatively affecting our lives,” own Peel said. “It’s time to move on.”
J U N E 2 0 1 8 Rainbow
On Monday, May 28, Contractor B connecting the 500 and 600 bloc
OUTJasper volunteer Jessica Daniels said the cross supported.”
Bear attacks dog,
A May 16 incident wherein a dog w bear conflict in which the huma
//JASPER’S RAINBOW CROSSWALK WAS PAINTED IN JUNE, MUCH TO THE DELIGHT OF SUPPORTERS. // BOB COVEY
The Jasper Local learned that the dog’s owner, after Parks Canada employee who heard the report over th to wrestle a bear. “He’s lucky,” she said. “It sounded c
J U L Y 2 0 1 8 MPL adds Sawridge Inn to The Mountain Park Lodges group has entered into a partnership with the Sawridge Corporation and Jasper’s largest in-town hotel will be jointly owned by the two corporations. The 152-room Sawridge Inn now stands as MPL’s largest property, in terms of capacity. The deal included the Sawridge Inn and Conference Centre in Peace River, but that hotel
ATCO transmission line approved b Parks Canada has green-lit the connection of Jasper National Park to Alberta’s electrical system. On June 22, the federal agency approved the ATCO Jasper Interconnection Project. The decision followed the Alberta Utilities Commission’s (AUC) May 4 conclusion that the project is in the best interest of the public to supply Jasper with electricity through a transmission solution rather than continue using an isolated generation system.
A U G U S T 2 0 1 8 Council hears ban-theCreate Change Jasper is a group which went to council recently to propose the community legislate a single use plastic bag ban. Members of Create Change suggested the most realistic step forward would be to give local retailers a one-year grace period before banning single use bags (with some exceptions). Together with Save Mountains of Plastic—another local group which has sewed hundreds of reusable bags for retailers to eventually give to Jasper shoppers—they hope to change the culture of handing out a bag with every purchase.
GREEN THUMBS //WAYNE KENNE HOSTS OF THE JASPER LIBRARY’S
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ain in Jasper National Park
nd of May 4.
who did not wish was eating grain accident occurred.
arewell
n’t see enough of, en’t stood on top ount of stress the normous and is ves,” owner Chris ve on.”
KANPAI // OKA SUSHI, HEADED BY THE INCOMPARABLE SUSHI MASTER TATSUHIKO OKAZAKI, CELEBRATED 20 YEARS OF STUNNING SERVICE IN MAY. // BOB COVEY
nbow crosswalk brightens Connaught
ctor Bob Bush put the final stripes on either side of the rainbow 00 blocks of Connaught Drive.
d the crosswalk “represents the belief that everyone has the right to love whomever them choose and feel
dog, man attacks bear
a dog was killed by a black bear was also the scene of a humane human is lucky to have escaped without serious injury.
wner, after seeing his pet being attacked by the bear, jumped on the bear’s back in an attempt to save the dog. A port over the radio said in more than 15 years of working for the agency she had never heard of a visitor trying sounded crazy.”
n to its suite of hotel properties will continue to be managed by the Sawridge Corporation while the Jasper property will be managed by MPL.
ed by Parks Jasper’s Brian Wilson is concerned that the new transmission system will leave Jasperites in the lurch if there is a supply problem. “If some disaster happens, people are going to have to come from out of town to fix it,” he said.
NATIONALAL INDIGENOUS DAY WAS CELEBRATED JUNE 21. MEMBERS OF THE SUNCHILD FIRST NATION PERFORMED ON THE INFO CENTRE LAWN. // B COVEY
the-plastic-bag presentations
AYNE KENNEDY AND JANICE YEAMAN WERE AMONG THE ER LIBRARY’S ANNUAL SECRET GARDEN TOUR. // B COVEY
GIT ALONG! //THE STICK PONY PARADE IS A HIGHLIGHT OF THE JASPER RODEO, THE FINAL INSTALMENT OF WHICH TOOK PLACE IN 2018. // BOB COVEY
TOLFA Law Office & EED
Barristers | Solicitors | Notaries
JASPER
780 852-2242
HINTON
780 865-1070
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page B5 // the jasper local // issue 136 // tuesday, january 1, 2019
looking back at 2018 //
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 Jasper’s paper refuse being refused Jasper has a paper problem. Since the beginning of 2018, new restrictions imposed by Chinese importers on paper, plastic and aluminum have meant that our old standard of recycled goods suddenly aren’t good enough to ship there anymore. In Jasper, bales of mixed paper have been stacking up with nowhere to go. Communities all over Canada have been stuck with their recycling.
Historic” trail maintenance project sees volunteers tackle Great Divide Trail Through-hikers of the Great Divide Trail are
for improving the GDT in
applauding recent volunteer
more people will be able
efforts in Jasper National
to experience the magic
Park to clear a severely
of the wilderness.
overgrown section of
“People won’t care about
Maligne Pass.
something they haven’t
The GDTA was granted
experienced.”
JASPER ONCE AGAIN HOSTED A DANCE CAMP IN 2018, MEMBERS OF WHICH CAME FROM ALL OVER CANADA TO PARTICIPATE. // B COVEY
the national parks can be formed, so that one day,
permission to clear roughly 6.5 kilometres of trail in the Trapper Creek area. Through-hikers are hopeful that more partnerships
WITH HIS SEPTEMBER ASCENT OF MOUNT TSAR, BEN NEARINGBURG BECAME THE FASTEST MOUNTAINEER TO REACH ALL 54 // THE BARLEY KINGS WERE DETHRONED BY THE 11,000 FOOT SUMMITS IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES IN LOCAL SLOWPITCH ACTION. //B COVEY ROCKIES. // BOB COVEY
O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 Bench logging won’t affect trails Jasper’s Pyramid Bench will be the site of an unprecedented timber harvesting operation this winter, but the network of multi-
wildfiresusceptible forest.
use trails in the area will remain intact.
“We know we’re not able to stop the pine beetle. What we’re managing THE PYRAMID BENCH IS UNDERGOING MAJOR CHANGES AS PARKS CANADA HAS CONTRACTED OUT TIMBER HARVESTING for is the TO REDUCE WILDFIRE FUELS. // BOB COVEY elevated fire risk as a result of the pine beetle,” Argument said.
Hikers and mountain bikers have voiced their concern that the major logging operation could have major consequences for their beloved trails. The logging operation, which was originally scheduled to take place last spring, is highly unusual in a protected area. An operation of this scale in a national park hasn’t taken place in recent memory, Argument said. However, the 2016 Mountain Pine Beetle Management Plan included a number of different measures—including mechanical logging—to mitigate the risk to public safety and the community of Jasper posed by the pine beetle-impacted,
Jasper surveying on homelessness Jasper’s Community Development Coordinator, says Jasperites might be surprised by the fact that Jasper has a Along with 21 other rural centres in Alberta, homeless population. Jasper is gathering data on homelessness “It’s easy for us to think that homelessness so officials can gauge what kind of supports doesn’t happen here but it absolutely does,” might be necessary here. Pelletier said.
Jasper wants to get a sense of what homelessness looks like in this community.
Leanne Pelletier, the Municipality of
JASPER SENT FIREFIGHTERS ACROSS CANADA TO HELP MANAGE WILDFIRES IN 2018 // SUPPLIED
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tuesday, january 1, 2019 // issue 136 // the jasper local// page B6
// looking back at 2018
NOVEMBER 2018 Local orgs combine to buy medical equipment Jasper has two new pieces of life saving medical equipment. Thanks to generous donations from the Jasper Park Masonic Lodge and the Jasper Healthcare Foundation, the Seton Healthcare Centre was the recipient of a new ventilator and video laryngoscope. The machines will allow hospital staff to treat patients having difficulty breathing in critical medical situations. “Equipment like this makes it much less stressful for staff and safer for the patient,” said Dr. Declan Unsworth.
//SKI PATROL WERE RACING AHEAD OF THE STORMS IN EARLY NOVEMBER TO GET MARMOT BASIN INTO SHAPE FOR ANOTHER SEASON. // BOB COVEY
Local boys boosting bike borrowing A group of high schoolers are encouraging Jasperites to borrow their bikes. Half a dozen bikes have been salvaged, fixed up and spraypainted hot pink to flag fellow footsloggers. A decal lets potential pedalers know this bike is theirs to borrow—no strings (or locks) attached. “We’re keeping the bikes out of the landfill and hopefully encouraging people to exercise,” said Grade 10 student Ryan Davis.
//MONSTERS AND MILES DEBUTED IN JASPER, ANOTHER MULTISPORTS CANADA INITIATIVE WHICH COMBINES COMMUNITY FUNDRAISING WITH FRIENDLY COMPETITION. // BOB COVEY
DECEMBER 2018 Trail ambassador cuts a deal with prosecutors after illegally cutting deadfall Jasper’s best known trails advocate has made good with Parks Canada prosecutors after being indicted with a violation of the National Parks Act. Loni Klettl was facing charges for damaging a natural object after she was found cutting deadfall on an historic horse trail near the Cavell Road on October 22. “It was awful,” she recounted about getting busted. “[It was] the worst feeling I’ve had in my life.”
Agencies reducing forest fuels in critical areas
//THE JASPER MUSEUM’S FESTIVAL OF TREES CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF ALL AGES // B COVEY
The sounds of chainsaws and smell of smoke are a result of recently-continued Firesmart/Forest Wise work around Jasper. The work is taking place around key emergency evacuation routes and next to critical assets. The work involves removing wildfire fuel from forested areas; lessening the fuel load reduces the potential for catching embers, which would jeopardize community infrastructure.
Service Directory
//THE WESTERN STATES HOCKEY LEAGUE JUNIOR A PROGRAM IS LOOKING TO GROW INTO JASPER IN 2019. THE LEAGUE CURRENTLY HAS A TEAM BASED IN HINTON // BOB COVEY