BC Rejection of an Environmental Assessment of the Proposed Zincton Resort Is Disgraceful
July 28, 2025
WEST KOOTENAY – The BC government has disgracefully refused to provide a provincial Environmental Assessment (EA) of the proposed Zincton All-Seasons Resort, despite extensive public requests for one. An application for an EA was sent to the Minister of Environment and the Minister of Tourism in 2023 by the environmental group Wildsight, and the Sinixt Confederacy. Wildsight reported 1,400 supporters for the application. The Regional District of Central Kootenay sent a letter of support for the Wildsight application.
Initially the responsibility for a decision on the proposed Zincton Resort rested with the Mountain Resort Branch (MRB) of the Ministry of Tourism. Yet the MRB’s official mandate is to “Identify and eliminate barriers to resort development, creation and expansion.” This represents a glaring conflict of interest and bias when it comes to environmental assessment.
So far, the MRB has depended solely on an environmental overview report paid for by the developer, which has been found to contain many limitations, omissions and errors. What are the taxpayers paying the Ministry of Environment’s own wildlife, engineering and geoscience experts to do? Where are they?
The Zincton Resort qualifies for a provincial Environmental Assessment under Section 11 of the Environmental Assessment Act, if ordered by the Minister of Tourism. Unfortunately, the Minister passed the decision down to the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO), which then passed the decision back to the MRB.
A recent letter from the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) reminded the Ministers that in 2021 the RDCK had requested a “cumulative effects study, socio-economic impact assessment and environmental overview third party review.” None of these have been done.
In 2020 the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (now Transportation and Transit [MOTT] had informed the proponent that the area of the proposal may be subject to flooding, erosion, landslides or avalanches. It listed extensive studies by professional engineers and geologists that were lacking in the proponent’s own “Environmental Overview Assessment”. The EAO apparently made its decision without these studies having been done.
VWS presented to government a comprehensive background analysis of the Highway 31A Grizzly Bear Corridor showing that the Corridor is under considerable threat from existing and proposed logging roads and clearcuts, off-highway vehicle use, and existing and proposed commercial backcountry recreational developments. Three separate independent bear biologists all concluded that the functionality of the Highway 31A Corridor is at high risk for grizzly bears, but their input is being ignored.
In addition, perhaps the Ministers of Environment and Tourism didn’t know that the BC government’s own Ministry of Transportation has spent $320,000 to install western toad migration culverts under the highway adjacent to the resort proposal. While one Ministry tries to save the toads from being killed by highway traffic, two more Ministries reject an Environmental Assessment that would reveal the serious risk of wiping out the population.
The positive side of the current situation is that the decision process under the Mountain Resorts Branch is still ongoing. THERE IS STILL TIME for BC residents to voice unqualified opposition to this resort development. The Ministers, the EAO and the Mountain Resorts Branch cannot pretend they do not know about the dangers of landslides, floods, and avalanches to humans, as well as the loss of wildlife.
Click this link for more information on the proposed Zincton Resort.