By Adam Donnelly

Sun Peaks Centre set to make village more viable year-round

Mar 9, 2018 | 3:00 PM

SUN PEAKS — Sun Peaks is already known throughout western North America as one of the premier winter destinations for skiing and snowboarding but has yet to really fulfil it’s potential as a summer destination. While Tourism Sun Peaks puts on events like the Summer Concert Series and the Alpine Blossom Festival, an announcement today has the potential to transform the resort into a more robust year-round destination.

It might be the most picturesque outdoor rink in the province, but thanks to an announcement by the Sun Peaks Resort Municipality Friday, those views will be obstructed by a roof once the Sun Peaks Centre is built. The centre will be a multi-purpose indoor facility, capable of hosting up 3000 people for a variety of events including for large trade shows, conferences, sporting events, and concerts once the facility is completed.

“We’ve got to get around the seasonality. We’re a great winter resort but we have to become a great summer resort,” Mayor Al Raine told CFJC Today. “This is an exciting day, a big step forward for us.”

While the plan for a facility of this nature has been in the works for a while, the resort municipality was able to make the Sun Peaks Centre a reality thanks to a significant grant from the federal government

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“We were successful in obtaining $6 million in federal gas tax money that comes through the province and is administered by the Union of BC Municipalities,” Raine explained.

Chief Oliver Arnouse of the Little Shuswap Indian Band was on hand to help Mayor Raine announce the project. The new facility will be home to a number of Secwepemc artworks and cultural displays, as a way to honour the long history of indigenous people on the land surrounding the resort.

“The territory here was a berry picking area for a lot of people,” Chief Arnouse explained. “[The new facility] will be the artists who have the benefit of designing pictures, and carvings and maybe glass etchings for the facility.”

For Tourism Sun Peaks CEO Arlene Schieven, the new facility means there will be a significant opportunity to build capacity during the summer season, which is something the resort has been working on over the past number of years.

“`Right now we’re about 65% winter and 35% summer,” Schieven explained. “We’re getting to the point where we’re getting pretty full in the winter, so there’s not that much opportunity to build the winter more. As a result of that, the opportunity is shifting to the summer.”

For the community, it’s easy to be excited at the potential for the year-round opportunity the Sun Peaks Centre presents, but the project is still at least a year away from even starting construction.

“We’re probably 8 months to a year in the design component and at least one year in the building component,” Raine said. “We probably looking at at least two years, three years out. But we’re going to do this as quickly as we can.”