New all-season skiing resort approved in B.C.

There is now going to be a year-round place to go skiing in British Columbia.

The provincial government completed a Master Development Agreement with Valemount Glacier Destinations Ltd., approving the resort near Valemount, a small community near the Alberta border, on Tuesday.

The $100-million resort claims to bring a unique and rare mountain experience to North America, boasting some of the most impressive viewpoints for sightseeing anywhere in the world.

A lift system designed for both sightseers and skiers will take visitors to the summits of Mount Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Twilight Glacier and the McLennan Glacier.

“It is an untapped market in terms of mountain tourism in B.C. The opportunity to view a glacier from the top is unique,” designer Tommaso Oberti told Global News when the resort was still in negotiations with the local stakeholders last year.

WATCH – April 22, 2016: Aaron McArthur reports on the new resort in the Valemount area, right near the Alberta border. The developer is hopping to piggyback on one of that province’s biggest tourist draws.

1:59 Plans unveiled for possible new summer ski resort for Valemount area

Over the next 15-20 years, the developers say there will be public access to large glaciers at over 3,000 metres – the only such access in North America – and a vertical drop of approximately 2,050 meters, the largest in North America and third largest in the world.

The resort has received the backing of the local government and First Nations and it’s being billed by developers as a “community-driven project.”

Final surveys and engineering of the lifts will take place this summer. The resort could open to the public as early as Christmas of next year, but the construction of the planned resort village at the mountain’s base is not expected to start until 2019.

The resort is expected to create about 800 full-time jobs.

It’s the first approved, completely newly developed ski area in North America since the 1960s.