The Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality council meeting on Tuesday, August 21st passed as efficiently as many of the meetings over the past four years. The meeting itself lasted a couple of minutes, and the only business addressed was approving the written summary of their last meeting and the administrative expenses from the previous month.
Mayor Greg Deck said the municipal council has been in “semi hibernation” while Glacier Resorts Ltd. has been in court with the provincial government over the future of the ski resort.
On Friday, August 17th, Justice Carla Forth of the Supreme Court of B.C. ruled that the province’s Ministry of Environment erred when it brought the project to a halt and allowed the environmental certificate to expire.
But Mr. Deck said the judgement doesn’t automatically grant Glacier Resorts Ltd. permission to get back to work.
“It means that the proponent is now in a much stronger position to ask (the province) for a renewal (or reinstatement) of the environmental certificate,” he said.
In a press release, Glacier Resorts Ltd. said they are reaching out to the province in hopes of having their project reconsidered quickly.
If the Ministry of Environment reinstates Glacier Resorts Ltd.’s environmental certificate, Mayor Deck expects that council will soon have more work to do.
“It will be nice to be active and getting something done again,” he said. “We can get back to the business that we were doing before this new court challenge.”
With the Official Community Plan already approved, the municipality’s next step will be to pass a zoning bylaw for the village.
“Now we’re getting into the zoning bylaw itself, which is much more specific about individual parcels, what can go where,” he said.
This is the fourth legal case stemming from the resort proposal, with seven separate court rulings, each of which has had a favourable result for Glacier Resorts Ltd.
