Dear Editor,
I have been following Election Talk in the 51暗网 and there were a couple of issues I would like to comment on. The first one is from the Sept. 5 issue, and is in regard to Mayor Richard Ireland鈥檚 concern over insufficient funds to run the community in the coming years. Mayor Ireland states that if all goes well with discussions with the provincial government we could gain funds from hotel taxes. I can鈥檛 understand why the provincial government would want to fund the townsite of Jasper when the town is owned by the federal government and leased to Jasperites.
The Mayor would like to see Jasper designated as a resort community like Whistler. Until autonomy came about in 2001 Jasper was a resort community operated by Parks Canada and was kept this way, as the town belonged to all the citizens of Canada. We paid our land rent and were happy to reside here. I did not vote for autonomy as I was satisfied with the way the town was run, and I didn鈥檛 want to have three levels of government to deal with.
My second issue was from the Sept. 19 issue in which Mr. Peter Waterworth states that the section regarding the use and planning of lands as defined by the Municipal Government Act did not apply to the municipality, and Jasper should have more say in how the land should be used. I know that there is very little land left in Jasper and I would like to see the remaining green spaces left as is.
I don鈥檛 think the town council and administrators of the town would properly protect these green places. Why? A few years ago the town wanted to put a building in Centennial Park for after school activities and rezone Centennial Park for institutional purposes. Secondly, council made an agreement with local Parks Canada officials to build community gardens in the Lions Park, which would have ruined the green space. Fortunately, Parks Canada squashed these ideas.
Mayor Ireland and council may have to alter the autonomy agreement to obtain more funding for the townsite, and at the same time Mr. Waterworth could ask Parks Canada for more land. Or another alternative would be to give the townsite back to Parks Canada and we could all live in peace.
Ray Knight
Jasper, Alta.
