51°µÍø

More than two million visitors enter Jasper National Park using one of two highways every year.

These roads connect Jasper to the outside world and act as the town’s economic lifeline, yet Parks Canada seems to treat signage as an after thought—or in this case prefers to keep its thoughts to itself.

Last week the 51°µÍø provided Parks with photos of three different road signs that are dilapidated or damaged along Highway 16 and the Icefields Parkway. More recently we’ve counted six damaged road signs within 15 km of the Jasper townsite.

In addition to the photos, we asked Parks three simple questions.

Is Parks aware of the damaged signs?

If so, when does Parks intend to fix them?

Does Parks have a plan to replace its aged and broken signage?

The agency’s response: there will be an announcement about new investments in Jasper National Park on July 2.

Although good to know, that didn’t answer our questions.

For all we know this announcement could be about anything.

Without context there’s no way for us to know whether these new investments are for the damaged road signs or for bridge repairs or conservation efforts to protect endangered woodland caribou.

At this point it’s anybody’s guess.

By answering a direct question with a vague response, Parks is leaving things up to speculation, which doesn’t help anyone—including Parks.

So, perhaps we can offer the agency some guidance.

First, it’s OK to confirm there are damaged road signs; we can see them and so can you.

In fact, it would make the entire community feel a lot better if Parks would just acknowledged that much—that way we at least know it’s on the agency's radar.

Second, if Parks admitted it didn’t know when the signs were going to be replaced, it would be OK. Perhaps the agency could just let the public know the signs are going to be fixed or replaced at some point in the near future and promise to keep us posted.

And third, if the July 2 announcement is in fact about funding for new highway signs, Parks could save itself the bad press and just come out with it. Embargoing the information until that date—the same day our paper hits the newsstands—is counter productive.

All things considered, if it turns out Parks doesn’t actually have a plan to replace the park’s crumbling signage, it’s probably a good thing we wrote the story, because maybe now the signs will actually get the attention they need.