Tourism Jasper has joined forces with the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) after it fired its managing director earlier this year.
Doug Goss, chair of the board of directors for Tourism Jasper, said his organization recently entered into a memorandum of understanding and a service agreement with EEDC to ensure its operating procedures are at the highest standards.
鈥淭here was an opportunity for us to reach out and make sure that our operating procedures were at a high level and best practices so we asked them to come in and work with us to do a bit of an audit of everything that we do and just make sure that our polices and procedures were up to the highest standards,鈥� said Goss.
鈥淲e鈥檝e made changes as a result of that, which will keep the organization strong and maintain our ability to market Jasper at a very high level.鈥�
The new partnership follows the termination of Kyle Harms, the former managing director for Tourism Jasper.
鈥淚 can confirm he was terminated,鈥� said Goss. 鈥淎nything else around the dismissal is a personnel matter and is confidential.鈥�
Harms did not respond to several interview requests.
Tourism Jasper has hired James Jackson to fill in as the acting general manager for the next six months until they find a permanent replacement.
Jackson is the tourism development manager for EEDC.
Despite the shake up, Goss said he still has full confidence in Tourism Jasper鈥檚 ability to fulfill its mandate.
鈥淭he reality is the governance of the organization is extremely strong,鈥� said Goss. 鈥淲e realized we had an issue and a problem and acted on it in a very timely manner so the organization wasn鈥檛 hurt and has carried on as a strong, vibrant marketing organization. In my view it has never been stronger.鈥�
Paul Clarke
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