Mark your calendar. The Tour of Alberta could be back next summer.
The municipality has earmarked $50,000 in the municipal budget to host a stage of the international bike race on Sept. 1, 2017.
Council will make a decision about whether it wants to support the race on Dec. 20, however it鈥檚 decision will hinge on support from other members of the Jasper Partnership Initiative, such as Tourism Jasper and Parks Canada.
鈥淣obody is going to get on board unless everyone else is on board,鈥� said Mayor Richard Ireland, during a committee-of-the-whole meeting Dec. 13.
According to Ireland, Tourism Jasper is scheduled to make a decision about the race on Dec. 16 and Parks has indicated its general support of the idea.
According to administration, the race will take place on Friday, Sept. 1, the day before the September long weekend and follow the same route as 2015.
In 2015 Jasper National Park hosted two stages of the race over the September long weekend on Sept. 4 and 5. Stage three started in Grande Cache and finished with a 17-kilometre hill climb up Miette Road to the hot springs.
Stage four, which is the proposed route for the 2017 event, started in town, followed by a three-lap circuit along the Icefields Parkway before finishing with a 12-km climb to Marmot Basin.
Duane Vienneau, CEO for the Tour of Alberta, confirmed his organization wants to host a stage in Jasper on Sept. 1, 2017.
鈥淲e鈥檙e working with the Jasper Park Initiative to ultimately bring the tour back to Jasper in 2017,鈥� said Vienneau, adding the Tour of Alberta intends to make a final announcement about which communities will host the race by the end of January.
He said it鈥檚 too early to say which stage Jasper might host, but added they鈥檇 like Jasper to host one of the race鈥檚 early stages. In 2015 there were six stages.
According to data provided by the tour, in 2015 the race generated $9.3 million in direct economic impact over six days and it reached 47 million viewers in 161 countries. It also generated a lot of buzz online with 23 million Facebook impressions and 1.4 million website views.
Two of the biggest concerns with hosting the event in 2015 came from local businesses, which complained that the extensive road closures over two days in the downtown core hurt their bottom line. They were also concerned that the race fell on a long weekend when town is traditionally busy.
Following the race, the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce held a debrief with business owners to find out how to improve the event in case Jasper hosted it again.
The general consensus during the meeting was in the event of another race the road closures would be kept to a minimum, allowing people to continue using Patricia Street and Connaught Drive.
According to Vienneau road closures are up to the local organizing committee.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 dictate where we start the race and close down roads,鈥� said Vienneau.
鈥淲e can put a start location anywhere so that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e going to do. We鈥檙e going to place it where we鈥檙e not impeding business.鈥�
While there might be fewer road closures, he said other elements of the race will remain the same, such as setting up a Jumbotron on the Info Centre lawn to televise the race and a beer garden.
Coun. Helen Kelleher-Empey and Coun. Rico Damota also raised concerns about the timing of the race in 2017 when entrance to Canada鈥檚 national parks is free.
鈥淭he way things have been going and from what we experienced last year I think this might be a year that we should try and ask for a postponement,鈥� said Damota.
Mayor Ireland shot back arguing the decision whether to host the race should be left up to the members of the Jasper Partnership Initiative, not council.
鈥淚 would be opposed to council trying to make a determination that the timing is wrong, whether it鈥檚 because there will be free passes to the park in 2017 or because it鈥檚 on the eve of the long weekend, those are relevant factors to be considered at the partnership and will be,鈥� said Ireland.
鈥淚f our partners, who have more expertise in tourism management and tourism marketing, think that it鈥檚 worth doing at that time next year than I think that鈥檚 where our support should be, rather than try and second-guess where we do not, I think, have expertise.鈥�
To host the international bike race in 2015 the municipality pitched in $60,000, which was matched by Parks Canada and Tourism Jasper for a total of $180,000.
The total cost to host the event over two days was $250,000 with the remaining $70,000 provided by private sponsors, such as the Jasper Brewing Company, which contributed $10,000 to the event.
According to minutes from a committee meeting on Nov. 22, the Tour of Alberta has indicated it will absorb the first $50,000 while Parks Canada will only need to grant permission and support the race through gifts-in-kind.
It鈥檚 not clear how much Tourism Jasper intends to contribute or where the rest of the money will come from. Tourism Jasper declined an interview request.
According to Vienneau, the rights fees to host a finish line costs $150,000, while it costs $100,000 to host a starting line.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 try to get too fixed on those costs because every community is a little bit different,鈥� said Vienneau, explaining his organization works with the communities to determine how they are going to pay.
Paul Clarke
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