Canada Day in Jasper is one of the busiest times of the year.The streets are jammed and businesses are packed as tourists and families wander through town taking in the festivities.
That surge of visitors packs our hotels, restaurants and stores-dumping money into the local economy.
So news that the committee in charge of planning most of the day鈥檚 events is packing it in is very troubling.
Members of the Canada Day Committee collectively threw up their hands following this year鈥檚 celebrations. This is the culmination of years of dwindling volunteer help and lack of financial support finally that became too much for them to handle.
The committee organizes, and fundraises for, the parade, fireworks and other Canada Day events-all of which have been growing smaller thanks to the committee鈥檚 stretched resources and its members鈥� fatigue.
Only three full-time members still sit on the committee, and they have been trying to resign for years. The problem is that no one seems willing to take over.
With the committee finally stepping down, and no one in line to take up the slack, Jasper is in danger of losing the signature events that make its Canada Day.
How did this happen?
Why does the success of one of the town鈥檚 most important days rest on the shoulders of three tired and frustrated volunteers?
Almost every other community in the province has their Canada Day celebrations organized by the appropriate municipality, and considering how important events like this are to Jasper, it鈥檚 crazy that the day鈥檚 success is in the hands of so few volunteers, operating with very little support.
There are several qualified and sufficiently resourced organizations in town that are more than capable of handling one day of festivities: the municipality, Parks Canada and even Tourism Jasper would all do a fine job helping to organize events.
And even if there was a legitimate reason to keep the planning in the hands of volunteers, those organizations should absolutely be supporting the committee-both financially and with personnel. (There鈥檚 no excuse for committee members鈥� spouses driving floats because no one is willing to volunteer.)
The committee has done a great job for a long time, but they are now taking a well-deserved break. We hope that the organizations that are supposed to be drawing people here to step up and start pulling their weight.
