April 2006 was supposed to be a big month for the Tourism Jasper proposal. When the group came to council last fall, they had hoped that business licences would be controlled by the town and they would be on the way to forming a larger, universal marketing body for Jasper and area. Reality has revealed a different scene this spring, however, and now the project’s supporters are taking a step back themselves.

While the group of local business owners and Chamber of Commerce heavyweights had hoped to gain strong support for their initiative by knocking on doors and speaking to other members of the community one-on-one, it’s become clear that this hasn’t worked as well as they might have wanted.

“Everyone has different questions for us,” said Scott Eady, President of Jasper Tourism and Commerce and one of the key backers of the scheme. “Going through that process one by one is a lengthy process.”

The proponents have now planned a series of focus groups that will enable the various sectors (accommodation, retail, restaurants and so on) to come together, ask questions and make suggestions. 

“Hopefully these will start by the end of May and we’ll be nearing the end of the process by August,” Eady said. “We recognized that we need to do more education on this.”

With control over business licences still scheduled to be transferred to the municipality in April, 2007, Eady said that his group’s ultimate goal is to have a bylaw proposal in town council’s hands in plenty of time to meet this deadline.

Eady admits to being frustrated with the process. When Tourism Jasper puts forward a bylaw proposal, it will be simply that, a series of recommendations that can be altered by council or through the public review process that is required when a new bylaw is discussed.

“People are asking us some pretty specific questions and we can’t really give them the answers,” Eady said. “Once it gets to the bylaw phase it’s out of our hands.”

Had council taken on the recommended model last fall, Eady believes that these substantive discussions could be taking place in an atmosphere of greater certainty.

“It was kind of a surprise that they didn’t embrace this,” he said. “Our competitors are already 15 years ahead of us.”

While he’s sympathetic to Eady’s situation, Mayor Richard Ireland said that council is determined to ensure that the proposal has a good level of support in the business community before proceeding with any bylaw.

“People want particulars before they give their consent, but from the municipality’s perspective we didn’t want to devote resources to something that might not have broad support,” he said. “I’ve just received a letter from Scott inviting us to be more engaged in the process, and we have had representation so I’m not sure what might change in any event.”

Ireland said that councillors have their own set of concerns about the model as proposed, but would rather see the Tourism Jasper team work out an acceptable proposal with the business community first.

“We were hoping that we might see more of an indication of where the business community stands on this,” he said.