Jumbo Resort Developer Not Giving Up Without a Fight

The development group that has spent more than 24 years trying to build a controversial ski resort in 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 into building a smaller resort that would not trigger a new environmental assessment process.

A July 20 letter from project founder Oberto Oberti to the chief administrative officer of the resident-less Jumbo municipality 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 Oct. 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," reads the letter.

In the meantime, the company will work on amendments to the master plan and the development agreement to reduce the size of the project below the threshold of environmental assessment regulations, Oberti wrote.

The smaller project could move forward under the provincial all-seasons resort policy, he suggested.

On thin ice

The billion-dollar, 6,300-bed Jumbo Glacier Resort was already on thin ice when Polak withdrew the project's environmental assessment certificate in June. She concluded 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 environmental certificate in 2004 and renewed it in 2009. The certificate officially expired in October 2014.

At that time only two building foundations were under construction and, in April 2015, the company was handed a provincial stop work order as the footings were in the runout zone of an avalanche path.*

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. The letter from Oberti says he believes Jumbo 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, roadblocks due to avalanche, bridge problems and bad weather for not making more progress.

Opponents regroup

Robyn Duncan, executive director of Wildsight, one of the groups opposed to the resort, said the company's intent to request judicial review is surprising. She added the minister's decision not to renew environmental certificates was solid.

However, no request has been filed, and two pending court cases remain in play.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has reserved her decision on an application by the West Kootenay EcoSociety to dissolve the resident-less municipality. Provincial courts are also 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."

*Updated July 30 at 2:30 p.m.