Council asked administration to draft a letter in support of a culinary institute Grande Prairie Regional College hopes to develop in Jasper and to send the letter to the provincial government.
Coun. Dwain Wacko made the recommendation during the March 22 committee-of-the-whole meeting, noting that it鈥檚 been about a year since he last heard about the project and it might be worth bringing it back to the forefront with 鈥渁 little nudge鈥� from council.
GPRC pitched the idea of a culinary institute located at the Jasper Legion back in 2014 and met that year with members of the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce, municipal council, the Jasper Hotel Association, Parks Canada and Jasper Community Habitat for the Arts to gauge community interest.
It received enthusiastic support and has since been working with the provincial government to secure funding to make the project a reality.
Although little has been heard about the project for a number of months, GPRC鈥檚 Mark Evans said 鈥渋t鈥檚 still in the works.鈥�
He said the college is still in talks with the province and assessing the feasibility of the project.
Council agreed with Wacko that it鈥檚 worth writing a letter and showing council鈥檚 support for the project.
鈥淚 think this brings nothing but good things to the community and when it was on the burner, or in the oven, and people were talking about it, a lot of the people in the restaurant business were quite excited about it,鈥� said Coun. Rico Damota. 鈥淣ot only does it bring the possibility of a labour pool to draw from, but it will also attract that kind of attention to our town. It just enhances everything all together.鈥�
During the pride festival, Coun. Helen Kelleher-Empey said she spoke to Ricardo Miranda, minister of culture and tourism, about the project and he expressed interest in seeing it come to fruition.
鈥淗e was quite interested, but it hadn鈥檛 come across his desk,鈥� said Kelleher-Empey. 鈥淗e did give me his card and he would like to hear from us.鈥�
She said Miranda thought it would be a good way to improve Jasper鈥檚 attraction and retention of workers.
If the culinary institute is to be developed, it would not only offer a new educational opportunity in Jasper, but it would also help the Jasper Legion, which has been struggling since 脡cole Desrochers moved into the new joint school facility in 2014.
That move resulted in a significant loss of revenue for the legion, as it has continued to pay for the building鈥檚 utilities and upkeep while no longer collecting rent on half its space.
Nicole Veerman
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