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Opposition will become galvanized
E-KNOW editorial
Yesterday’s approval of the Jumbo Glacier Resort Ltd. proposal for a 6,250 bed resort in the dead centre of the Purcell Mountain chain, 55 km west of Invermere, means about as much as the paper it is written on.
Two plus decades of flawed and masterfully manipulated process, by the proponents, governments of the day and opposition, led to yesterday’s announcement by forests minister Steve Thomson that Glacier Resorts’ Master Development Agreement (MDA) had been approved and signed.
There was a sense from Thomson’s words and tone that government simply wanted this weight removed from its symbolic plane, which has been losing elevation steadily the past two years. By signing the MDA government effectively removes itself from any potential legal action that would have been directed at it by the proponents, and it can spin it to the public, at least those beyond the Kootenays who may not be up to speed on this issue, as a swing at job creation and doing rural B.C. a favour.
‘Hey, we’re doing what we can to grow tourism,’ government will say. And on the surface, how can one argue, if that surface happens to be in Victoria or Vancouver or in the homes of ski and boarding junkies around the world? Because, let’s face it, if Jumbo is actually built, and that is one freaking large font IF, the high elevation resort will offer the best snow in North America, if not the world.
But the reality of our current world is that there is little money available for large, sparkling new projects, unless you happen to be in Dubai or are investing in oil and gas or coal, where the end game results in expenditures being quickly recouped. If this project could not find feet or wings in the late 1990s when money flew around the East Kootenay, from Alberta, like harried bats in a gong-rattled cave, what makes anyone think this 22-year-old hot coal is going to glow any redder now?
There are a great many ski resorts in our region and nearby regions, and Jumbo would trump them all. Each of the resorts are scrambling to get bums on lifts and heads on pillows, and each of those resorts would have to work even harder to achieve that goal if Jumbo moved forward, no matter how much positive spin about inertia and synergy is lobbed out. Never mind where the employees for this would-be resort will come from, as almost every resort in a 300 mile radius must reach out around the globe to find workers to fill the majority low-end wage positions. They rely on finding, for the most part, youngsters looking for a winter of comped or cheap skiing or riding as their main aspiration. The dollars are secondary.
Where the dollars are not secondary is in the communities adjacent to ski hills. There is no doubt that Fernie, Kimberley and Invermere benefit greatly from the ski hills in their backyards.
Does adding a bigger, badder, fancier resort to the mix mean good things for those resorts? Skiing is not like golf, where more courses tend to mean more business because… here’s a rub… golf is a game one can play deep into old age, whereas skiing and snowboarding is a younger person’s game. Numbers are down around the world in the ski industry because of the well-documented aging of ‘have’ nations’ populations.
The end of yesterday’s press conference in Victoria was extremely telling in what was said that may have seemed fairly innocuous.
Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett, while speaking about how special the Jumbo site is, said “if this gets built” twice.
When asked why he said ‘IF,’ he replied that it is not government’s job to “go out and find the money to build a mine or the ski resort or whatever the project happens to be. It’s now up to the proponent. The proponent has been asking for 22 years for that opportunity. Today he gets it.”
Yes he does.
Bennett recently jaunted to France, along with some other people who support the Jumbo concept – a few from the Columbia Valley and elsewhere around the world – to court a company to come on over and get jiggy with spade wielding in the high alpine. Bennett says his costs were covered out of his own pocket, but he was also attending on behalf of a cabinet minister.
This makes one stop and wonder why if it isn’t government’s job to “go out and find the money” to build a mine or resort, this junket took place. Coercing or convincing one or a corporation to invest is in every sense going out and finding the money.
That is one example of many over the past two decades how Victoria has been slinking about in the background playing games with the backcountry we East Kootenay folk find such solace and joy from.
Jumbo has been on the watch of six premiers now, beginning way back with the NDP’s Mike Harcourt who let the big whoopsy slip out in Davos, Switzerland, which was the first of countless whoopsies from the mouths of government over the years.
The current NDP Opposition cites being against the proposal, because they have been spared the relentless lobbying of the wee pitbull named Oberto Oberti , and are rightfully deferring to Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald’s views on the subject – which are firmly centered on not supporting the idea because he believes, based on being on the ground in his riding, that the majority of his constituents are opposed to Jumbo. Former MLA and cabinet minister Jim Doyle (NDP) also took that stance.
It’s no shock that the ruling Liberals could give a rat’s butt about what the NDP think or wish, but for a government that espouses free enterprise, one would hope they would be mindful of existing businesses and the impacts such a potential white elephant could have on them, as well as being mindful of the tenures they sell to companies such as RK Heli-Ski.
As RK president Tom Brinkerhoff said yesterday, as he’s being saying since he bought one of the pioneer companies of heli-skiing a decade or so ago, IF Jumbo moves forward, his business is finished. But apparently that small local business doesn’t matter to Victoria or to the supporters in this region. It gives one the warm and fuzzies to know that a local business is potentially being thrown under the bus as a sacrifice to the so-called greater good.
RK is one of four major sticking points surrounding Jumbo, but, no offence to it, it ranks fourth.
The three main outstanding issues that have not ever been answered to satisfaction are: who is paying for the road construction and upkeep?; What about the Ktunaxa Nation’s spiritual claims on Jumbo?; and just who the hell is it that is going to develop a large tract of OUR Crown land?
Bill Bennett replied to our question about the road yesterday with: “To the extent the road needs improvement, the proponent will pay. The standards applied will depend on what incremental stage of development the project is at.”
Fair enough. Considering the extreme demands for new or upgraded roadways the province over, if a red cent of provincial government money was expended to fix that 55 km donkey cart path from Invermere to Jumbo, it would be a vicious slap to the face of every region in this province.
Flat out – the proponent had better be on the hook for the entire cost of the highway construction from Panorama Mountain Village to Jumbo Village, roughly 37 kms of high mountain roadway. And constructing anything that is less than a full-out mountain highway would be criminally negligent, when one considers the so-called target market for Jumbo. And they better be anteing up big time for the mostly terrible piece of road from Invermere to Panorama.
Getting the road to standards that will just allow the myriad of construction vehicles that will be plying up and down to Jumbo on a daily basis would be a hefty cost.
The Ktunaxa have become a major roadblock to Jumbo in the last few years, delivering the Qat’muk Declaration, stating their deep spiritual connection to the area, based around the grizzly bear.
Yesterday, the provincial government basically told them that there is no legal leg to stand on when it comes to their spirituality. No known case law applies. Sorry about your deeply held religious beliefs, but law does not recognize them!
If you are a spiritual person, think for a second about something or someplace that resonates with your soul and then consider that it will be forever altered and impacted by someone(s) who don’t share or care about your beliefs.
What exactly is the beef between Christians and Muslims? Say no more.
Finally, there is the not-so-small matter of the fact that the government nor the proponent are forthcoming, at all, on who/what exactly it is that is going to build Jumbo.
The quick and obvious answer is: no one because there is no one willing to spend that kind of money. If there was, the language in yesterday’s press conference would not have included the word ‘if.’
When it boils down at the end of the day, Jumbo remains Crown land; OUR land; B.C.’s land.
Do we have to say it? Do we have to actually ask it of our elected officials? Seriously? How amazingly disrespectful!
Okay – we’ll ask it again, maybe you didn’t hear us the first 9,000 times over the last two decades – WHO, other than a small change Vancouver firm trying to get approvals, is really behind the development of some of OUR Crown land.
We have every right to know and by not telling us or continuing to keep it secret, government is showing a dangerous and despicable lack of transparency and respect to taxpayers worthy of nothing more than complete removal from power.
“When I read it – $1 billion development approved by the BC Government, I asked, does that mean the government is funding this development? If not, why are they not talking about who is funding it? The taxpayers need to know what they are funding. Who are the funders? We know it’s not Oberto,” said RK Heli-Ski’s Brinkerhoff yesterday.
Finally, there were shouts from on high by project supporters yesterday that this MDA approval will allow healing to begin.
That’s like saying once an opponent has been kicked in the nuts and shoved face-first in a toilet bowl that NOW the healing can begin.
All that will begin from yesterday’s announcement is simply another round of acrimonious battling – opponent vs. proponent/supporter. To think otherwise shows a sweeping lack of respect for peoples’ convictions and faith.
And if you think this will fade into the sunset of 2014, when Jumbo’s Environmental Assessment Certificate expires, unless “significant” work has begun, you need to understand that government can, if it wishes, sign off on a five-year extension.
But we doubt that will happen because yesterday’s provincial government announcement was our leadership in Victoria effectively treating away a two decades old pain in its ass.
The ball is now truly in Glacier Resort Ltd.’s court. So show us the money – prove yourself.
The last 22 years were the prelude. Now the story truly begins.
Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
