Saturday, March 03, 2018

Plans for Jumbo Valley Resort in BC make no sense to me

The Ktunaxa people of eastern British Columbia recently lost a court case aimed at preventing the development of a new ski resort in BC's Jumbo Valley, or what the Ktunaxa call Qat'muk, the sacred home of their Grizzly Bear Spirit.
I have a sneaking respect for the Ktunaxa after learning about them from my daughter's Grade 6 school project. I have particular fond memories of my 11-year old child reeling off a tongue-twister of a sentence in Ktunaxa at full speed (something she can still do today, at 22), Ktunaxa being a fascinating language isolate, totally unlike any other language in North America or anywhere else.
Be that as it may, and setting aside whatever logic the Supreme Court of Canada applied in coming to this rather surprising decision (including completely ignoring the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP, which is designed to prevent just this sort of thing), my question is: who would want to be opening a new ski resort in this day and age? With global warming, ski resorts the world over (including those in North America) are hurting badly, and I would have thought that any ski resort opened today would probably have a useful life of, say, 10 years max. How can it possibly be an economic proposition? Developing and scarring a beautiful pristine wilderness for such short-term gains (if any) seems like a poor all-round decision.
Jumbo Valley Resort will still have to go through another legal challenge regarding its environmental assessment certificate, so its future is still not assured, but what a shame it would be for such a development to proceed.

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