Jumbo “victory” will likely be short lived

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

As you try to digest the blockbuster announcement out of Victoria this week that Jumbo, the world’s most delayed ski project is going ahead, there are several salient points to keep in mind.

The first and most important you shouldn’t forget is that Jumbo is first and foremost a real estate play. The fact that people will also ski in that less-than-pristine valley is incidental. The money to be made building Whistler in the Kootenays will come from the sale and rental of condos, townhouses, hotels, lodges and monster log edifices like you see at any ski resort in B.C. be it Fernie, Kimberley, Big White or Whistler.

Now, is it such a big surprise that a so-called “free enterprise” government with a passionate, ideological belief in the free market that borders on the religious and numbering many of the province’s biggest developers, realtors and businessmen in its ranks would approve a Palace of Versailles in the wilderness where the rich and idle can play?

Do fish swim? Do birds fly? Does the sun rise in the east? The only surprising thing about the Jumbo announcement is that it didn’t come years ago. And why didn’t it, you rightfully ask?

The answer is relatively simple. Many, but by no means all, of the people living in close proximity to Jumbo vehemently oppose the project. Some for quite selfish reasons because they want to play there themselves and others because they sincerely believe that the Kootenays needs another ski resort like the proverbial hole in the head and they would prefer to see their beautiful part of the world less overrun by rich interlopers from Alberta and elsewhere.

Then there are the environmentalists who waged a marathon campaign against the project that was both emotional and strategic and kept a succession of governments on edge and afraid to make a move on Jumbo. One of their smartest moves was planting hockey legend Scott Niedermayer on Jumbo’s lofty summit and posting a hero picture of him that went viral around the world garnering incredible support for the anti-Jumbo campaign.

Ironically, many of the environmentalists’ arguments were dubious at best and some plain false as the claim that the heavily logged and mined valley was “pristine.” But to the many opposed to the mega-resort this doesn’t matter, and industrially damaged or not, Jumbo is still a spectacularly scenic and relatively unscathed valley that has managed to escape much of the world’s march of “progress.”

And then there’s one not-so-little legal matter that’s stayed under the radar most of the time but exerted tremendous power on the government to cave on Jumbo. It could be best described as abuse of process, namely that by delaying the Jumbo decision for so long, the government owed the original would-be developer Oberto Oberti compensation. Lots of compensation. Very expensive compensation. In fact, only a few years ago the then Campbell Liberals paid $30 million in compensation to Boss Power, a mining company that was suing them for taking back a permit it had issued the company to mine uranium near Penticton.

Don’t think for a moment that putative Jumbo developer Oberti was unaware of this expensive settlement and would have been in court in a flash seeking the same remedy if Jumbo was ultimately turned down.

Finally there’s the matter of the Ktunaxa aboriginal claim to the Jumbo territory, a deeply spiritual issue to the Ktunaxa people who harbor strong feelings about the threatened grizzly bears that live in the valley. The government’s feeble attempts to appease the Ktunaxa was one of the major factors why the decision was delayed so long and is still a major factor in the Jumbo issue. The Ktunaxa have made it clear they will continue their fight against Jumbo in the courts and Canadian courts are traditionally very sympathetic to native claims.

Which brings us to the greatest irony of all in the Jumbo announcement. There are people in government and outside that are calling the announcement a “victory” for their cause when in fact it’s nothing of the kind. It may be one victory in the Jumbo battle, but the Jumbo war is far from over.

The strongest arguments against Jumbo are not environmental or aboriginal, but economic. Simply put, in today’s shaky financial world there is no market for resort real estate in a glacial valley 55 killimetres  off a paved road where you will have snow on your roof 10 months of the year and a big, mean glacier staring you in the face.

In short, Jumbo is doomed. Not by environmentalists or the native people, but by the free market, which in its infinite wisdom, will ensure that few people will ever want to invest there.

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