Jumbo Glacier resort promoters are crowing over an extension of the project’s dubious Environmental Assessment certificate. The B.C. Environmental Assessment Office granted the extension on January 26.
The original EA was made on October 12, 2004 and was to expire in October, 2009. It has now been extended until October 12, 2014.
The extension sweeps unanswered questions — and due process — under the rug.
“This ridiculous extension undermines the province’s own Environmental Assessment process,” said Dave Quinn, Wildsight’s Purcell program manager. Quinn has been observing land-use machinations in the Jumbo Valley for the past 16 years. “The province’s own rule book says one-time-only extensions can be granted. But that’s only if nothing significant has changed that would negate the assumptions made in the original.”
In the five years since the EA certificate was granted, however, there have been significant changes:
• Scientific studies of grizzly bear numbers in the Purcells mark a drop in population of over 40 per cent;
• There is more awareness of the short-term instability of the glaciers in the region, thanks to a study commissioned by Columbia Basin Trust;
• The Jumbo Valley has yet to be rezoned to accommodate the proposed development;
• Third-party polls have consistently shown the majority of locals don’t want the resort.
“The original EA assumed a robust grizzly population and stable glaciers,” Quinn said. “We now know that grizzlies in the Central Purcells are in serious decline and that the ice base of the proposed ‘glacier-based ski resort’ is, in fact, melting.”
Quinn is furious that the extension was granted with the blessing of the Ministry of Environment, who stated, in regards to Ktunaxa Nation Council’s comments on a recent grizzly bear study, that the Ministry: “. . . does not believe that there have been any material of specific changes in circumstances since the original environmental assessment review which would impact the conclusions reached in the certificate.”
“‘Does not believe?’” said Quinn. “So now it’s a question of whether our ministers choose not to believe the things they don’t care for?
“The Ministry of the Environment itself funded the grizzly study!” Quinn said.
“These changes happened since original EA was enacted,” Quinn added. “So this extension is way off base. Instead, a new one must be done.”
DETAILS
Grizzly bear numbers: Numbers from a 2007 study funded by the Ministry of Environment indicate that grizzly populations in the Jumbo vicinity have declined by more than 40 per cent from numbers the proponent cited in the original 2004 EA document.
Grizzly biologists say this significant decline renders the planned mitigation of the resort for grizzly bears invalid and insufficient.
“The result?” Quinn asked. “The public could very likely be stuck with an expensive grizzly recovery program, similar to programs in the United States, where grizzlies are on the endangered list. A new EA has to be done to factor in these new numbers so that doesn’t happen.”
Climate: There is no longer any question, as there may have been in 2004, that the glaciers in the region are melting. A Columbia Basin Trust study conducted by the University of Victoria notes that glaciers in the Columbia Basin have shrunk on average 16 per cent based on a 15-year period ending in 2000. (See www.cbt.org/climatechange.)
“This knowledge changes how much money and wildlife the Province should be willing to risk — on behalf of taxpayers like you and me — on a business plan that props up a glacier-based resort,” Quinn said. “Summer skiing on this glacier complex is already dismal-to-impossible – in coming decades it will get worse. The resort will also negatively impact stream flows and water quality in the Columbia Headwaters.”
Zoning: For the resort to go ahead, the Jumbo Valley must be rezoned to include permanent human settlement. But so far, that hasn’t happened.
Clause Six of the EA states: “(The) Proponent must obtain rezoning and other appropriate approvals for the Project from the Regional District of East Kootenay prior to the commencement of construction of the Project.”
“There hasn’t been any rezoning, the proponent hasn’t even applied for it,” Quinn said. “But he attempted to push a road and lift into the resort area last summer without it.”
Quinn adds that last summer’s road building attempt by Glacier Resorts Ltd. was also without public notification or First Nations consultation.
“Glacier Resorts has had almost two decades to apply for rezoning,” Quinn said. “Doesn’t this behaviour make it clear they have no intention of applying for it?”
Quinn said Glacier Resorts is biding its time, waiting for a Provincial decision that would overrule local government and remove the necessity for rezoning — and for consulting with local government.
Work: The original Jumbo EA certificate contains 14 clauses that govern its implementation. A number of them are now out of date, including Clause 13, that states: “The Proponent, in the reasonable opinion of the Minister, must have substantially started construction of the Project within five years…and if not… this certificate expires.”
“The proponent blames the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts for the fact that no construction has begun,” said Quinn. “But that’s not without them trying — they tried to build that road illegally. Regardless, the certificate, by its own wording, has been rendered null. This extension has made a mockery of due process.”
Quinn said that Wildsight and other groups are keeping a close on these developments.
“We have to,” he said. “When you can’t trust those in power, you have to rely on your people power.”
Dave Quinn, Wildsight Purcells program manager
250-427-8878 cell • 250-427-5666 home office
About Wildsight
Wildsight works locally, regionally and globally to protect biodiversity and encourage sustainable communities in Canada’s Columbia and southern Rocky Mountain region. This area is internationally recognized as a keystone to conservation in western North America. For more information, please visit www.wildsight.ca.
