Mont-Sainte-Anne (MSA) will reopen its doors on Sunday after the Régie du Bâtiment du Québec (RBQ) granted approval on Saturday to restart four ski lifts.
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Thus, the “L’Express du Sud”, “L’Express du Nord”, “La Panorama Express” and “La Tortue” ski lifts can be put back into operation, while the “L’Étoile filante” lift, where the crash of a Gondola in December, stay put.
“We hope that all of the work done, as well as the outside reports showing the safety of our facilities, will help allay our visitors’ concerns,” said the general manager and vice president of the Eastern Region of Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR ), Maxim Cretin.
Subscribers who temporarily benefited from the MSA of Stoneham’s resort facilities will be able to benefit for the last time on Sunday. “With the reopening of Mont-Sainte-Anne, access to the sites without a subscription will no longer be permitted from Monday 9 January,” reads a press release from the channel.
On December 16, the RBQ ordered the closure of all MSA ski lifts to ensure their safety after two incidents occurred in less than two years. The RBQ therefore requested the operator RCR to provide him with all the documents required for an analysis of the safety of the site.
“The Mont-Sainte-Anne station has provided us with all the evidence and prerequisites to partially reverse the arrangement of four aerial cableways. The reopening of L’Étoile filante will depend on the pace of the operator’s fulfillment of the requirements set out in the order,” said Michel Beaudoin, President and CEO of the RBQ, in a press release.
“All the controls and all the tests have been carried out on all the cable cars concerned and the requirements of the decree have been met for the four lifts approved by the Régie. The process of reviewing and improving operational procedures in line with current standards, which will have lasted almost a month, ensures an ever safer work culture and the constant commitment of our operational teams,” added Mr. Cretin.
In particular, the RBQ requires a safety certificate signed by an engineer before the lift can be put back into operation. On Saturday morning, the main lift on the school slope, the “magic carpet”, was not in operation due to a break.