Council with no constituents: Dumbo project moves along

The BC Government has appointed a mayor and two councilors to head up the new Jumbo, BC, municipality in anticipation of developing the controversial ski resort. Will you ski there? Will it even fly? Jumbo or Dumbo?

This from the Vancouver Sun:

VANCOUVER — The B.C. government has approved the incorporation of the Jumbo ski project as a mountain resort municipality, opening the way for a controversial new recreational development high in the wilderness of the Purcell Mountains.

Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Bill Bennett said Tuesday the designation sets up the civic framework for the development of a $450-million high-elevation ski resort. He also appointed a mayor and two councillors.

Bennett, the MLA for Kootenay East, acknowledged in a conference call that the development is controversial. The nearest municipality, Invermere, opposes the designation, calling it an undemocratic concept that may never grow enough to have an elected council, and the local First Nation also opposes it.

The Jumbo Resort Municipality is the province’s third resort municipality, after Whistler and Sun Peaks, but the only one to be created in a remote wilderness where nobody currently lives.

That could soon change, said Oberto Oberti, president of Glacier Resorts Ltd., the company that has been working for more than 20 years to create a new ski destination in the area. Oberti, an architect, said the first phase of the development — a $50-million investment in ski runs and infrastructure — could be completed on the 104-hectare site in time for the 2014 ski season.

“We finally have the vehicle whereby we can submit the drawings for a building permit,” he said.

The new municipality is at the foot of Jumbo Mountain and Jumbo Glacier, 53 kilometres west of Invermere on an abandoned sawmill site. It would provide access to four glaciers for year-round skiing at elevations reaching 3,400 metres.

The mayor, Greg Deck, and two councillors, Nancy Hugunin and Steve Ostrander, have been appointed for a term ending Nov. 30, 2014. Deck is a former mayor of Radium Hot Springs, which supports the project. The council’s first meeting is Feb. 19, 2013, and the province is providing $260,000 in funding for the fledgling municipality.

“We have an opportunity to have a ski resort created in British Columbia that will be unparalleled anywhere in North America. Guaranteed snow at Christmas. What other ski resort in North America can say that?” Bennett said of the project, which he personally supports for its job creation potential.

The resort municipality designation is the next step in the development process after the province approved Jumbo Glacier Resort’s master development agreement last March.

The project has been in various review processes for 22 years and has been politically divisive. Environmentalists say it threatens the grizzly bear population of the Purcell Range, as it would fragment their habitat. Robyn Duncan of the environmental group Wildsight says the region is core habitat for bears all along the spine of the Purcell Range, which forms the western flank of the Columbia Valley. She said she opposes the way the province has dealt with the development.

“Having the B.C. government hand-pick a council and create a municipality in the middle of wilderness changes the way democracy is done in British Columbia,” Duncan said.

The district of Invermere passed a resolution opposing the resort municipality, stating that it may never have a large enough permanent population for an elected council, remaining undemocratic and controlled by the province and the developer.

The Ktunaxa First Nation is also opposed. Kathryn Teneese, Ktunaxa First Nation chairwoman, said the province has not listened to Ktunaxa concerns over the environment and over the special significance the mountain region holds for the First Nation.

“We have clearly and consistently indicated that if this resort is built, it will critically damage our religious rights and freedoms, as well as our aboriginal rights, all of which are recognized by the Canadian Constitution,” she said.

Bennett said the Regional District of East Kootenay requested the government create the resort municipality as a way of transferring jurisdiction away from the regional district, as many communities in the sprawling region do not support the plan.

“The regional district and local taxpayers would have been saddled with years of additional controversy, expense and uncertainty,” he said. “This will give our communities an opportunity to heal from this 22-year-old controversy and move on.”

Norm Macdonald, NDP MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke, said the NDP is opposed to the designation.

“We have been clear. It doesn’t make economic sense,” he said. The designation would make it more complicated to end the project, he said.

Macdonald said he believes there is no money and no investor behind the project.

Oberti, who is designing the ski development, disputed that but said he did not want to disclose the names of the investors because of the opposition the project has generated.

The $450-million resort proposal is planned in three phases. It is projected to provide 5,500 beds and approximately 3,750 person years of construction employment. The province estimates it will create and create 750 to 800 jobs.