Photo: Contributed
Road signs at top of Big White
Now that the pandemic is waning skiers from around the world are back at Big White in full force.
Many of those skiers are also property owners who haven’t been on the mountain, let alone in the country, since the pandemic and are just now noticing the in-resort shuttle bus is no longer running.
The bus previously provided free transportation within the village for guests and residents. The service differs from the airport shuttle, which is still running.
Big White senior VP Micheal J. Ballingall says the shuttle ceased operation due to COVID-19.
“Up until this time, local permanent residents have figured out something to get the groceries delivered. Then you get a lot of absentee owners that arrived from other parts of Canada and overseas. All of a sudden, they don’t have a vehicle, most of them haven’t been in the resort since the pandemic,” said Ballingall
“So you get a lot of people starting to ask what’s going on? They think, well, the lift company used to do this, why aren’t they doing it anymore?”
Ballingall says when the resort reopened after the COVID-imposed shutdown, they decided operating the bus amid health restrictions was not feasible. So they sold the two buses, which were past their life span.
He says the resort corporation has been talking to the on-mountain chamber of commerce, the regional government and the provincial government to find a solution.
“I would say, and the record should show, that numerous letters have been written on this subject to government officials,” Ballingall said..
Big White property owner Nick Battaglio is hopeful the service can return.
“A lot of the staff up here, don’t have cars, they come in from away so it’s hard for them to get around as well,” Battaglio said, who said he’s personally written letters to regional director Sharen Gibbs and MLA Rory Russell .
“They’re going to be looking at it over the next week or so. We’d like to get it up and running as soon as possible.”
Speaking on CBC’s Daybreak South this week, Regional District of Kootenay Boundary CAO Mark Andison explained BC Transit has concluded that a bus service at Big White would not be a community service.
“It would be benefitting a commercial operation—Big White Resort,” he said, adding “we can’t jump in and fund a service without the community supporting that and would have to go to referendum in terms of establishing a new service for transit .”
The move could mean that Big White would have to become a resort municipality, like Sun Peaks.
When contacted for comment, BC Transit says they can only provide bus service through an operating agreement with a local government, with the local government providing approximately half of the funding.
BC Transit says it is unaware of any plans by the RDKB to extend BC Transit service to or on Big White.
“However, if Big White is interested in having transit service extended to the mountain, a request would have to go through the local government. If service was deemed to be feasible, the request would then proceed into BC Transit’s expansion process,” the transit authority said.
Ballingall says he is directing Big White residents to contact MLA Rolly Russell and the RDKB to let them know about their concerns.
He believes those who own property and live on the mountain would even be open to a slight increase in property taxes if it meant better bus service.
Ballingall hopes the service can be reinstated as quickly as possible, “if they could get it up and running in the next few weeks, that would be fantastic. It may be too late to get it in by Christmas, but if they could, that would be even better.”
