Sun Peaks is Canada’s newest municipality

On June 28, B.C. Interior’s largest ski resort, Sun Peaks, became Canada’s newest municipality and – under special new Provincial legislation – it is the country’s first “mountain resort” municipality.

Mayor Al Raine and four councillors were sworn in at the Delta Sun Peaks Resort hotel. The four councillors are: Mario Pozza, Ines Popig, Mike Forster and Darcy Alexander.

Under the special provincial legislation that created the “mountain resort” municipality, one of the council members will be appointed by the Provincial Government and will be a representative of Sun Peaks Resort Corporation, in recognition of the integral role the company plays in the community. Appointee Darcy Alexander is the Vice President and General Manager of Sun Peaks Resort Corporation.

As a Mountain Resort Municipality, Sun Peaks will be able to levy taxes, as well as receive a portion of the hotel HST and a provincial small community grant.

“As a municipality, we will be in a better position to make decisions about our local community,” says Mayor Al Raine. “We would like to get a school up here, so that our children don’t have to travel all the way to Heffley Creek. We also need to tackle issues like affordable housing, employee housing and we would like to see an eastern access road to make it easier for visitors to get here.”

Mayor Raine is a leader in ski resort development in B.C. Raine was involved in the development of Whistler, B.C. in the 1970s and 1980s and has lived in Sun Peaks since 1994. At 68, he might be expected to be taking it easy and spending more time golfing and skiing, but he says he couldn’t resist the opportunity to be part of building Sun Peaks into a vibrant, thriving community.