Craig Gilbert | [email protected]
Jasper town council may be preparing to change the equation for the new Hostelling International hostel under construction on Sleepy Hollow Road.
Councillors in a meeting Tuesday asked town staff whether the 150-plus bed hostel was incurring municipal taxes yet in the context that it isn’t operating yet, weeks behind schedule on its original opening date, which was to be in May.
They were told that though HI will be paying its utility bills, hostels are specifically named in the Municipal Government Act as being exempt from local taxation unless stripped of the benefit with a bylaw.
That bylaw would take a year to take effect, which prompted Coun. Bert Journault to ask for a draft from administrators sooner than later.
The discussion kicked off when Coun. Paul Butler said he’d heard concerns recently from three people already operating here that HI would be running a business similar to theirs with a structural advantage.
It harkens back to Astoria Hotel owner George Andrew’s contention to Jasper politicians before they granted the Legion immunity from taxes last year. He argued his business, which includes the nearby Papa George’s restaurant De’d Dog Bar and Grill, was funding its own competition.
He said then he guessed he was out about $50,000.
“My Fridays and Saturdays have diminished,” he wrote in a letter to council. “I’m paying commercial (rate)… It would seem I’m funding my competition. I think that is unfair.”
Hostelling International’s marketing director for what they call the Pacific Mountain Region, Shelbey Sy, said via email Tuesday night that this was the first the company was hearing about a possible change to their tax status, and therefore would not comment.
The new hostel replaces the Whistlers hostel with about double the beds seven kilometres closer to everything. The site remains a work in progress, with outbuildings incomplete and paving and landscaping yet to take place.
The main three-storey lodge is to have accommodation for 157 people in a mixture of room options; including 25 four-bed shared rooms, 17 private rooms and five family rooms, some of which will be wheelchair accessible.
The non-profit company broke ground with a stable of Jasper dignitaries, including Mayor Richard Ireland and park superintendent Alan Fehr, 365 days ago.
Ireland thanked HI for their persistence before turning sod with a golden shovel exactly one year ago on June 12, 2018.
“This is a project that quite literally has spanned two centuries,” he said then. “Of course (the new hostel) has a role to play in our tourism industry. But … our housing needs here are real and serious.”
