Heli-Ski Lodge Project In The Chilcotin Gets Grounded

At today’s (January 24) meeting the Cariboo Regional District Board rejected an application to permit a Heli-Ski Lodge in an environmentally sensitive area  the Chilcotin.

Electoral Area J West Chilcotin Director Tolin Pare said it’s been a contentious application for the last six months on a piece of property in the Bluff Lake area Southeast of Tatla Lake.

Pare shared the several concerns he had in regards to its development.

“First of all was the size of the lodge, the second was the impact to the wildlife in the area for the higher air traffic that could be happening in the future for that area. There is also my concern for the First Nations and residents that live in and around that area, a lot people were against this proposal.”

The CRD said the proposal would have facilitated development of a tourist commercial resort with plans to develop a lodge, several cabins, a spa, helipad, and support facilities.

In release the CRD stated that Ministry of Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship (WLRS) submitted information in October 2024 detailing how the proposal would conflict with provincial wildlife conservation objectives for Mountain Goat habitat on nearby Crown Lands and that those concerns were reiterated in a submission made December 12^th 2024 after meeting with the applicant.

“We’re not closing the full idea because of the business proposal on this. I asked the Board of Directors to reject this business proposal. We’re not shutting it completely down, that is not our intent.” Pare said, “Because of the grand nature of how this was proposed and the constituents dis-satisfactory and upset with how the whole procedure went I asked the Board to deny.”  

The Cariboo Regional District said the applicant’s proposal was to change the land use designation under their (CRD) Chilcotin Area Rural Land Use Bylaw.

It would have been changed from Rural Residential and Resource/Agricultural to a Special Exception Commercial zone.