Former Valemount mayor Jeanette Townsend was disturbed by a letter she read in a local paper. A tourist had written in to say that he couldn't find a store where he could buy white socks.
Townsend, who served as the village CEO for six terms between 1990 to 2008, moved to Valemount in the late 1980s and said back then there were a variety of places residents could shop locally for essentials.
"Now, there's nothing," she said. "It's disappointing how low it has gone from what used to be a thriving community."
The Valemount and Area Chamber of Commerce, on which Townsend currently serves a vice chair, is pushing for more development both large and small.
Townsend said she sees a diversity of economic opportunities as the key to securing the village's future.
Current mayor Andru McCracken acknowledges that there's a hole in the Valemount economy.
Last summer, he curated a public art exhibition called Opening, which featured the art of Maria Hiske in empty storefront windows.
The display, along with promotional tourism material in other windows, is just the beginning, McCracken stressed.
"An open store front is a sign of decay, but it's also a sign of change. There's new opportunities happening. Getting the artwork there in the meantime is a pretty happy medium," he said.
There are other small but positive signs in Valemount.
The village appears to be attracting those with that entrepreneurial spirit who are creating their own jobs, said Valemount chief administrative officer Anne Yanciw, such as a bakery, an ice-cream maker, a foot truck, a taxi service and a microbrewery.
But the dream needs to be bigger, according to Townsend.
"The economy has been deteriorating over the last few years," she said, noting the town may not have made it through the closure of the local mill in the mid-2000s without its tourism industry.
Valemount was designated a resort municipality by the province in 2007 and boasts 500 hotel rooms.
And while there is potential with the proposed Valemount Glacier Destination (VGD) year-round skiing resort, the village needs more of everything, said Townsend.
"As much as we want to see VGD developed, we don't want to pin our hopes and dreams on just one project," the former mayor added. "We should not neglect other potential development."
The other development Townsend refers to is the flagging village resort and spa project - a $70 million endeavour that currently sits as an empty 5.9-acre plot in the core of the village.
A billboard advertising the commercial and residential project went up in the former high school site in October 2008, but that has been the extent of the development.
According to Shirley Sander, president of Saas Fee Land Developments, everything was ready to go - from having the architects lined up, to village approval, to construction financing.
"And then the financial global meltdown happened in '08 and '09 with what happened in the States and all funding everywhere dried up for big projects," she said.
With the global economy on the rebound, Sander said she's been pounding the pavement looking for new sources of money to get the 181-unit condo development off the ground.
"It's prime to be the next Canmore... I've had many, many people say to me, 'if somebody built something I would buy there. I've been waiting for somebody to do something in that town for 30 years,'" Sander said.
In May, a lender out of Ontario was willing to put up the necessary bridge funding but that deal fell through when Sander couldn't get signed documentation from the village.
Council voted May 15 to approve, in principle, a draft development agreement. Based on legal counsel, the village didn't want to sign the document because there was precedent of such an agreement being used to by a developer to sue a municipality.
"The developer's situation is a real concern but our role here is to determine the best interests of the village," McCracken said during a council meeting. "We're not the village of Saas Fee, we're the village of Valemount. We are not a line of credit for any developer and we should never act like one."
"It killed the deal," Sander said, who added she doesn't feel as though she has the support of the current council and administration like there was in the project's infancy. "No lender is going to accept an unsigned document."
During a council meeting, McCracken also publicly stated that the upkeep of the property has been poor and that Sander was lax in paying her property taxes, statements Sander called humiliating. She said that she is diligent in mowing the property's grass every year and that while they may not have received it on an annual basis, the village has the property tax they're owed.
"The majority of the town is in support [of the project] still and they're completely outraged with the treatment that I got. That's the feedback I'm getting from everybody," Sander said.
The people behind projects such as Valemount Glacier Destinations, Saas Fee and Canoe Mountain should be treated better, said Townsend.
"Those who look to invest their life savings in our area, I believe, merit our consideration and co-operation," she said. "Their success will benefit our area."
McCracken said the village is on board with the Saas Fee project and that the next steps are in Sander's hands.
"I don't want to go and keep hitting my head against the wall. It gets painful," Sander said. "What are the next steps? I guess that's yet to be determined."
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