There are no residents or buildings in the municipality of Jumbo, B.C. The only development proposal planned for the voterless town — the Jumbo Glacier Ski Resort — has been sent back to the drawing board by the province and a Supreme Court judge is considering an application to dissolve the municipality.

But, for now, activity in the Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality will continue as usual, says Mayor Greg Deck.

The Kootenays municipality of Jumbo was created by the provincial government (some say undemocratically) in 2012 for the sole purpose of dealing with the controversial Jumbo Glacier Resort project, but in July the Environment Ministry allowed its environmental certificate to expire after ruling the project had not been substantially started in time to meet its permit deadline.

Read Democracy Interrupted: How Jumbo Glacier Resort Became a Municipality with No Residents

That means plans for a massive all-season, wilderness ski resort in the heart of the Jumbo Valley must either be scrapped or proponents must start from scratch and ask the province for a new environmental assessment.

“We want to finish the Official Community Plan by the end of the year. We don’t want it to be a problem because it was left undone. It’s a good insurance policy,” Deck told DeSmog Canada.

“We are doing business as usual with an eye on how the proponents will work out the differences with the province,” said Deck, former mayor of Radium Hot Springs and chair of the Columbia Basin Trust.

The project has a long, controversial history. In 1991, Oberto Oberti of Pheidias Project Management Corp. and Glacier Resorts first envisioned a massive all-season ski resort in the wilderness, about 55 kilometres west of Invermere, but the project was bitterly opposed by environmental groups, the Ktunaxa First Nation and many local residents.

Despite the opposition, the province granted an Environmental Assessment Certificate in 2004 and it was renewed in 2009. But progress on constructing the 6,300 bed resort before the October 2014 deadline was almost non-existent and Environment Minister Mary Polak pulled the certificate.

A spokeswoman for the Community, Sport and Cultural Development Ministry said the proponent’s choices now include seeking a judicial review of Polak’s decision or resubmitting the proposal.

“Regardless of the proponent’s decision the municipality will remain intact until a decision is made by government about its future,” she said.

Resort spokesman Tommaso Oberti could not be contacted by DeSmog Canada, but, after Polak’s decision, he told media outlets that directors are reviewing the decision and plan to speak to ministry officials about ways to move forward.

A hint of the next step came in a February 2014 letter from Oberto Oberti to Deck which said “If everything else failed, (which I really think is an impossible case), Glacier would simply re-apply for the [environmental assessment] certificate.”

Deck does not see any problem with the municipality continuing to do business.

“I wouldn’t rule out a development proposal yet…and I am optimistic the municipality will survive,” he said.

However, Jumbo council has decided to defer accepting the annual Small Community Grant of $200,000.

“We thought it prudent to say ‘hang on to it for now,’” Deck said.

“There is a notion that we would be profligate just because we are in favour of destination resorts, but we are very frugal with the funding we have and our previous funding allows us to continue for the rest of the year.”

The municipality initially received a $260,000 provincial grant and, since 2012, has received the grant of $200,000 a year, most of which has been spent on building a bridge into the municipality and legal fees. About $50,000 in federal gas tax money has also flowed to Jumbo.

Another threat to the municipality’s existence is an application to the B.C. Supreme Court by the West Kootenay EcoSociety to dissolve the municipality.

Lawyers for the EcoSociety argued in court last week that the province exceeded its discretionary powers by creating a municipality with no voters. Justice Grace Choi has reserved her decision.

EcoSociety executive director David Reid said he is not expecting a fast decision, as it is a complicated case that challenges the discretion of the cabinet and the use of public resources to support corporate interests.

Even though the environmental assessment certificate for the resort has been yanked, the Jumbo Valley remains at risk for as long as the municipality exists, Reid said.

“Does it sit there forever? Is there no deadline?” he asked.

Image Credit: Lynne Martel via Pique Magazine

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A decision on whether pouring two building foundations and clearing trees constitutes a “substantial start” for the Jumbo Glacier Resort project will be made by the Environmental Assessment Office in June and the report will include information on buildings located within avalanche zones.

That assessment will then go to Environment Minister Mary Polak for the final verdict on whether the controversial billion-dollar resort should go ahead.

“Our current plan is to have a decision on whether the project has been substantially started by early to mid-June,” said an Environment Ministry spokesman.

“Before finalizing the report we will be providing Glacier Resort Ltd., Ktunaxa Nation Council and the Shuswap Indian Band an opportunity to review a confidential draft of the report.”

That could include comments on the effect of an Environmental Assessment Office order to stop work on the two buildings because of avalanche threats, he said.

The stop work order was issued after a report found the service building was in a high-risk avalanche red zone and the day lodge — which was originally planned for another site — was in the moderate-risk blue zone.

Plans for the 6,300 bed resort on Crown land west of Invermere have been in the works for 24 years.

The project was granted an Environmental Assessment Certificate in 2004, which was renewed in 2009, but little work was done on the site until a flurry of activity shortly before last fall’s deadline. For the certificate to become permanent, Glacier Resorts must prove that construction was well underway before the deadline.

Tommaso Oberti, vice-president of the project’s management company, said the location of the day lodge and the service building had to be changed at the last minute because of deadline pressures and the new sites were chosen based on available avalanche mapping.

The project team believed “without a doubt that, following the opening of the ski area, the avalanches would have been, in the worst case, smaller, not larger, because of planned and effective mitigation measures such as bombing,” Oberti said in an email.

The service building will not be used in winter, to respect the determination of a 30-year risk occurrence, but the day lodge is safe and there are numerous examples of how risks are managed at other resorts, Oberti insisted.

“It is safe and it must be permissible to build a day lodge in a blue zone with application of avalanche risk mitigation measures that reduce the risk to people and structures to an acceptable low risk level,” he said.

The main resort and overnight tourist accommodation are in a part of the valley without avalanche risks, Oberti said.

Invermere Mayor Gerry Taft, who opposes the project, said the stop work order means little as, after the deadline, the company was not permitted to continue building until there is a decision on whether to hand them an Environmental Assessment certificate.

The order makes it appear as if the province is strictly enforcing its rules, but it is more like a public relations move, said Taft, who added that few people in Invermere are confident that the provincial government will make the right decision.

“I don’t have much faith in the government…I look at things quite cynically,” he said.

Image Credit: Jumbo Glacier Resort via Flickr

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A provincial stop work order on the only two buildings under construction on the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort site comes as no surprise to those familiar with the Jumbo Valley, which is marked by the bare swaths of avalanche paths sweeping down mountainsides and across the valley.

“I think it was a foregone conclusion,” said Rod Gibbons, senior guide with RK Heli-ski, a company that has operated in the area for more than 40 years.

“We were the ones that turned in the report to government to let them know (Glacier Resorts Ltd.) had just put the footings in the runoff zone for an avalanche path,” he said.

Renowned mountaineer and photographer Pat Morrow, who, as a director of the Jumbo Creek Conservation Society, has been at the forefront of an ongoing battle to stop development of the glacial wilderness resort, said the proponent appears to be arguing that avalanches don’t go through trees or create new paths.

“This was not a surprise at all,” he said.

In a letter sent last week to Oberto Oberti of Glacier Resorts, Autumn Cousins, compliance manager for the Environmental Assessment Office, said the company must stop construction on the day lodge and service building, at least until new avalanche safety conditions are met.

A report by Dynamic Avalanche Consulting found that the service building is constructed in a high-risk red zone, where construction of new buildings is normally not permitted, and the day lodge is in the moderate-risk blue zone, where structures must be reinforced, explosive avalanche controls used and a detailed evacuation plan in place.

The controversial proposal for a billion-dollar, 6,300-bed resort, on Crown land 55-kilometres west of Invermere, has been in the works for 24 years. It was granted an Environmental Assessment Certificate in 2004, which was renewed in 2009, but, for the certificate to become permanent, the company must prove that construction substantially started before last fall’s deadline.

For the last decade, progress on the resort has been almost non-existent, but, shortly before the deadline, foundations were poured for the two buildings and preliminary work started on the ski lift site.

Foundation for the Jumbo Glacier Resort day lodge. Photo: Jumbo Glacier Resort via Facebook

However, locating the buildings in avalanche zones means the company is not in compliance with one of the Environmental Assessment Certificate conditions.

If the province gives the go-ahead, the certificate will have to be amended, even if mitigation measures are in place, Cousins said in the letter.

“It is the (Environmental Assessment Office’s) view that it is not possible for Glacier Resorts Ltd. to achieve compliance with condition 36 with the two structures as currently located,” she wrote.

The compliance investigation is separate from the process to determine whether the project has substantially started, Cousins said in the letter.

Morrow believes the avalanche report should convince Environment Minister Mary Polak to put a final halt to the resort plans.

“If she tries to cancel the independent avalanche consulting firm’s findings, it would be going too far,” he said.

If the foundations of the two buildings are removed from the equation, a new bridge would be the only new construction — and that was paid for by the Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality, meaning it was funded by provincial taxpayers, Gibbons said.

Bridge construction. Photo: Jumbo Glacier Resort via Facebook

“I am now waiting with bated breath to hear what government is going to do about that substantial start,” he said.

John Bergenske, conservation director for Wildsight, an environmental group that opposes the project, said Jumbo is a test for the provincial government and its willingness to adhere to its own regulations.

“I certainly can’t imagine what rationale there would be to say that the project has substantially started,” he said.

The proponents have failed to meet the conditions of the Environmental Assessment Certificate and have not proved that they have any major investors, Bergenske said.

“This would be handing a permit to people who have absolutely failed to come through on anything they have promised…This business has been given every conceivable break — is the province going to change the rules every time someone wants to do something different?” he asked.

“If, in fact, there are any rules, there’s only one decision that the minister can make.”

The original resort plans show the day lodge was to be built in another part of the valley outside avalanche zones.

“They changed their minds for some reason at the last minute,” Morrow said.

“It’s mystifying — who knows what they were thinking.”

Gibbons is also nonplussed by the decision to move the lodge.

“I suspect it was for economic purposes. Maybe it was quicker and easier to put it there,” he said.

Lift towers are at even more risk from avalanches than the two buildings, said Morrow, who is hoping the province is looking at the whole picture.

“It’s almost impossible to put them any place that is completely safe,” he said.

“Even the wind from an avalanche can knock a gondola right off the cable. The winds can cut trees in half.”

DeSmog Canada was unable to contact Glacier Resorts Monday, but in a written response to the Environmental Assessment Office, the company said mitigation efforts for the day lodge will include structural reinforcement, comprehensive avalanche control and an evacuation plan for employees and the general public.

“The service building will be converted to a structurally reinforced storage building that will not be accessed during winter,” said the company response.

Image Credit: Jumbo Glacier Resort via Facebook

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This is a guest post by Gerry Taft, the mayor of Invermere.

When most of us think of a small town, we think of friendly neighbours and quiet streets — the type of place where you know almost everyone. I’m privileged to be elected as mayor of Invermere, B.C., which is pretty close to being a perfect small town. 

However, about 55 kilometres from Invermere, down rough old logging and mining roads, lies another kind of “small town.”

The “small town” of Jumbo, also known as the Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality, is not home to friendly neighbours or quiet streets. In fact, it is completely empty — a wilderness with no residents and no buildings.

On Nov. 15th, when every other town in B.C. will vote for new municipal leaders, there will be no voting in Jumbo.

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How did it come to this?

Glacier Resorts Ltd. has wanted to build a 6,300-bed ski resort on Crown land for 24 years. While the proponents envision a village of condos, shops and hotels and more than 20 ski lifts, many locals like myself oppose a new dense urban development in an area already awash with ski resorts operating below capacity. (A 2008 random survey by McAllister Opinion Research found 63 per cent of Kootenay residents oppose the resort, with 19 per cent in favour and 18 per cent undecided.)

Faced with strong local opposition, the province has tried to fit a round peg into a square hole. Instead of admitting it won’t fit, the province has changed the hole until that peg fits.

The only reason there is a “municipality” here in the mountain wilderness is because in 2012, the provincial government amended the Local Government Act to allow the creation of a municipality without residents. Next, the province appointed a mayor and two councillors. And then a provincial order-in-council mandated that the council adhere to the terms of Jumbo Glacier Resort’s Master Plan — not to citizens.

This series of events ruffled many feathers, but what came next was even worse. Jumbo received a $260,000 provincial grant and $50,000 in federal gas tax money.

Why would a “town” with no residents and no services require taxpayer dollars? Well, there are bridges to build and infrastructure to construct before real estate can be sold. Given the Jumbo Glacier Resort is a private development, you’d think the infrastructure would be fully funded by the developer – but not in the case of Jumbo.

Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality has asked for $200,000 a year from the province for the next five years. In its five-year financial plan, the municipality is predicting $0 in tax revenue, $0 in funding from the developer and 100 per cent of funding to come from government grants.

At the recent Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, my motion to oppose provincial funding for towns without residents was adopted unanimously by local politicians from all over our province.

Aside from grasping for taxpayer dollars, the reason Jumbo municipality exists is to circumnavigate a key condition of the resort’s environmental assessment certificate, which dictates that final land use decisions be made by local government. Of course, the intent was for elected, accountable local government to make the decisions, not a puppet appointed council.

Residents of the Columbia Valley want to map their region’s own future. The environmental assessment was focused solely on mitigating environmental impacts. The question of whether we want a dense urban development and private real estate speculation in the mountain wilderness has never been posed to our community.

The environmental assessment certificate for the Jumbo resort expired on Oct. 12, unless the province rules that the proponent has made substantial progress. In yet another case of corners being cut, the resort was hastily laying foundations the week before the deadline in a last-minute push to show progress.

Three days before the construction deadline, B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office wrote to Glacier Resorts saying the company was not in compliance with three pre-construction conditions, primarily relating to water quality and fish habitat monitoring. Last week, a debate at the Legislature raised the question of whether the foundation for a lodge was built in a Class 4 Avalanche Zone.

The big question now is when the province of B.C. will call an end to the farce of the “town” called Jumbo. The cost of failing to act is at least $1.3 million in taxpayer funding, the sell-off of Crown land at bargain basement prices and, most of all, the complete disregard for the basic concept of what democracies are … and what small towns should be.

Photo: #Democracyforjumbo via @Tweetwild

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Snow is flying in the Jumbo Valley, covering both the rapidly constructed foundations of a ski lift and day lodge and the campsite where, throughout the summer, opponents have monitored activities at the site of a proposed all-season ski resort centred around four glaciers in the heart of the Kootenays.

For now, it’s a waiting game — no surprise to the many players on both sides of the controversial proposal who have been involved throughout the 24-year saga.

Glacier Resorts Ltd. is hoping the foundations, built in October, will prove to the provincial Environmental Assessment Office that significant progress has been made on construction of the billion-dollar proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort.

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In 2004 the company was granted an environmental assessment certificate with 195 conditions. The certificate was renewed in 2009 and, under legislation, cannot be renewed again. For the certificate to become permanent, Glacier Resorts must show that the project was “substantially started” by Oct. 12.

Three days before that deadline, the Environmental Assessment Office wrote to Glacier Resorts saying the company was not in compliance with three pre-construction conditions, primarily relating to water quality and fish habitat monitoring. However, the warning about non-compliance does not have any direct bearing on the decision about whether the project has made significant progress, said an Environment Ministry spokesman.

The term “substantially started” is not defined in legislation. The Environmental Assessment Office will make a recommendation to Environment Minister Mary Polak, who will make the final decision.

“There is no set timeframe in which the minister must make the determination about whether a project was substantially started by the deadline,” said the ministry spokesman.

Until a decision is made, it is not only the weather that has put a stop to construction. The company has been warned not to continue work until a decision is made, although restoration work on the non-compliance problems is allowed.

Mountain Guide Critical of Construction 'Rush Job'

A 10-centimetre snowfall in the Jumbo Valley means the “concrete slab” foundations are “out of sight, but not out of mind,” said retired mountain guide Arnor Larson, a tireless opponent of the resort proposal.

Larson has submitted a document and photos to the Environmental Assessment Office raising questions about the “unusual” quality of the foundation work on the day lodge and ski lift.

“Rush jobs often mean cutting corners, but it was still a surprise that, throughout the area covered by the forms, the ground was never properly leveled and compacted, nor was the necessary topping layer of fine aggregate material ever installed, leveled or compacted,” he wrote.

“Believing in foundations that have no foundation is like something out of Alice In Wonderland.”

Foundation for Day Lodge Adjacent to 'Avalanche Meadow'

Larson, armed with pages of photos and documentation, also has serious concerns with the location of the day lodge.

“As a professional mountain climbing guide since 1970, I stood there and had a thought that went like this — in the winter, when avalanche conditions are ripe, I would find the risk too high to set up my tent here for even one single night. Yet they are going to erect a permanent building here,” he said.

“Who the heck signed the paper saying this was a safe place to build?”

Larson pointed out in his submission that the site of the day lodge has changed from the original plans and the lodge doors at the new site would open on to “the aptly named Avalanche Meadow.” It is an area where, in 2009, a massive avalanche tore down a ski run.

The resort’s Master Plan calls for avalanche control measures, such as helicopter bombing potential avalanche sites, but critics such as renowned Canadian mountaineer and photographer Pat Morrow, who lives in the East Kootenays, does not believe the area can be made safe.

“As you get further and further into the proposed townsite, you are getting further and further into avalanche territory,” he said.

“No other resorts have base areas that are threatened as much as this.”

NDP Leader John Horgan Says Day Lodge in Class 4 Avalanche Zone

Growing concerns about building a day lodge adjacent to an avalanche path — even though proponent Oberto Oberti has said the buildings will be just outside the high-risk area — were taken up this week in Question Period by NDP leader John Horgan.

Jumbo Glacier Resort specifically committed to building residential and commercial structures outside avalanche zones, Horgan said.

“Yet the Jumbo Glacier Resort has put the only foundation that they’ve been able to pour to this point in time, their day lodge, right in a Class 4 avalanche zone,” he said.

“For the minister’s edification, a Class 4 avalanche zone is really, really bad. In fact, it says ‘a Class 4 could destroy a railway car, large truck, several buildings and forests up to four hectares.’ It’s a big deal.”

However Polak, who recently visited the area and met with the Ktunaxa First Nation, rejected calls from Horgan for her to immediately withdraw the permit.

“It is very important that we allow the process to unfold, that we allow First Nations to respond appropriately, providing us with that information,” she said.

Robyn Duncan of Wildsight, a non-profit group that has led much of the opposition to the proposal, said Wildsight has been working with Ecojustice to make last-minute submissions to the Environmental Assessment Office and, if the Jumbo Resort project gets the go-ahead or, if there is an attempt to again extend the certificate, a legal challenge might be considered.

The proposal is already being challenged by the Ktuxana First Nation, which is appealing a B.C Supreme Court decision that the consultation was reasonable and the resort would not substantially interfere with Ktunaxa spiritual beliefs and practices. The area in which the resort is planned is known to the Ktunaxa as Qat’muk, the place where the Grizzly Bear Spirit was born, goes to heal itself and returns to the spirit world.

The West Kootenay EcoSociety is also challenging the incorporation of the Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality, a municipality with no residents which is being supported with taxpayer dollars.

Others who have taken part in the annual protest and monitoring camps are watching carefully and are ready to spring into action again if it proves necessary.

“I have been working to keep Jumbo Wild for over 15 years,” said KL Kivi, who spent much of her summer at the monitoring camp.

“This is the largest unroaded wilderness in southern B.C. and our lives are inextricably linked to the health of this place. It would fracture the spine of an incredibly important ecological region,” she said.

Tommaso Oberti, vice president of Pheidias Project Management, who has acted as spokesman for previous stories, did not respond to questions.

However, a letter written by Oberto Oberti, on behalf of Glacier Resorts, to Jumbo Municipality Mayor Gregory Deck, underlines his confidence that the project will go ahead.

“In the most unlikely event that physical and legal disruptions do not permit the start of construction, the government will have an obligation to extend or remove the deadline, as in any construction case of force majeure,” he wrote in February.

“I am certain that, in this case, Glacier will seek legal advice and legal routes to ensure that its rights are not compromised.”

Photo: Lucas Jmief, Lucasimagephoto.ca

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Grizzly bears in the Central Purcell Mountains are more vulnerable than shown in 15-year-old research being used by proponents of Jumbo Glacier Resort and, if the resort is built, it could threaten grizzly populations through southern B.C and into the U.S, says one of Canada’s leading grizzly bear experts.

Michael Proctor, who has studied grizzly bears in the Purcell and Selkirk mountain ranges in southeastern B.C. for almost 20 years and whose work is regularly published in scientific journals, recently completed two ecological analyses of the Purcell grizzly population and found, based on data-driven population surveys, that bear populations are about 50 per cent smaller than previous estimates.

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In 1999, government scientists estimated the area to be at 93 per cent of carrying capacity for grizzlies, but Proctor’s research, completed more than a decade later, found grizzly capacity to be at 54 per cent. The capacity is the population an environment can sustain.

Human Encroachment Likely Cause of Drop in Grizzly Population

Using DNA analysis from hair snagging, Proctor found the Purcell grizzly populations are depressed, bringing them “close to or below the threatened population threshold.” The reason for the lower than expected numbers is most probably more roads into the backcountry and human-caused mortality associated with the activity that roads bring.

Work needs to be done on helping the population recover before efforts to mitigate the negative effects of the proposed resort come into play, he said,

“To improve the status of the Purcell grizzly it will likely be necessary to improve the balance of human use and wildlife habitat needs. The Jumbo Glacier Resort would challenge our ability to accomplish that goal,” Proctor said in a 2010 letter to the provincial government.

Purcell/Selkirk Grizzlies Act as Anchor Population

An even more important issue, Proctor said in an interview, is that the proposed resort will likely fragment the approximately 600-strong Purcell/Selkirk grizzly population and compromise its ability to act as a core anchor for beleaguered and already-fragmented smaller units to the south. Keeping that population intact is probably essential to maintaining international grizzly bear populations extending south into the U.S.

“Those small, fragmented populations just to the south are too small to survive long-term without the larger Purcell/Selkirk regional core population to act as a long-term source of immigrants,” Proctor said.

It is an argument that has been emphasized by Wildsight, a non-profit fighting approval of the proposed resort.

“This is the last stop. There’s small bits of populations to the south and in the U.S and, if we cut them off they are hooped,” said Wildsight spokesperson Robyn Duncan.

Although Glacier Resorts spokespeople say there are few grizzlies in the area that would be used for year-round glacier skiing, there are numerous anecdotes about resort proponents ignoring grizzlies that appear almost in front of them.

Bob Campsall, a long-time Jumbo Creek Conservation Society board member, recalls one of the first meetings about the planned resort.

“I asked about grizzly bears and they said they had studied the grizzly bear population and there were not enough to be concerned about. I had hiked up there the previous weekend and saw four grizzly bears,” he said.

Most Up-to-Date Grizzly Research Not Considered by B.C. Government

Proctor said that, as Jumbo is in the central spine of the Purcell Range, it is in the area where the bears are generally going to travel.

“Ski areas are not generally bad for grizzly bears; it’s the location of this one,” he said.

However, Proctor’s latest research appears to have been ignored by the provincial government. The Environmental Assessment Office is currently considering whether the environmental assessment certificate, first granted in 2004 and renewed in 2009, should be made permanent.

“They haven’t incorporated the new information I have given them,” Proctor said.

“They said the research was too late.”

That is a disappointment, according to Proctor, who has a reputation as an independent research scientist, whose only agenda is science.

“It is a shame not to use the latest science,” he said.

Gerry Wilkie, a director of the Regional District of East Kootenay, is angry that Proctor’s research is not being taken into account and believes it illustrates how poorly the Jumbo decision is being handled by the government.

“It’s a debacle,” he said, describing the project as a white elephant.

“The fact that Mike Proctor’s work on population dynamics and fragmentation of habitat of the southern interior grizzly was disregarded is of critical importance.”

The Environmental Assessment Office determined that the 1999 report, conducted for Glacier Resorts by Axys Environmental Consulting (PDF), satisfied the requirement for a pre-construction inventory of grizzly bears in the study area, said an Environment Ministry spokesman.

The project is in compliance with five conditions related to grizzly bears, but future work is required, the spokesman said.

 “Jumbo Glacier Resorts is currently developing plans for the next steps in monitoring for potential impacts of the project on the grizzly bear population.”

Proctor is not the only one to conclude the resort would be bad news for grizzlies

Alton Harestad, former co-chair of the provincial Grizzly Bear Scientific Advisory Committee, concluded the development would adversely affect the grizzly population in the South Purcells.

“The size and nature of the development will result, eventually, in the loss of bears locally and will diminish the viability of the regional population of grizzly bears,” Harestad wrote in a report.

“There are no examples in North America where grizzly bears have coexisted successfully with large human development over the long term.”

The Jumbo Glacier Resort Master Plan, approved by the province, relies heavily on mitigation efforts, ranging from Bear Smart programs to establishing partnerships with government and local forest tenure holders to improve grizzly habitat in and around the almost 6,000 hectares of controlled recreation area – Crown land that the company will lease from the province.

Ktunaxa Spirituality Not Up For Grabs

However, members of the Ktunaxa Nation, like other critics, say categorically that mitigation is not possible.

The Ktunaxa, who are appealing a B.C. Supreme Court decision turning down an application for a judicial review of the province’s approval of the resort, know the area as Qat’muk, the place where the Grizzly Bear Spirit was born, goes to heal itself and returns to the spirit world.

The heart of the nation’s spirituality is not up for grabs, says Kathryn Teneese, chair of the Ktunaxa Nation Council.

It is easy to understand why the Jumbo Valley is so special in First Nations culture, Duncan said.

“It’s where grizzly bear science and spirituality come together. It’s not a coincidence that the Ktunaxa knew from living on the land that this is a core area — that this is an area we don’t touch,” she said.

Photo: Heather & Mike via Flickr

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When Pat Morrow looks around at the mountains, towering on either side of the Jumbo Valley, his concern is palpable.

Avalanche paths are clearly visible, both beside Jumbo Creek Road and on slopes surrounding the meadows and valley where Glacier Resorts Ltd. wants to build a 6,000-bed all-season ski resort.

“Looking down the valley, we are seeing how vulnerable it is to massive avalanche damage. There are three or four fresh ones. The avalanche paths are just slowly eating their way across the slope as the years go along,” Morrow said.

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Few people who are familiar with Morrow’s accomplishments are going to argue with his expertise.

Morrow, who lives in the East Kootenay community of Wilmer, is a mountain climber, photographer and filmmaker and was the first person in the world to climb the highest peaks of all seven continents. In 1982 he was a member of the first Canadian team to climb Mount Everest and in 1987 he was awarded the Order of Canada for his international mountaineering exploits.

“I have been in hazardous terrain all my adult life — sizing it up — and in there I felt really exposed,” said Morrow, as his truck rattled over the rough road, heading home after a day hiking the Jumbo Glacier Resort area.

Morrow is a director of the Jumbo Creek Conservation Society and supporter of Wildsight, one of the non-profit groups fighting against the Jumbo proposal. On a sunny day in September, as he again looked at the site, his concerns grew.

Morrow does not believe there are any other ski resorts with such high risks at the base site, as well as along the access road and on the glacier ski runs.

“Where are they going to park the cars,” he asked.

“You’re not going to park them in the middle of an avalanche zone.”

An illustration of the power of avalanches — which sweep down one side of the mountain, across the road and swoosh up the opposite side — came this year. A bevy of provincial government cabinet ministers were scheduled to visit the area in June, but had to take a helicopter tour of the site, instead of driving, as the road was still blocked from spring avalanche debris.

The ministers included Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett, who has pushed provincial support for Jumbo, and, after the visit, Bennett told a Columbia Valley newspaper that the resort proponent needs improved access. The road, until it reaches the resort boundary, is the responsibility of the province.

In addition to avalanche risks, there are the challenges of bringing supplies along an uneven, unpaved access road and Morrow shakes his head as he tries to estimate the expense of rebuilding the road and helicopter bombing potential avalanche sites.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Morrow, who grew up in the area and honed his mountain climbing and photography skills in the Purcells.

However, the Jumbo Glacier Resort Master Plan assesses the avalanche hazard at a low to moderate risk, similar to other ski areas in B.C. and Alberta.

An avalanche study, conducted in 1995 for the company by Peter Schaerer of Stetham and Associates, concluded that avalanche risks could be managed with road closures during hazardous times combined with dropping explosive charges from helicopters.

“The avalanche hazard to traffic on the Jumbo Creek Road would be low with the predicted initial traffic volume of 160 vehicles per day and would increase to moderate when volume exceeds about 260 vehicles per day,” says the report.

Avalanche paths sweep down towards the road leading in to Farnham Glacier and the Lake of the Hanging Glacier. Photo: Judith Lavoie.

The reports were compiled by some of Canada’s leading avalanche experts, said Tommaso Oberti, spokesman for the resort proponents.

Rod Gibbons, senior guide with RK Heliski, a company with a 44-year history in the area, said no mountainous area is completely safe from avalanches, but the key is ensuring the level of risk is acceptable.

“Because of the avalanche hazard, there are going to be some extreme costs in keeping that road within Ministry of Transport allowances,” said Gibbons, who has spent 28 winters working in the Purcells.

“It’s going to take a lot of money to make that road fit.”

Helicopters would be required to drop explosives on potential avalanche sites and “a lot of the time, the helicopter will not be able to access those points to do avalanche control,” Gibbons said.

Pilots need good visibility to fly and to assess where to put explosive charges to get the best results, meaning flights are weather dependent.

“There could be multiple days that road will have to be closed,” said Gibbons, who believes he has spent more time in the Jumbo-area mountains than anyone else.

“I’m out there every day,” he said.

RK uses explosives on potential avalanche areas, but last year a German client was killed by an avalanche in the Jumbo area.

Mary Clayton of Avalanche Canada, formerly the Canadian Avalanche Centre, said avalanche terrain is found throughout B.C. and there is nothing unusual about the Jumbo area.

However, of all avalanche fatalities in Canada, 80 per cent occur in B.C. and the majority of those are in the Columbia Region, she said.

Glacier Resorts’ environmental assessment certificate, first issued in 2004, expired October 12 unless proponents can prove there has been substantial progress.

Main image: Mountaineer and photographer Pat Morrow studies the slopes for avalanche paths. Credit: Judith Lavoie.

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The rough track at the foot of West Farnham Glacier, carved by a Glacier Resorts bulldozer in 2008, comes to an abrupt end as the already rough terrain becomes impassable.

Huge boulders block the path, where there is an early-fall dusting of snow and, ahead, the cliffs are festooned with precariously hanging icicles.

“We call it the road to nowhere,” said professional mountain climbing guide Arnor Larson, who, since 1970, has taken visitors into the remote Farnham area of the Purcell Range — 60 kilometres from Invermere along a lumpy, slippery one-track road.

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Stretching above the track is the money card — blindingly bright snow, broken by icy blue patches, where the prospect of all-season glacier skiing has fuelled a 24-year debate.

Glacier Resorts Ltd. plans to build a billion-dollar ski resort, with hotels, lodges, condominiums and shops, in the adjacent Jumbo Valley. Lifts and gondolas would take visitors from the village to ski on Farnham, Jumbo and Commander Glaciers.

But the most pressing question is how long the glaciers will be around.

While the Jumbo Glacier Resort Master Plan predicts the glaciers will survive or even grow as climate change will mean additional snow at high altitudes, climate scientists say glaciers in the Purcell Mountains will have disappeared by the turn of the century.

Larson, who has had a front-row seat to the glacier melt for more than four decades, points to scraped rocks below the glacier toe, showing how Farnham has receded in the time he has been guiding. Then he glances up at the summer snow and points to semi-concealed crevasses.

Professional mountain climbing guide Arnor Larson. Photo: Pat Morrow.

“I wouldn’t be too keen as a guide to take anyone there in the summer for skiing,” he said.

Larson, who has collected old photos of the glaciers, compares a 1913 photo of Commander Glacier to a 2008 photo, showing massive ice reduction. Over recent years, the process has sped up and Commander has shrunk considerably further since 2008, he said.

Commander Glacier in 1913.

Commander Glacier in 2008.

The melting is further accelerated by machines cutting ice roads on the glaciers or “mining” snow from the upper part of the glacier to build ski runs, he said.

Large machinery on Farnham Glacier. Photo: Arnor Larson.

Tommaso Oberti, vice-president of Pheidias Project Management Corp., the company spearheading the resort design, said the Master Plan is based on information from Michael Maxwell, a geophysicist with global consulting firm Golder Associates.

Maxwell, an honorary research associate at the University of British Columbia, said he worked on monitoring the Purcell glaciers in the mid-1990s, but has not done any research in the area since then.

“I guarantee that things have changed since then, but I can’t say how they have changed,” said Maxwell, who is continuing to do some glaciology work in other areas.

The Jumbo Master Plan fact sheet on climate, water and glaciers argues global warming is actually a compelling reason to build the resort because many low-elevation ski resorts in B.C. will not be able to operate if the worst climate predictions come true.

“Even with extreme glacier retraction and a dramatic increase in global temperatures, JGR will be one of the very few locations in North America where skiing will be possible in winter because of its high elevation. In fact, the moraines that are left behind by retreating glaciers result in some of the most skiable terrain possible, when covered with snow in winter,” Oberti wrote in an e-mail.

The glaciers range from a height of 3,400 metres at the top of Jumbo to a low of 2,450 metres at the bottom of Farnham.

That means the high glaciers could actually grow, rather than recede, says the Master Plan.

However, Brian Menounos, professor of earth sciences and Canada Research Chair in glacier change at the University of Northern B.C., said glaciers in the Columbia Basin are unlikely to survive past 2100.

Brian Menounos. Photo: Univeristy of Northern B.C.

It is likely that precipitation will increase from 10 to 15 per cent because of climate change, Menounos said.

“But that doesn’t compensate for the amount of warming that is likely to occur. The modelling that I have seen says most of the ice in the Columbia Basin will not be there by 2100.”

Glaciers in western Canada started retreating in the 1920s, probably because of natural warming, but most scientists agree that, since 1980, they are strongly retreating because of human-caused climate change, Menounos said.

Large glaciers take a long time to respond, so even if everyone immediately stopped using fossil fuels, the glaciers will continue to melt “because of what we have done to them,” he said.

Some icefields in the North Coast Mountains will survive past the turn of the century, although they will be reduced by half, Menounos said.

“But in the southern interior ranges it’s not a good news story.”

Climate scientist Andrew Weaver is Green Party MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head and a lead author of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientific assessments, including the report that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Weaver scoffs at claims that the Purcell glaciers will survive or grow and described long-term plans for year-round glacier skiing as a “bit of a pipedream.”

A group that knows the glacier well is the Canadian Olympic Development Association (CODA), now known as Winsport, which spent six years training at Farnham, eventually pulling out in 2009.

“It was amazing conditions for summer training and we believe it played a key role in as many as three medals won at the Vancouver Olympics,” said Dale Oviatt, Winsport communications spokesman.

“Essentially we pulled out because of finances as it was an expensive operation to run.”

But while ski conditions on the glaciers may be good for now, the Jumbo Glacier Resort project, which will take 20 years to build, flies in the face of scientific understanding of climatic trends, Weaver said.

“It is expected that by 2100 Jumbo Glacier will be largely non-existent. In fact, just looking at the period between 1985 and 2005, the entire southeastern B.C. glacial region lost, on average, roughly 15 per cent of its mass,” he said.

Weaver cannot understand why the provincial government is supporting the private-sector proposal by funding the Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality, which has no residents, and he questions whether the project is attracting investors.

“A prudent investor would ask ‘how long is this glacier going to be around?’ and would ask the scientific community,” he said.

Main Image: Commander Glacier by Pat Morrow.

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This is a guest post by Troy Sebastian, special projects coordinator for Ktunaxa Nation Council.

Amid the succulent smells of turkey and spice this Thanksgiving weekend, another season draws near.

In every municipality in British Columbia, lawn signs are popping up like plywood pumpkin patches. Door knocking has begun in earnest and no baby is safe from obligatory photo ops. Hand shakes and promises — the currency of democracy — reign once more.

Every town in the province is gearing up for municipal elections a month from now, except for one — the Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality.

The reason is simple: Jumbo is a town without residents.

Jumbo is heavy on bravado and weak on substance. The project is sold as a 6,000-bed resort at the foot of a receding glacier that promises year-round skiing. Yet it is relying on taxpayer dollars to keep afloat. What Jumbo does have is the limitless support of the province in every request imaginable.

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During the past five years, the province has:

• Extended the Environmental Assessment Certificate (2009)
• Approved the project (2012)
• Amended the Local Government Act to allow the creation of Jumbo municipality (2012)
• Established Jumbo Glacier Resort Municipality with appointed mayor and council (2013)
• Provided $260,000 in funding. The municipality’s five-year financial plan relies solely on taxpayer dollars, asking for $1 million from the province through to 2018.  

Yet the province has very little to show for its support.

The developer is under significant pressure to demonstrate it has “substantially started” the project. Otherwise its Environmental Assessment Certificate will soon expire. That is why a bridge and a shack are quickly being thrown together in the Jumbo Valley.

Years of government time, money and effort in support of this project have resulted in a taxpayer-funded bridge to nowhere.

When it comes to Jumbo, the red flags are plentiful. For starters, the East Kootenay region is awash in ski resorts that are rarely at full capacity.

The closest municipality, the District of Invermere, has been officially opposed to the project for years.

At the recent Union of British Columbia Municipalities, Invermere Mayor Gerry Taft put forward a motion to oppose provincial funding for towns without residents. It was adopted unanimously.

The Ktunaxa Nation is opposed to the project as the ski resort would be located in a sacred area known as Qat’muk. Jumbo is also critical grizzly bear habitat. The NDP are opposed, as are the Greens. Heck, Hockey Hall of Famer Scott Niedermayer and Olympic Gold medalist Beckie Scott are opposed.  

Olympians, Indians and grizzly bears — oh my!

And yet, the never-ending saga of the Jumbo Glacier resort continues to push the boundaries of expectation, common sense and straight-forward believability.

The province has an opportunity to put this sad cliché where it belongs: in the dustbin of loony B.C. ideas with the likes of Fantasy Gardens, Fast Ferries and the myth of Cascadia.

Should Jumbo Glacier Resorts by found to be in violation of its obligation to substantially start its project by October 12, the province will finally be in line with realities that are impossible to ignore. No one wants it. It does not make sense. It is a costly mess.

However, should the province continue its support for Jumbo, it will embrace a level of absurdity usually reserved for governments of global ridicule. Often, democracies beset with allegations of corruption and graft are known as ‘banana republics.’ It is an unfortunate term that usually refers to countries in the developing world. Bananas do not grow in Jumbo.

The continuing saga of the Jumbo Glacier Resort symbolizes all that is wrong with British Columbia’s politics and economy. Where else but in Jumbo would we find a mayor without residents, a town without homes or a ski hill without investors? Welcome to the Jumbo Republic!

The only people who could truly give thanks for this debacle are the mayor and council of Jumbo who are not encumbered with the weight of democratic accountability. Nor are they required to express their gratitude for the largesse they enjoy at the expense of the citizens of British Columbia.

It is time for Premier Clark to stop the Jumbo Glacier Resort gravy train and bring accountability and sanity to the situation once and for all.

Keep Jumbo wild.

That is something we could all give thanks for.

Photo: Courtesy of Pat Morrow

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The clock is ticking toward the deadline for Glacier Resorts Ltd. to prove substantial progress has been made toward constructing a controversial all-season ski resort in the East Kootenays and the company is making a last-minute push to transform a wilderness valley into an active building site.

Jumbo Glacier Resort was first granted an environmental assessment certificate — with 195 conditions — in 2004. It was renewed in 2009 and, by law, the certificate, which expires October 12, cannot be renewed a second time. For the certificate to become permanent, the company must show B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office that substantial work has been completed.

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*Update: On Oct. 9, the province's Environmental Assessment Office wrote a letter to the project's proponents stating that the project has been found to be non-compliant with three pre-construction conditions related to the monitoring of streamflows, fish habitat, water quality and road use.

"Our common practice is to work with companies to first focus on approaches to begin to address non-compliances such as these before determining if any formal enforcement is appropriate," the letter states. "This warning is a first step in the enforcement process, and the Province may choose take further compliance action with regard to existing or future non-compliance."

Robyn Duncan of Wildsight, a non-profit group spearheading opposition to the resort proposal, says the conditions need to be upheld.

“The B.C. government has an opportunity to prove their claims to the people of B.C. that we have a rigorous environmental assessment process in place by upholding these commitments and stopping construction until they have been satisfied,” she said.

“Show British Columbians that environmental protection is a priority of this government.”

Earlier this month, apart from brush-clearing and markers stuck in the ground, there were few signs of construction at the site in the heart of the Purcell Mountains. But this week has seen a flurry of activity and cement foundations have now been poured for a lift and day lodge.

The last-ditch activity has infuriated opponents who are questioning why, after years of inaction, the proponents are now putting on what appears to be a frantic push.

“This is a desperate attempt at the last minute to try and achieve something on the ground and keep their environmental certificate, not to mention save face,” Duncan said.

“After 10 years, all they have been able to accomplish is to pour the foundation for one day lodge and one lift footing.”

An Environment Ministry spokesman said Thursday that Environmental Assessment Office staff will be at the Jumbo site Monday “to document progress for the purpose of the determination on whether the project has been substantially started.”

Several ministries and agencies are coordinating the oversight and staff have been in the Jumbo Valley since last Saturday and will be on site every day this week, he said.

Since construction began in August there have been a dozen site visits and field inspections, according to the ministry.

However, a decision is not likely to be made immediately as the Environmental Assessment Office will ask Glacier Resorts, the Ktuxana Nation Council and Shuswap Indian Band to provide information to help determine whether the project was substantially started by October 12, said the ministry spokesman.

“If Glacier Resorts Inc. decides to work past October 12, they are potentially at risk of constructing without an environmental certificate,” he said.

If it was found the project was not substantially started, any work done after October 12 would violate the Environmental Assessment Act.

Already the last-minute work has run into problems with the uncertain fall weather. Opponents, taking part in a rally near the entrance to the Jumbo property, cheered on Saturday when cement trucks were unable to get up the unpaved road because of mud.

“Mother Nature is working her magic,” said a posting on the Jumbo Wild website.

Tommaso Oberti, vice-president of Pheidias Project Management Corp., the group designing the resort, said between six and 10 inches of rain fell at the resort site the previous night.

“It made the last few kilometres of the access road very muddy and difficult for heavy trucks. The contractors are making improvements to the road,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Three days later, cement trucks were able to drive into the wilderness site, 55 kilometres from Invermere, and construction started.

A concrete foundation at the site of Jumbo Glaicer Resort. Photo: Tommaso Oberti.

The weekend’s botched attempt to bring in cement trucks is an example of the project’s disorganization, Duncan said.

“You’d think they would have checked the road conditions first. This is supposedly a billion-dollar project. It’s indicative of what we have seen over the last 10 years — desperate efforts and runarounds.”

Robyn Duncan of Wildsight at a protest against the Jumbo Glacier Resort last weekend.

Glacier Resorts is also facing two court challenges. The Ktunaxa Nation is appealing a B.C. Supreme Court decision that turned down an application for a judicial review. The case is based on alleged inadequate consultation and the constitutional right to freedom of religion. The Jumbo Valley is considered sacred to the Ktunaxa people as the home of the Grizzly Bear Spirit.

Also, the West Kootenay EcoSociety is challenging the incorporation of Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality.

The plan for a 6,000-bed resort, with more than 20 ski lifts, was initially proposed 24 years ago and the Master Plan was approved by the province in 2007. In 2012, the province changed the Local Government Act and created the Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality, with an appointed mayor and council, even though the community has no residents and no buildings.

The municipality initially received $260,000 in provincial grants and its five-year plan calls for a further $200,000 a year. The municipality has also received about $50,000 in federal gas tax money.

Critics, including the Union of B.C. Municipalities, have railed against the province funding a municipality with no citizens. In addition to the mayor and council having no accountability to voters, under the municipality’s Letters Patent, council must adhere to the resort’s Master Plan — meaning building permits and approvals are all but automatic.

Oberti said cash also flows from the province to Jumbo opponents, such as $1.4 million to the District of Invermere for improving tourism infrastructure and $1.65 million to the Ktuxana Nation to help with land and resource decisions.

Opponents say funding for an existing municipality and a First Nation are a far cry from funding for a private, for-profit enterprise.

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With a construction deadline looming this Sunday, Jumbo Glacier Resort is also facing two legal challenges — an appeal from the Ktunaxa Nation, emboldened by the ground-breaking Tsilhqot’in decision, and another lesser known challenge from West Kootenay EcoSociety.

The Nelson-based non-profit group is challenging the incorporation of Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality.

The municipality, with no residents and no buildings, was created by the provincial government after an amendment to the Local Government Act. The province then appointed a mayor and two councillors who make decisions on planning and zoning for the resort, but, under the Letters Patent, they are bound to follow the provincially approved resort Master Plan.

EcoSociety executive director David Reid said a B.C Supreme Court date is expected before the end of the year. The petition asks the court to quash the incorporation and strike down legislative amendments that allowed creation of the municipality.

“The idea is that a city should have citizens. This is undermining the ability of our region to participate in democracy – otherwise the people of East Kootenay would have input into the planning process,” he said.

Jumbo council is not accountable to voters, so the public is disenfranchised, Reid said.

“It also creates a precedent. If (the court action) fails, it means they could create a municipality anywhere.”

That could mean, if a mine or resource extraction company could not gain local support, the province could get around rules by creating a municipality in the area where no one was living, Reid speculated.

“The opportunity for abuse is enormous.”

Tommaso Oberti, vice president of Pheidias Project Management Corp., the company that came up with the Jumbo vision and design, said the process has been democratic as the Regional District of East Kootenay voted to ask the province to create a resort municipality.

“This is democracy. The regional government (which was Jumbo Glacier Resort’s local government at the time) decided that it was beneficial to the region for the project to be administered locally, as opposed to being administered from Cranbrook,” Oberti said in an e-mailed response to questions.

Image: Brian Turner

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