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Brad J. Pierce, counsel with Borden Ladner Gervais in Calgary, acts for several leaseholders in Banff and called the action of the federal Liberals “almost fraudulent.”

“The surprising thing is the government has now weaved it into an omnibus budget bill, to remove some of the area available for skiing within these areas,” said Pierce.

The move “is just such a sneaky, under-handed, unparliamentary, undemocratic way to do it,” he added.

“I can’t even describe how angry I am at that and Calgarians are going to wake up one day and have their skiable terrain that they like to ski in . . . be gone, just by a stroke of a pen out of Ottawa,” he said.

Photo by AL Charest / Al Charest/Postmedia

As has been written about in the past, the three ski hills in the park were given terrible offers they couldn’t refuse by Parks Canada.

Parks Canada told Sunshine Mountain Resort’s owner, for instance, to choose one of two options: Agree to a 42-year lease with an agreement to then give the ski resorts to the Crown for $1, or sever and remove every facility and return the land to its natural state.

National parks leases for business owners typically run from 21 to 42 years and some licences of occupation are 10 years or less for different operations.

Ski resorts are undoubtedly some of the more capital intensive businesses in the national park, in terms of the money needed to stay competitive and running.

In an undated letter that Ralph Scurfield, president and CEO of Sunshine Mountain Ski Resort received Dec. 18, the acting chief executive of Parks Canada, Michael Nadler, forced him to make a rock-and-a-hard-place decision.