A deal has been reached that aims to open Mount Baldy again to skiers in early January. The ski resort east of Oliver was closed for the 2013-14 season when its American owners ran into financial problems. (Richard McGuire file photo)
A deal to reopen the Mount Baldy Ski Area for the 2015 ski season and plans by the federal government to enact legislation to try and ensure invasive mussels won’t contaminate B.C. lakes and rivers made headlines in December.
A deal was reached two weeks before Christmas that will ensure the Mount Baldy Ski Area returns to operation on a limited basis in early 2015..
G-Force Group announced the agreement saying the resort “has been rescued from the insolvency Grinch who stole it from its ski communities just before Christmas last year.”
After the failure of another initiative in October, Fred Johnston of Calgary offered to manage the resort for the current ski season and to acquire it at the end of the season.
To complete the transaction, G. Powroznik Group Inc., a company under the G-Force Group, was appointed as receiver-manager of Mount Baldy Ski Resort Corporation by the Supreme Court of B.C. in December.
The resort 35 kilometres east of Oliver was closed during the 2013-14 ski season due to financial difficulties of the previous U.S. owners.
G-Force was appointed as the marketing agent in July by a secured creditor who had received conduct of sale from the B.C. Supreme Court.
Only the Sugarlump quad chair and the Magic Carpet will be open this season.
The hill would open once the necessary liability insurance can be confirmed.
The deal will see Matt Koenig again serve in his role as mountain manager. Koenig and a small team of former employees have been working in recent weeks to get the hill ready.
“Matt Koenig has been a real stalwart here,” said Powroznik. “If it hadn’t been for him, this probably would not have happened… He was really committed and hung in there.”
More than 11 years after a House of Commons committee urged the federal government to bring in comprehensive regulations to address the threat of aquatic invasive species, those regulations were announced in early December.
Reflecting concerns about the threat to Okanagan lakes posed by invasive zebra and quagga mussels, one of three media events across Canada was held in Kelowna.
Local Conservative MPs Dan Albas and Ron Cannan made the announcement on behalf of Gail Shea, minister of fisheries and oceans, who spoke at another event in London, Ont. focusing on the threat posed by Asian carp to the Great Lakes.
A third media event was held in Winnipeg, Man. Zebra mussels were found to have spread into Lake Winnipeg in October 2013.
The new regulations will make it an offence under the Fisheries Act to transport certain invasive species, including zebra and quagga mussels, into Canada, across provincial and territorial boundaries and between ecosystems within a region.
The regulations address intentional and unintentional introductions of these species.
Most importantly, the new regulations would give border officials with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) the authority to inspect and detain boats suspected of transporting invasive species into Canada.
Typically mussels are spread on recreational boats that haven’t been properly cleaned, drained and dried after being removed from an infected lake.
Zebra and quagga mussels originated in Eastern Europe and now infest many waterways in Eastern North America, more recently making inroads into lakes and rivers of the U.S. Southwest.
The Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB) estimates the cost of mitigating a mussel invasion in the Okanagan at $43 million a year.
The new regulations don’t take effect immediately, but Cannan said the goal is to have them in place as soon as possible.
“I think it’s a very good thing that it happened,” said Anna Warwick Sears, executive director of the OBWB in reaction to the announcement. “It is really essential and it is probably the most direct, simple, efficient thing to do. It’s not that there isn’t more that needs to be done, but simply giving the border agents the ability to stop and inspect boats for the import of aquatic invasive species makes a lot of sense.”
In other news, members of the Osoyoos Airport Development Committee said a proposal by the newly-elected town council to consider closing down Osoyoos Airport is a bad idea.
There is great potential to expand the Osoyoos Airport, while also allowing for expansion of the town’s industrial base near the airport, say local dentist Dr. Jason Bartsch, pilot and business owner Rob Rausch and Diana Thomas, a former constituency assistant for local MLA John Slater.
All three belong to the airport development committee that was formed six years ago. Other members include Alberta business owner Tom McHale – who runs a business flying workers from across Canada to work sites in Alberta – and local developer Glen Harris.
The five members of the committee signed a detailed letter stating their opposition to recent comments by newly-elected Town of Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff that the town was exploring the option of closing down the Osoyoos Airport and using that land to expand the town’s industrial base. The town’s Buena Vista Industrial Park is located several hundred metres away from the airport, across Highway 3.
“We don’t think airport expansion is high enough up the list of priorities and we don’t think the current airport is the best use of that land,” said McKortoff in the Nov. 26 edition of the Osoyoos Times. “We think expanding the industrial base makes more sense.”
This would waste tons of time and money that have already been spent on the airport over the past decade and permanently end any possibility of expanding Osoyoos Airport and turning it into a viable business operation, said Rausch.
“If this place closes, it closes for good,” he said.
They hope to be able to meet with town council to voice their opposition to any plans to close the facility and inform the mayor and councillors about what they see as an endless list of opportunities for expansion as soon as possible in early 2015.
“We would love the opportunity to meet with council and explain our vision as soon as we possibly can early in the new year,” said Bartsch.
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Osoyoos Times
