The Jasper Local January 1, 2017

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thejasperlocal.com

LOCAL + independent

sunday, sunday, january january 1, 1, 2017 2017 // // ISSUE ISSUE 88 88

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page A2 // the jasper local // issue 88 // sunday, january 1, 2017

editorial //

Local Vocal I know it’s been popular lately to take a collective dump on the year that just passed us by, but was 2016 really that bad?

I admit my heart hurts for the loss of talented artists and yes, November’s election of Agent Orange makes me sweat. However, closer to home, I think if we look at the news cycle in a different light, we can find lots of reasons to rejoice.

Maybe it’s because starting a family meant this was the fastest year of my life, but 2016 seemed to go down pretty smooth. Here’s how we saw it: In January, Maligne Tours got bought out. This was a bit of a bummer in a rich-dudes-getting-richer kind of way, but look on the bright side: a proposal for a luxury hotel on the shores of Maligne Lake is now officially off the books.

February did kind of suck if you were looking for snow to ski, but let’s be honest, most Februarys in Jasper are pretty dry. Granted it’s usually a bonechilling, freezer-burnt kind of dry rather than the community in July. The only energy that can reckon with such global weirding we experienced when the mercury forces, in my view, is the power of positivity emanating from the climbed well above zero in the dead of winter. But injured Ryan Titchener. His story is long from written, and I am hey, the biking was awesome! starting to see Titch’s 2016 climbing incident as a spark that has lit a A close call in the backcountry had a lot of us fire of unimaginable intensity. I can’t wait to see what goals of his get feeling pretty rattled well into March, but rather scorched in 2017. than dwell on the what-ifs after a massive avalanche Call me Pollyanna, but I like to try to see the glass half full put a local mountain athlete in hospital, many wherever I can, whether that’s in newfound hope for a resettled Jasperites followed the lead of the victim himself Syrian family or the chance for more meaningful conversations and focused on the support networks that rise to the with the original settlers of this place, brought about by careful occasion when such incidents occur. The fact that criticism of Parks Canada’s dealings with Aboriginal groups. I’m the story was a rescue, not a recovery, was enough not sticking my head in the sand by saying last year wasn’t that to put all of 2016’s heartache in perspective. bad, I just would rather believe that there’s always a way forward.

Similarly, while the fires in Fort McMurray were Thanks to the life changes that come with being a parent, I’ve devastating and debilitating for many, including learned a lot in the last year, and I’m not just talking about how to some Jasperites with close connections to the change a diaper in a busy café. Was 2016 perfect? Of course not. #AlbertaStrong community, the most incredible But in most cases that conjure bad memories, we should try to drop part about the record-smashing natural disaster the past and hold onto the lesson. was that no human died as a result of the flames.

Best of the new year to you and yours. Thanks for reading.

The evacuation effort was mind-numbing in terms bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com of logistics and the fact that several of our fellow Jasper residents took it upon themselves to help The Jasper Local // Jasper’s independent alternative newspaper filled our hearts with pride.

780.852.9474 • thejasperlocal.com • po box 2046, jasper ab, t0e 1e0 We’re still looking for the silver lining on the big Published on the 1st and 15th of each month Parks Canada stories from the summer. The first was the Phoenix payroll system fudging up federal Editor / Publisher Bob Covey.................................................................................... bob@thejasperlocal.com employees’ pay to the point where many JNP Director staffers still haven’t been reimbursed properly; the Art Nicole Gaboury.................................................................. nicole@thejasperlocal.com second was the proposed paved trail from Jasper + sales to the Columbia Icefields. If only the folks behind Advertising ..............................................................................................................ads@thejasperlocal.com the proposal (and who are they, by the way?) would allocate their $66 million budget through Phoenix! cartoonist Deke.................................................................................................deke@thejasperlocal.com The power of our mountain environment was once facebook.com/thejasperlocal @thejasperlocal again crystallized when another accident high in the alpine sent shockwaves through the guiding

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2016 best of deke //

sunday, january 1, 2016 // issue 88 // the jasper local// page A3

2016 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 2016, Jasper’s favourite satirist had plenty of inspiration to draw on. Here are a few of our favourite ‘toons.

// MARCH 1, 2016

// MARCH 15, 2016

// AUG 1, 2016

// AUG. 15, 2016

// SEPT. 1, 2016

// NOV. 1, 2016

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looking back at 2016 //

page B1 // the jasper local // issue 88 // sunday, january 1, 2017

JANUARY 2016

Brewster buys Maligne Tours Brewster Travel Canada and Spruce Grovebased businessman, Gerry Levasseur, sealed a head-turning deal not long after Jasper rang in the new year. On January 4, the sale of Maligne Tours to Brewster was completed.

Maligne Tours’ flagship operation is a fleet of cruise boats designed for sightseeing tours on Maligne Lake. The tours culminate at iconic Spirit Island, one of the most photographed sites in the Rockies.

Two years prior to the sale, Levasseur proposed developing a 66-room “heritage” hotel on the shores of the jewel of Jasper National Park.

Parks Canada eventually shut down the idea. Not long after Levasseur’s proposal was denied, the octogenarian entrepreneur started making moves to sell, he said.

“When I didn’t get the expansion I figured it was time for me to get the hell outta there,” Levasseur told The Jasper Local.

Levasseur said Brewster’s expertise in tourism will bring more business to the community.

“I think Brewster is going to be fantastic for Jasper,” he said.

STICKY WICKET // RYAN TITCHENER HIGH ABOVE THE FROZEN FLOOR OF THE WAD VALLEY LAST WINTER. // JEFF LEWIS

FEBRUARY 2016

Winter users charged with entering caribou closures In February, The Jasper Local reported that Parks Canada pressed charges against multiple groups of backcountry users for entering areas that had been closed for the protection of caribou. The incidents took place in December.

One group of two snowshoers were discovered during a regular patrol of the Maligne Lake/Bald Hills area; another group of two were found trespassing on the Signal Mountain fire road.

Each individual was eventually given a fine of $1,500.

NOT FORCING IT // THE FRANCOPHONE COMMUNITY OF ALBERTA’S (ACFA) 2016 JASPER WINTER PENTATHLON ONCE AGAIN UNITED ALL SORTS OF UNLIKELY ALLIES. THE POPULAR EVENT SEES FRIENDLY COMPETITORS BIKE, SKI, SNOWSHOE, SKATE AND RUN AT THE WINTERY WONDERLAND AROUND PYRAMID LAKE. // BOB COVEY

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// Looking back at 2016

sunday, january 1, 2017 // issue 88 //the jasper local// page B2

MARCH 2016

Local survives close call with avalanche Jasper breathed a collective sigh of relief when it was discovered one of their own survived being caught in a large avalanche.

around it, but he failed to heed his own advice. His weight triggered a massive slope fail. Somehow, after being trapped in the slide, he was spit out of the turbulence and, thanks in part to a small spruce tree, came to rest on the surface.

Dana Ruddy told The Jasper Local that after a giant slab of snow fractured beneath his skis, a “hell storm of debris” unleashed, dragging him down the mountain side with it.

“When I look at pictures of the avalanche, and when I think of the images of it in my head, I don’t know how I got through it,” Ruddy said from his hospital bed in Edmonton.

The slide was later judged to be a class three avalanche. Ruddy and his skiing partner, Sean Elliott, were skiing above Circus Creek in the Tonquin Valley. Upon seeing a dangerous, wind-loaded snow feature, Ruddy told Elliott to negotiate

Ruddy was severely injured but Elliott made a heroic dash for help.

Elliott skied to where he could summon a rescue, which arrived just before dusk.

THE RIGHT MEDICINE // FAT BIKING ON MEDICINE LAKE IN MARCH HELPS POWDER HOUNDS TRANSITION INTO SPRING. // ERIN READE

APRIL 2016

Bonestars rise to the top of Hockey League heap The Jasper Hockey League crowned a new champion when the Fire and Ice Bonestars defeated the Royal Lepage Royals in late March.

The Bonestars raised the trophy

after the Royals took out the perennial favourites, The Barley Kings, who’d played in nine straight finals previous.

In lower-tiered action, The Jets burned the Outlaws in overtime and the Bongs went up in smoke to the Hawks.

RAINBOW COUNTRY // PRIDE SHINES ALL OVER JASPER, PARTICULARLY DURING THE WEEK-LONG PRIDE FESTIVAL IN MARCH. // BRIAN VAN TIGHEM

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page b3+B4 // the jasper local // issue 88 // sunday, january 1, 2017

LOOKING BACK AT 2016 //

Some Jasperites flee others head north to MAY 2016

Alex Derksen and his family were among the 80,000 evacuees who barely stayed ahead of the flames during the May 3 wildfire in Fort McMurray.

“There were flames on the side of the road,” Derksen said. “It was like a scene from Armageddon.”

Derksen and his wife, Emily, along with their three children, were sick with worry as they crawled along in thick traffic, hoping the fire would abate so they could exit the city.

“It went from zero to 100 in five minutes,” Derksen said.

Meanwhile, an unlikely group of heroes, including Jasper’s Dave Cameron, responded to the city’s need for fuel. As part

of a group of truck enthusiasts situation from afar, Cameron lo and got to work. He joined a co more than 10,000 litres of fuel Mac first responders needed it.

Tanya Broadfoot, another Jaspe pitch in, hitched up a U-Haul a diapers, bedding and more. So grew up in Fort McMurray. Con display was incredible.

“People are coming together,” s

Jasper came together locally, to

J U N E 2 0 1 6 ATCO confirms eventual plant shutdown Jasper’s natural gasfired electricity plant will shut down and the community will connect to the provincial power grid, ATCO Electric confirmed this past spring.

Representatives from the utility provider hosted an information session in Jasper to inform residents of the Jasper Interconnection Project. The main thrust of the

presentation was to explain why ATCO has decided to connect the community to the Alberta Interconnected Electric System (AIES), and how that process will unfold.

“From an economic perspective we determined the best way to supply the community was to provide new transmission lines,” said Chris Clark, VP of Planning and Operations for ATCO.

LIBRARY STAFFER HOLLY LLEWELLYN W WORK SPACE IN JUNE. AFTER YEARS OF AND CULTURAL CENTRE OPENED ITS DO

J U L Y 2 0 1 6 Proposed Icefields Tra Parks Canada revealed new details about plans to build a 107 km paved hiking and biking trail connecting Jasper to the Columbia Icefields.

Before the federal budget was released, particulars about a $66 million trail in Jasper National Park could only be speculated upon. Since then, it has emerged that the Icefields Trail is being proposed as a multi-use recreational trail which will connect a variety of existing attractions, trails and accommodations in Jasper National Park.

TEACHERS AND PARTNERS, RAYMOND AND PA IN 2016. THE PAIR TAUGHT FOR MORE THAN 20

A U G U S T 2 0 1 6 Injured climber’s pos On July 15, Titchener and his girlfriend, Tereza Turecká, were ascending what’s been rated as one of the top 50 classic rock climbing routes in North America—Pigeon Spire in B.C.’s Bugaboo Mountains—when the unthinkable happened. A 400 kg boulder, which hadn’t budged since the end of the Wisconsin Ice Age, broke loose from the bedrock. After 11,000 years of inertia, the slightest pressure from Titchener’s weight caused the boulder to roll over top of him, crushing the 32-year-old’s ribcage and breaking his back.

“I could tell my spine was snapped because I lost all feeling in my lower body,” he said. “I could feel my thighs a bit but below my knees was complete jello.”

With a snow storm moving in, Turecká snapped into first-responder

mode. She positioned Titchener’s h radio they almost didn’t bring and later, Golden Search and Rescue te hospital.

“Tereza saved my life that day,” Titc

Months after the accident, Titchen mountains. His determination and him get approved for a cutting-edg Titchener is the program’s earliest has tried the technology this soon

“I’m climbing a different mountain

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feature story by Bob Covey // photos by mike gere //

e Fort McMurray wildfires, help

who were monitoring the oaded up his Ford Super Duty onvoy of vehicles carrying and hauled it to wherever Fort .

er resident who wanted to and started collecting clothes, too did Lindsay Connolly, who nnolly said the civic pride on

she said.

oo. Combined efforts raised

WAS SETTLING INTO HER NEW F DELAYS, THE JASPER LIBRARY OORS IN 2016// BOB COVEY

money and needed household items.

The event helped put emergency preparedness in the spotlight.

“Individuals have a responsibility to be prepared for an emergency,” said Fire Chief Greg Van Tighem.

BEARS WOKE EARLY THIS PAST SPRING//MIKE GERE

Parks employees still not getting paid The Jasper Local reported that Jasper National Park employees affected by federal payroll system problems were feeling left in the lurch as support for their cases were being unheeded locally.

The Jasper Local talked to several term, seasonal and casual employees, some of whom had been waiting upwards of 10 weeks to receive payment from their federal employer.

payments, people are selling their vehicles to make ends meet,” said one employee.

In 2015, Jasper National Park employees were informed that Parks Canada, along with other federal government departments, would be switching to an automated payroll program called Phoenix. But the rolling out of the program has caused payroll problems across the country. Thousands of Canada’s public servants were not being paid on time, accurately, or at all.

“People are missing mortgage

ail draws criticism, questions

AULETTE BLANCHETTE-DUBE, RETIRED 0 YEARS IN JASPER. // BOB COVEY

The agency is targeting “families and youth who wish to leave their cars and explore the park by bike, on foot or inline skates and, in winter, by cross country ski, fat bike and snowshoe.”

But the Jasper Environmental Association, together with a coalition of environmental groups, has called the plan a waste of money and criticized the agency for its lack of wildlife population data in that area of the park.

“The thing that concerns me is this parallel roads idea, which cuts out all of the habitat in between,” said the JEA’s Jill Seaton.

“Who asked for this?”

sitivity moving mountains

head above his feet, assembled the put out a distress call. Two hours echnicians airlifted Titchener to

tchener said.

ner’s positivity was moving d commitment to recovery helped ge alternate-mobility program. entrant, meaning no other patient after their accident.

n right now,” he said.

RYAN TITCHENER SUFFERED A BROKEN SPINAL CORD WHEN HE WAS INJURED WHILE CLIMBING IN JULY. HE IS BASING HIS RECOVERY OUT OF CANMORE // BOB COVEY

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page B5 // the jasper local //issue 88 // sunday, january 1, 2017

Looking back at 2016 //

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 6 Jasperite has close shave with grizzly Beau Michaud had been around plenty of bears.

After five years of working in the bush on trail crew, six years of lighting and fighting fires and a decade of living in Jasper and playing on the trails, Michaud had seen his fair share of bruins.

But until August 27, he’d never been charged.

Michaud had been out on his bike for upwards of three hours when he saw a grizzly, forty metres away, near Lake Edith.

It stood on its hind legs. As it did, a cub ran onto the trail. The grizzly initially followed its cub. Then it turned and ran. Right at Michaud.

“She came after me. There was no hesitation,” he said. “I can remember her hair

waving in the sun, standing on her back.”

Michaud ran into the forest, but the bush was thick. He quickly ran out of room. The bear chased him around a stand of trees.

Eventually, when it tried to come through the trees at him, he hit it with his bike.

“It was a good knock,” he said. “Then she backed off.”

He began to retreat while keeping an eye on the bear. As he hopped on his bike, he could see her sniffing her cub.

But then, to his horror, the grizzly was running straight at him again.

“She had the same look and the same noises were coming from her,” he said. “She was going flat out, a leap-to-bound charge.”

THE JASPER HERITAGE RODEO BRINGS COLOURFUL ENTERTAINMENT TO TOWN EVERY SUMMER// VALERIE DOMAINE

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the grizzly was out of sight, the chase was over.

“Anything can happen out there,” he said.

O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6 Syrian family adjusting to life in Jasper October was the first time eight-year-old Abod Homosh had ever seen snow.

Soon after the Grade Two student felt fresh snowflakes melt onto his tongue, cheeks and eyelashes, Abod and his two older brothers, Zain and Michael, were doing what many Jasper kids look forward to after the first snowfall of the year: zipping down a snow-covered slope on a toboggan, screaming with delight.

“We feel like Canadian boys now,” Zain said, dragging the sled back up the hill for another run.

But as snowflakes fell from the sky near their apartment in Jasper, the boys’ father, Omar, couldn’t help but think of what was falling from the sky in the family’s home country: Bombs. Mortars. Rocket grenades.

“It really is worse than the images you see in the media,” Omar said. “It’s beyond imagination.”

Hog on // Jon Osborne hooked into this 16-lb rainbow trout, a 20-year record in local lakes, this fall. // supplied

The Homosh family is from Syria, where a civil war between insurgents, a Russiansupported regime and ISIS has been raging for more than five years. In the summer, figures estimated nearly half a million people had perished in the fighting.

Millions have also fled. Among them are the Homosh family. In August, thanks to local efforts to take advantage of the Canadian

government’s Syrian refugee resettlement program, Omar, his wife Rola and their three boys arrived in Jasper. Their journey had been emotional and exhausting.

But even in the deepest despair, Omar still holds hope. He believes that a sane, peaceful Syria can one day rise again.

“Hope is the only thing that keeps us human,” he said.

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looking back at 2016 //

sunday, january 1, 2017 // issue 88 // the jasper local// page B6

N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 6 Researcher calls Jasper National

Park’s approach to reconciliation flawed A researcher at York University has penned a highly critical paper of Jasper National Park’s Aboriginal consultation processes, The Jasper Local reported in November.

In her article for York’s Department of Geography, PhD candidate Megan Youdelis argues that instead of empowering exiled First Nations communities, Parks Canada’s approach to reconciliation further entrenches colonial-capitalist power dynamics and reinforces existing inequalities.

“There are a lot of gestures in Jasper but it’s a one way street,” Youdelis said.

“Reconciliation can’t be dictated by one party.”

In 2014, Youdelis came to Jasper to look at the influence of corporate interests on

public policy decisions. Eventually, she became interested in how First Nations communities are consulted on developments such as Brewster Canada’s Skywalk and other projects in the park.

She became convinced that not only were many First Nations communities dissatisfied with how they were consulted and how their input was applied, but that the entire power structure was flawed, in that by accepting the terms imposed by the federal government, First Nations are admitting the Crown has sovereign rights to bestow benefits on them.

// AMY WEST IS JASPER’S NEWEST ADDITION TO THE EMERGENCY SERVICES DEPARTMENT. THE ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF POSITION WAS BUILT INTO THE MUNCIPALITY OF JASPER’S LATEST BUDGET. // BOB COVEY

Youdelis also criticized Jasper National Park’s biannual Aboriginal Forum. She said it lacks organization and meaningful engagement.

“Some groups felt they had no voice, that [Parks Canada] said ‘OK we’ll talk to you once a year because we have to,’” Youdelis said.

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 Fire chief awarded service medal

by Governor General On December 8, Jasper’s Greg Van

narrow Highway 93 from Wickenburg,

Tighem was awarded the Meritorious

Arizona to Jasper. His next journey,

Service Medal from Canada’s Governor

in the winter of 2014, took him more

General, David Johnston.

than 3,000 kms along snow and ice-

The award was given to Van Tighem for

caked Highway 16, on a fat bike, no less,

his tireless efforts to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.

Ten years ago, he first entered the Hinton MS Bike Tour and was inspired to raise money for the debilitating disease. Since then, GVT has raised more than $378,000 for the MS Society of Canada, primarily by pedalling his bike over long distances under extreme conditions. In 2013, he rode 2,800 kms of

Service Directory

from the Queen Charolette Islands to Winnipeg. And finally, because once he started rolling fatties he couldn’t stop, he pedalled the most extreme ice-road in the world, the Dempster Highway, at the top of the Canadian arctic.

“That’s the way I am,” he said. “If I find something I’m really passionate about or interested in I’m going to give it 100 per cent.”

HEIDI FENGLER BUSH BASHING EN ROUTE TO SUMMIT LAKES. // N. GABOURY