Tourism and resort development will play a key role in the economic future of British Columbia, and a new task force report to be released at the end of this month will reinforce that message to businesses and investors, says the provincial resorts minister.
The B.C. Resort Task Force will underscore that British Columbia is open for business, says task force chair Sandy Santori, minister of state for resort development.
“I have been given the results of the consultations that have taken place over the last year and with that we will move forward, and create and develop a strategy for resort development in the province,” says Santori, who inherited the task force in January when his portfolio was created.
Government statistics show there are more than 700 resorts across the province, directly employing about 26,000 people and generating approximately $1.9 billion in direct tourist spending.
The task force, established almost a year ago, is charged with identifying and eliminating roadblocks to further development and expansion.
Santori says the red tape that once entangled investors and business groups who sought to develop new resorts or expand existing ones created a backlog of paperwork that cost the province more than $1 billion and 20,000 lost jobs.
“It is totally amazing and it’s extremely frustrating for an investor,” Santori said.
“Proponents would be drawn into a system without any certainty of outcome. That certainty of outcome could be a yes or a no, but what would happen is they would be drawn in so far they couldn’t afford to go out, and most of these proponents who do come forward are investing tens of millions of dollars before they even put a shovel in the ground.”
Now, when someone applies for tenure of Crown land, which accounts for 93 per cent of all the land in the province, they will get a “yes” or a “no” within 140 days, says Santori.
“This is probably the largest single initiative that we have, to try to bring that certainty in a much quicker timeline,” he says, noting it is especially important to smaller resort developers “who do not have the financial resources to be dragged into a system that doesn’t give them certainty early in the process.”
Santori says as he travelled the province with the task force, he was surprised to hear the amount of excitement and enthusiasm for the industry demonstrated by various communities and proponents who see the opportunity to develop resorts and diversify their economy.
“They do recognize that forestry and/or mining will still be key to the sustainability of their community, but they also see a great opportunity and a great potential to put another egg in that economic basket,” he says.
Task force member Carol Seable, president and CEO of Fairmont Hot Springs Resort in southeastern B.C., says it has been difficult to get new resorts off the ground. Back in 1957 when B.C.’s resort development was first beginning to blossom, she observes, operators didn’t have to face the bureaucracy of Land and Water BC, the Crown corporation that manages the allocation of Crown land and water resources on behalf of the B.C. government.
Seable says one of the reasons she welcomed the chance to be involved with the task force was to see what could be done to help Fairmont’s own approval process as it looks to further develop the resort.
“It didn’t end up that way,” she says. “It is more (about)
getting new properties and developments going. It’s not so much going to help existing ones.”
She also hopes the government is sincere in its vow to cut the red tape surrounding industry development.
“If we are going to have economic development in this province, we have got to get rid of some of it,” Seable says.
The Fairmont resort was probably the first true four-season resort in the province, says Seable, and has been able to attract and keep good staff for 20 to 30 years. The outlook for resort development in B.C. is “phenomenal,” she adds. “We have investors lined up to invest.”
The task force has consulted with First Nations, local governments and regional districts, resort operators, developers and investors, and has received more than 100 submissions from different stakeholders.
Santori, the mayor of the Kootenay town of Trail for eight years before being elected to the legislature as an MLA (West Kootenay-Boundary), says his background has helped his perspective on the task force. “I have a very good understanding and a clear knowledge of what is required in rural British Columbia and what their goals and objectives are,” he says.
Based on the amount of Crown land B.C. now possesses and how much has been sold over the last 50 years, selling the land off at the same rate for the next 100 years would only eat up one per cent of the land, Santori says. “That gives you a clear indication of the size of this province and the land mass,” he adds, “and with that, the amount of opportunities that are out there.”
