Thank you for your September 28 article about the extensive remediation work at the Farnham Glacier (“Camp Green goes dark”).
I have one regret about the article, and that is that it conveys the impression that it was done due to the efforts of the tenure holder, Glacier Resorts Ltd. (GRL).
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The work was done because Wilmer resident and retired mountain guide Arnor Larson exerted extreme pressure on the provincial government to force the tenure holder to live up to the terms of its Licence of Occupation.
For more than three year, GRL had been in violation of many of the terms of its licence, including section 4.1D, which requires GRL to take responsibility for the failures of their sub-licencee to perform to the required provincial standard.
The government had issued an order on August 6, 2010 to have the necessary remedial work completed by October 5, 2010 regardless of whether WinSport would be removing Camp Green or not.
This order was ignored and the government didn’t bother to enforce it.
By July of 2009 the tenacious Mr. Larson had already been advising the government of the unacceptable conditions that violated the Licence of Occupation.
He bombarded them with facts, figures, documents, photographs and logic.
Two years later his efforts paid off. The government finally did what governments are supposed to do — govern!
They made the tenure holder clean up the mess.
Jim Galloway,
Brisco
