Mayor Richard Ireland and councillors Brenda Zinck, Gloria Kongsrud and Mike Day returned last week from Quebec City for the annual conference for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).

Funding for councillors to attend workshops or travel comes out of their annual budget and although trips like this can be expensive, municipal manager George Krefting says the benefits make it worthwhile.

“Attendance is crucial and important if you want to access various grants,” he said. “And the FCM board of directors is holding its annual meeting in Jasper in the fall, which will bring 150 members to the town for five days.”

He also said councillors tend to return with new ideas and initiatives they want to pursue.

Gloria Kongsrud found the conference offered a fresh perspective as well as an opportunity to network.

“Sometimes you think you know the best way to do something,” she said. “Then you meet people from communities our size and they say, ‘Oh we dealt with that here’s what we did’.”

Kongsrud attended a seminar on how to make immigrant workers feel welcome in the community and another on affordable housing initiatives, which was a major draw for Mike Day as well.

Day also went to a session on solid waste and learned about parts of the world where waste is used to create energy.

“We can’t continue just burying it or driving it to Hinton,” he said. “But do we deal with it regionally or locally? Because ultimately we have to make a decision.”

Brenda Zinck attended standing committee forums on increasing women’s participation in municipal government as well as a session on community safety and crime prevention.

The councillors also took turns manning a booth at the tradeshow to promote the Jasper/Hinton area, and Day was impressed by what people knew about the town.

“I found that people in general were very aware of Jasper,” he said. “I kept hearing how Quebec City loves Jasper, from more than one person.”

From tourists’ perspective, the group agreed Quebec City was a great place to visit.

“It’s a beautiful, beautiful city, it really is, and a very visited city with a lot of history,” Zinck said. “And so relating it back to our cultural history in Jasper, it’s all about celebrating our past and shaping our future.”