After losing a grant from the province that had been allotted to a senior citizen bus program, town council has decided to fund the seniors with money taken from local taxpayers.

“We might get burned, but I don’t think that means that we should burn someone else,” said Mayor Richard Ireland.

The decision was made at council’s August 17 session. 

According to an agenda item on the matter, the town had been receiving the unconditional $14,964 grant from the province for the past several years. The grant was then transferred to the Jasper Seniors Society to pay for operation of their bus. The bus is used for various trips around town and to Edmonton, Hinton and more that the seniors take every year.

“The provincial government discontinued the grant in the 2010 provincial budget,” reads the agenda item.

However, council had promised the money to the seniors this year on the understanding that they would continue to receive the money from the province.

“They don’t have many resources to go out and search for these grants on their own,” said Councillor Rico Damota of Jasper’s seniors, expressing approval at the towns decision to continue giving them the money.

Council was told that if the money was not given to the seniors this year, then they would have to shut down the bus.

The town will fund the seniors at the full amount that they expected to receive. 

“The unconditional grant had not been canceled at the time the 2010 budget was established and approved. Transferring funds from the approved operating budget means finding the resources within the current operating budget. In effect, it means the subsidy in 2010 would be from property tax revenue, not grant revenue,” states the agenda item.

MSI funding (Municipal Sustainability Initiative), a significant source of funding from the province for municipalities around Alberta, including Jasper, has also been reduced this year across the board.

Mayor Ireland expressed some anger at the province for their handling of the cutback.

“I’m disturbed that they can just expect us to take up these costs,” said Mayor Ireland. “These costs are simply being downloaded with no notice... All of this downloading is constantly diminishing our responsibilities.

“If we simply acquiesce, this will continue to happen,” said the Mayor.

He hinted that next year, the town will reconsider whether they will pay for the senior’s bus directly. In the meantime, council staff will be searching for other grants from the province which could be sourced and then transferred from the town to the seniors.

Some members of council discussed the possibility of asking the seniors if the bus could be used by members of the public who are not seniors.

Councillor Gloria Kongsrud talked about how there used to be buses in Jasper operated by the school and other sources, but those buses have ceased to run. She said it was now harder for many groups in town to arrange trips. She wondered if it would be possible to turn the seniors bus into more of a public bus.

“I’d be reluctant to fine tune their operations,” said Mayor Ireland.