A Jasper futurist wants to see more specialized collaboration between Jasper鈥檚 organizations, which he said has the potential to vault the town onto the world stage in a new and significant way.
Jim Bottomley is a business school graduate from the University of Western Ontario, and for years has worked across the country as a futurist, advising industry and government on future trends. Now, he鈥檚 turning his futurist鈥檚 eye on his hometown, where he believes new levels of cooperation could make Jasper a world leader.
Generally speaking, organizations in Jasper cooperate with one another pretty well鈥攔ecent efforts to raise money for the Jasper Ladies Hospital Auxiliary鈥檚 portable ultrasound fund is a great example. Tourism Jasper鈥檚 multi-party effort to rebrand the town is another.
But Bottomley鈥檚 vision extends beyond a simple rebranding, to a collaborative 鈥渃luster鈥� that he said could bring world-class specialists to Jasper.
The idea, he explained, is for local government, community groups and businesses to get together and figure out a guiding principle around which to brand the town, and then commit to building infrastructure and creating organizations to promote that principle.
鈥淥ne of the questions that I think hasn鈥檛 been asked in Jasper is 鈥榳here are we world class in our knowledge?鈥� And I鈥檓 sure in Jasper we have world class knowledge, and that鈥檚 the inventory that needs to be taken,鈥� he said.
If we can figure out where we are world class, Bottomley said, we can begin to brand the town around that. For example, if everyone got together and decided Jasper has the potential to be a world-class centre of wildlife management, the municipal government, local businesses and organizations like Parks Canada could all gear their energy towards cultivating that.
Part of that would mean specific branding for the town, but it might also mean building a wildlife management centre. Once that facility is built, and Jasper鈥檚 reputation as a world leader in wildlife management grows, the best in the world would be drawn here, Bottomley explained.
Parks and the municipality could then partner with businesses to export the knowledge they cultivate across the world, drawing more money and more world-class experts into town.
鈥淚f we can create a vision that relates to where we have strengths, and there鈥檚 a need in the world that we could fit to, who else could we recruit to round that out, and build something great?鈥� he said.
While Bottomley鈥檚 ideas are intriguing, implementing them at a practical level could prove very difficult.
For a cluster to work, much of the energy the institutions currently put into their own projects would have to be redirected towards making the cluster succeed鈥攁nd that鈥檚 a difficult sell, especially for federal organizations like Parks Canada, which have to report to higher authorities outside of the local community.
Constructing a wildlife management centre would not only require the political will from all the parties involved, but would most likely also involve changing the federal legislation that governs Jasper鈥檚 development.
In the end, creating clusters in Jasper would mean a dramatic shift away from the norm, and a lot of investment in something that won鈥檛 immediately pay off.
Bottomley said he has spoken to some organizations in town that could start the cluster process, but realizes the grand scope of some of his proposals. He said he doesn鈥檛 expect his ideas to take hold overnight, but thinks that taking steps towards building a cluster in Jasper would be a great move.
鈥淭his stuff I鈥檓 talking about is really new. Small towns haven鈥檛 done cluster planning, it鈥檚 not even on their radar to do cluster planning,鈥� he said, but considering what he sees as a drastically changing economy, 鈥渋t鈥檚 probably wise to at least consider clusters.鈥�
And while right now it seems unlikely a wildlife centre will pop up on a vacant lot in Jasper, Bottomley thinks that as the economy continues to change, the idea will seem less and less unlikely as times goes by.
聽Trevor Nichols
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