Hi everyone and welcome to the first of a series of articles attempting to keep all of you healthy and injury free. The snow is back with hopefully plenty more on the way and I thought it appropriate to take this opportunity to discuss injury prevention on the hill. It seems appropriate to once more divide the skiers from the snowboarders and discuss each sport separately since they each have unique ways of injuring themselves.

Economically, Jasper appears to be in good shape this winter. Record snowfalls attracted tourists by the thousands earlier in the year, and an unusually warm February ensured visitors kept coming. So many tourist communities roll up the streets come Thanksgiving (if they’re lucky), and wait out the winter.

But of course Jasper has the advantage of winter destination, and that should allow many more businesses to flourish.

Crime is dropping in Jasper.

Late night vandalism is down substantially, assault numbers are plummeting, drunk driving incidents have been cut and drug crime is at a three year low.

Youth crime is also dropping, and virtually non-existent amongst teenage girls.

According to Jasper RCMP, work done to curb many of the criminal issues on Patricia St. appears to be working, and there is an identifiable trend to less criminal activity.