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In an undated letter that Scurfield received Dec. 18, the acting chief executive of Parks Canada, Michael Nadler, made Scurfield an offer he couldn’t refuse — in the worst sense of that phrase.

If by Jan. 21 Parks Canada “does not have your written, unconditional confirmation that you are prepared to conclude and execute a new lease with these site guidelines appended, the Agency will understand that to mean you do not wish to enter into the initialled lease with the site guidelines appended and proceed to seek a new operator through a public request for proposals.”

Scurfield has also been told by Parks Canada to choose one of two options — agree to a 42-year lease with an agreement to then give Sunshine Village Ski Resort to the Crown for $1, or sever and remove every facility and return the land to its natural state.

Hard place meet slightly harder rock.

There are several questions arising from this heavy-handed approach by the “authorities.”

If you’re getting a 42-year lease, why would you continue to improve a facility that you’re eventually going to give to the federal government with no compensation? As the saying goes, renters don’t fix the roof.

The new site guidelines, which will be released publicly by Parks Canada on Thursday, reduces the leasehold by 61 hectares — land that is currently zoned and previously approved and gives Sunshine no new parking. Parks Canada is urging Scurfield to build a 500-vehicle parking structure to be used 50 days a year, which Scurfield says will cost about $50 million — an untenable option.