Bill Bennett proffered some constructive criticism of my research on the issue when I wrote about the economics of the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort several weeks ago. So I must thank him for the inspiration to do better. There has been far too much written and revealed on the multitude of wrongs connected with this proposal to be condensed into a standard letter to the editor. However, it starts with a 1998 LYNX Newsletter exposing who is behind JGR including water privatizers with national and international connections.
Ski resorts are like golf courses. The big money comes from the sale of the private lots connected to the resort. Golf courses and ski resorts are lucky to break even. When you have private lots, a municipality, and a mayor and council, the government becomes responsible and the developer can walk away with whatever he has in pocket, leaving a full-fledged self-sufficient community at the end of a road depending on attracting customers from a market that was struggling to survive before Jumbo started looking for a share.
It was thoughtful of the B.C. Liberals to create the Jumbo Resort Municipality before the sale of lots began and considerate of Bill Bennett to promote the resort but with all the out-sourcing, off-shoring, intra-company transfers of under-qualified foreign workers and union-busting through legislation, the skiing market is not the only market to be undermined. The right-wing governments in Canada don’t seem to realize that in a free market economy you actually need a market that has enough money to buy what is being produced.
Peter Ross
Creston