The giant Jumbo Resort in the East Kootenays has moved much closer to development following its incorporation as a mountain resort municipality by the provincial government. A municipal council has been appointed for a term ending November 30, 2014 and an interim corporate officer has also been named and will serve until the first council is elected.
Jumbo’s first mayor is Greg Deck, who served as the mayor of Radium Hot Springs from 1990 to 2008.
Jumbo, which is composed of four large glaciers and offers year-round skiing, had its master development agreement approved in March of 2012 following a 20-year review. The $900 million plan calls for a 6.500-bed resort. Following the incorporation announcement, however, the Ktunaxa First Nation said it planned to petition the BC Supreme Court for a judicial review of the project. The Ktunaxa claim the resort would be "a desecration of a principal Ktunaxa sacred site."
The legal threat spurred Grant Costello, the driving force behind Jumbo, to come out swinging.
“The Ktunaxa didn’t reveal any special ‘sacred’ significance to the project area for 20 years, despite lengthy and repeated consultations,” said Costello, senior vice-president of Glacier Resorts Ltd.
Costello also took a swipe at environmentalists who claim the area is a pristine section of the Purcell Mountains which is renowned grizzly bear territory.
“That is the first misrepresentation put forward by disingenuous critics,” Costello told Western Investor. He notes the valley has been extensively logged with thousands of truckloads of first growth timber removed and the remains burned by controlled means and wildfires. “The centre of the new municipality was the site of a year-round sawmill and years of industrial by-products are still evident there.
“ Second, there are presently three active gravel pit tenures in the Jumbo Valley with tailings and pit debris at multiple sites. There are two active mining companies in the valley with test drilling ongoing as recently as June 2012,” he added
Costello also claims the Jumbo Valley is one of the Purcell's least used valleys by grizzlies
“The potential threat to the Purcell grizzly population by the Jumbo Glacier Resort was found to be negligible at worst and no net impact at best during the nine year environmental study,” Costello said.
Costello noted Jumbo’s Farnham Glacier is the training site of the Canadian National Winter Sports teams and was used extensively in the seven years leading up to the 2010 Olympics. With vertical skiing of 2,300 feet in summer, it is the only summer ski site in Canada.
