Pressure is mounting on the government in the Mont-Sainte-Anne file. Four days after the crash of a gondola on the slopes, voices are rising to demand more muscular action from the authorities in what they now describe as a public safety issue.
It’s not just the gondola that suffered a dizzying fall. Since Saturday morning, the confidence of skiers and skiers in the resort has also reached a new low.
On social networks, a boycott movement is organized among subscribers. “No matter what reason they give us, enough is enough! » Eric Bilodeau storm. “Should we ask for a refund to encourage them to move? asks Gaétan Grenier for his part. “Me, it’s done, answers Catherine Paré. With five children, it’s over. »
Saturday’s crash could easily have turned into a tragedy. At the foot of the mountain, skiers were stamping impatiently to hurtle down the slopes. Snow classes were about to begin. Thirty minutes later and children could have been on board, rushed in spite of themselves to the ground by the still unexplained stall of their gondola.
We were so lucky that the accident happened so early.
“We were so lucky that the accident happened so early,” sighs Yvon Charest, president of the Friends of Mont-Sainte-Anne. This organization, made up of business people, political figures and mountain enthusiasts, is dedicated to restoring the reputation of the resort. He once asked the Alberta company that runs the resort, Resorts of Canadian Rockies (RCR), to inject new money into the lovesick infrastructure.
The fall of the gondola, however, changed the situation. “It’s the straw that broke the camel’s back,” insists Mr. Charest. Until today, we were talking about investments. Since Saturday, we have been talking about safety and possibly negligence. »
He recalls that this is not the first time that problems have arisen at the start of the season. In 2020, the sudden stoppage of the gondolas injured around twenty skiers, some of them seriously. After two years of inspection, repair and upgrading, they welcomed skiers again in December 2021 – until the crash of one on Saturday forced their hiatus again.
“The gondola had stopped several months two years ago, recalls Yvon Charest. It proves that RCR doesn’t have a robust preventative maintenance program. »
A public inquiry called for
A coalition called Avenir Mont-Sainte-Anne is now asking the government to launch an investigation to shed light on the carelessness that repeatedly strikes the station. It also demands more transparency from the authorities.
“The government of Quebec is currently a key player in the file, and not a simple observer”, underlines the group in a press release. “The population, and in particular the users of the Mont-Sainte-Anne and Stoneham resorts [NDLR : toutes deux propriétés de RCR], is entitled to know all the information available to the Government of Quebec in this file. »
Avenir Mont-Sainte-Anne wants the government to make public all the inspection reports produced on Mont-Sainte-Anne by the Régie du bâtiment and by the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la occupational safety over the past five years. He also demands the broadcast of the lease signed by Daniel Johnson’s government in 1994, which granted the right to operate the station to a private player for the next 99 years – until 2093.
“We have been enduring RCR for 20 years and there are still 71 years left on the contract. If we don’t take action now, how will the infrastructure look in 20 years? asks Yvon Charest.
People are rising, ever more numerous, to demand the expropriation of RCR, underlines the former president of Industrial Alliance. “The government must tell him that with what happened at the end of the week, he can no longer trust him. »
This is also what former Quebec MP Agnès Maltais believes. ” Enough is enough. There are people who were injured, some could have died,” she says, referring to the fact that if skiers had lost their lives last Saturday, the case would not just be one of underinvestment, but of criminal negligence.
“Everyone had a narrow escape, the government as well. We have been telling him not to trust this company for two years, ”believes the former PQ minister.
A “welfare bum”
Meanwhile, the CAQ government is negotiating with RCR to grant it a subsidy. The sun reported on Tuesday morning that the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, is weighing an offer from the Alberta company, which promises to invest $100 million in the mountain, provided that Quebec pays half the amount.
“She’s said twice that she’s going to invest, that she lets the government put in the money and then she disappears. RCR is one of the worst corporate citizens in the region: it wouldn’t make sense to give it public money, it would be encouraging a welfare bum “, deplores Ms. Maltais.
In his opinion, the government can act quickly to show the door to RCR. The Parti Québécois on Tuesday introduced special legislation to expropriate the Calgary company – an avenue rejected earlier this week by Mr. Fitzgibbon.
In the meantime, “one of the most beautiful ski mountains in Quebec and North America” remains closed, once again, until further notice, denounces Ms. Maltais. “The government has a responsibility to ensure that the company to which it rents the mountain does not put the lives of the population in danger. »