Westlock County is officially getting out of the ski hill business.
Following in-camera discussions at their July 24 meeting, councillors voted 7-0 to permanently close the Tawatinaw Valley Ski Hill Oct. 1.
“There’s a lot of factors that played into it. We did the plebiscite, first of all, and residents said they wanted the ski hill to be sold,” said reeve Lou Hall after the vote.
In the October 2017 plebiscite, 1,028 residents voted ‘yes’ (53.4 per cent of the 1,894 ballots cast) to sell the facility, although a majority of Division 7 residents, where the hill is located, voted to keep it.
“We need to be looking at what financially is viable, the management of it, you have to look at all those things because we’re responsible to the ratepayers,” said Hall.
“Do we keep increasing taxes so we can keep the ski hill open? We did a lot of soul-searching and I have to tell you, before the decision was made, I can probably say that all of us were very saddened that we had to come to this decision,” she said, adding it’s a beautiful place, but with aging infrastructure and an $1.5 million estimated price tag to upgrade it, it wasn’t feasible to keep pouring money in.
Most municipalities are also not in the business of operating ski hills, Hall added.
Costs have hovered between $200,000 and $300,000 per year for the last several years, not including payments on what is remaining of the $1.5 million debenture to build the chalet, which opened to the public in 2015.
“The debenture matures in 2023 and at the end of 2018 there is approximately $860,000 remaining,” said chief administrative officer Leo Ludwig.
When the county took over the hill, which opened in 1967, net losses ballooned to $142,248.59 in 2009 and hovered in six-digit red ink until 2014, when the hill posted a net loss of $39,247.21.
In 2015 the hill brought in $274,014.42 while $628,380.30 was spent at the site — a net loss of $354,365.88. In 2016 and 2017 the hill has managed to keep expenses to $248,125.49 and $278,931.74 respectively, but in those same years made only $41,580.60 and $5,475.80, resulting in more net losses.
Between 2006 and 2017, the hill made $1,883,311.76 and cost $3,781,465.87, resulting in a loss of $1,898,154.11.
DK Consulting, which operated the facility for the past two years, and the Friends of the Tawatinaw Valley, a group of former members of the Tawatinaw Valley Alpine Nordic Centre Advisory Board, toured the ski hill, chalet and other facilities in May and came forward with proposals for the county’s consideration.
The request for proposal was an invitation to operate and/or purchase the facility as is. Hall commended both groups, however, both left the obligation for facility upgrades and annual operating costs with the municipality, which council could not accept, she said.
“I’m sure a lot of people are surprised it is closing, but if they would talk to us and find out the reason why ... we’re trying to be fiscally responsible, that’s one of our goals in this council,” said Hall.
Dom Kriangkum owns DK Consulting and said he was floored by the decision.
“I’m totally surprised and shocked,” he said. “It has been in the community for so many years.”
When Kriangkum answered the call from the county, he thought the worse-case scenario was the other group’s proposal being accepted. He had no idea council would shut the hill down completely.
Asked if he would still be interested if the facility went up for auction, he said, “I’m going to thoroughly look into it, but I’m still just trying to wrap my head around it this whole thing.
“I hope they’ll reconsider, but it sounds like they’ve made their decision.”
While still too early to speculate on the future of the building and the land itself, county staff have been tasked with researching the options. Some suggestions have included moving and re-purposing the chalet, sale by auction and testing the land for potential aggregate source and supply.
Kriangkum said he is opposed to the gravel pit option and wants to see the hill remain in use for recreational purposes.
Friends of Tawatinaw Valley representative Heather Toporowski said the group was surprised and disappointed to hear of council’s decision.
“We were very disappointed to hear that, because one of the proposals may have been workable for the county and I think we were even more disappointed to hear the intent was to explore auctioning it or even exploring it for aggregate,” she said.
“We really believe the Tawatinaw Valley is a rough jewel, it’s a unique area historically, the valley has a lot of natural beauty and environmental value and we really believe that if enough people and groups and levels of government came together there could be a vision for the valley as a recreation destination, not just for our local residents, but for people outside of the community.”
Toporowski said the group has requested a meeting with the county to further discuss the situation, which took place July 30.
“We’re hopeful, as I said, we were very disappointed, and we are very worried that the decision was made without further discussion ... We were really expecting some conversation about the plan or to have to come in and answer questions. To be told the decision was no, without any back and forth dialogue was disappointing,” said Toporowski.
Reeve Hall said she invites residents’ comments and concerns, which can be forwarded to her at [email protected].
Council plans to host an informational open house in the coming weeks to discuss options moving forward, though a date has not yet been set.
