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By Dylana Kneeshaw

CANADA WEST SKI AREAS ASSOCIATION

Ski industry reflects on Sun Peaks Mayor Al Raine’s decades of ski area policy, resort development work

Dec 16, 2024 | 5:15 PM

SUN PEAKS, B.C. — The mayor of Sun Peaks, and one of the founding policy builders of Canada’s ski industry, has passed away. In a statement, the mountain municipality says Al Raine passed away peacefully this past weekend at the age of 83, surrounded by family and his wife, Nancy Greene Raine.

Al Raine became the first mayor of Sun Peaks in 2010, when the community became the country’s first mountain resort municipality. Raine was well-known among the mountain residents, but he was also regarded as a pioneer in the development of the nation’s ski industry.

The CEO of the Canada West Ski Areas Association, Christopher Nicolson, worked with Raine for years, and says the skiing opportunities available in B.C. today wouldn’t be as strong without Raine’s work in the early development of ski area policy and resort development.

“You look at how many communities, their economies and their social network is really dependent on winter tourism. That was groundwork that was laid, and Al’s footprint and fingerprints are all over that policy work in the earlier days that reveals itself over generations, over decades,” says Nicolson. “It takes a very special individual to have that vision in the early days to think out 30, 40 years, what’s possible. And we’re lucky to have known him.”

Raine was a competitive skier himself, eventually sharing his expertise with others as the head coach of Canada’s Alpine Ski Team in the early 1970s. For decades, he worked as a consultant for ski area policy and development. He and his wife, Olympic gold medalist Nancy Greene Raine, were heavily involved in shaping some of the country’s largest ski resorts and villages, including Whistler and Sun Peaks.

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“Al was pivotal to that whole journey, something called the Commercial Alpine Ski Policy — now the All Seasons Resort Policy — but he was a pillar in that development. When you think of impacts, I think of Al and I think of the communities, I think of the families and the many generations of people,” notes Nicolson.

When asked what kind of skier Raine was, Nicolson says the mountain municipality’s mayor had a reputation for his speed.

“Amazing skier. And even within the last year, trying to keep up with Al — good luck. He wasn’t a national coach by accident,” says Nicolson. “I think probably the passion of skiing (sticks out). Not just the actual getting out and skiing, he just thought better when he was skiing. He was probably even funnier when he was skiing. It was just something that was innate to him. Just sliding on snow in the mountains was just such a treat for him and he shared that with everybody who was around him.”

Raine’s passing follows a diagnosis of ALS earlier this year, when he announced his intention to resign from the mayor’s chair and work with the municipality on a transition plan. Raine officially resigned as mayor of Sun Peaks at midnight on December 14.

A celebration of life for Al Raine is scheduled to take place on January 15, 2025, at the Sun Peaks Centre.