The owner of the Marble Inn is frustrated with the process in place after the province put out a call for potential private buyers for the Marble Mountain Ski Resort.
Joe Dicks questions government’s commitment to selling off the facility.
He says he submitted a proposal early in the process, and while he says there was supposed to be further collaboration and discussion, that “fell flat.”
Joe Dicks (Facebook)
Dicks believes the resort can make money, but says the value of Marble Mountain goes beyond profitability, which he believes is part of the reason why government is choosing to stay involved.
“This is not a public policy that’s been created by the current government. It landed in their lap,” he said. “They have to dig it out, they have to figure it out. It’s a bit of a tangly little mess here.
“We see a return on investment. We see a lot of value in the ski product, and we also see lots of value in expanding that product to include some summer events, and fall events and winter events.”
(Courtesy Marble Mountain)
Dicks also believes government dropped the ball when it comes to regular maintenance in order to make the operation more commercially attractive to potential buyers.
“The government is responsible for the assets that exist at Marble and the upkeep of those properties,” he said. “If they’d taken that on, that’s where I come back to the same theme of that whole process, and that is that I don’t believe that government is the best carrier for the advancement of Marble.”
Dicks says government should divest itself of the Marble Mountain Ski Resort, noting a private owner would take the burden off the taxpayer, and grow and develop the resort “better than government has.”
