Call goes out for a Jumbo funeral
By Nelson Daily Editor
By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily
There is no way the $450-million resort proposed for the Jumbo Glacier region should go ahead in an ecologically sensitive area, says the Nelson-Creston Green Party chair.
Michael Jessen has asked Tourism, Trade and Investment Minister Margaret MacDiarmid in a letter for the cancellation of the proposed resort.
In the letter, Jessen said the $450-million resort should be given a final and decent burial.
“This resort proposal has divided East and West Kootenay residents for almost 20 years, but since the vast majority of people don’t want this project, I urge you Ms. MacDiarmid to cancel the Master Development Agreement as one of your first acts as a new minister,” wrote Jessen.
A previous minister of sustainable resource development (George Abbott) said in 2005 the decision will be made by those closest to the project, Jessen pointed out.
“So I ask you, Madame Minister, to respect the 91 per cent of the public who told the Environmental Assessment Office in 2004 they were opposed to the project
Gondolas for skiers should not be allowed to invade the vital grizzly bear habitat and corridor in the Jumbo Valley, Jessen added.
“This proposal is just too big to fit into an area that should be left wild,” he said.
In early November the Province is expected to deliver the verdict on the $450-million project planned for the high peaks and glaciers of the Jumbo Pass between Argenta and Invermere, with the Minister of Tourism handing down its decree on whether to allow a resort municipality — including over 5,000 hotel beds and 1,300 residences — in the Jumbo Glacier Valley.
It would include accommodation for 5,000 visitors and 750 beds for staff.
Jessen told the minister that Professor David Schindler of the University of Alberta has warned ski lifts and skier traffic on the surface of Jumbo Glacier will hasten its melting, compromising a headwater source of the Columbia River system.
The proposed year round ski resort is to be located on 104 hectares at the foot of Jumbo Mountain and Jumbo Glacier in the Purcell Mountains, 55 kimometres west of Invermere.
