(Quebec) Premier François Legault has criticized the manager of Mont-Sainte-Anne, Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, after a gondola crash forced him to close the mountain. It is another incident that adds to the poor record of the company, which is asking for public funds to upgrade its facilities.
“I think that in any case the operator has not shown in recent years that he could manage Mont-Sainte-Anne correctly,” said Prime Minister François Legault during a press briefing on Wednesday.
Last weekend, an empty gondola lifted off the cable before crashing to the ground. This is the third major incident on “The Shooting Star” in less than four years. This lift, installed in 1989, is the oldest eight-seater gondola in Canada.
The station was still closed on Tuesday, except for the school slopes. Mont-Sainte-Anne was working “on a reopening plan”. The gondola, which has been unusable for many months in recent seasons, is condemned for an indefinite period.
Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon confirmed on Monday that a financing agreement with RCR was under consideration. The 100 million plan would be half funded, ie 50 million by Quebec. The proposal has been in the hands of the government for months.
But François Legault issues a caveat. “We’re not here at all, we’re not here at all. Look, I find it scary what happened. There is a monstrous catch-up to be done on the equipment at Mont-Sainte-Anne,” he added.
The repeated troubles at the mountain have sparked debate for years as to the manager’s ability to take care of this “jewel”. Resorts of the Canadian Rockies is owned by Alberta billionaire Norman Murray Edwards.
21 injured in 2020
The group Les amis du Mont-Sainte-Anne does not want any public assistance for this enterprise, which would amount to “encouraging negligence”. “We say to the government: you no longer discuss with RCR. If you negotiate, it’s not for a reinvestment, it’s for a change of manager,” said Tuesday in an interview with The Press the president of the Friends, Yvon Charest.
The weekend incident is the third in four years on “The Shooting Star”. In 2020, a sudden stop caused 21 injuries.
“A man was outright kicked out of the cabin. He was hanging upside down. We tried to hold him back. He managed to get back into the cabin. I think he had a narrow escape that day,” recalls skier Jacques Hardy, who was in “L’Étoile filante” that day.
RCR concluded that the incident was caused by a “variation in voltage on the power supply” from Hydro-Quebec.
The gondola had reopened on 1er March 2020 to close on March 11 after a similar incident, which however did not cause any injuries. It then remained closed for a year.