A bizarre twist in a decade-long battle over a proposed mine on Tsilhqot’in Nation traditional territory could see the B.C. government issue extensive exploration permits for the mine this month even though the project has twice been turned down by the federal government.

The proposal by Taseko Mines Ltd. to build a $1.5-billion open pit, copper and gold mine in the Cariboo region — a plan which received vocal support from Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett — was approved in 2010 by the provincial government after a B.C. environmental assessment.

But, the same year, the Prosperity Mine was rejected by the federal review panel, which took a dim view of plans to drain Fish Lake, known to Tsilhqot’in as Teztan Biny, for use as a tailings pond.

The company took a second shot with a proposal for the New Prosperity Mine, which would save Fish Lake and situate the tailings pond two kilometres away in a smaller lake. But, the federal government again turned it down in 2014, despite a trip to Ottawa by Bennett in an effort to persuade the federal government of the importance of the mine to the economy of B.C.

Undeterred, Taseko, which says it has spent more than $130-million trying to develop the mine, attempted to persuade the provincial government not to knuckle under to Ottawa. According to the Elections B.C. website Taseko donated $123,450 to the BC Liberals between 2008 and 2014.

A letter to Premier Christy Clark from CEO Russell Hallbauer, written in May last year, said the B.C. government should be very disturbed “because constitutionally mineral assets are owned by the province and their development is the Provinces’ responsibility, not Ottawa’s.”

Hallbauer wrote: “The B.C. government approving our project and the federal government torpedoing it by not following their own process, is something that needs to be addressed by your administration.”

The letter from Hallbauer suggested that, if the Environmental Assessment Certificate was not amended in a timely way, the province should buy the tenures or that Taseko could launch a civil suit for damages.

Shortly afterwards, the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office amended the original permit, which has been extended to 2020.

Fish Lake, known as Teztan Biny to the Tsilhqot’in, August 2012. Photo: Garth Lenz, all rights reserved.

Now, the province has told the Tsilhqot’in National Government, representing six First Nations, that a decision on allowing a multi-million-dollar exploration plan will probably be made this month, even though no federal permits are in place.

The exploration, which would include a 50-person work camp, 367 test pits, 47 hectares of “new disturbance,” road building and seismic line testing, is adamantly opposed by the Tsilhqot’in and a January letter from Yunesit’in Chief Russell Myers-Ross asked why the province would consider approving more drilling and damage “for a project that cannot be built.”

Myers-Ross accused the province of betraying the Tsilhqot’in people and pleaded for fair treatment.

“The federal government has rejected the project. It is dead, in no small part because our Nation has made a substantial case about the devastating effects that it presents for our people and culture. There is an opportunity here to make the right decision and not repeat the same patterns as the past,” he wrote.

Myers-Ross said in an interview that he finds it baffling that the province would consider allowing more exploration, in the area made up of connected meadows and small streams, frequented by moose, wild horses and grizzlies.

“It’s like the comic villain that keeps coming back,” he said, predicting that, if the exploration is allowed, the Tsilhqot’in Nation will be heading back to court asking for a judicial review and an injunction.

“We will be making sure they don’t set foot on our territory,” he said.

The same message is echoed in a letter to Taseko from Tl’etinqox Chief and Tsilhqot’in National Government tribal chair Joe Alphonse and vice chairman Chief Roger William who accused Taseko of kicking a dead horse.

The letter warns that the Nation is fully prepared to go to court.

“Given our proven Aboriginal rights in the area and the profound cultural and spiritual importance of these lands, your company’s efforts to further disrupt this area to advance a rejected project would represent a severe and unjustified infringement of our aboriginal rights,” it says.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs president, said he believes a provincial decision is imminent.

“This is a deliberate provocation. It’s a political move. We are in an election period,” he said.

“It’s bizarre and very underhanded. I think the province is hoping to provoke a confrontation. . . . It’s a very Trump-like move. They are saying Canada has no business meddling in the affairs of B.C.,” Phillip charged.

However, apart from provincial documents given to the Tsilhqot’in National Government, it is difficult to assess the province’s aim as the Ministry of Energy and Mines has ignored all requests for information from DeSmog Canada.

Communications spokesman Suntanu Dalal initially said he knew nothing about the issue, but would look into it. Three phone calls and two emails later, there has been no response.

Meanwhile, Taseko is continuing to fight the federal government’s rejection of the mine, which it says would help bring economic prosperity to an area devastated by the mountain pine beetle.

Key economic benefits would include a $5.5-billion increase in revenues to B.C and 71,000 jobs, according to Taseko background papers.

The company was in Federal Court last week with a constitutional challenge to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, asking for two judicial reviews, and has also filed a B.C. Supreme Court civil claim seeking damages against the federal government.

In 2016 the B.C. Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit Taseko had filed against the Wilderness Committee and, in an unusual decision, the judge awarded special costs to the Wilderness Committee which claimed the case amounted to a SLAPP suit (strategic lawsuit against public participation).

Taseko did not respond this week to requests for an interview.

Image: A member of the Tsilhqot’in beats a drum at Fish Lake, August 2012. Photo: Garth Lenz, all rights reserved.

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Marilyn Baptiste of the Xeni Gwet’in First Nation in British Columbia has won the prestigious $175,000 Goldman Prize  for her five-year effort to prevent construction of the Prosperity gold and copper mine 600 kilometres north of Vancouver.

“I hope the Goldman award will bring world recognition to help us protect our land,” Baptiste told DeSmog Canada.  “We’d like to improve our lives, but our land and water comes first."

That simple statement echoes the words of millions of indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world facing governments and industries intent on extracting minerals, oil, coal, gas and timber from their lands.

“It’s the same story everywhere,” she said.

However, the beginnings of a new story may be in the works in Canada. Baptiste is a member of the Tsilhqot’in people who won a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision in 2014 that granted aboriginal title to more than a 1,750-square-kilometre area in the Cariboo-Chilcotin area.

For more than 20 years, the 3,000-member Tsilhqot’in opposed clear-cut logging on its unceded territory in and around the Nemaiah Valley. The Tsilhqot'in have no treaties with governments, but the B.C. government approved the logging regardless. The Supreme Court ruled that B.C. had infringed on the rights of the Tsilhqot’in.

Most of B.C. is unceded territory, so the implications of the Supreme Court decision are potentially far-reaching for the rest of the province.

“Our land, our water, our future generations are not for sale," Baptiste said.

Vancouver’s Taseko Mines Ltd, the proponent of the renamed “New” Prosperity Mine, says it will proceed with its project because it is outside of the 1,750 square kilometre Tsilhqot’in territory.

Taseko has spent 20 years trying to get the open pit mine built beside Teztan Biny (Fish Lake). Although the project was approved by B.C., a federal environmental review panel rejected the project in 2010 for its serious potential environmental and cultural impacts. In a rare statement, then minister of environment Jim Prentice said the project would destroy Fish Lake and surrounding streams and wetlands.

A Taseko animation of the New Prosperity Mine plans for Fish Lake via Youtube.

Taseko made some changes, called it "New" Prosperity and re-submitted it to the federal review panel soon after with the blessing of the B.C. government. Taseko started to work on the mine in 2011 without getting federal approval.

That’s when Baptiste stood up and started a one-woman blockade preventing construction crews from reaching the proposed mine site. Alone and in a very remote location, Baptiste drew her courage from the mountains around her.

Baptiste stands over a map of Tsilhqo'tin Territory. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize

“We’re part of the mountains and lakes. They’re our source of health and sustenance….It is just my duty and responsibility to protect our lands, water, wildlife, wild plants for our future generations,” she said.

Baptiste was soon joined by members of her community and the Tsilhqot’in Nation in blocking the road.

The federal government rejected Taseko again in 2013, saying it would cause irreversible environmental damage. Taseko’s response was to sue the federal government. And then again when it lost.

In January 2015, the B.C. government granted Taseko a new extension to build the mine.

“It’s been five years but it feels like ten,” said Baptiste.

“We’re definitely going to continue to oppose the project.”

The open pit mine would be up to 1.6 kilometres wide and more than 500 metres deep. The contaminated tailings will be dumped into a tailings pond near the lake — the specifications of which are based on those of the Mount Polley tailings pond, Baptiste said.

The Mount Polley tailings pond, about four square kilometres in size, failed in August 2014, releasing millions of cubic metres of contaminated water. It was considered one of Canada’s biggest environmental disasters.

Indigenous peoples appreciate modern technology and want to enjoy the benefits, but not if that means the destruction of their land and waters, Baptiste repeated.

“We can’t continue the way we are going. Mother Earth is telling us we are going the wrong way.”

Laws and regulations for mining and the extractive industries need major reforms, something First Nations in the Mount Polley area are actively engaged in pursuing. Governments need to work with local people, not ignore or disrespect them as the B.C. government has, Baptiste said.

Image Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

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Some of the strongest legal challenges against the federally approved Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline come from B.C.’s First Nations and supporters from across B.C. are digging into their pockets to help ensure those are a success.

Pull Together, a grassroots campaign to raise funds for the legal challenges of six First Nations, has been so successful organizers are bumping their goal from $250,000 up to $300,000 by December 31.

On Thursday the Haidi Nation announced they would join the initiative alongside the Gitxaala, Heiltsuk, Kitaxoo/Xai’xias, Nadleh Whut’en and Nak’azdli Nations to carry legal challenges forward against Enbridge’s project.

“The Pull Together campaign is driven by people who care and are politically astute,” said kil tlaats ‘gaa Peter Lantin, President of the Haida Nation. “They can see how the future of the country is shaping up and want to be part of it.”

Chief Marilyn Slett of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council said the fight against the Northern Gateway is a “global issue.”

“It’s an issue that we all should be standing up to protect the land and the sea, we have that responsibility as human beings.”

First Nations lead legal challenge against Northern Gateway

First Nations hold unique constitutional powers in Canada and assert Canada’s “duty to consult and accommodate” leaves individual nations with the ultimate decision-making power over resource projects on traditional territories.

Since 2010 over 100 First Nations have signed the Save the Fraser Declaration, an indigenous-law based agreement definitively banning oil pipelines and tankers in their territories. In 2010 nine coastal First Nations signed the Coastal First Nations Declaration that pledged “oil tankers carrying crude oil from the Alberta Tar Sands will not be allows to transit our lands and waters.”

According to a legal analysis performed by West Coast Environmental Law, B.C.’s First Nations “have the right to issue a ban on oil pipelines and crude oil tankers in their territories, based in their own ancestral laws, in Canadian constitutional law, and in international law.”

At least nine legal challenges have been launched by First Nations to stop the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline from being built. After the federal government approved the pipeline, a large group of First Nations, Councils and Assemblies launched a joint federal suit announcing,  “we will defend our territories whatever the cost may be.”

While some have criticized these legal arguments as tenuous, a historic decision in the June 2014 Williams Case for the first time acknowledged a local First Nation, the Tsilhqot’in, has legal title to their traditional territories. This sets a legal precedent for other First Nations to make similar claims to legal rights and title over their lands.

Under the Tsilhqot’in decision, economic development can still proceed on traditional territories with local First Nations’ consent or where the government can demonstrate that development is pressing and substantial.

As part of its pre-construction conditions Enbridge must prove it adequately consulted with all potentially affected First Nations and that it has plans in place to mitigate or repair any damage caused by the construction and operation of a pipeline on traditional lands.

Individuals, businesses, faith groups get behind B.C.’s First Nations

Over 30 businesses and more than 1,000 individual donors have come together in more than 100 online fundraisers to help Pull Together, an initiative of the Sierra Club BC and Victoria-based legal defense fund RAVEN, work towards its goal.

“British Columbians do not want First Nations to stand alone against Enbridge and they’re demonstrating this with passion, creativity and their wallets,” said Sierra Club BC campaigns director Caitlyn Vernon. “It’s incredible to think that Pull Together began in the summer with a community group in Terrace raising $2,000, and now we have raised a hundred times that.”

SumofUs.org, a global corporate watchdog and advocacy group, raised more than $40,000 for Pull Together and Heiltsuk councilor, Jess Housty, contributed over $5,700 from funds her and her husband raised at their October 18th wedding.

Moksha yoga studios are also participating in a “Stretch Across B.C. Challenge” which has raised $8,500 from participating studios across the province. The community of Pender Island raised over $4,000 by hosting a local concert and the United Church of Canada pledged to fundraise from its congregations throughout the month of November.  

Susan Smitten, executive director of RAVEN said financing legal challenges against the pipeline is a “an extensive, costly legal process.”

“The next stage involves gathering all of the evidence required for the Nations to make their cases at Court,” she said.

“While the Nations are committed to going it alone, standing together and pooling resources with all British Columbians ensures equal access to justice and a successful outcome with much more likelihood of success.”

Image Credit: Mandy Nahanee speaking at The Answer is Still NO!, a public rally in response to the Northern Gateway federal approval. Photo by Zack Embree.

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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.

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.

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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Disappointment has turned to optimism for members of the Ktunaxa Nation, who are hoping that, over the summer, B.C.’s legal pendulum swung in favour of First Nations.

In April, the B.C Supreme Court turned down a Ktunaxa application for a judicial review of the Master Development Agreement between Jumbo Glacier Resort and the provincial government.

That decision is now being appealed, with a B.C. Appeal Court date expected early next year, and Kathryn Teneese, chair of the Ktunaxa Nation Council, believes that the legal climate has changed following the Supreme Court of Canada Tsilhqot’in decision in June.

“Certainly that has advanced the issue. . . We want to go to court and get the same kind of declaration the Tsilhqot’in got,” Teneese said.

“For far too long we have been treated as an interest group like the Lions Club or Rotary.”

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In the Tsilhqot’in case, the court recognized aboriginal title over a large tract of territory — meaning First Nations have the right to decide how to use the land. The ruling also emphasized the need to properly consult and accommodate First Nations who have not yet proved title to the land.

The Ktunaxa case is based on alleged inadequate consultation and the right to freedom of religion as set out in the Canadian constitution.

The Jumbo and Toby Creek valleys, 55 kilometres west of Invermere, where Glacier Resorts Ltd. wants to build an all-season ski resort with 23 lifts and more than 6,000 beds in hotels, lodges and condos, is considered sacred by the Ktunaxa Nation.

The area, known to Ktunaxa people as Qat’muk, has spiritual significance as the home of the Grizzly Bear Spirit and is sometimes translated as “where the grizzly bears go to dance.”

The consultation and accommodation sections of the Tsilhqot’in decision do set a standard for the Ktunaxa case, said John Borrows, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Victoria.

Proponents of developments should be aware that, if there has not been proper consultation and the area is subsequently proved to be First Nations land, projects may have to go back to square one. There could also be questions about infringements of property rights, leading to claims for compensation, Borrows said.

A complication in the Jumbo Glacier area is that the area is also claimed by the Shuswap Indian Band, which supports the resort development.

“That could slow things down. Often the court tries to look at indigenous law to look at shared territory,” Borrows said.

Glacier Resort Ltd. claims on its website that it has First Nations support because the Shuswap Band, which is based in Invermere and broke away from the Ktunaxa Nation Council, is the nearest First Nation to the resort site.

Andrew Gage, a staff lawyer for West Coast Environmental Law, is less sure that the Tsilhqot’in decision will directly apply to the Ktunaxa case, which is not a title claim, but he believes the ruling may embolden courts dealing with First Nations cases.

“I think that the fact that they are going to appeal is significant. Most major changes to aboriginal law have been done at the Supreme Court of Canada level. Trial judges tend to be a little more cautious,” he said.

The freedom of religion argument is interesting, Gage said.

“It is one that I don’t think has been argued before and it could open a whole other area of law,” he said.

Photo: Ktunaxa Nation

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