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Inaugural Jumbo municipal meeting to have rally backdrop
The first meeting of the Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality council will be conducted with an anti-resort development rally as a backdrop.
Wildsight and Jumbo Creek Conservation Society members are being encouraged to gather outside of the Village of Radium Hot Springs municipal offices, where the Jumbo council meeting is being held, at noon on Tuesday, Feb. 19.
“The name of the game is to get large numbers to show up for a peaceful gathering outside (we are NOT going to encourage people going inside the meeting),” noted an email sent to Jumbo opponents.
Jumbo’s appointed Mayor, Greg Deck, will be in familiar surroundings for the first meeting with his also-appointed councilors Nancy Huganin and Steve Ostrander. Deck was Radium’s first mayor and served in that role for six terms before stepping away.
Besides a rally outside the meeting, Deck said the inaugural meeting would be light on pomp.
“We are very much ready to take on our municipal responsibilities. The inaugural will be very light on ceremony, which I think is appropriate to this situation. This is not the typical celebration of citizens who have managed to elevate their community to a new incorporated status. So we have not invited guests from senior levels of government or neighbouring municipalities. This will be a business-like proceeding of a small group of people working to establish a solid administrative framework for a community to come,” he said.
As for the fact the Jumbo council will start work under the familiar strains of cries of opposition, which have dogged the $500 million to $1 billion ski resort proposal for the upper Jumbo Creek Valley area, 55 km west of Invermere, for more than 20 years, Deck said he is ready.
“We recognize that this step in the process is not welcomed by those people who remain opposed to the creation of a mountain resort, and while we don’t agree with their position, we respect our fellow citizens enough to not get ‘in their face’ with a very high-profile event,” he said, adding, “I have no concerns with demonstrations that are respectful of civil discourse, as is the stated intention in the notice. I’m a proponent of open and transparent government, and I would be disappointed if that openness were taken advantage of to obstruct such governance.”
Moving forward, Deck said the Jumbo meetings will be like any other municipal meetings.
“All of our meetings are open to the public, which always includes the esteemed members of the press. There may occasionally be in-camera meetings to deal with issues where the privacy of the other parties is an issue, but that is the case with all municipalities,” he explained.
Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
