It shouldn’t surprise us that a falsehood can be widely propagated and spread by those who invented it. 

For instance, a writer of a seemingly never-ending series of letters to interior papers recently tried to spread the deception, “After lengthy debate the CORE table specifically designated Jumbo Valley as being appropriate for Jumbo Resort.”

I don’t remember Mr. Ian McKenzie sitting at the East Kootenay CORE table, but I was there, and that is not what happened.

The East Kootenay Regional Table report Volume 3, Land Unit Polygons Record of Information, Final Draft July 1994 documents the following: The table was unable to reach consensus on a designation for the polygon that contained Jumbo, so the report lists two possible designations:  Integrated (intent is to maintain long-term health and productivity of the land base while providing a variety of opportunities for sustainable resource use) or Special Management (identified as lands with sensitive fish and wildlife habitat, visual quality, recreational and cultural features while allowing compatible human use).

The two environmental sectors supported the Special Management designation and opposed resort development.

Both the Special Management and Integrated options contain a listing of acceptable uses. 

Neither the Integrated nor the Special Management option allowed “Urban Settlement” or “Rural Settlement” uses. The scale of the proposed Jumbo development would qualify it as, at least, a rural settlement and therefore it should not be allowed.

That’s what happened. As participants, we trusted the acceptable uses (to which we agreed by consensus) to convey the intent of the vast majority of local and regional residents that there should never be a development of the size or scope of the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort.

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”  Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Ellen Zimmerman,

Wildsight, Golden