Minister for Resort Development Sandy Santori has confirmed that the recommendations made, in part, by several community leaders from the Sea to Sky corridor would form the basis of a new B.C. Resort Strategy.
The Resort Task Force was appointed in 2003 following Premier Gordon Campbell’s challenge to the tourism industry to double its size within 10 years.
Santori led the group, which also included Jim Godfrey from the Resort Municipality of Whistler, Squamish’s Economic Development Officer Lee Malleau and Squamish Nation Chief Gibby Jacob. Former Whistler administrator Geoff Pearce was also a member of the task force.
The recommendations in the task force’s 74-page report highlighted a number of strengths and weaknesses within B.C.’s tourism industry but some of the more significant points included:
• More resources for transportation needs.
• A more streamlined resort approval process.
• An improvement in communication between developers, First Nations and local government.
Despite the scope of the recommendations there was some fear the report might be shelved, but Santori said this week they would be used in a new B.C Resort Strategy, which is due for completion this fall.
"I can say with a fair amount of comfort that we will be able to implement the vast majority of them (recommendations)," he said.
"Some of them will take longer than others but I hope to have the resort strategy ready in the fall."
He said the task force identified "significant potential for resort development throughout the province.
"But I think if I was to pick one single recommendation out of the report as something that is very important it would be the elimination of duplication within the silos of government.
"Together with that is to try to create a more concurrent process as opposed to a linear one, which is what we have now.
"A linear process draws out the approval process, or the denial process for that matter, to a point where it’s not conducive for economic development or attractive to investors.
"I think what’s happened in the past is that investors get drawn into a process and into a system, they spend a lot of time and a lot of money," he said. "Then they get to a point where they almost can’t afford to get out and still have no certainty on whether they’ll get approval or not."
The report detailed the goal of any changes to the laws governing resort development should be to bring all the relevant parties to the negotiating table earlier to create a degree of certainty for developers and government.
"Sometimes certainty means certainly not, but for an investor that’s fine because if they know earlier in the process they can go to plan B," said Santori.
Whistler is mentioned several times in the Resort Task Force’s report and Santori was also happy to praise the resort’s success.
"Whistler has definitely become one of the best and most recognized all-season resorts in the world today," he said.
"We can all learn a lot from Whistler, not that everyone in B.C. should become a Whistler but they’ve been through the ups and the downs and I think their experiences will help us along as we create other opportunities."
Godfrey, who is Whistler’s administrator, said other significant points to emerge from the recommendations included land conflict resolutions and best practices guidelines.
"When you start to look at the backcountry and all the land conflict issues that start to emerge there that’s another big positive issue that’s come out of this," said Godfrey.
"And I think probably the last major point is the whole issue of best practices guidelines because it would be useful for existing resorts such as ourselves but it would also be beneficial to emerging resort communities."
Malleau, from Squamish, said the most important issue to emerge from the recommendations was the "harmonization" of the development processes.
"It is so complicated and daunting for even the most sophisticated investor that the legislation and process surrounding applications for resort development can be a deterrent to good investment," said Malleau.
"There is no real reason why harmonization has to be such a challenge."
(From the Resort Task Force’s report)
WHAT WHISTLER DOES FOR US
Whistler demonstrates the range and scope of benefits that a successful resort contributes to the economy. In the year 2000, Whistler generated:
• $1.035 billion in estimated tourism spending, of which $114 million was spent outside of Whistler;
• $529 million in estimated salaries and wages; and
• about $376.4 million in total government revenues.
Direct and indirect government revenues generated by tourism spending in Whistler were $167.9 million for the federal government, $175.6 million for the B.C. government and $32.9 for municipal government. Visitors to Whistler supported the equivalent of 21,470 full-year jobs, of which 14,200 were in Whistler, with the remainder in the rest of British Columbia. Hotel revenue at Whistler increased 168% between 1993 and 1999 while room revenue for the province grew 67% over the same period.
STATISTICS ON AIR TRANSPORTATION AND IMPACT ON ALPINE SKIING
(From Air Transportation Capacity and the Direct Impact on the Economic Success of Alpine Skiing in Western Canada by Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners Ltd. 2003)
• Between 1992 and 2002 growth in skier visitation at interior resorts ranged from 4%/annum up to 16%/annum and averaged 8.3% compound growth over the entire period.
• Whistler-Blackcomb receives approximately 60% of its total visitation through the airline industry.
• Sun Peaks Resort receives approximately 20% of its skier visits from guests utilizing air transportation to the Kamloops Airport.
• Big White Ski Resort receives approximately 40% of their skier visits while Silver Star Resort receives about 27% of their visitation from passengers traveling on several air carriers which utilize the Kelowna Airport
• Fernie and Kimberley Alpine Resorts rely on air service to the Cranbrook airport to bring their regional and destination guests.
Of British Columbia’s 2001/02 season’s 6.25 million visits, it is estimated that an average of 30%, or 1.86 million skiers visits, or approximately 310,000 guests arrived by air. These air-base visitors stayed on average of 5.5 nights at Whistler and between 5.5-6.5 nights at Sun Peaks and Big White/Silver Star.
