Council passed the buck to Parks Canada, April 15, when it voted to support an outdoor rendition of the Jasper Heritage Rodeo with a $10,000 grant. That decision was made despite the fact that Parks hasn’t yet approved a location, let alone the idea.
According to Parks, a formal proposal for an outdoor rodeo hasn’t yet been received, but if and when one is, it will be judged on its merits and how it fits into park policies and the Jasper National Park Management Plan.
The funds approved by council are intended to help the rodeo association work toward an outdoor event similar to the ones held at Marmot Meadows in the past.
Council’s decision—on a motion made by Mayor Richard Ireland—was made after Gail Lonsberry of the rodeo association indicated that, during informal discussions with Parks, the door hadn’t been shut on the idea of moving the 88-year-old event back outdoors.
“We are in the really early stages of informal discussions,” she said. “We are ready to make a formal presentation based on what goes on here today.”
Although the outcome was a $10,000 grant, the rodeo association didn’t attend the April 15 meeting seeking funding and support for an outdoor event. Rather, the association was there requesting a concession on the rental fee for the Jasper Activity Centre—where it has been hosting the rodeo for 37 years.
That request, which was also made and accepted in 2013, came after the municipality raised the fees by 240 per cent in 2012.
Explaining the rodeo’s rationale for making the request a second year in a row, Lonsberry likened the situation to a significant increase in mortgage payments.
“If you have a mortgage for $500 and all of sudden you’re assessed a $1,500 a month mortgage, you have to scramble, because you haven’t in your budget and in your mind allocated that much money.
“You multiply your mortgage by three in one year and the mindset just isn’t there yet. But we’re getting there,” she said.
The rodeo’s request, although seemingly straightforward, was complicated by the January arena fire.
Following the event, the entire arena was cleaned from top to bottom, leaving the facility cleaner than it’s been in 50 years. And now that it’s in that state, the municipality is inclined to keep it that way.
So, administration put forward four possible options for allowing the rodeo to continue in the arena, three of which would require the rodeo to pay the cost of cleaning the facility following the event.
The cost of such a cleaning—about $100,000 a year—would make it impossible for the rodeo association to carry on.
As it stands, with the $9,000 discount on its rental fee last year, the event managed to break even.
The association has proposed a new event and ways of increasing revenue this year, but none would make enough to cover the exorbitant cost of cleaning.
Recognizing that, and not wanting to be responsible for the demise of one of Jasper’s signature events, Ireland jumped at the chance to see the event return to its roots—the outdoors.
“I see real danger if the rodeo is terminated and has to be revived. I don’t think that’s a healthy way to approach an event strategy, so I would like to see it maintained, but I would prefer to see it maintained in an outdoor venue and if possible this year.
“The venue—the arena—is not what makes or breaks the rodeo, if it can stand on its own in an outdoor area.”
In order for the event to be organized in an outdoor venue this August, Lonsberry said the association would have to know the location as soon as possible.
“We would have to start now to get it done. Once we have a lease or a contingency of a lease and know where we would be at, then we could start doing the measuring and talking to other rodeos about how we prepare the ground.
“If we went outdoors we would first have to ... set up a venue. So we not only have the rodeo to work with, but we also have the fans to work with, so we would have to have everything that that entails: parking, seating, fencing, ticketing, whatever it takes to put on an outdoor rodeo.”
If the association isn’t able to get all of its ducks in a row with Parks, it could return to council to again request a concession on the rental fee for the arena.
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
