Worried by the fall of a gondola, a group of regional leaders is asking the government to launch an exhaustive investigation into the safety of the Mont-Sainte-Anne facilities and its sister station, located in Stoneham.
• Read also: The main lift still broken: a gondola crashes to the ground at Mont-Sainte-Anne
• Read also: Mont-Sainte-Anne: neglect that continues despite promises
• Read also: Fall of a gondola at Mont-Sainte-Anne: “It has become a public safety problem”
Several voices have been raised in the greater Quebec City region since a gondola crashed to the ground last Saturday, while hundreds of skiers were waiting to climb Mont Sainte-Anne.
In a press release published Monday afternoon, the Avenir Mont-Ste-Anne committee, which brings together former politicians, citizens and various representatives of the sports, tourism and business communities, sounds the alarm.
“This is now a public safety issue,” write the group’s spokespersons, Mario Bédard and Alex Harvey, who are calling for a change of operator this winter.
In the meantime, according to them, the government “has the responsibility to take the necessary means, and very quickly, to ensure the safety of the facilities” operated in Quebec by Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR).
They therefore urge the government to mandate “all competent bodies”, such as the Régie du bâtiment du Québec and the CNESST, to investigate, a request supported by the Parti Québécois.
The least of things, says the PQ
Given the issues related to security, it would be “the least of things”, considers the PQ MP Pascal Bérubé, who had questioned the Deputy Prime Minister Geneviève Guilbault on this subject, last spring.
Ms. Guilbault, who was then minister responsible for the Capitale-Nationale, ruled out the possibility of resorting to a special law to expropriate Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR). It was better to convince the operator of Mont Sainte-Anne to invest, rather than embarking on a “costly and endless legal saga,” the minister suggested.
Called to react, Minister Jonatan Julien, who has since succeeded Ms. Guilbault, did not want to get wet on Monday.
“Mr. Julien is outside the country from December 11 to 18, he will not comment on this file. I refer you to the office of the Minister of the Economy, ”said Minister Julien’s press attaché, Mona Lechasseur, in an email.
At the time of writing these lines, no one in Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon’s office had responded to the Journal.
According to former PQ minister Agnès Maltais, rather than put his foot down, Minister Fitzgibbon is being tricked by RCR.
“It’s been twice that previous governments have obtained commitments from RCR that it will put money into the mountain, that it will renovate it, and nothing has ever been done,” said Ms. Maltais on QUB radio, Monday.
Damaged reputation
“The problems of the operator of this station have been known for a long time. The government has the means to act”, also recalled Pascal Bérubé, in a telephone interview.
“It is also the reputation and fame of this mountain, which is emblematic, which is at stake,” said Mr. Bérubé. The Quebec government was quicker to announce a Club Med in Charlevoix than to take charge of the future of Mont-Sainte-Anne. »
The deputy for Taschereau, Etienne Grandmont, has done just as much for the reputation of the Capitale-Nationale as a tourist destination.
“Mont Sainte-Anne belongs to the Government of Quebec, it is its responsibility to bring the current operator of the mountain to heel or to expropriate it to give its management to a more responsible company. This is not the first incident with RCR, which only uses the mountain to print money to the detriment of people’s safety. »