Please Reopen Fortress Mountain

Yesterday we learned that our application with Kananaskis Improvement District for the conversion of the Ski/Rentals building into a temporary Day Lodge has been denied. No reasons for this decision were given.

During the two month delay in making this decision, work continued to be performed by our architects and engineers. Fortress met all government requirements for the building to meet the latest fire and building codes and we are shocked at the decision to deny Fortress a permit after all the work that had been performed.

Our best guess, after two years of fruitless attempts to work with the Kananaskis Improvement District (KID), is that KID executives have decided amongst themselves that Fortress will not open again. Assets at the Resort were purchased and paid for at full value by BRC and the province had allowed the transfer of leases in favour of BRC. By unfairly denying BRC an opportunity to operate Fortress during the upcoming season, we feel KID has acted in an unfair manner, with motives which are unknown to us and result in depriving Albertans use of a scarce resource in Alberta, an affordable ski hill!

Conflict of Interest
KID CEO and CAO’s jobs is to manage government properties and govern Kananaskis Country. The province owns Nakiska Ski Resort; Resorts of the Canadian Rockies is only an operator. It is the job of KID Administration to protect their assets while applying governance onto privately owned Fortress. This is a clear cut case of a conflict of interest that we believe is behind our troubles since the day we purchased the ski hill.

Offer to Premier’s Office
Understanding the issue of the conflict of interest involving the neighboring ski resorts and KID, we approached the Premier Office last summer and offered to transfer the assets to the province in an attempt to resolve this conflict and in the spirit of new cooperation. This has been delegated to the Minister responsible but to date we have received no response.

Today, we are making a Public Appeal to KID administration to allow us to open Fortress Mountain Resort and respect the rights of a private owner on government lands within Kananaskis Country. Additionally we are calling for all Albertans to voice their opinion to our Premier, Ed Stelmach and ministers in charge of KID, Mr. Hector Goudreau and SRD Mr. Ted Morton. Fortress Mountain belongs to the people of Alberta, where we are just custodians of the Resort. As such it is up to the province to listen and accept the wishes of its citizens and I encourage each and every one of you to make it known where you stand!

Zrinko Amerl
zrinko@banffrailco.com