Group takes B.C. to court in bid to freeze plans for ski resort town

VANCOUVER – A B.C. environmental group is set to begin court proceedings next week in a bid to block the development of a controversial ski resort.

The West Kootenay Ecosociety is challenging the government’s decision to create a municipality that would support the planned Jumbo Glacier resort.

Lawyer Judah Harrison, who represents the group, says it’s an affront to democracy for the province to grant self-government to a tract of land that has no residents and is slated for private development.

The government granted municipal status to Glacier Resorts in November 2012, appointing a three-member council and providing a quarter million dollars as a budget.

The legal action is another in a series of attempts by environmentalists and First Nations to prevent the resort from being constructed in southeastern B.C.’s Purcell Mountains.

The company first got the green light to launch the ski area in 1991.