(Quebec) A few days after yet another incident with the Mont-Sainte-Anne gondola, opinions differ on the procedure to follow to revive the mountain. The mayor of Beaupré asks Quebec to agree as soon as possible with the Alberta manager on a reinvestment plan, while a citizen group urges the government to cut off its funding.
The mayor of the small municipality where the majestic mountain is located – which internet users have renamed “Mont-Sainte-Panne” – thinks that the solution lies in aid from the Quebec state.
“The government seems slow to invest in Mont-Sainte-Anne, I don’t know why,” says Pierre Renaud in an interview. Investments with the Massif are always significant and rapid. Le Massif benefits a lot from the ear of the government, which seems less the case with Resorts of the Canadian Rockies. »
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 Monday, 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.
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 (RCR) is owned by Alberta billionaire Norman Murray Edwards.
But now, on Monday, the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, confirmed that a financing agreement with RCR was under consideration. The 100 million plan would be half-funded, or 50 million, by Quebec. The proposal has been in the hands of the government for months.
“It’s up to the government to act in this file,” said the mayor of Beaupré, who says he still has confidence in RCR. “I don’t think they want to let go of the mountain, it’s a gem. »
“Demonizing CPR is not the approach to take, I believe. Let’s stop demonizing, roll up our sleeves and try to find a solution,” said Mr. Renaud.
The mayor of Beaupré intends to ask his MRC to take a position in this file. He also wants to discuss with the Minister of the Capitale-Nationale, Jonatan Julien, what he perceives as an imbalance in the public support offered to the two main resorts in the region, namely Mont-Sainte-Anne and the Massif de Charlevoix. .
Encourage negligence?
The Friends of Mont-Sainte-Anne group does not see the matter the same way. According to him, funding the mountain at the present time 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, ”launches the president of the Friends, Yvon Charest, in an interview.
According to the former big boss of Industrial Alliance, the government must refuse to give subsidies to Mont-Sainte-Anne as long as the manager is RCR. Mr. Charest believes that such a position would force the manager to sell the mountain.
He recalls that Groupe Le Massif publicly confirmed last October that it had submitted a formal purchase offer to RCR to acquire Mont-Sainte-Anne.
“The state has the whole situation in hand: all you have to say is: ‘it’s over, my friend, you no longer have a penny of subsidy.’ It is clear that he, without a subsidy, he will not reinvest in the mountain, believes Yvon Charest. But you tell him: ‟there is good news, there is another group that made you an offer, so look at it a second time”. »
RCR had in fact closed the door to Groupe Le Massif’s offer. Minister Fitzgibbon’s office has indicated that “expropriation is not a solution contemplated by the government”.
The gondola closed until further notice
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 The Shooting Star 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.
RCR had invested 1.5 million in the gondola in August 2021. It had reopened in December, then operated without major incident all past season.
The Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ) was unable to say how long it might remain closed this time around. The shooting star is particularly sensitive at Mont-Sainte-Anne, because it offers the best access to the entire southern slope.
“After the 2020 incident, I went back there, notes Jacques Hardy. There, at the end of the week, I find that it’s a bit of a straw that broke the camel’s back. When we were tossed about in the cabin, we said to ourselves: are we going to fall down? There it fell. I’ll think about it for this year. »