Getting things done in Jasper is often like watching a glacier melt, it鈥檚 time consuming and difficult to see any real change.
Between the municipality and Parks Canada the pace at which things get done can be painfully slow, just look at the beleaguered library or Parks鈥� mountain pine beetle strategy.
But for all the missed deadlines, frustration and bureaucratic wrangling a lot has actually been getting done over the past two months.
Take for instance news that the municipality is drafting a new bylaw to allow commercial use of public land for activities such as busking, sidewalk seating and the farmer鈥檚 market.
This bylaw will eliminate the uncertainty associated with semi-permanent pilot projects, that in some cases have been relied on for years, and improve the quality of life for residents in Jasper.聽
In recent weeks there has also been promising movement on Jasper鈥檚 chronic housing shortage.
In early February, the Jasper Community Housing Corporation announced it was seeking partners for two new housing developments in town鈥搉ews that is so rare it almost warrants popping a bottle of champagne (we鈥檒l hold off doing that until the shovels actually hit the ground.)
In addition to this, the municipality is also in the throws of streamlining its grant programs to create a single fund called the Community Economic Development Fund. This will help cut down the amount of bureaucratic red tape organizations have to go through when applying for grants and it will simplify the selection process for the municipality.
Not to be outdone, Parks Canada has also been getting a lot done in the past two months.
In January it launched an online camping reservation system allowing campers to make reservations three months earlier than last year. It also began accepting online reservations for backcountry campgrounds for the first time.
This was closely followed by the announcement that admission to all national parks would be free in 2017, fulfilling one of the Liberal government鈥檚 campaign promises. The details about how this will be implemented and who is going to cover the costs are still to be determined.
Parks also recently announced it has begun to accept wedding reservations for three popular locations in Jasper National Park and has renovated these venues.
With so much getting done over the past two months at times it can be hard to keep up.
With that said, we shouldn't rest on our laurels because there鈥檚 plenty more to get done.
