LAKE LOUISE – There’s a high chance the alpine world cup moves on from Lake Louise following Alpine Canada’s failure to secure funding over the next three years.
Earlier this month, it was announced FIS removed the tentative men's Lake Louise world cup downhill races from the 2023-24 calendar, which completely cuts the Banff National Park hot spot out of world cup plans in 2023.
However, a recent letter to the province’s minister of tourism and sport suggests Alberta has lost the international event to ski resorts in different provinces for the foreseeable future.
For Sarah Elmeligi, newly elected Banff-Kananaskis MLA, it’s an opportunity missed for economic impact to local businesses, tourism to the province, and celebrating Alberta culture and its athletes.
“I think it’s really disappointing and it’s sad that the government couldn’t step up to provide this increased funding for Alpine Canada,” said Elmeligi. “But with this ski event, with this downhill world cup racing event, we don’t just get money back, we actually get so much more.”
There was a “strict deadline” of between late June and early July for Alpine Canada to secure funding to put on a world cup at Lake Louise.
In Elmeligi's June 28 letter to Joseph Schow, Alberta’s minister of tourism and sport, she put forward a last ditch effort and underlined the importance of the world cup for the Bow Valley and Alberta.
According to Elmeligi’s letter, the world cup had previously brought in approximately $23 million annually for Alberta – more than $1 million in earned media and advertising and $22 million to the economy.
Elmeligi, who’s the opposition critic for sport and tourism, said Alpine Canada was requesting $1.3 million annually from Alberta for the next three years, plus $1 million in capital to help with snow-making costs at the Lake Louise Ski Resort.
If Alpine Canada didn’t secure funding, Alberta would “lose this [men’s] event to neighbouring British Columbia.”
Elmeligi said she didn’t receive a response from Schow.
“I’m very open to working collaboratively with Minister Schow to grow our tourism industry and to offer opportunities that help small businesses thrive, while also celebrating everything that Alberta has to offer,” said Elmeligi. “But I am really disappointed that I didn't get a response to my letter and I’m also disappointed that we didn’t get the funding in place to make this happen.”
The Outlook’s interview request to the minister went unanswered.
Elmeligi’s letter went on to say the Lake Louise Ski Resort has a “difficult business model” for Alpine Canada to sustain, which was confirmed in a July 14 media release, in which Alpine Canada president and CEO Therese Brisson said the economic model at Lake Louise has been “challenging the past few years.”
Dan Markham, communications director at the Lake Louise Ski Resort, said the resort is known globally for the world cup races at “The Lake”. He said that due to the world cup coming to Lake Louise early in the season (November and early December), a good portion of costs go toward snow-making and building the courses.
“A lot of ski resorts in the world don’t even open when we run men’s at the end of November, women’s in early December, so to do so requires something a lot of resorts don’t need to do, which is to produce snow,” said Markham.
“You have to create a really hard-packed course and that kind of ability with natural snow, at that time of year, is almost impossible and Lake Louise has been able to pull it off for decades. But the snow-making costs money.”
In the future, Markham said they hope the world cup races return to the iconic ski hill.
Canmore ski racer Jeff Read, a 2023 world championship bronze medallist, said the local world cup’s removal was something the athletes saw coming and expectations had been very low that it could be saved this year.
Read added its absence on the calendar is a “pretty big bummer” because it’s an “essential part of skiing in the Bow Valley,” especially after growing up with the races.
“It’s just really disappointing to not be able to race in front of the home crowd and friends,” said Read. “More so, being able to have the young kids out there because there are so many of them from all the clubs in Alberta, and some from B.C., who come and watch and get inspired. I think that’s a huge part of the community that we’re going to be missing, but hopefully it’s just a one year thing and we can figure something out moving forward.”
Since last summer, it had been rumoured the Lake Louise world cup would be relocated. Last December’s women’s speed event in Lake Louise was the final one for the foreseeable future, as well. It is replaced with a women’s technical event on the other side of the country in Mont Tremblant, Quebec.
In an October 2022 media release, Alpine Canada said it is “finalizing our long-term strategy” for the men’s world cup in the west.
Alpine Canada said it remains committed to a men’s speed event in western Canada and the national governing body has turned its attention to identifying solutions for the 2024-25 season and beyond.
Although, hopes are fading about Lake Louise's likelihood of being in the mix.
“I did ask Alpine Canada if we could bring it back later and they just were like, 'well, that just remains to be seen’,” said Elmeligi. “Usually when events move to a different location, they kind of end up staying there for a while.”
