Project Update - April 2006
April 4, 2006
Invermere, B.C. - The final approval process for Jumbo Glacier Resort is nearing its conclusion. A public input period lasting 60 days on the draft Master Plan was concluded on March 4, 2006. While the draft Master Plan was substantially presented during the Environmental Assessment Act review process, the latest public input period was undertaken as prescribed by B.C.'s Commercial Alpine Ski Policy.
We were pleased with the mounting evidence of public support and the widening group of people who expressed their support for the project. For the first time we understand that almost as many letters of support as of opposition were received.
This would confirm the earlier analysis of public sentiment made by the Environmental Assessment Office, that this project has significant support, particularly when compared to other projects under public review, as most people who support or do not oppose projects that are under public review do not tend to communicate their thoughts.
We wish to thank all those who contributed their views; they are currently being reviewed. We will now be working towards submitting a Master Plan for final approval and we will be dedicating special time to develop our relationship with the local First Nations and define it before the final Master Plan public presentation.
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The conclusion of this latest public input period happened to coincide with a Regional District Board meeting that was held on March 3, 2006. At this meeting, the Board voted to confirm the rescission of a September 1996 request to the Province to create a Mountain Resort Municipality for the area of the project and by implication proposing the necessity of an uncharted rezoning process after a 16 year-long public process.
A rezoning process in a new and objective environment would be a feasible way to start the project, but in the existing reality it threatens to be far from an unbiased democratic process and is likely to simply create an opportunity for intimidation. This might create a difficulty coordinating provincial and local government policies. The proponent is trusting that a solution should be found by the time the Master Plan is approved, so that there is no new conflict on the Master Plan, and provincial and local government policies may be harmonized as foreseen in the CORE land use process.
There has been much rhetoric about keeping the project "local" and about the democratic process. After 16 years of process, the Regional District gives the proponent reason to be concerned on both counts. This long process has been:
- Democratic, being initiated by the elected governments having jurisdiction and later supported by a law (supported by both parties) of the legislature,
- Local, as all public consultations were advertised and locally held, and the Regional District representatives participated in the process until the conclusion of the Environmental Assessment Act review process, and
- Public, as no other project went through 16 years of public processes and 5 rounds of formal consultations (the last one just being completed).
A democratic process has to follow public policy and has to be fair, especially when it is at the conclusion of a quasi-judicial process mandated by law (the EA Act process). It should not be capriciously and repeatedly restarted only because special interests did not manage to get the result they wanted from the independent reviewers.
In this respect, the Regional District's February 2005 vote and decision not to participate in the Master Plan review process is a matter of concern for the proponent and the public, in terms of correct information, in terms of opportunity for intimidation, and in terms of timely process.
While the Regional District has decided not to publicly participate in the Master Plan review process of the project, this project continues, after 16 years, to be very much in the public eye and is getting a flood of local press and letters to the editors.
Will the Regional Board be so tainted by the unstructured participation in a debate of 16 years that it cannot give it an unbiased review? This is a real concern.
It is the proponent's hope that facts and goodwill will prevail and different levels of government will find what it takes to allow the common good and an incremental approval process to prevail.
As we stated and repeatedly proven over 16 years, objective reviewers will vindicate our work and the project and the time is approaching when the truth will prevail.
The Jumbo Glacier Resort project is the only tourism project in the Kootenays to have received environmental certification. It is uniquely appropriate for the Kootenays, for the Province and for Canada. Its time has come, after being advocated by a publicly funded study as early as 1982. We expect to complete the approval process soon and we thank all those who have taken the time to consider this project.
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