The B.C. government appears poised to approve a controversial proposal to build a $450 million ski resort on Jumbo Mountain despite opposition from the Ktunaxa Nation, the New Democratic Party (NDP) and celebrity critics such as former National Hockey League (NHL) star Scott Niedermayer.
The opposition comes as international visitor counts to B.C. have plunged in recent years, fuelling criticism that the project has a weak business model.
International visitors to B.C. fell 11.2% between 2006 and 2010, despite 2010 being the year the province hosted the Winter Olympic Games.
During that time, visitors from:
?the U.S. fell 14.5%;
?Japan fell 41%; and
?the U.K. fell 9.9%.
But Jumbo developer Glacier Resorts Ltd.?s senior vice-president Grant Costello countered critics who claim that his resort will hurt established B.C. ski destinations. He argued that people said the same thing about Blackcomb Mountain when it opened near Whistler in 1980.
Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson told Business in Vancouver in a statement that he will decide ?soon? whether to approve the Jumbo proposal just as duelling between supporters and opponents has intensified. Thomson?s priority, he said, is to ?make sure that the process is done in an open, fair and transparent manner.?
Meantime, Costello is convinced that Glacier has met every government requirement. More evidence that the Liberals will support the Jumbo proposal is that Liberal MLA Bill Bennett, who represents the nearby East Kootenay riding, has also been tweeting to show his support for the project.
?People need jobs,? Bennett told a media scrum earlier this month. ?This is a viable opportunity to create several hundred jobs for many, many years and to create an icon, a tourism icon, an attraction that really isn?t matched anywhere else in North America.?
Costello believes Thomson should approve the Jumbo proposal because it:
?adds to B.C.?s cluster of ski resorts and raises its ski destination profile internationally;
?offers the prospect of year-round skiing and 6,000-foot vertical drops –something unavailable currently in B.C.; and
?has cleared all obstacles, including a nine-and-a-half-year environmental review, during the more than 20 years that it has been on the drawing board.
The Ktunaxa oppose the development mainly because in would be on the site of what they consider to be sacred land and the spiritual home of the grizzly bear. But Costello and Bennett have hinted that the Ktunaxa are hypocritical in that stance because band members operate a hunters? outfitting business 35 kilometres from the proposed Jumbo ski resort site.
?They support the killing of grizzlies 35 kilometres downstream from Jumbo,? Costello said. ?Out of the 700,000 square kilometres that they claim, they?re saying that the Jumbo Valley, which is only a few square kilometres, is the only place where the grizzly bear spirit resides. Draw your own conclusion.?
Costello believes the Ktunaxa don?t want to have large private developments on their ancestral land before their land claim is settled.
Government has extensively consulted the Ktunaxa, which is all that Victoria is legally required to do. The Ktunaxa do not legally have a veto over the project, and Costello believes it could set a dangerous precedent if Victoria backs down from approving a project that meets requirements simply because a native band is opposed.
He called the Ktunaxa?s November 15 news conference, which featured Cranbrook-raised Niedermayer, an ?intimidation? tactic.
NDP tourism critic Spencer Chandra Herbert told BIV that his opposition to the Jumbo proposal stems as much from economic reasons as from a desire to respect the Ktunaxa?s position.
He said B.C. should not be blinded to economic realities by a developer that is willing to pump $100 million into building ski lifts and other infrastructure.
?It?s public land. Jumbo is owned by everyone in B.C. It needs to make sense for the economy, the environment and society.?
Herbert pointed to an economic assessment of the Jumbo proposal that academic and Marvin Shaffer & Associates Ltd. principal Marvin Shaffer prepared for the Ktunaxa in May. Shaffer, who previously served as an adviser to former NDP premier Glen Clark, challenged Glacier?s claims that the resort will draw tourists, stimulate economic activity and create generate tax revenue and jobs for government. ?
