Mount Agassiz revival goes downhill

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This article was published 20/09/2014 (4245 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Parks Canada has rejected a $4.5-million plan to reopen the Mount Agassiz ski area in Riding Mountain National Park, disappointing developers who had hoped to revive tourism in the McCreary area.

On Friday, Parks Canada rejected a proposal by the Agassiz Mountain Resort Development Group to rebuild a ski resort on a site that has been dormant for 14 years.

The former Mount Agassiz ski area operated from 1961 until 2000. Parks Canada issued a request for proposals to redevelop the site this spring and the Agassiz Mountain Resort Group, led by general manager Kelly Rose, was the only respondent.

Riding Mountain National Park superintendent Michaela Kent said finance and ski-resort experts contracted by Parks Canada evaluated the proposal and found it wanting.

“We really appreciate the passion and commitment we have with the stakeholders,” she said. “We really are committed to see Mount Agassiz reach its potential.”

Rose said his group’s proposal was rejected on the basis it failed to meet park criteria for accessing water to create snow — and was also rejected on a financial basis.

“We did not want to divulge all our financial aspects to Parks Canada. This was a proposal, not a binding contract,” he said.

The old ski resort had no issues drawing water from McKinnon Creek, which runs through the site, added Rose, whose group spent seven years working on a plan to build new ski lifts, a new chalet and other structures at the hill, which sits on the east side of Riding Mountain.

“We were going to develop Agassiz into a four-season resort. We didn’t want to just reopen it. We wanted to make it even better than before,” he said. “We weren’t just advocating a ski hill. We were advocating the best ski area in Manitoba.”

Hotel operators in nearby McCreary were counting on the development, he added.

“They’ve been waiting for this and waiting for this and now they can’t foresee any economic development on the east side of the park,” he said. “I feel very sorry my part of the mission has been a false hope.”

‘We weren’t just advocating a ski hill. We were advocating the best ski area in Manitoba’ — Agassiz Mountain Resort Group, led by general manager Kelly Rose

Rose said he hopes Parks Canada will rethink its decision and is holding the door open for some form of agreement.

In the meantime, the park plans to demolish decaying structures on the ski hill and otherwise remediate the site, Kent said. Rose pegged the cost of this work at roughly $1 million. Rose initially offered to reopen the ski hill using existing buildings and equipment in 2008. The park rebuffed that effort.

The eastern edge of the park is home to a section of the Manitoba Escarpment, a ridge that rises 335 metres from the prairie below. The town of McCreary sits east of the entrance to the dormant ski hill.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca