The Jasper Local June 1, 2020

Jill Seaton

Ever since she came to Jasper in 1992, Jill Seaton has, on behalf of the Jasper Environmental Association, fought to help protect local wildlife.

As a watchdog, whistleblower and researcher, Seaton has helped give harlequin ducks respite from rafts, she’s guarded important grasslands from RVs and she’s stood up for threatened species when business interests proposed putting a hotel at Maligne Lake.

So it’s only natural, then, that when asked to reflect on her COVIDaffected community, the 90-year-old conservationist’s thoughts go first to the animals she’s worked so hard to defend.

“I think this pandemic has been marvellous for the wildlife,” she offered. “The park needs to breathe.”

Seaton has been herself breathing a little easier these days, ever since the JEA made the decision, after 30 years of stewardship, to disband. Seaton hasn’t folded her environmental tent completely, of course; she continues to write and celebrate Jasper National Park under the banner of the Facebook group Jasper: A Wild Beauty, and she’ll happily explain how the proliferation of trails on the Pyramid Bench is undermining the most important wildlife habitat in the park. However, no longer will Seaton be on the front line of battles with Ottawa and business interests.

“Our concerns about the vulnerable wilderness will be passed on to the Canadian public and to the regional and national NGOs,” she said.

In the meantime, Seaton hopes that the last 11 weeks will teach those same Canadians the importance of relieving the constant pressure on Jasper’s magnificent wildlife.

“I hope Parks Canada has learned something from this that it’s necessary for the wildlife to have less people around them.”

David Harrap

Unlike most Canadians, David Harrap wasn’t taken by surprise when COVID-19 bloomed on this nation’s doorstep.

With a keen eye for current events, Harrap first saw signs of trouble as he took in reports of Chinese quarantine camps, Iranian mosque shutdowns and the infection of British cruise ships. It didn’t take a crystal ball to predict the tsunami would soon be crashing on our beaches, he figured, yet by mid-February, most governments in the west still hadn’t responded.

“Those things should have been a wake-up call,” he said.

Harrap, who is a regular contributor to these pages, lives on the top floor of the largest apartment complex in Jasper. At 74-years-old and statistically vulnerable to the virus, the Stay Home guidelines had him feeling imprisoned him in his bachelor suite. The building’s poor ventilation made every hallway a potential vector zone. He looked at every door handle as a hazard.

“I felt like I was living in a horror movie,” he said.

The measures in Jasper National Park to discourage wilderness usage meant he couldn’t get up to his usual meanderings. Eventually, however, he did start venturing out. If you know Harrap’s penmanship you know his outings are not like the average septuagenarian’s. This time of year he’s typically gearing up for a multi-day solo camping trip to some remote valley.

“My social distancing is with the grizzlies,” he said.

Recently, Harrap set his sights on an unnamed peak off the Celestine Lake Road. This isn’t exactly a majestic mountain, as he describes it. For its somewhat unappealing nature, Harrap gave it a dubious distinction, rather than a triumphant tribute.

“It’s a miserable looking peak involving a lot of bushwacking,” he said. “I named it Peak COVID-19.”

Hopefully COVID has reached its peak. Harrap would much rather about worrying about bumping into a bear than fret about whether a fellow trail user is infected. And he’s concerned for other folks who are all alone.

“We might be all in this together,” he said. “But we’re not all together in this.”

Brett Ireland

To Brett Ireland, March 17 seems like a lifetime ago.

That’s the date when Bear Hill Brewing shut down its operations due to COVID-19. Business at the company’s four breweries/restaurants, which together employ more than 300 staff, suddenly ground to a halt. To say Ireland and his fellow owners were freaking out would be putting it mildly.

“That was the most stressed I’ve ever been,” Ireland laughed.

Although the group had retail beer sales to offset their immediately flatlined revenue, that was hardly reassuring in the current situation. Their multi-million dollar company, 15 years in the making, was suddenly in serious financial jeopardy. Ireland spent the next four days glued to his phone while he and Bear Hill’s senior leadership team made contingency plans with banks, renegotiated payment terms with suppliers, begged rent forgiveness with their landlords and asked their general managers and remaining staff to go above and beyond the call of duty.

“Our managers were told they were laid off but before that they had to facilitate staff lay offs, clean up and pack up anything perishable,” Ireland said. “They were absolutely amazing.”

Eventually, the group stopped simply reacting to the ever-changing situation—which their various governing bodies could barely stay on top of themselves—and could instead start planning strategically. Their distilling company in Calgary began making hand sanitizer. They modelled best-and-worst-case financial scenarios based on projected re-opening dates. Finally, thanks to Ireland’s board work with the Alberta Brewers Association and the Alberta Hospitality Association, they took the lead on hammering out best practices in a pandemic-affected environment.

“We wanted to do things above the requirements,” Ireland said.

As such, on May 14, when Alberta moved forward with Phase 1 of its relaunch strategy, the Bear Hill properties opened their doors with unprecedented guest screening and track-and-trace measures. Now, before entering the restaurant, guests are obliged to have one member of their party leave their name and contact information (so in the event of a COVID-19 breakout they can be reached); guests’ temperatures are taken; and a staff member acts as a verbal screener. Inside the restaurant, plexiglass partitions separate booths; food and drink drop-off zones reduce touch points between guests and staff; and measures are in place so bathroom doorhandles are avoided.

“Out of 500 people between three locations that first weekend, only one couple expressed they weren’t comfortable with providing their information and decided to leave,” Ireland said.

Lisa Daniel

Lisa Daniel thrives under pressure.

That’s good, because as the manager of Jasper’s Wildflowers Childcare Centre, lately, there’s been no shortage.

On May 26, council approved approximately $102,000 to be put towards Wildflowers and Out of School Care, much to the relief of Jasper parents who were facing heavy strains themselves of trying to re-enter the workforce with seemingly no childcare options. With the new resources, Daniel and her reduced team are pushing to open by June 8.

And although early education will retain many of the hallmarks of a pre-COVID world—namely caring, attentive staff and a welcoming, inclusive environment—many aspects of how the daycare provides that care will change.

Gone will be toys, learning tools and items that can’t be cleaned. No more water table, no more sand station, no sticks, no carpets, no rugs.

And in will be the cleaning protocols, temperature checks, social distancing controls and masks.

Daniel and her staff will ease the kids into the new normal. She’s confident the staff’s love for the children will override any anxieties the little learners might have.

“The staff are excited to come back to work. They all miss the kids and are ready for the challenge,” she said.

To comply with ABHS protocols, the daycare will only be able to welcome 24 children when they open. Because parents’ working situations are rapidly changing, because the restrictions mean families can’t share a spot and likely because fees are set to go up in July ($1,134 from $550 per month), the demand for care hasn’t yet outpaced supply.

“We haven’t had to turn anyone down yet.”

Daniel is working with Glenda MacDowell and the Jasper Activity Centre to see how they can reinstitute the lunch and snack program. As with everything, time will tell.

Ryan Tisado

Despite a relatively slow, tourist-free May, COVID has added a ton of curveballs to Ryan Tisado’s job as TGP’s Grocery Supervisor that can feel overwhelming—a strict limit on the number of shoppers in the store, constant and thorough cleaning, and, of course, masks and gloves for employees.

For Tisado, the new grocery store regulations are essential to help the Jasper community through this pandemic.

“We’re getting used to it—you need to adjust,” he said. “That’s what’s going on in the community. That’s the only thing you can do. You need to adjust.”

The slowness of this season has put life in a new perspective for Tisado. In the ten years he has lived in Jasper, he hasn’t taken time to really enjoy the beauty of the Park in summer.

“I like to be here close to nature, but mostly we can’t enjoy the summer a lot because we work,” said Tisado. “Now, on my days off, we’re enjoying the outdoors, but also trying to stay home as much as possible. We’re thinking that we should have enjoyed it before this happened.”

Tisado’s family is in the Philippines, where the COVID situation is quite different from here. He calls them weekly to check in, and says that those conversations give him hope.

“I always ask how they’re doing, how they’re coping,” he said. “They’re doing good. Talking to them keeps me going.”

For Tisado, hope is the way through this pandemic. Well, hope and a respect for social distancing and mask-wearing regulations.

“If people follow those guidelines, if everybody coordinates for the good of the community, I think we’re going to be ok,” he said. “I’m not losing hope that we’re going to be ok soon.”

MEGAN WARREN // info@thejasperlocal.com