The District of Houston council is adding its voice to general opposition to the prospect of a helicopter-using recreation company expanding its operating territory in the Kemano region.
The Lower Dean River Lodge, which operates as Great Bear Heliskiing, already operates a fly fishing, heli-skiing and winter backcountry touring business but now wishes to expand into the Kemano area with an eye to enlarging its heli-skiing offerings using the Sandifer Lake Cabin as a base.
It has filed an application with the provincial government for tenure and the province, in return, has been asking for public comment.
The Village of Burns Lake council has already come out against the application because of the worry that granting Great Bear Heliskiing approval would then limit or restrict the use of the area by others, including the motorized recreation community.
“This would have zero benefit to our community and would actually take away quite a bit of tourism from our area,” said Burns Lake councillor Charlie Rensby of the plan.
Houston councillors fell in line with their Burns Lake counterparts but councillor Jonathan Van Barneveld did want the Houston position tweaked so that the District of Houston “does and will not support any restrictions of public use of Crown lands for recreation opportunities to the Lower Dean River Lodge’s tenure outside of the Sandifer lodge and that clarification that public use recreation on the tenure does exist.”
The District council crafted its position at its April 18 meeting, one day ahead of the April 19 comment deadline.
The Houston and Burns Lake councils were not the only ones registering opposition.
Recreational snowmobilers in Burns Lake through the Burns Lake Snowmobile Club had been buying ads encouraging people to go online, read the application by the Lower Dean River Lodge and then inviting them to make comment.
(With files from Frank Peebles)