Editorial

Whether you've lived here a month, a year or a lifetime, at some point you've no doubt come face-to-face with Jasper's housing shortage.

Everyday we are bombarded by various facts and figures that at times can leave your head spinning, but every once and a while we hear a fact that shakes up our understanding of the world and challenges our own assumptions.

They say you gotta eat to live, but with the cost of food rapidly increasing, it’s getting more and more difficult to make healthy choices in the grocery store aisles.

Although words are our business, sometimes we struggle to find the right ones, slaving over a single sentence for hours as we try to relay a message to the public.

For a minute Parks Canada had us all fooled this week. With a sly twist of words, the agency had media reporting that an annual park pass purchased in 2016 would be valid until 2018. Two years for the price of one.

As the coordinator of the Jasper Victim Services Unit, Paul Schmidt is on call at all hours of the day, ensuring that someone is always available to console and assist victims of tragic accidents and crimes in Jasper National Park.

Work is making us fat. OK, that may be a gross generalization, but the truth is, sitting behind a desk for eight hours a day isn’t helping anyone’s cause.

Between 2012 and 2015, municipal taxes increased by more than 15 per cent. The progression was relatively slow, with a 4.3 per cent increase here and a 2.05 per cent increase there, but over four years it adds up to a 15.71 per cent increase.

N. Veerman file photo Once a month we write an update on the library and cultural centre project.

There’s rarely an issue of the Fitzhugh where our pages don’t include at least one story about a fundraiser for a non-profit organization and, each week, as we learn how much money was raised, we’re astounded by the depth of Jasper’s pockets.