It would cost the government more to remove Mont-Sainte-Anne from Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR) hands than to buy the mountain, CAQ MP Kariane Bourassa said.
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Speaking of RCR’s poor record of maintaining Mont-Sainte-Anne’s infrastructure, the CAQ MP for riding where the mountain is located, Côte-de-Beaupré, claimed that this file is now “a safety issue. publicly”.
A gondola fell ahead of the holidays and one of the ski lifts remains closed despite resuming operations.
“We are all aware that this has to change. There has to be investment,” she said, without specifying whether those investments should come from RCR or from the government.
Then she conjured up the scenario of an expropriation. “If we expropriate RCR, it will cost us more than if we bought the mountain,” she said.
Last Friday, the minister responsible for the Capitale-Nationale, Jonatan Julien, ruled that expropriating the RCR was out of the question, but for a different reason. The company, he argued, was meeting minimum standards imposed by Daniel Johnson’s government in the 1990s.
“I have said it before and I will repeat it: we are not a banana republic,” he commented, underlining the importance of respecting the treaties signed by the state.
Finally, Kariane Bourassa believes RCR “could do more” to be a good corporate citizen. “I think there is room for improvement (…)” she explained. There is a glaring lack of investment.”