Hopefully most people have read Maclean’s article on 99 stupid things governments have done with your money in 2012. So far the city of Whitehorse has only scored a number six on the list for money already wasted at the ski hill. Hopefully, they are not trying to shoot higher this year.
I do feel for all the people who do ski and agree that we should have a facility to do this. But I cannot believe that after all the government funding to date and with all the infrastructure basically paid for that this cannot be operated at a near break-even cost.
All we seem to have done is raise the operating cost so that they lose more money than before. Maybe the ski hill needs new people that can promote this as a travel destination. I have never seen a gateway city ski package combined with one of our airlines and one of our hotels. At least the hotel would probably have a shuttle to get people back and forth. A lot of tour operators travel to trade shows such as Rendez-vous Canada to promote their business; has this been tried?
It seems like most people involved are interested in skiing or selling skis. I think the ski hill needs to open up their books to some people who may have a better idea on this flawed business plan. We might just find out that throwing more money at it will not cure the shortcomings.
Save the ski hill, but don’t punish the tax payer.
Jim Cleavert
Whitehorse