Destination: Cranbrook/Kimberley, B.C.
by Michael McCullough
The last shift exited the Sullivan Mine, the world’s most prolific source of lead and zinc, in 2001, after a century of almost continuous operation. It would take another few years for the site just above the city of Kimberley to be decommissioned by operator Teck Cominco, but the writing was on the wall for this resource town overlooking the Rocky Mountain Trench, just as it was for most of British Columbia’s East Kootenay region.
The prospects weren’t much better for the nearby Skookumchuck pulp mill or (though markets for coking coal would improve) the Elk Valley coal mines. Unlike other exhausted resource regions, however, Kimberley and its larger neighbour, Cranbrook, 40 minutes down the road, had two things going for them: natural assets for outdoor recreation and an energy boom gathering steam in Calgary, just four hours’ drive away. (The connection being that Calgarians are deprived by Parks Canada of the opportunity to buy much mountain property closer to home.)
Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, the privately owned Calgary ski operator that also owns Fernie, decided to redevelop Kimberley’s mid-sized hill (started in the 1940s by local ski club members using leftover mine equipment for lifts) into a four-season resort village complete with high-speed quad chairlifts, luxury hotels and on-slope condos. Residential and golf course developers followed suit.
Today tourism and recreational property construction is the area’s sunrise industry, though the dearth of oilpatch bonuses and in-the-money stock options has helped reduce home prices by 12% in the past year. To keep the deals flowing, developers are offering discounts and “try before you
buy” offers.
Also boosting the area’s future as a recreational destination is the recent upgrade, including a runway extension to accommodate larger jets, of the Canadian Rockies International Airport, located midway between Cranbrook and Kimberley and tying their fortunes inextricably together. Last winter Delta Air Lines initiated scheduled service from Salt Lake City, adding to existing flights from Vancouver and Calgary.
Sustained by its hospital, college, courts and retail infrastructure, Cranbrook remains relatively unchanged by the region’s economic transition of the past decade. For Kimberley, the contrast is jarring. Today there remains a quaint if somewhat dilapidated lower town strung along Highway 95A (the kind of place so beloved by penniless ski bums), and perched a few switchbacks above it a half-built resort community of a completely different order. Poised on rounded, treed slopes rather than the craggy, open bowls and vertical drops that rivals Fernie and Kicking Horse Mountain can offer, Kimberley’s ski resort is modelled on Beaver Creek, Colo. It targets families, seniors and disabled skiers (a Paralympic training centre is in the works) rather than hard-core thrill seekers. But these people have money too.
Like all resorts, Kimberley will need more than snow and slopes to sustain a year-round economy, which explains its investment in a $6-million convention centre to open next fall. Like the condos, this facility is targeted squarely at the Alberta market as a mountain retreat. Warm-weather attractions such as the nine golf courses within a one-hour drive and a municipal nature park as large as the city itself have in recent years ensured that vacancy is actually lowest in the summer.
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