From attending meetings to reading reports and lobbying higher levels of government, there鈥檚 a lot to do if you鈥檙e the mayor of Jasper.
No one knows this better than Richard Ireland, who has been the town鈥檚 mayor since 2001, when Jasper officially became a municipality.
That was 15 years ago and a lot has changed, especially the workload.
Today the municipality employs 69 full-time and 16 part-time staff to take care of everything from garbage and recycling to the town鈥檚 roads, sewers and facilities.
On top of this visitation numbers over the past 10 years have also been steadily increasing with more than two million people visiting Jasper every year.
To keep up with the growing demand, property taxes have increased in lockstep, rising by more than 20 per cent since 2012.
As a result the mayor as well as council have begun commissioning various studies to get a better understanding of the challenges the community faces.
While some of these studies are just getting underway, such as the town鈥檚 transportation study, other reports have already come back and reaffirmed what the town already knew鈥搊ur infrastructure is aging and we don鈥檛 have the revenue tools to adequately pay for it.
The issue is further exacerbated by the town鈥檚 inability to control land use and development and the province鈥檚 formula for infrastructure spending, which is based on a town鈥檚 resident population.
With such critical issues on the horizon it鈥檚 a lot to ask of a part-time mayor, who makes about $40,000 a year, plus about $5,000 in honorariums for attending meetings.
In 2013, council approved increasing the mayor鈥檚 wage by $675 per month, after a panel noted that the mayor鈥檚 job is about 65 per cent of a full-time position.
For comparison, Banff鈥檚 mayor receives an annual salary of $77,000 and his position is considered full-time.
With a municipal election slated for Oct. 16, now鈥檚 as good a time as any to consider making the mayor a full-time position.
For starters, if we want Jasper to have a strong and consistent voice at both the provincial and federal level we need a mayor who can devote his or her full attention to Jasper鈥檚 needs.
On top of this if we want the best candidate for the job it shouldn鈥檛 come down to whether someone can afford it or not.
By making the mayor a full-time position, it levels the playing field for all residents regardless of their socio-economic status and ensures we have the best person for the job.
