The Official Opposition NDP continues to demand answers from the BC Liberal government about its support for the Jumbo Glacier Resort Municipality (JGRM) and ski resort proposal.

Earlier this week, two Kootenay MLAs launched offensives demanding answers as to how the government can provide taxpayer funds for a town without people or infrastructure.

Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald and Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall came out firing Nov. 25.

Calling the resort municipality with residents, which is receiving $200,000 a year from Victoria over a five-year period, “a farce,” Mungall demanded to know why the government wouldn’t take back money offered in return from JGRM.

JGRM Mayor Greg Deck earlier this week told the Vancouver Province via an email that his council looked into returning unused funds, which Mungall said amounted to $180,000.

“Council made an earnest offer in acknowledgment that our Mountain Resort Municipality is in a different stage in its development than more established communities. We didn’t want our participation in the normal grants to small communities to be a new political issue that distracts from the amazing tourism resource that should be the focus Jumbo Glacier Resort,” Deck wrote in a Nov. 25 email to The Province.

With that in mind, Mungall pressed the government for an explanation why it declined that offer.

Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Coralee Oakes responded by noting that B.C. has in its past been hit hard by the rise of towns without proper planning, citing boomtown Barkerville (established in 1861, 10 years before B.C. entered confederation) as an example. She also pointed at Kitimat as an example of a boomtown that prospered due to proper planning.

By providing funds to JGRM, the province is ensuring such proper planning will take place, Oakes said.

Macdonald questions how well that planning is going for JGRM and the province, considering recent news that the foundation for the resort’s first building has been built in a Class 4 Avalanche Zone, outside the site where it was originally planned to be located.

“British Columbians are starting to wonder just how many things have to go wrong before the Minister of Environment will stand up to (Kootenay East MLA) Bill Bennett and say no to Jumbo,” he stated in a press release.

“More details about the state of construction of the Jumbo Glacier Resort continue to tell a story of incompetence, sloppiness and amateurishness. Can the minister possibly say yes?

“A few weeks ago, the public discovered that the BC Liberal government had allowed the proponent of Jumbo Glacier Resort to lay the foundation of their day lodge in a Class 4 avalanche path,” said Macdonald.  “Now we have discovered that not only is the day lodge foundation situated in a dangerous location, the day lodge has been placed outside the boundaries of the area established for the resort.”

In a report prepared by Cal Meiklejohn of Meiklejohn Architects for the Ktunaxa Nation Council, Meiklejohn stated that a review of the site plans and supporting documents indicated that the day lodge is not located within the boundaries of the Land Tenure that has been granted to Jumbo Glacier Resort.

“This situation has now gone well beyond any reasonableness. After 10 years with an Environmental Assessment Certificate, all Jumbo proponents have managed is hastily poured concrete, in an avalanche path, outside of the established tenure. We have the Ktunaxa clearly stating their opposition because of the sacredness of the site. And there is still no investor,” Macdonald stated, pushing for an answer on how the provincial government could approve the continuance of the proponent’s Environmental Assessment Certificate, considering the lack of construction of “substantial infrastructure” before the Oct. 12 deadline to establish it.

“After all of this, can Minister (Mary) Polak possibly say yes to Jumbo? Will Bill Bennett’s continued interference and bullying tactics pressure the minister to make such a ridiculous decision?”
Macdonald asked.

A decision by the Minister of Environment on whether or not the Jumbo project is considered to be ‘substantially started’ is due shortly.

“It will be an absolute joke if the minister looks at this fiasco and says yes,” continued Macdonald. “It will also prove that our environmental assessment process is a disgrace.”

Bill Bennett was asked if he wished to respond to Macdonald’s statements in his press release. Nothing yet has been forwarded.

Video of Nov. 25 exchange in B.C. Legislature… between Michelle Mungall and Coralee Oakes.

RK Heli-Ski report to government on day lodge being located in Class 4 Avalanche Zone

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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