As Alberta’s energy industry continues to struggle, the province’s tourism has become a bright light for the provincial economy—more specifically tourism-based communities like Jasper, Banff and Canmore continue to remain choice destinations for visitors throughout Alberta, collectively netting an annual economic benefit of more than $2-billion.
However, just how long that cash cow will last is anyone’s guess if the provincial government doesn’t step in and help offset tourism associated costs.
Each year Jasper’s modest population of 5,000 greets about two million tourists. And that number is only going to keep growing. Just between April and the end of July, Parks Canada counted one million Jasper National Park visitors—40,000 more than the same period last year. Tourism Jasper is also reporting that this summer marked the highest number of visitors the park has seen in a decade, as the majority of the town’s hotels enjoyed nightly capacity rates of 85-100 percent throughout the season.
From an economic standpoint, this banner tourism year is great news, but at the end of the day that’s millions of people driving across our roads, flushing our toilets and utilizing numerous other services.  And when all those visitors pack up and ship out, it’s locals that are left with the cost of the constant wear and tear on our infrastructure.
Currently the province’s formula for infrastructure funding is based on resident population and does not account for large numbers of visitors, forcing municipalities like Jasper, Banff and Canmore to rely primarily on property tax revenue, which has dramatically increased in Jasper by 20 per cent in just a few short years.
For years, the three tourism-based municipalities have been talking about ways to work with the provincial government to reassess the Tourism Levy Act and other taxes in order to put money back into their communities, but so far those pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Without provincial help, Alberta’s tourism-based municipalities are faced with two options: let their booming communities crumble, possibly driving tourists away or continue to pile the tax burden on the backs of residents and businesses.
To us, both these options are unacceptable. What Alberta needs to do is start looking at our nearby tourism competitors.
In 2007, British Columbia implemented the Resort Municipality Initiative, a resort development program that provides 14 resort municipalities with unique development and revenue sharing tools to assist in providing services and amenities to visitor populations. This initiative is valued at about $10-million annually for each resort town.
U.S. mountain towns like Aspen, Jackson and Vail also benefit from similar financial tools to help them maintain their tourism infrastructure and enhance their visitor experience.
It’s evident that in order to remain competitive in this market, Alberta’s tourism destinations will have to maintain their infrastructure, but if the provincial government doesn’t want to step-up and help reallocate funds then it might have to wave goodbye to one of its greatest money making industries.
Really it’s a no-brainer that almost any Albertan can recognize. Tourism communities can’t keep pushing the upkeep of their towns on taxpayers, and if tourism starts declining in Alberta’s choice travel destinations then the economic effects will be felt all over the place.
It’s time the provincial government stop dragging its feet and start acting on this issue that not only effects Alberta, but Canada’s tourism industry as a whole.
