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Numerous reactions to Jumbo ‘junket’
A junket to France to tout the Jumbo Glacier Resort project to potential investors has spurred a few regional leaders and organizations to offer their thoughts.
It was announced a week back that Glacier Resort proponents, a number of Columbia Valley business owners, Village of Radium Hot Springs Mayor Dee Conklin and Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett, are heading to France to meet with representatives with Compagnie des Alpes (http://www.compagniedesalpes.com/), which owns a number of ski resorts in France, as well as Italy and Switzerland, and a number of theme parks in Europe. The French government controlled company is part of The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (Deposits and Consignments Fund), created in 1816.
Among Compagnie des Alpes missions is to develop high country ski resorts. Jumbo Glacier Resort, proposed for the upper Jumbo Creek Valley, 55 km west of Invermere, offers that scenario. The $1 billion (estimated) ski resort proposal, which would utilize adjacent glaciers for three-season skiing, would feature 5,500 beds and 750 staffing beds over a 104 hectare resort area http://www.jumboglacierresort.com/ .
MLA Bill Bennett told CBC News he is paying his own way to Paris and isn’t just going to be lobbying for Jumbo.
“I’m not going to promote Jumbo Glacier Resort, I’m going to promote British Columbia. I’m going to talk to a very large, successful, French ski resort company that is thinking about investing in my province and and creating jobs in two areas of the province that could really use those job. That’s why I’m going,” Bennett told CBC, adding Compagnie des Alpes is interested in Jumbo, but also a similar project in the Valemont area.
Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald said he is disturbed by the most recent development in this 21-year-old saga.
“The news that the B.C. Liberal government is leading an appeal for financing for Jumbo Glacier Resort, despite the overwhelming opposition of residents and First Nations, is really disturbing. The people in this area have been clear that they do not want the project to proceed yet this government is determined to force it down our throats,” Macdonald told e-KNOW.
Macdonald said he believes the junket will be hard pressed to achieve success.
“ It will be a tough sell; trying to convince an investor to put money into a project that has not been able to proceed for more than a decade, is opposed by a First Nation, and likely does not make economic sense,” he said.
The junket shows how little the Liberal government has on its radar in terms of finding ways to grow the province’s economy, said Macdonald, whose bailiwick includes the Jumbo Valley.
“It is disappointing that the B.C. Liberals have so little to offer in terms of economic development and job creation in this valley. To hang all their job creation hopes on a resort that doesn’t even have financial backers is shocking. It shows just how little this government knows about what is required to grow the economy in rural communities,” he said.
District of Invermere Mayor Gerry Taft, who wasn’t invited to take part in the Junket, said on the surface the week-long trip seems like a useful venture. However, there is more than meets the eye, he said.
“Generally the concept of promoting our region and trying to attract investment and attention is a positive thing. It would be nice to know what the message being brought to France will be, especially around the contentious and unresolved Jumbo issues. Considering the effort those in favour of Jumbo have taken to keep the discussion and future land use decisions out of the public realm – I’m not at all surprised about the vague amount of information on this ‘trade mission’ and what the message around Jumbo will be. I also think it is a leap of faith for the Village of Radium taxpayers to be paying airfare to promote the ski industry in BC when there are no ski resorts in their boundaries.”
The entity that has proven to be the greatest stumbling block for resort promoters – despite the two-decades of process and delays (most due to proponent delays during the final years of the last ruling NDP government) – is the Ktunaxa Nation (KN), which calls the Jumbo Valley area Qat’muk (GOT-MOOK), and KN officials are also not amused with this development.
“ The Ktunaxa Nation Council is deeply concerned that a delegation representing B.C. is travelling to France to secure investment for a controversial resort that hasn’t been approved. Jumbo Glacier Resort has been widely opposed by the majority of local residents, as well as the Ktunaxa Nation, who consider this area to be sacred,” stated a KN press release.
“It has the appearance that government is not impartial in the project review process,” noted Kathryn Teneese, Ktunaxa Nation chair.
The B.C. Government has an obligation to make a decision about this resort based upon facts, the KN release continued, asking, “Is the government providing preferential treatment for this private business? It certainly calls into question the approval process.”
The KN says the government is misleading the public when it states that Jumbo would create jobs.
“Last November we released an economic report by Dr. Marvin Schaffer, which showed that this resort is likely to have zero net economic benefit for the people of B.C. The report indicated that any job gains at the new resort will likely be offset by losses at other resorts or tourism businesses, particularly as there has been an overall decline in the ski tourism market since 2004,” the release stated.
“It will only provide minimum wage jobs,” said Teneese. “The local businesses are already having a hard time filling those. This project will provide very few jobs for families to survive on. The only ones who will benefit are developers, although insolvency of ski resorts is all too common. This is a real estate grab at the expense of the people of B.C., at the expense of the environment, and at the expense of Ktunaxa culture and heritage.”
The KN release explained the First Nation peoples’ hold on Jumbo/the Central Purcell Mountains.
“For Ktunaxa, Qat’muk is the home to the Grizzly Bear Spirit and the core of a culturally pivotal sacred site. It also provides key connectivity habitat for grizzlies and numerous other wildlife species. Last November was the one year anniversary of the delivery of the Qat’muk Declaration to the B.C. Legislature. The Qat’muk Declaration outlines the cultural significance of the region to Ktunaxa, and provides principles for appropriate activities and usage,” the release highlights.
“There are just too many risks with this proposed resort,” continued Teneese. “Ultimately for Ktunaxa, the desire to protect this culturally significant area is the most critical. The Ktunaxa are not opposed to development, and in many cases we have supported development throughout our Territory. However, development has to be done in a sensible manner in appropriate locations.
Teneese added: “In this case, approval of a resort in Qat’muk would cause serious and irreversible harm to the Ktunaxa way of life, and it would also be an environmental disaster in southeastern British Columbia. The provincial decision-makers now have an opportunity to say no to this resort and prevent this jumbo mistake.”
The KN noted it has never extinguished its Aboriginal Title within their traditional territory, and government has a legal obligation to consult about and accommodate impacts upon Ktunaxa interests.
“The Ktunaxa Nation has continuously opposed the development of the proposed resort due to its impacts on Ktunaxa rights and interests. The Ktunaxa Nation wants to ensure that any development happens in a manner that is consistent with the Qat’muk Declaration,” the release concluded.
The Qat’muk Declaration, Shaffer Report and Short Documentary can all be found at www.beforejumbo.com
Long a thorn in the side of regional environmentalists, the latest news on Jumbo comes as another disappointment.
“It is disappointing that the B.C. government is seeking foreign funding for a project before it has been approved and gone through the appropriate land use process,” said Robyn Duncan, Wildsight’s Invermere-based program manager.
“Science shows the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort would severely impact the grizzly population of the Purcell and Selkirk mountains and there is an overwhelming majority opposed to this project. This trip abroad is not without irony as the federal government attacks environmental groups across the country for receiving American foundation charitable funding to protect globally-significant nature, while the B.C. government flies off to France to seek foreign funding that sells off our land,” she said.
Above photo: ‘Qat’muk’ – courtesy Ktunaxa Nation
Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
