Community rallies to save Mt. Agassiz
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- Published on Sunday, March 1, 2015
By Eoin Devereux
The Neepawa Banner
Local citizens and ski enthusiasts gathered in the town of McCreary on Saturday, Feb. 21, to support the resurrection of Mount Agassiz ski hill. About 125 people participated in the rally, which included speeches at the local community hall and a protest at the base of the Alpine Archie road statue, against the demolition of the ski-lift towers.
Kelly Rose, who heads the Agassiz Mountain Development Group noted that the company charged with tearing down the facilities, actually began deconstruction during the rally. He noted that heightened some of the emotion of the day.
“As we were sitting there [at the rally], we received word that the chalet had just been demolished, so it kind of hit all of us like a wall of bricks,” said Rose. “I think a lot of people became engaged. There were some verbal confrontations because people were very emotional. We simmered that to a point, which was good and then everything shifted back towards trying to involve more engagement.”
Rose says many people at the event have not given up on the ski hill, as plans to reopen the site assumed that much of the existing infrastructure would need to be upgraded or replaced.
“We still have processes going on on our side relative to information from Parks Canada. We’re still looking at this positively because there are no other options for that ski hill that would bring in the numbers of people. [Or] the notoriety and economic activity to the area,” said Rose. “The previous infrastructure is gone but the ski hill is still there. We had planned for new lifts and eventually a new chalet anyways. So, the playing field has been wiped clean and hopefully Parks Canada take notes of the extreme interest in getting that built. In getting that ski hill back up and re-offer another request for proposals.”
Mount Agassiz is located on the eastern slope of Riding Mountain National Park. Last year, the federal government rejected a $4.5-million plan put forward by the Agassiz Mountain Development Group to reopen the hill. Parks Canada then put out tenders for the demolition of the hill's skiing infrastructure.
