Peter Shokeir | [email protected]
Jasper Municipal Council began narrowing down how to allocate the $1.17 million in the COVID relief reserve during its committee of the whole meeting on June 22.
One proposal under discussion was spending up to $24,000 per year on a seasonal transit or shuttle service.
“Essentially, the community would benefit, especially this year with our increased challenges in the downtown core as a result of patios and the reopening of Whistlers Campground, which will be happening shortly,” said CAO Bill Given.
“The recommendations from the COVID recovery taskforce really demonstrate that transit can be a part of the economic recovery of the community.”
Council previously received a presentation from SunDog Tours that proposed a partnership with the municipality and Tourism Jasper to establish this service.
“After much discussion with business owners, stakeholders and a cross-section of the general public, we believe that a shuttle service between the largest campgrounds, busy outlying areas of Jasper and Jasper downtown would be beneficial to the entire community and will enhance the overall visitor experience in Jasper,” said Paul Hardy with SunDog Tours in a letter to council.
The shuttle service would be a three-year commitment and cost $5 per round trip, with SunDog Tours saying it could have the service up and running within weeks.
Coun. Paul Butler supported the idea but cautioned that the municipality should be open to options in delivery and only commit to one year.
“What we’re talking about is a service for the coming year and not so much a transportation system. That is something that we can look at down the road.”
Council moved to consider funding a pilot project for the summer of 2021 at its next regular meeting.
“A solution that brings transportation into our portfolio and that enhances our community and our economic recovery is a win-win across the board,” said Coun. Jenna McGrath, who chaired the meeting.
Coun. Helen Kelleher-Empey abstained from this vote due to a conflict of interest, while Mayor Richard Ireland and Coun. Rico Damota were not in attendance.
Other recovery proposals
Administration will begin developing programming for income-based utility rates rebates, tax deferrals and income-based support for daycare.
Council will also consider using up to $20,000 to develop a destination management plan and another $20,000 to advance land rent advocacy at its next meeting.
The municipality is required to pay $600,000 in land rent to the Government of Canada each year, which drives up municipal taxes.
Administration suggested that a co-ordinated lobbying effort targeting federal decision makers could end this burden.
Councillors Butler and Kelleher-Empey initially spoke against funding land rent advocacy from the relief reserve, since it did not directly relate to COVID, and instead wanted it funded out of council’s budget.
CAO Given replied that getting rid of the land rent would provide ongoing benefit to residents and businesses by reducing the overall tax burden.
More importantly, the federal government actually cancelled land rent for Jasper in 2020 as part of its COVID rent abatement program.
“That provides a specific opportunity for us to go to the federal government in this time when everyone is interested in recovery, particularly tourism communities, and say, ‘This abatement that you provided through 2020 needs to continue for our community that is largely tourism based to recover economically,’” Given said.
“Additionally, we see a federal government that is very interested in supporting municipalities directly.”
Councillors also discussed using the remaining amount in the reserve towards tax rate mitigation, which may be considered in the future.
Other presented options included waiving or reducing the business licence fee and subsidizing the recreation fees, but council opted against these.
There was also a proposal to conduct a labour market analysis, but council decided that would be a part of the destination management plan.
Skatepark relocation
Councillors later reviewed the public engagement for the skatepark relocation.
Earlier this spring, council approved up to $300,000 for a new skatepark, subject to matching funds being secured from external sources.
Council also asked administration to look into relocating the project to a portion of “Diamond A” in Centennial Park due to the current location having underground utility lines.
Public engagement for the relocation consisted of a dedicated web page and a brief online survey and ran from May 11 to June 3.
A total of 143 respondents completed the online survey, with 93 respondents (68 per cent) in favour, 39 (28 per cent) not in favour and the rest giving unclear opinions.
The biggest concern was noise, especially since the proposed location was near the Alpine Summit Seniors Lodge.
Coun. Bert Journault noted how skateparks typically aren’t too noisy due to being made out of solid concrete.
“That’s not going to be a concern, in my opinion,” Journault said, adding how seniors would also enjoy watching the youth.
Council received the engagement results for information and directed administration to further research how noise concerns could be mitigated, prior to council making a final decision on the new skatepark location.
