Background & Approval Process

The Beginning

A view of the Matterhorn from the town of Zermatt.

In November 1989, Pheidias Project Management, of Vancouver, British Columbia, visited Zermatt, Switzerland with Nikken Canada Holdings Ltd. (Nikken), with a view to study and introduce the optimum mountain resort for North America.

On April 16, 1991, Pheidias formally submitted a preliminary project proposal to the Province of British Columbia for a year round alpine resort approximately fifty kilometres (thirty miles) west of Invermere, BC. Centred in the heart of the heli-ski terrain accessed from Panorama Mountain Village, the proposal has the objective of replacing access by helicopter with access by aerial tram or gondola to two of the most suitable and scenic mountains in the Purcell range, and to allow glacier skiing, as well as sight seeing, in summer at the top of the glaciers at elevations never before accessed in North America.

  The Proponent  |  Government Approval Process  

The Proponent

Nikken, a Japanese Company based in Tokyo, with a subsidiary in Vancouver, was the initial client that funded the preliminary study. Following an initial Expression of Interest, Formal Proposal and a Public Input period in the Summer of 1991*, an American investment group specializing in hotels and resorts, based in Washington D.C. visited the area in November 1991. A Canadian Limited Liability Partnership, internationally funded, with Glacier Resorts Ltd. of Vancouver, B.C. as General Partner, was then established and received official recognition as the project Proponent by the Government of British Columbia by means of an Interim Agreement signed in 1993.

* The public input period lasted three months, from July to September 1991, and was concluded by two days of meetings and an open house hosted by the B.C. Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks in Invermere, British Columbia.

The Government Approval Process

The Jumbo Glacier Resort Project was, at the outset, involved in a government approval process under the terms of the Commercial Alpine Ski Policy (CASP) of the Province of British Columbia. In 1993, however, following the Interim Agreement issued under CASP, the CASP review process was put on hold pending the resolution of a land use decision by the B.C. Commission on Resources and Environment (CORE) at the East Kootenay Table.

The Proponent's representatives participated at the meetings of CORE with the East Kootenay Tourism Council and the process concluded with favourable land-use decision by assigning "very high recreation and tourism" values to the proposed project site and specifically recommending that the project go ahead subject to the then-new Environmental Assessment Act review and the abandonment of a separate and unrelated road proposal by the Province over Jumbo Pass.

The successful conclusion of the land use designation process was announced by a Provincial press release on April 10, 1995. The Province determined that the project should be reviewed under its new Environmental Assessment Act (EA Act) procedures, and the EA Act process formally began in July 1995.

The Province had originally committed to completing this process within 12 to 18 months, but the process has been on-going. The Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) worked on the preparation of Project Specifications from October 1995 to May 1998. It then commissioned additional studies that were concluded in August 1999. The Project Specifications were the official terms of reference for the Proponent so that the final Project Report, responding to the Specifications, could be submitted for review. The complex work, studies, reviews and consultations leading to a Project Report took five years to complete.

The Project Report was issued by the Proponent in December 2003, and was accepted as complete on February 4, 2004. The final review process continued with a public input period from February 13th to April 13th 2004. A review of all comments and of government agencies' reports was completed in August 2004, with a report by the EAO to three Ministers. The result of the Environmental Assessment Act review process is a Provincial Environmental Assessment Certificate that approves the project for development, although a Master Plan approval, a Master Development Agreement and detailed permits are still required.

On October 14, 2004 the EAO announced the Environmental Certificate for the Jumbo Glacier Resort project. The Master Plan review followed, and the Master Plan was approved on July 12, 2007.

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