The joint review that was undertaken last year to assess the town’s current land use planning and development processes will be completed in a few weeks.
The hope is, with that document in hand, Jasper’s two governmental powers—Parks Canada and the Municipality of Jasper—will gain a greater understanding of the current legislation, policies and procedures that are in place, how effective and efficient they are, and what the current best practices are for modern town planning.
“What I’m hoping is it’s going to result in a better service to our clients,” said Cathy Jenkins, manager of realty and municipal services for Parks Canada. “And that we’ll streamline the processes, make them more efficient and make it so people don’t feel like they’re going to two separate bodies for different things, so that they can talk to Parks or the municipality and be getting the same answers, the same recommendations and to not have to be sent back and forth.”
For the average Jasper Joe, the process for building a shed or even obtaining a business license can seem incredibly convoluted, causing people huge amounts of frustration as they try to determine who’s responsible for what.
So, by mapping out the current process, the municipality and Parks hope to find an easier path for business owners and homeowners.
This review is necessary because, unlike in most communities, Jasper’s land use planning and development is administered by the federal government, through Parks Canada.
This is because in 2001, when Jasper was incorporated as a specialized municipality, Parks chose to retain those powers, as well as control over the environment.
It was 10 years later, during the creation of the Jasper Community Sustainability Plan, that Parks agreed to a review of land use planning and development and the possibility of jurisdictional change.
In early 2014, Parks and the municipality created a terms of reference for the review and put it out to tender, looking for a consulting firm to take it on.
Edmonton’s MNP was selected and since then, more than a dozen community members, Parks employees, town councillors and municipal employees have been interviewed. They were all hand selected because of their experience with the process.
“There’s representatives from the original town committee, from [the Planning and Development Advisory Committee], business owners and people who have been through the process recently,” explained Mark Fercho, chief administrative officer for the municipality. “So we’re looking at people that work on the staff level and externally.”
Two additional councillors, Gilbert Wall and Helen Kelleher-Empey, will be interviewed March 30.
Using all of the information that is gathered during the interviews, MNP will create an outline of the current process and present it to the municipality and Parks, along with a few examples of how town planning is being done in other communities and some recommendations as to how Jasper’s processes could be improved.
Once the review is completed, Jenkins said representatives from Parks, town council and town administration will get together for an intergovernmental meeting to discuss the results.
“We will sit down and review it and find out which [recommendations] we expect would work best in the context of Jasper and then we would work together to take the necessary steps to affect our desired change.”
For Jenkins, this is an exciting process. Having worked closely with municipal governments for a number of years, she knows these processes can be complicated and she said she looks forward to simplifying them.
Nicole Veerman
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