The Jasper Local November 1, 2019 by The Jasper Local

a lt e r n at i v e +

// B1

thejasperlocal.com

LOCAL + independent

// B3

// B5

friday, november 1, 2019 // ISSUE 156

SNOWBOARDER NICOLA WINTER GETS SOME EARLY TURNS AT THE BALD HILLS. THE AREA IS NOW CLOSED FOR CONSERVATION MEASURES. // MAT TROTTER

Seasonal caribou closures now in effect Jasper National Park is reminding winter backcountry users of seasonal closures to protect mountain caribou.

On November 1, seasonal closures in the Tonquin, Maligne-Brazeau and North Boundary areas of JNP took effect. “By delaying backcountry access for winter recreation in important caribou habitat we can reduce

the risk of predation on caribou in early winter,” a Parks Canada media release stated.

Access to the Tonquin area will reopen on February 16, 2020, and all other areas reopen March 1.

Woodland caribou, a species at risk in JNP, lose their advantage over their natural predators when packed ski and snowshoe trails are established. The trails provide easier access for cougars and wolves, according to Parks Canada.

“Help us protect Jasper’s threatened caribou by choosing other areas of the park for winter recreation,” the release said. Individuals have been fined up to $1,500 for trespassing in areas closed for caribou conservation. bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

page A2 // the jasper local // issue 156 // friday, november 1, 2019

editorial //

Local Vocal Fright night in Alberta came early this year. October 31 in Jasper had its fair share of ghosts and ghouls, but the real scares were being conjured up at the Alberta Legislature a week prior. Minister of Finance Travis Toews wasn’t donning a costume when he rolled out the United Conservative Party’s 2019 budget, but as soon as he said “This was a good day for Albertans,” it sure seemed like he was wearing a mask. How else could you explain his looking Albertans in the eye while simultaneously telling them they’ll be the ones paying for the significant corporate tax cuts his party hopes will spur private sector investing in Alberta? Or telling vulnerable individuals that income support programs will be reduced? Or telling charitable organizations that the lottery revenues which previously supported their non-profits will no longer be available to them? Or telling students that not only will their public schools receive no more funds despite the increased student body, but post-secondary costs are going to increase, too? There were strong Halloween vibes at that same press conference when the Minister explained the ghosting of indexed tax brackets. He didn’t put it that way, of course, but there’s definitely a trick being played here. Removing indexing, which has been in place for almost two decades, means Albertans will pay more in personal income tax each year as inflation devalues their tax credits. It’s an especially devilish maneuvre because it allows the government to claim that taxes are staying static when…(*checks notes*)…nope. Recipients of AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) would certainly have been spooked by the news that their supports will go down, again by the same means of not indexing those benefits to inflation. The Parkland Institute suggests that given Alberta’s relatively high cost of living, maintaining support levels that already subject recipients to near-poverty living conditions will ensure they have a harder time meeting end’s meet in the future. Talk about a horror show. Speaking of which, it was a bit Twilight Zone to learn that the combined changes to Albertans’ tax credits (an approximately $150 per year increase for the average family) works out to essentially the same number as the nowrepealed, NDP-imposed, $30-per-tonne carbon tax. Of course the tax indexing strategy doesn’t have the rage-bait that a carbon tax scares up. It’s another reminder that a politics is often nothing more than a house of mirrors.

Most frightening of all, perhaps, is that the UCP budget is being built on the presupposed idea that three new pipelines will be built and operational in the next four years. What happens if the courts have something to say about those processes? (Spoiler alert: they already have!) A whole lot of the heeby jeebies could be taken out of this whole budgeting nightmare, of course, and you don’t need a background in finance, or a Sixth Sense, to figure out what would raise revenues and immediately ease Albertans’ (relative) economic pains. Now you wont’ hear any Conservative talking about it in

public. And to be fair, neither did you hear it from the NDP when they had their mandate. But as long as our fortunes are tied to resource royalties, mapping out a stable budget will have a decidedly Blair Witch feel to it. To spare Albertans the traumatic cycle of cuts and job losses, there is a clear solution at hand. So get your candle, turn out the lights and stand in front of a mirror. Chant it with me now and let’s see if we can summon a notso-frightening, non-fluctuating future: Provincial sales tax, provincial sales tax, bloody well provincial sales tax! bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com

The Jasper Local //

Jasper’s independent alternative newspaper 780.852.9474 • thejasperlocal.com • po box 2046, jasper ab, t0e 1e0

Published on the 1st and 15th of each month Editor / Publisher

Bob Covey.................................................................................... bob@thejasperlocal.com Art Director

Nicole covey......................................................................... nicole@thejasperlocal.com Advertising + sales

Email us today.......................................................................... bob@thejasperlocal.com cartoonist

Deke.................................................................................................deke@thejasperlocal.com

facebook.com/thejasperlocal

@thejasperlocal

// local climate change

friday, november 1, 2019 // issue 156 // the jasper local// page A3

THE BOLD AND THE COLD // CLIMATE ACTIVIST GRETA THUNBERG GETS A BRIEFING ON THE STATE OF THE ATHABASCA GLACIER FROM DR. JOHN POMEROY// MARK FERGUSON

Activist’s visit spotlights glacier science A visit by the world’s most famous climate change fighter is shining a spotlight on new science being done on Jasper National Park’s Athabasca Glacier. Cold regions hydrologist John Pomeroy, who works out of the University of Saskatchewan, has been working in the Columbia Icefields Area for the last four decades, but it wasn’t until 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist, Greta Thunberg, asked for a tour of a glacier that has been affected by climate change, that Pomeroy’s work received world-wide attention. “Her visit brings a certain spotlight,” Pomeroy said. “It’s great to get the message out.” That message is strictly fact-based— Dr. Pomeroy doesn’t mix science with politics—and according to

data models, increasingly urgent. Recent climate change-related events are accelerating the melt rate of the Athabasca Glacier in ways not previously understood. “Glacier melt has been accelerated by ash deposits from record upwind wildfires in British Columbia,” Pomeroy said. “Now algae feeding on the ash are darkening the ice surface and thriving in the warmer, wetter conditions on the ice.” These latest findings compound evidence that the currently, two-thirds of the glacier loss is anthropogenically driven (man-made). Estimates for the future suggest that under all climate scenarios there will be substantial glacier loss in the Canadian Cordillera, but there is consensus among scientists that by restricting the globe’s warming to less than two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial age period,

only 60 per cent of the Athabasca Glacier will melt— as opposed to 80 per cent if a “business as usual” trajectory persists. “The timeline depends on what humans do,” he said. “And that’s a political, social or societal decision.” Enter activists such as Thunberg. Her school strike in front of the Swedish parliament in August 2018 has inspired a movement of climate action. Getting a close up view of the Athabasca Glacier helped her learn about the “effects of the climate and ecological crisis on stunning Jasper National Park,” she said on Twitter. Pomeroy said her interest in his field work was encouraging, if for no other reason than to showcase the data he and his team have been collecting. “I’m keen to find ways to connect the science,” he said. Bob Covey //

bob@thejasperlocal.com

page B1 // the jasper local // issue 156 // friday, november 1, 2019

local Dark Skies //

ONE GIANT LEAP // MARQUEE SPEAKERS AT THE DARK SKY FESTIVAL BROUGHT SCIENCE TO LIFE OCTOBER 18-27 WITH TALKS ABOUT THE SEARCH FOR EXTRA TERRESTRIAL LIFE, OUR FASCINATION WITH THE MOON AND THE CHALLENGES OF MANNING A MISSION TO MARS. // EDDIE WONG, EXPLOREJASPER.COM

Local community//

friday, november 1, 2019 // issue 156 // the jasper local// page B2

Sun’s out, guns out // Marmot Basin’s Snow making team have been busy firing up the snow guns to welcome back skiers and snowboarders. Opening date has been set for November 8. // Supplied

Local surveyors to seek data on youth connections from home in staff accommodations. “We’re hoping the way we’re recruiting is going to help us reach a broad spectrum of youth,” Orich said. Helping conduct the surveys will be Tennille Day-Chief and Chloe Park, both 19-years-old. Park, who grew up in Jasper, The Youth Engagement Study said she understands that (YES) is a partnership between young people are a hard group GPRC and a variety of commuto capture. nity organizations who want to “It’s a difficult demographic learn more about young people’s to reach. Life is chaotic at that feelings of belonging. stage,” she said. “A strong To help coax sense of potential rebelonging is “A strong sense of spondents into directly corbelonging is directly completing related with the survey, the correlated with improved surveyors will be improved mental mental health, handing out gift healthier health, healthier cards. The bribe relationships relationships and is well worth it, and career in Orich’s eyes: career success.” success,” says the data GPRC Laurisa Orich, hopes to glean YES Research from participants Coordinator. “The voices of will help Jasper create more young people are far too easily opportunities for youth to conignored, overlooked or simply nect. not captured by community lead- “We hope the study will ultiers and policy makers.” mately help community leaders To help ensure those voices are make better policy decisions being heard, GPRC has hired that will better serve the youth two youth research assistants to in our community,” Orich said. conduct in-person interviews in Jasper has a unique “micro Jasper. They’ll be at community climate” of youth, Orich said. dinners or other public spaces, Finding out what helps connect corralling 15 to 24-year-olds to a young person who grew up participate in a short questionhere might be entirely differnaire. The survey categories will ent than what helps connect range from low-intimacy quessomeone who is more transient. tions such as whether or not Similarly, Jasper’s size and youth have access to a vehicle, to isolation makes it different deeper-seeded queries on things from other study areas, such as like quality of relationships and Grande Prairie. living situations. “We talk about youth a lot but The study hopes to capture a we don’t talk as much to youth.” broad range of youth, from high schoolers to those living away Bob Covey //bob@thejasperlocal.

Researchers with Grande Prairie Regional College want to get a better understanding on what helps connect youth to their community.

Surveyors Chloe Park and Tennille Day-Chief

page b3+B4 // the jasper local // issue 156 // friday. november 1, 2019

FEATURE story // by bob covey

EARLIER THIS SUMMER, JASPER’S DERYL KELLY WAS HIGH ABOVE MORAINE LAKE, CLINGING TO A SMALL PIECE OF ROCK ON MOUNT FAY. Kelly was training for his upcoming alpine exam, the last in a long series of exams he needed to pass to qualify him as a fullycertified guide with the ACMG. Mount Fay is an aesthetic marvel in the Lake Louise area, with varied quartzite and limestone routes leading to a gorgeous glacier which gains an interesting, exposed summit ridge. Kelly had been on the route before—Mount Fay is one of his favourite peaks—but on this day, something was wrong. Halfway up the climb, Kelly was doubled over. He was having a panic attack, 9,000 feet above sea level. “I was on my knees, dry-heaving,” he recalled. Kelly finished the climb, but the incident had shook him. He realized that the anxiety of the upcoming ACMG exam—a multiday, live exercise in the mountains that tests a potential guide’s technical skills, judgement and decision-making—was weighing heavily on his mind. “It was a deep, psychological issue I couldn’t drop,” he said. “And it was manifesting into stress.” Kelly’s ACMG journey had started nearly two decades before, when he decided he wanted to be a mountain guide. He and his father, Leo, had an impressive resume of world-class peaks under their

belts, including a 1999 trip on 6,190 metre Mount McKinley (after which he’d name his daughter, Makynlea). However, it wasn’t until they descended from their most audacious challenge yet—

becoming the first father-son team from Canada to summit Mount Everest—that Kelly decided he wanted to climb mountains for a living. That was in 2001. Kelly was 26. “Mountaineering was becoming a strong part of my identity,” he said. But even though Kelly had spent countless days on innumerable mountains, guiding was different than mountaineering. He wasn’t ready, he said, for the sense of responsibility that a guide must undertake. He promptly failed his first ACMG exam. “I didn’t know how to take care of anyone except myself on the mountain,” he said. More experience in the alpine was the only way to garner him a better appreciation of what was

expected of him as a leader in that environment. He and his father racked up more objectives, including Mount Logan, Canada’s highest mountain, and, during a trip back to the Himalayas, 6,476 metre

“In the end I had to remind myself that I’m already a mountain guide, I just needed the certification.” Mera Peak. Meanwhile, during the winter, he was supplementing his ski training with seasonal stints on Mount Norquay’s patrol team. “At that point I realized that skiing was my true passion,” he said. Again, however, he needed more time in the mountains to make the step from passionate enthusiast to professional guide. He landed a job at Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH), putting in four seasons of heli skiing in the big terrain of the Selkirk Mountains. His biggest takeaway—realized in part after he survived a size 2.5 avalanche—was that the pressure to create the perfect day out for the guest is, for the most part, self-inflicted. “It’s almost always you putting that pressure on yourself,” he said. Kelly continued to ski and climb for fun, but also continued to chip away at his tickets. In 2012, with his apprentice alpine certification in hand, Kelly saw that there was an opening on Parks Canada’s rescue team in Waterton National Park. Here was his chance, Kelly thought, to learn from a team whose dual

THRILLING PEAKS AND STRESS-RIDDEN LOCAL MOUNTAIN VALLEYS:

GUIDE CHARTS A PATH TO FULL CERTIFICATION

priorities were protecting the public while ensuring their members had the best training. “I really wanted to get on with Parks,” he said. “It was a dream job.” But he didn’t get it. He placed second in the competition. Luckily, there was another outfit that needed a technician, and when Rupert Wedgwood, Jasper National Park’s rescue team leader, called up Kelly, the 37-year-old was jubilant. “I said ‘screw Waterton!’” Kelly

laughed. The following spring, he moved from the Bow Valley to the Athabasca Valley. Kelly fit in well in Jasper. The work was dynamic and the community was welcoming. He loved the mountain biking in the summer and playing pick-up hockey in the winter. It was a much-needed fresh start after his marriage had ended and he could see clearly that working with the Jasper rescue team would help him develop his skills in the mountains—which is why, when he went to the Bugaboos to take his first shot at the full alpine exam and subsequently fell short, it was something akin to a crack in the foundation. All of a sudden, Kelly’s ACMG journey

had become a source of stress. And instead of bearing down on his preparation, like he had done in the past when he failed, he was avoiding the issue. “Climbing became a point of anxiety,” Kelly said. “It wasn’t that fun anymore.” Luckily, he had work to focus on, and work involved a solid team with whom to train. Despite the internal niggling about the guide process, he was getting his reps, and so after two years, he went back to the exam. To his dismay, however, Kelly was paired with the same examiner who had failed him in 2014. And although the Bugaboos are world renown for alpine climbing, being back where he was previously defeated made him uneasy. His confidence waned.

Even before the exam was finished he knew he’d come up short. He limped back to Jasper, racked with self doubt. “I had the perception I couldn’t even walk straight without getting a failing grade,” he said. The ACMG has a three-strike rule when it comes to challenging an exam and if Kelly failed the test again, he knew he’d lose his apprentice alpine guide status. It would be a massive setback. He felt the pressure building, not only because his career path was seemingly on the line, but because he thought of all the people who had invested in him—family, friends, colleagues and mentors—were anxious to see him succeed.

“I was intimidated—by the climbing, the process and the underlying pressure I put on myself,” he said. And so it went as he came into another climbing season, knowing that his three year window to retake the exam was closing. That’s how he found himself high above Moraine Lake this past summer, dry heaving with stress while roped in on Mount Fay. “I just thought ‘I’m done, I have to do this exam,’” he said. To face his fears, Kelly knew he needed a different tack. To help him focus, he saw a sports performance consultant. Those sessions helped Kelly remember to let go of the things he couldn’t control. They helped him remember that his skills wouldn’t abandon him when he needed them most. And they helped him remember that the pressure to succeed was entirely self-imposed. “I put myself in that situation,” he said. “There was no pressure from Parks or anyone else.” When he was assigned a new examiner, in a new region (the Columbia Icefields Area and Lake Louise, terrain that was intimately familiar to him), everything felt different the third time around. He aced the test. “In the end I had to remind myself that I’m already a mountain guide, I just needed the certification,” he said. During the examiner’s debriefing, Kelly got the news. He passed. He had known it all along, but now it was official: 18 years after he decided he wanted to guide, he was fully certified with the ACMG. The first call he made was to his his hero, his dad. The second was to his biggest supporter, his girlfriend. And the third was to his mentor for the past six years, his boss at Parks Canada. Now that his long journey has come to a culmination, Kelly’s first priority will be, he says, to focus on the people in his life who helped him achieve his goals: his family, firstly, but also the teammates on the JNP rescue team who are at various stages of their own ACMG careers. Make no mistake, however, Kelly is also keenly aware that the stress he harboured anytime he thought about climbing for the last five years, is gone. “It’s exciting again,” he said. “I’m itching to get out.” Bob Covey //

bob@thejasperlocal.com

EarthEx Contracting LTd. Alberta & B.C. Certified Septic System Planner & Installer EXCAVATION SERVICES • ROAD BUILDING • TRAIL BUILDING DEMOLITION • GRADING • DRAINAGE • LAND CLEARING & SIGHT PREP LAND/HARDSCAPING • PROJECT MANAGEMENT

780-852-1390 • EARTHEXCONTRACTING@GMAIL.COM

Local arts and culture //

page B5 // the jasper local //issue 156 // friday, november 1, 2019

Creative process on public display with Jasper artist’s largest landscape yet Claude Boocock is going bigger, bolder and brighter.

The Jasper visual artist is taking her landscape paintings to the next level—as in, she’s going to need a second storey. Starting November 4, Boocock will be painting on location at the Jasper Art Gallery, inside Jasper’s Municipal Library and Cultural Centre. Creating her new work in the public space will be as big of a challenge as the canvas she intends to paint on. When finished, the fourby-six-foot painting will dominate the gallery’s feature wall. “I’m going to need some bigger brushes,” she laughed, holding up a tool that could sweep a grain bin. Boocock is feeling good these days, which is a far cry from a year ago, when her back was bothering her to the point where she could hardly stand, let alone paint. But during her downtime her creative juices stewed. Now that she’s healthy again, she’s ready to get to work. “This project has been simmering for some Risk and reward// Claude Boocock will be creating her newest works time,” she said. in the Jasper Art Gallery during the month of November. // bob Covey Boocock’s influences are many, but the foundaa purpose eight years ago, she said. Since then, exactly how the scenes appear in nature. If a tional ingredients of her creative potpourri are she’s been nothing short of prolific. In 2018, hillside is throwing the painterly flow of a fora mirepoix of abstract art, stylized sculptures before her back started seriously bothering her, est off balance, she might make it disappear. If and portrait photography. Her grandmother she completed 58 works. a mountain needs to be positioned closer to the was an oil painter, while her father was a “Every time we take a walk I’m foreground, she might move it a few kilometres. professional photographer who constantly looking at the light,” That’s the magic of painting with acrylics, she would accept other artists’ works she said. “I’m always seeing said, but it’s also the magic of being an artist in as payment for his portfolios. paintings in my mind.” Jasper National Park. “I live here, these places Growing up in Montreal, the When she gets into her studio, “I live here, these places are part of me,” she house was always full of interare a part of me.” the images in her mind come to says. esting art—just as her home in life. Those who view her work And now these places will be a part of the Jasper is today. can get an idea where Boocock Jasper Art Gallery—in a bigger, bolder and “Most artists in Montreal at that brighter fashion than ever attempted before. time were trying to emulate New York City art- has been hiking, skiing or kayaking based on the paintings that are hung in local restaurants ists,” Boocock said. When she travelled west to Jasper five decades or at the Jasper Art Gallery. Coronet Creek BOOCOCK WILL BRING HER PROCESS TO THE PUBLIC FROM NOVEMago, Boocock was transfixed by the landscapes. makes several appearances. The Maligne River BER 4- NOVEMBER 30, EVERY MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY FROM 10 is a reoccurring star. Naturally, they worked their way into her art. A.M. TO 1 P.M. But not all of Boocock’s canvasses depict However, she only really started painting with Bob Covey //bob@thejasperlocal.com

Mouthpiece haunting, revolutionary The Jasper Film Club is getting a little experimental in November.

On November 14, the club will bring in Mouthpiece, an official selection of the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival’s Top Ten Series. Iconic Canadian filmmaker Patricia Rozema (I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, Into the Forest) returns with a potent exploration of how women across generations contend with their own socialization. One of her most vibrant films to date, Rozema’s latest knots together the thematic threads of her past work: feminist consciousness and the struggle for self-expression. In the aftermath of her mother’s sudden death, aspiring writer Cassandra struggles to compose a eulogy. She self-identifies as the black sheep of the family, standing in brazen opposition to her

mother’s embodiment of feminine grace. In Cassandra’s eyes, to be a “nurturing mother” and a “classy woman” is to be a vessel for self-sacrifice, and she roils over her mother’s failed career and incessant need for approval from others. Cassandra is only able to connect with her mother when she realizes that her own rebelliousness is as much a response to the male gaze as her mother’s conformity. In this adaptation of the play of the same name, the conflicting dialogue in Cassandra’s head is brilliantly expressed by two performers: its original creators, Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava. The various Cassandras are sometimes at odds and sometimes in unison. Their striking physicality and stirring a cappella harmonies create a compelling portrayal of the tension between regression and progress that is often found within women. Mouthpiece is being hailed as a powerful, amusing and highly

// Mouthpiece is an experimental film garnering rave reviews. playing Nov 14 with the film club. //

original look into the conflicted psyche of a fiercely independent millennial woman. It is a wild careening through grief, anger, hypocrisy, sex and self-sabotage in an exploration of the messy contemporary lives of women from both generations. Raucous jokes, musical numbers and heart breaking memories add up to a deeply moving and political por-

trait of a mother and a daughter as seen through the eyes of one conflicted young woman. Synopsis provided via TIFF //

info@thejasperlocal.com

THE JASPER FILM CLUB PRESENTS MOUTHPIECE ON NOVEMBER 14 AT 7 P.M. AT THE CHABA THEATRE, 604 CONNAUGHT DRIVE. $8 FOR MEMBERS; $10 FOR NON-MEMBERS

local trick-or-treat //

friday, november 1, 2019 // issue 156 // the jasper local// page B6