Contentious Jumbo Valley to become Indigenous protected area after feds provide $21M

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• Once the site of a proposed billion dollar ski resort, the area is now slated to become a conservation zone

CBC News · Posted: Jan 18, 2020 1:00 AM PT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

The federal government is giving the Ktunaxa Nation in southeast B.C. $21 million to create an indigenous protected area around the Jumbo Valley in the East Kootenay. (The Canadian Press)

The Ktunaxa Nation in the East Kootenay will create a conservation zone in the towering mountains and glaciers around the Jumbo Valley,  which has been in the eye of developers for three decades.

"I believe this is a positive outcome to what was an extremely challenging situation," said Kathryn Teneese, Ktunaxa Nation council chair.

The Ktunaxa calls Jumbo Qat'muk and say it's home to the grizzly bear spirit and therefore sacred. 

• 'Jumbo is going to stay wild': Court rules that ski resort project needs reassessment

But for almost 30 years, the Jumbo Glacier Resort project team led by Vancouver architect Oberto Oberti has been trying to build a billion dollar year-round ski resort there. 

Robert Phillips of the First Nations Summit addresses the media alongside Kathryn Teneese on Nov. 2, 2017, following the Supreme Court decision related to the Jumbo Glacier Resort. (Chantelle Bellrichard)

In 2012, plans for a 6,300-bed resort village with more than 20 ski lifts were given the green light by then premier Christy Clark's Liberal government. 

The same year the government also controversially amended the Local Government Act to allow Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort to become a municipality, even though it has no residents.

The move ensured developers would receive an annual provincial grant of $260,000 and $50,000 in federal gas tax money.

• With no residents or roads, Jumbo doesn't deserve municipality status, says Rossland's council

But in 2015, the same government cancelled the resort's environmental certificate after finding hardly any work had been done and the project "had not been substantially started."  

Last year, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld that decision.

Federal Environment Minister Johnathan Wilkinson says turning the site into a protected area is part of a broader reconciliation agenda the Liberal government has with Indigenous people.

A map by Jumbo Glacier Resort shows the intended location of the now-dead project. (Jumbo Glacier Resort Master Plan/Oberti Architecture)

"This has been the subject of lots of controversy, including many court cases for many, many years. This is something that assures we are protecting an important local ecosystem," he said.

Teneese says the boundaries of the protected area haven't been finalized, but it's expected to be half the size of Yoho National Park to the north.

"We don't know what it is going to look like. A big part of the initial work is going to be conversations with people who are going to be impacted by this," she said.

Some of the money going to the Ktunaxa is expected to be used to pay off Jumbo Glacier Resort.

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