A fascinating year is coming to a close with a new council, a new board of school trustees and exciting new possibilities for the year ahead.
This year, we lived through the labour dispute between the provincial government and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, Squamish Oceanfront Development Corp. uncertainties, the opening of the Sea to Sky Gondola, Spudnik, derelict vessel dumping, backcountry dangers, debates over liquefied natural gas and the proposed pipeline, and more.
There’s one issue that quietly slipped through the course of the year.
On Dec. 16, Squamish council members got an update on the proposed Garibaldi at Squamish resort. The update took those who were around in 1990 back to those early days of the project. At that time the vision consisted of a little village on Brohm Ridge below Dalton Dome. Project proponent Wolfgang Richter called it the small ski operation that would be what Whistler could never be again. There were no golf courses associated with the development, and the plan called for skiers and boarders to travel up a road to a village at the edge of the alpine.
Fast-forward to the entrance of Luigi Aquilini and Bob Gaglardi as investors in the project. Aquilini is the mastermind behind the Aquilini Investment Group, a company that includes blueberry farming, restaurants and real estate development. Bob Gaglardi is the business magnet behind the Sandman Hotel chain. His business interests also include restaurants and real estate interests.
Francesco Aquilini, son of Luigi, owns the Vancouver Canucks. Tom Gaglardi, son of Bob, owns the Dallas Stars.
Recall the bitter dispute the two boys had when both were in the running to buy the Canucks from then-owner John McCaw.
Needless to say, the families aren’t as close today as they were back when they teamed up to buy into the proposal on the Garibaldi Provincial Park border. The Gaglardis and the Aquilinis had big plans for the little resort. After they got involved, the amount of Crown land involved in the proposal nearly doubled to include the lands around Cat Lake and Brohm Lake. This vision looked much like Audi Bauer’s 1960s plan, which went bankrupt after some of the lift infrastructure was installed along with a chalet up near the alpine. Opposition to the plan was drafted after Gaglardi and Aquilini took control and the project ballooned. Many people were very unhappy with the idea of land around the lakes being turned into residential properties.
Earlier this year, Richter informed us the development around the lakes would be abandoned. Company officials reiterated that decision at the meeting with council.
This is a project for those with patience. Bauer announced on Dec. 26, 1958 that he was going to build a winter resort on Brohm Ridge.
Here we are more than 50 years later on the doorstep of 2015, and Garibaldi at Squamish is still just a vision.
