It was a historic moment for Francophone speakers in Jasper and across the Rocky Mountains as Radio-Canada broadcast a live show from the Jasper Library and Cultural Centre, June 27.
The two-hour show included interviews with local members of the Francophone community touching on topics ranging from 脡cole Desrochers鈥檚 graduates to the Jasper chapter of the Association Canadienne-Fran莽aise de l鈥橝lberta (ACFA).
The broadcast could be heard in Jasper on 101.1 FM, in Banff on 105.7 FM and in Lake Louise on 102.7 FM.
鈥淲e鈥檙e very happy to be here,鈥� said Pierre Gu茅rin, Radio-Canada鈥檚 regional manager for Western Canada.
鈥淚 know how important it is to the local community. We鈥檝e had lots of conversations over the years so it鈥檚 a thrill for them, it鈥檚 a thrill for us and it鈥檚 wonderful that it鈥檚 finally happening.鈥�
Making the occasion all the sweeter is the fact that it falls within days of Canada 150.
鈥淭he timing is not accidental. We weren鈥檛 sure whether we were going to be able to pull it off because there鈥檚 a whole process that we have to go through,鈥� Gu茅rin said, adding they hosted a show earlier in the day in Banff.
鈥淲e were all keeping our fingers crossed hoping that we were going to get close to July 1st and it looks like it worked so we鈥檙e quite happy.鈥�
CBC first announced its plan to bring French radio to the Rocky Mountains last summer and over the course of the next 12 months added new antennas to existing transmission towers already located within Jasper and Banff National Parks.
The push to get French radio in Jasper started nearly two decades ago, but only gained traction in 2007, after ACFA collected 300 names on a petition demanding access to the station.
Despite the association鈥檚 best efforts, the petition fell on deaf ears.
At the time the association was told by CBC that setting up transmitters in Jasper was not one of the corporation鈥檚 priorities and would likely not become a priority in the future.
Looking for more help, the ACFA contacted the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages in 2009. The office told the association it had good grounds to file legal complaints against Radio-Canada for violating articles 24 and 41 of Canada鈥檚 Official Languages Act.
Jasper鈥檚 ACFA also started working with the ACFA in Edmonton to help push the issue further.
However, somewhere between switching staff, moving offices and working on numerous other projects, Jasper鈥檚 ACFA lost its steam.
On top of this, in 2012 the former Conservative government cut $115-million from CBC, hurting its ability to expand its programming. Four years later the Liberal government committed $225 million over two years to CBC/Radio-Canada to help reverse those cuts.
Gu茅rin acknowledged it took some time, but said he鈥檚 happy to see it become reality.
鈥淚t鈥檚 great to finally be here.鈥�
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
