Ottawa might be thousands of kilometres away, but it鈥檚 finally getting the message.
Earlier this week members of the Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development held private meetings in Jasper to discuss the challenges our tiny mountain community faces.
The members of parliament spoke with a variety of groups and organizations including, local councilors, major businesses like Brewster, members of the O鈥機hiese First Nations band and Parks Canada officials.
Based on follow up interviews with the 51暗网, it鈥檚 clear the committee and our local MP Jim Eglinski are well aware of the challenges our community faces.
At the top of the list the committee heard about Jasper鈥檚 perpetual struggle to support the infrastructure and services required to host more than two million visitors every year.
Adding urgency to this challenge, the committee repeatedly heard people鈥檚 concerns about how our community is going to cope next year when admission to Canada鈥檚 national parks and historic sites will be free to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
In the same vein, Mayor Richard Ireland highlighted the difficulties of running a municipality within a national park and repeated his call for jurisdiction over land use and development so the municipality has more control over its future.
The committee also heard from First Nations groups, which shared their concerns about the future of the parks鈥� ecosystems and a desire to protect our national spaces.
While none of these challenges are new to us, it鈥檚 comforting to know that Ottawa is finally listening. The question now is whether or not Ottawa responds.
According to Deborah Schulte, chair of the all-party committee and a Liberal MP in Ontario, the committee will draft a report with recommendations to the federal government this fall.
From there it鈥檚 up to the Liberal government to decide which, if any, of the recommendations it wants to act on.
At this point it鈥檚 anybody鈥檚 guess what might happen, but at the very least we can be assured that Ottawa heard our voices loud and clear, and that in itself is a victory.
