The 98-page study was administered by the Foundation for Democratic Advancement (FDA), a non-profit public company set up to “advance and improve western democracy” according to its website. The FDA surveyed groups such as the Alpine Club of Canada, the School of Skiing and Snowboarding at Panorama, Toby Creek Adventures and Wildsight as well as individuals including local politicians and environmentalists to find out the long-term effects of development in the Jumbo Pass area.

In general, the results were encouraging for developers. “The Jumbo Glacier Resort will have a 77 per cent overall positive impact on quality of life in the Jumbo Creek Valley and surrounding drainages,” read the report’s summary.

“However,” it continues, “pre-resort recreationalists face a 19 per cent overall negative impact from the Jumbo Resort on their quality of life in the Jumbo Creek Valley and surrounding drainages. The percentage of this negative impact will likely worsen due to unavoidable road and trail closures to help offset grizzly bear decline.” The full report also points to a 1998 study by the Environmental Assessment Office of grizzly bear populations that showed, of 33 bears identified in the Central Purcells, only two were from the Jumbo area. It also says, however, that quality of life sometimes does not follow the same trends as sustainability.

It reads: “A project can be sustainable, while at the same time, harmful to quality of life.”

The report goes on to say, though, that the long-term negative impact on those pre-resort recreationalists will decrease to zero.

As for the effect on towns, the results are negative. “The city of Invermere and surrounding areas face a 20 per cent overall negative impact from the Jumbo Resort on their quality of life,” it reads. “This impact may worsen as Invermere, due to increased resort-related crime, congestion, and pollution, becomes a less attractive recreational destination.”

In the study summary, Stephen Garvey, administrator for the survey, gave a more scathing criticism to the provincial government’s management of the case. “It is shameful of the B.C. government bureaucrats, particularly from the B.C. Ministries of Environment and Tourism to sidestep the issues of this proposed resort, by basically calling for road and trail closures, which gives priority to the resort at the expense of all the other users,” wrote Garvey. He added: “In a world of increasing environmental harm, the B.C. Liberal government, despite its rhetorical claim of adherence to sustainability, is only adding to the harm.”

When asked about the study, developer Grant Costello initially cited earlier studies. “Jumbo Glacier Resort went through a nine and a half year environmental review which concluded, in the words of the executive director, Joan Hesketh, ‘the project is in the broad public interest.’ My emphasis on broad,” he said.

After closer inspection, Costello commented on a few of the issues raised. “The grizzly bear population decline, if confirmed, would be preceding the ski resort project, not be caused by it and would be certainly mitigated most effectively by a local hunting moratorium rather than by a ski resort moratorium,” he said.

As for the effect on Invermere, Costello commented, “That ‘thousands of recreationalists will destroy the quality of life’ is a myth created by those who want to close the doors to newcomers and tourists, because the evidence of the resorts nearby is clearly that the thousands of recreationalists have not destroyed the quality of life. In fact, some of them support and appreciate Gerry’s Gelati of the mayor of Invermere, and many other quality establishments of the Columbia Valley. Panorama cannot be accused of having destroyed the quality of life of any parts of the Columbia Valley or of the Toby Creek drainage.”

Finally, Costello felt that some of the harsher statements in the study summary. “The FDA is a one-sided group intent on attacking a process  and to prevent its fair conclusion for partisan reasons,” he said. “The irony is that the process was mostly done and carried out at the request of this kind of group and by the current opposition.”