Private Resort Profits From Provincial Park Without a Park Use Permit
For the past two years, Silver Star Mountain Resort has had an agreement with the Sovereign Lake Nordic Club (the non-profit community ski club that holds the Park Use Permit) whereby cross country skiers that purchase trail passes at the resort can ski inside the Provincial Park on the Sovereign Lake trail system. The costs of grooming and maintaining the ski trails in the park are borne by the non-profit club, which normally charges everyone to ski on trails inside the Provincial Park; however, in an incredibly generous gesture, the Sovereign Lake Nordic Club offered the arrangement to Silver Star Mountain Resort wherein none of the trail fee revenue collected by the resort is passed on to the volunteer-run community ski club. To compensate for this significant loss of revenue, the resort also allows the Sovereign Lake club to sell upgrade tickets which allow skiing in the resort's Controlled Recreation Area. The agreement allows the community ski club to keep this revenue.
This incredibly bizarre arrangement means that the community ski club must police Sovereign Lake skiers entering the resort's Controlled Recreation Area to ensure that they have resort trail passes (unless of course they want to ride up one of the chairlifts, in which case resort staff will check for a pass)! Of most concern however, is that the agreement shortchanges the Provincial Park, funnelling revenues that should be used to maintain park facilities, instead to the privately owned ski resort. It also increases the cost of skiing for local residents, as the shortfall in revenues must be made up by increased trail fees. B.C. Parks has endorsed the agreement, which is part of the club's annual operating plan.
It remains to be seen if the community ski club will have enough revenues to replace its aging grooming equipment when that time comes. Time will tell. If the community ski club cannot keep its groomers running, the ski resort may have to take over operation of the Sovereign Lake trail system. The Park use Permit would then likely pass to the private ski resort, and the Sovereign Lake area would be transformed from a non-profit, community-run ski area to a privately run, for-profit operation. It would be difficult to predict the effect such a scenario would have on the local community ski club, but it most likely would splinter the group, and the community atmosphere would be lost. Any remaining organization would be a much smaller, competition-focused nordic ski club.
Of course, the agreement between the resort and the community ski club is good for the resort, and good for destination skiers, since it allows the entire 105 kilometre trail system to be skied on one trail pass. Without starting up a single bulldozer or incurring any maintenance costs, 50 kilometres of nordic ski trails were added to the resort's trail system. The agreement also allows the resort to market the entire mountain trail system, and offer special nordic packages for destination skiers.
Often, nordic trail passes are included free when staying at select hotels. The resort also employs world-calibre athletes to promote the nordic trails . If you clicked on the hypertext in the previous sentence, you'll notice that no mention is made of Silver Star Provincial Park, or of Sovereign Lake Nordic Club (the two lower photos were taken at the 2005 World Cup sponsored by the non-profit community ski club).
Most destination skiers do not understand past conflicts between the volunteer-run ski club and the private resort (which really only started after the ski area changed ownership in 2001), and so most are pleased with the new arrangement. It is unfortunate however to see a private resort profiting at the expense of the Provincial Park and the local volunteer-run community ski club.
Again, one should keep in mind that it is quite likely the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts (MTCA) that is attempting to manipulate events on Silver Star Mountain such that complete control of the mountain is handed over to the private resort, including the Sovereign Lake area. Time will tell if their efforts are successful.
