Public Consultation on town-wide wifi
Administration is seeking council permission to undertake a public engagement campaign to determine whether or not Jasperites are in favour of a town-wide wifi network.
Shaw Communications approached the municipality in September, proposing to install several micro transmitters on municipal infrastructure across town, allowing the company to provide free wifi access to its customers, as well as the general public.
After some negotiations between the town’s chief administrative officer and Shaw, a non-exclusive contract came before council Jan. 20 that gives the municipality the last word on the location of transmitters and also gives it the option to offer the same opportunity other wifi providers.
Administration now wants to consult the public to see if this is something the community needs and wants.
“We’ll go out into the community and conduct some community engagement around the opportunity, just to get some feedback prior to council considering this,” said Mark Fercho, chief administrative officer.
Council will vote on whether or not to move forward with community engagement at its Feb. 3 meeting.
Mayor Richard Ireland asked that at that time, administration bring forward the cost of such an engagement process and suggested that administration might research how other communities have handled such contracts—namely whether some communities have received payment for the use of their infrastructure.
“It’s somebody else making use of public property and maybe we should charge,” he suggested, noting that that was a comment from a member of the public at a budget meeting in December. “I don’t know whether that is the norm anywhere else, but I suppose if we offer it for free, we’ve lost the opportunity to charge for it.
“Perhaps there’s a bit of a cost there.”
Push for rebate program
Jasper’s environmental stewardship coordinator wants to see the town hand out $9,000 in residential rebates this year.
In 2014, Janet Cooper started a residential rebate program for energy efficient appliances and in six months time was able to give out $3,000 to people purchasing refrigerators, washing machines and even LED lights.
“Interestingly enough, the most popular item was refrigerators, which surprised me because I had heard in other communities it was washing machines,” she told council, Jan. 20.
“It will be interesting to see the uptake this year. I think people are just becoming aware of the program and factoring it into their purchases.
“I’m hoping the uptake in 2015 will triple—I have lots of money in the budget for it.”
The program is a way of encouraging Jasperites to reduce their energy consumption.
Rebates range from $500 for an energy efficient furnace to $25 for $75 worth of LED lighting.
To learn more about the program or to find an application form, check out the municipality’s website and search “Environmental Stewardship.”
Jasper offered electric vehicle chargers
Jasper may receive free charging stations for electric cars.
Janet Cooper, environmental stewardship coordinator, has been in touch with Canadian electric car manufacturer, Sun Country Highway, and it has offered three free electric vehicle chargers.
“There still has to be lots of discussion on it,” said Cooper, noting that when she has nailed down the details she will bring it before council for further discussion and a decision.
There are two different chargers that Sun Country Highway would provide. One is a universal charger and the other two are specific to Telsa vehicles.
“They’re very keen for Jasper to take advantage of [this offer] because we’re a busy resort town,” said Cooper. “Their goal is just to get electric chargers across the country so that more and more people will want to buy electric vehicles and not get caught somewhere where they would run out of power.”
According to Cooper, right now there is a dead zone between Edmonton and Jasper.
“So it prohibits people from making the trip in an electric vehicle.”
Nicole Veerman
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