The development group that has spent more than 24 years trying to build a controversial ski resort in the East Kootenay’s Purcell Mountains is not giving up without a fight.

Glacier Resorts Ltd. plans to ask for a judicial review of Environment Minister Mary Polak’s decision to pull the project’s Environmental Assessment Certificate. The group is also looking at building a smaller resort that would not have to go through a new environmental assessment process.

A July 20 letter to the chief administrative officer of Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality from Oberto Oberti of Pheidias Project Management Corp., the group that manages the project, says Glacier’s lawyers will submit a request for a judicial review of the minister’s “surprising decision” as soon as the case is prepared.

“Glacier cannot allow that the project be dismissed after having substantially done everything that it was asked to do and was permitted to do up to October 12, 2014, and it believes that a judicial review will show clearly that the Minister did not make a correct decision in declaring that the project was not substantially started,” says the letter.

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In the meantime, the company will work on minor amendments to the Master Plan and the Master Development Agreement to reduce the size of the project to below the threshold of Environmental Assessment regulations, Oberti wrote.

The smaller project could move forward under the provincial All Seasons Resort Policy, he suggested.

“The ASRP does not have the deadline created in the revised Environmental Assessment Act, a deadline that has become the latest issue in this project and that is not related to the sustainability or value of the project,” he wrote.

Plans for the billion-dollar, 6,300-bed Jumbo Glacier Resort ground to a halt last month when Polak withdrew the Environmental Assessment Certificate after concluding that the project had not substantially started in the 10 years since the certificate was granted.

Despite strong opposition from local politicians, environmental groups and residents, the province granted the EA certificate in 2004 and it was renewed in 2009, but construction progress was almost non-existent before the October deadline, which marked the expiry of the certificate.

At that time only two buildings were under construction and, in April, the company was handed a provincial stop work order as the footings were in avalanche paths.

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Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality, which has no residents and no buildings, was created by the province for the sole purpose of facilitating development of the resort and the letter from Oberti says he believes Mayor Greg Deck and the two-member council will “easily recognize that the work done in the five available weeks was more than substantial.”

The company has blamed protests, limited access to the area because of avalanche debris and bridge problems and bad weather for not making more progress.

However, Oberti says in the letter that, if the project had been allowed to continue, ski runs that are currently available only to heli-skiers, would be open to skiers in the near future.

“This would have created the certainty that this project so badly needs,” he said.

Robyn Duncan, executive director of Wildsight, one of the groups adamantly opposed to the resort, said the decision to ask for a judicial review is surprising as the minister’s decision was solid.

However, no request has yet been filed and, in addition, there are two court cases still under consideration, she noted.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has reserved her decision on an application by the West Kootenay EcoSociety to dissolve the municipality and the B.C. Court of Appeal is considering an appeal by the Ktunaxa First Nation of a judicial review that determined the B.C. government acted appropriately when it approved a Master Development Plan for Jumbo in 2012.

Duncan said no plans for a smaller development have yet been seen and opponents are researching what process could be used that would allow Glacier Resorts to forge ahead.

“There are lots of unanswered questions on how they would go about amending the documents,” she said.

“We are doing a lot of research into the mechanisms and hoops they would have to jump through.”

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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

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.