This Glacier Won’t Be Turned Into a Ski Resort After All
A billion-dollar plan to build a 6,300-bed resort in the glacial wilderness near Invermere is...
Deep in British Columbia’s Purcell Mountains, a controversy has brewed for more than 20 years.
The Jumbo Glacier Resort proposal to build a 6,000-hectare European resort replica — complete with 23 ski lifts and 6,000 bed units — first surfaced in 1991.
Proponents argue the proposal would make the Invermere area home to Canada’s first year-round, glacier-based ski resort. Those opposed to the project say it would desecrate a sacred place for the Ktunaxa Nation, imperil grizzly bear habitat and overload a region that already has 13 ski resorts within a three-hour drive.
Time is running out for the proponents in more ways than one. Climate experts predict the glaciers will be entirely melted within four decades. And in the more immediate future, if substantial construction doesn’t begin by Oct. 12th, 2014, the environmental assessment certificate for the project will expire, meaning proponents have to go back to square one.
At this crucial moment in the project’s history, DeSmog Canada sent award-winning reporter Judith Lavoie series to the Columbia Valley to take a closer look at the issues swirling around the Jumbo Glacier Resort.
The original reporting in this series was made possible through the generous support of Wilburforce Foundation.
A billion-dollar plan to build a 6,300-bed resort in the glacial wilderness near Invermere is...
A decision on whether pouring two building foundations and clearing trees constitutes a “substantial start”...
A provincial stop work order on the only two buildings under construction on the proposed...
A provincial delay in deciding whether construction of Jumbo Glacier Resort has substantially started is...
This is a guest post by Gerry Taft, the mayor of Invermere. When most of...
Snow is flying in the Jumbo Valley, covering both the rapidly constructed foundations of a...
Grizzly bears in the Central Purcell Mountains are more vulnerable than shown in 15-year-old research...
When Pat Morrow looks around at the mountains, towering on either side of the Jumbo...
The rough track at the foot of West Farnham Glacier, carved by a Glacier Resorts...
Get the inside scoop on The Narwhal’s environment and climate reporting by signing up for our free newsletter. At night, deep in the woods of northern...
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