When Alberta teachers voted nearly 90 percent against the government’s latest contract offer, the message was clear: the deal does not meet the needs of our classrooms or our students. Yet, within hours, the Government of Alberta released a press release painting itself as the rational adult in the ...

The recent opinion piece published in The Jasper Local raises concerns about the ethics, effectiveness, and motivations behind Alberta’s decision to permit hound-assisted black bear hunting in Caribou Conservation Areas (CCAs).  While the author’s passion for wildlife is commendable, the article unf...

For the first time in decades, Yellowhead has a real race on its hands Pundits and prognosticators are all saying it: this federal election is the most important in Canadians’ lifetime. With relations with our southern neighbour hitting lows not seen since 1812 and pressing questions about how the c...

A group of Alberta energy executives has cancelled their corporate retreat in Jasper because they’re mad that the municipality’s mayor wants federal politicians to make climate change a priority. What other conclusion could anyone take away from reading an April 15 letter from the Mullen Group , a t...

This piece was originally published in the February issue of The Tomato Food and Drink magazine Nine months after wildfire devastated Jasper, 86-ing at least a dozen well-loved cafés and restaurants in a town that loves to dine, the service industry is rising up again. It’s not quite cork-popping ti...

Last week, while checking some of his trail cameras near Canmore’s Gap Lake, conservationist and wildlife photographer John E. Marriott came upon a cougar kill. Marriott thought it was his lucky day: a big horned sheep carcass meant the elusive cats were likely nearby, and paw prints surrounding the...

It’s been six months since Jasper was evacuated due to the threat of a massive wildfire roaring down the Athabasca Valley. On Friday, January 24, it will be exactly six months since thousands of Jasperites learned that their homes, businesses and everything in them burnt to the ground . And on Satur...

Is Alberta’s Minister of Forestry and Parks camouflaging the hunting of “problem” grizzly bears as a wildlife safety measure? Back in June, Minister Todd Loewen, a renowned big game hunter and shareholder in a Valleyview-based outfitting business, signed a ministerial order that, to this retired bio...

Record dryness, extreme heat, high winds, and a lightning storm. This summer in Jasper National Park, all of the ingredients of a recipe for disaster were in place. Now, two and a half months after that disaster came to pass, another set of circumstances— misinformation, toxic politics and facts-sta...

My husband and I had just returned to Jasper, one week after the official date of return. At our end of town, there is no avoiding the damage caused by the inferno. We had seen the images, of course, but viewing the damage in person was overwhelming. It was sensory overload, and we knew it would tak...

It’s been nine days since the largest wildfire in Jasper National Park’s recorded history started by lightning in extreme conditions. It’s been exactly a week since that fire blew up into an unstoppable inferno and 4,700 residents and another 20,000 or so visitors were forced to flee , in the middle...

Changes will send chills through municipal councils and create a lot of grief for MLAs  It has been very interesting to watch over the past week how Premier  Danielle Smith ’s United Conservative Party government has unrolled its suite of changes to municipal governance and local election laws, and ...

March 11, 2024 February 26, 2024 January 18, 2024 December 14, 2024 December 8, 2023 November 10, 2023 October 12, 2023 August 29, 2023 July 15, 2023 July 4, 2023 June 9, 2023 May 10, 2023 April 27, 2023 March 29, 2023 March 6, 2023 February 3, 2023 December 21, 2022 December 1, 2022 November 12, 20...

Dear Editor, Jasper National Park management has closed large parts of formerly prime backcountry ski terrain as part of a larger program to protect and restore caribou populations that have sharply declined over the past century. JNP offers the hypothesis that ski tracks facilitate wolf movements a...

All of Jasper may have tuned into ABC’s The Bachelor Monday night, but I’m saving my screen time for an even juicier watch party. Even though I am DYING to see if true love blossoms in the Canadian Rockies and whether or not Bachelor Joey Graziadei’s polar plunge in Lac Beauvert will shrivel his cha...

Brian Sutherland, 1963-2024 “ Can ’ t stop what ’ s coming.” That was the message Brian Sutherland would, for many years, send me at some point in the summer. A 2012 "Can't stop what's coming" message. Sutherland was in BC when he sent his warning. The text was usually accompanied by a photo of a tr...

Dear Editor, This year, our school children are riding a white bus that is not following provincially legislated school bus rules, because it is, according to the Municipality of Jasper, a public transit bus providing select ridership for a special school route. This new town school route and servic...

Recipe for a Parks Canada consultation 1. Combine one part outdated regulations with two parts perfunctory dialogue 2. Sprinkle liberally with jargon 3. Stir awkwardly (by as many Parks Canada cooks as can fit in the kitchen) 4. Serve cold. Tell whoever has to swallow it how good it is for them  Wil...

What’s it going to take for Jasperites to start managing their wildlife attractants responsibly? All this fall, once again, bears have been running amok in Jasper. Morning and night—and even in the bustle of midday—bears are darting in and out of residential neighbourhoods, feasting on the easily-ac...

There’s been a bit of a muted response to a really exciting new initiative in Jasper, and I’m trying to figure out why that is. It doesn’t take a major study to figure out that many Jasperites could benefit greatly from the establishment of a public transportation system which services town, the Jas...