Wildsight to challenge Zincton Resort review process in court

A local environmental organization says it will seek a judicial review of the provincial government’s decision not to require an environmental assessment of the proposed Zincton Resort.

Wildsight said it filed a petition Friday in BC Supreme Court. The proponent is seeking to create a backcountry ski resort east of New Denver.

In July, the province determined the project didn’t require an environmental assessment, stating BC’s Mountain Resorts Branch could adequately assess the resort’s impacts.

But Wildsight’s petition argues the province’s decision not to require an environmental assessment was unreasonable and should be overturned.

“The province’s decision was based largely on the premise that a formal environmental assessment wouldn’t achieve anything additional to what the Mountain Resorts Branch’s review would achieve,” said Ian Moore of Nogala Law Group LLP, which is representing Wildsight, in a news release.

“But these two processes are not equivalent: an environmental assessment is, by law, required to evaluate effects that the Mountain Resorts Branch need not consider in the same way or to the same extent, including impacts to Indigenous rights, cumulative effects and biodiversity thresholds.”

Wildsight said under BC’s current legislation, all-season resorts like Zincton only automatically require an environmental assessment if they have 2,000 beds or more. With potentially fewer than 1,700 beds, the proposed Zincton Resort falls below that threshold.

Both Wildsight and the Sinixt Confederacy asked the Minister of Environment to require that the project undergo an environmental assessment anyway.

“It is ludicrous that the factor that determines whether a proposed development needs an environmental assessment is the number of beds it contains, rather than its footprint and potential impacts on land, water and wildlife,” Wildsight executive director Robyn Duncan said in the same release.

“That the government would deem a project of this size not large enough or consequential enough on its own is shocking, but given the demonstrated impacts to wildlife, water and Indigenous rights, it’s incomprehensible.”

Wildsight said it is concerned that Zincton Resort would bring traffic and people into habitat for mountain goats, grizzly bears and wolverines.

Zincton proponent David Harley told Vista Radio that five “badly contaminated” rivers flow through the historical mining district through New Denver into Slocan Lake and through Kaslo into Kootenay Lake.

“The lead has been poisoning our local waterways for close to 130 years,” he said. “Human-consumption water licenses are not permitted.”

Harley said while the lead is diluted once it reaches the lakes, local wildlife drink water fully contaminated with lead in Goat Pass.

He said if Wildsight blocks the Zincton project, they will ensure local wildlife and fish continue to drink contaminated water, because Zincton has partnered with One Percent For the Planet to fund ongoing restoration and remediation in Goat Pass.

The organization’s members pledge to contribute at least one per cent of their annual revenue to environmental causes.