With the Federation of Canadian Municipalities board of directors meeting in town last weekend, the Fitzhugh took the chance to pick the brain of CEO Brock Carlton regarding some of the issues facing a tourist town like Jasper.

To begin, Carlton pointed to the ongoing dialogue between the Canadian and U.S. governments about issues related to border security.

“We’ve done a lot of work with the Western Hemisphere Tourism Initiative,” Carlton said. “All the documents necessary to cross the border, most people have heard of this in the context of ease of travel.”

When the United States announced it would demand passports at the border, FCM went to work to delay implementation. “We also worked to get it on the table that alternative identification would be acceptable,” Carlton said.

A third area addressed was the requirement for everyone to have passports. “We got into the discussion so kids would be exempted, so if you’re traveling as a family you don’t have to scramble to get passports,” he said. “So those kinds of things have delayed or mitigated the potential negative impacts on tourism.”

A universal area of concern for FCM is housing. “There’s a variety of federal government programs now that provide financial support for low cost housing and for homelessness,” Carlton said. Between the federal government and leverages, $2 billion goes into such programs annually.

“These programs expire in March 2009,” Carlton said. “At this point there’s no indication that the government is going to renew, you can imagine if that money comes out of the system it will be a shock.”

The board of directors meeting ran from Sept. 3-6 at the Jasper Park Lodge.