Mount Sima is getting a new $3-million chair lift, with $1.6 million coming from the city through a shift in this year's capital budget.

The announcement was made Thursday afternoon during a press conference at the hill.

Deputy mayor Doug Graham and Craig Hougen, president of the Great Northern Ski Society, sat side-by-side explaining the rationale and need for the new lift, which is scheduled to be operational by Dec. 1.

Teenaged members of SOS – Save Our Sima – applauded the announcement, as did several others present, including Coun. Florence Roberts and other members of the society's board.

When SOS spokesman Nic Terry announced the new chairlift on F.H. Collins Secondary School's PA system at the end of the day Thursday, it's said that a cheer went through the school.

Hougen suggested with the disappointing season they had last winter, including a full emergency evacuation of the chairlift last December, there were very real safety concerns around continuing on with the old chair.

"We might not have opened Mount Sima this year, because you cannot open a facility if nobody wants to come,” Hougen said of the waning public confidence in the chairlift's reliability and the impact it was having on ticket sales.

"We are delighted and excited to announce we are going to have a brand new Dopplemayr fixed-grip quad chairlift that will be operational this year.... There are all kinds of big opportunities that come around when you have a reliable lift.”

Hougen said the society has an additional $1.1 million lined up through other funding arrangements, though he wasn't specific. The remaining $300,000, he explained, will have to be generated through fund-raising efforts, including corporate donations.

The Dopplemayr company supplying the new quad – four seat – lift has been flexible with the

financial arrangements, and Mount Sima has until next April 1 to put all $3 million together, he said.

Construction, said Hougen, will begin in September. He said the Dopplemayr crew has been at the hill sizing up what's required, and just left on Wednesday.

Whether fees will be going up as result of the new lift has not been determined, but if they do, it won't be by much, he added.

Graham said city council recognized the importance of Mount Sima as an essential element of the recreational infrastructure in Whitehorse, right alongside the Canada Games Centre.

Council was also fully aware of the safety and liability concerns associated with the continued use of the old chairlift purchased in 1992, he said, noting he was on the society's board when they bought the lift in Alaska.

Graham said when the city received $1.6 million in federal funding to complete the Black Street reconstruction work a couple of months ago, it freed up $1.6 million in reserve funds already approved by city council for Black Street.

In light of the dilemma facing Mount Sima, said Graham, it was pretty much a unanimous decision by council to redirect the money to a new chairlift.

"As you are all aware, Mount Sima does represent a large community asset and the City of Whitehorse is well aware of not only what the value of that asset is, but what it means to the community, and what it means to attracting people to the community,” he said.

Graham said because council had already set aside the $1.6 million for Black Street, the city's contribution will not require additional tax increases. Nor will it affect any other capital projects planned for this year.

Buying a new chair, the councillor pointed out, is a continuation of significant investments already made in the facility, including this year's addition of a new $1.5-million zip-line and rope climbing park.

"This is super awesome,” Terry, the F.H. Collins student, said of the announcement, while flanked by several others wearing the SOS T-Shirts they hope to use as a springboard to fulfill their commitment to help fund-raise.

Members of SOS appeared before city council last month to describe their willingness to help raise money for a new chairlift, estimated at $3 million.

Without it, they told members of council, the existence of the ski hill was in jeopardy, as boarders and skiiers would lose interest without a reliable lift.

Parents would be thinking twice about sending their son or daughter to the hill for the day, wondering if he or she might get stranded up in the winter air for a couple of hours, council heard.

Hougen told those attending the press conference inside the new chalet built for the 2007 Canada Winter Games that Mount Sima's books were already showing a loss of interest, suggesting lift reliability was indeed becoming a factor.

"We had a tough year last year,” he said of the 21 days the hill was either shut down altogether or skiing was interrupted because of the lift, most notably the day the chair had to be evacuated.

"None of us want to contemplate what would have happened with the lift evacuation in December had it been minus 25.”

But come 2012, said a very enthusiastic society president, Mount Sima will be a model, year-round recreational resort with the ability to draw in tourists, young and old.

Hougen said the new chairlift ties it all together, and provides a rock-solid foundation for the recreational facilities already there while opening the door to new opportunities.

Having a chairlift capable of taking passengers up and down the hill suddenly turns Sima's mountaintop tea house into an attraction for seniors on bus tours who want to sit and overlook Lake Laberge and Marsh Lake, he said.

The lift, said Hougen, is specifically designed to accommodate the summertime mountain bike crowd.

It's key to the success of the new zipline scheduled to open next year, he said, noting that without a lift, the ski society was looking at having to build a road to the top of the hill.

The new chairlift, insisted Hougen, puts the reliability back into Mount Sima.

He said the society now has all the tools required to its vision for Mount Sima.

"We're ready to rock'n'roll.”

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