Public Notice

Camp Fortune: Ski Lighting Project – Public Comments Invited

October 7, 2025 – The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) must determine whether the proposed ski lighting project, located in Chelsea, Quebec is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.

To help inform this determination, BDC is inviting comments from the public respecting that determination. All comments received will be considered public and may be posted online.

Written comments must be submitted by November 6, 2025 to:

External Communications
Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC)
5, Place Ville Marie, Ground floor
Montréal, Quebec H3B 5E7
Email: mediainfo@bdc.ca

The Proposed Project

Camp Fortune (300 Chemin Dunlop, in Chelsea, Quebec, J9B 2N3) proposes to replace the existing ski run lighting and install new high-efficiency lighting to the Meech chairlift corridor and Meech area trails, including Paradis and North American, which are accessed from the Meech chairlift. Lighting is required for maintenance and night safety access during night skiing operations.  

The Meech chairlift corridor and the Paradis and North American trails do not currently offer night skiing; however, the addition of new lighting along these routes will expand Camp Fortune's night skiing options to include more beginner and intermediate terrain that is currently lacking among the night skiing routes at Camp Fortune. The addition will also provide another chairlift to move skiers around the area, reducing congestion on Pineault and Clifford chairlifts. This will make for a more enjoyable and safer ski experience.

In total, new lighting will be installed at 60 locations, including the installation of 54 new light standards (28 along the Paradis and 26 along the North American trails) and the installation of six lights on existing chairlift support towers along the Meech chairlift corridor. Groundworks will be required for all 60 lighting locations. The new lighting will be downward-facing LED, reducing light pollution and widespread glare. Since 2020-2021, night skiing hours have been 4 pm to 9 pm Monday to Saturday and 4 pm to 7 pm on Sunday. Night skiing begins December 27 through to approximately March 20. During the month of January, the lights are on (excluding Sunday) for approx. 4.5 hours per night, February this is reduced to 3.5-4 hours per night and for March the lights are on for 2.5-3 hours per night. On Sundays in January the lights are on for 2.5 hours and down to 0-2 hours in March. In December, night skiing is only offered for 3 nights. Both December 31 and January 1 are closed for night skiing. The lights will not be lit during the active bat season and/or when migratory birds would be present or active (April 1 to September 30, inclusive).

Lighting installations on the Paradis and North American trails and Meech chairlift corridor will result in one of two possible actions for each lighting standard:

1. Lighting standard in new location (i.e., Paradis and North American):

• A new hole for a new pole is excavated;
• Excavated material from the new hole is backfilled and/or spread on the ski run adjacent to the pole standard location; and
• New cables will be trenched 0.5 m – 1 m deep and no more than a small excavator shovel width (approximately 1 m wide). If digging is not possible due to bedrock constraints, a conduit will be run above ground.

2. Lighting installed on existing Meech chairlift support towers:

• A trench of approximately 0.5 m – 1 m deep and no more than a small excavator shovel width (approximately 1 m wide) is dug to bury lighting cable between the support towers;
• Six new lights are installed on the top of Towers 3-8; and
• Excavated material from the trench is backfilled, burying laid cable. No fill material is being imported or taken off site.

Construction access routes for installing new lighting systems on Paradis and North American will follow the existing adjacent ski run. Given their existing use as ski runs, vegetation coverage is limited to low groundcover and the surface is firm, thus requiring no vegetation or tree clearing or temporary access road building to permit access of construction equipment. No tree removal will be required for any installations. No critical root zones extend within the construction zone, excavation area, and/or staging areas, and thus no impact to critical root zones is anticipated. No pruning will be required to accommodate development. Staging areas for the project will be limited to existing parking areas on site. No aggregate material will be removed from the construction areas or the Camp Fortune property. Camp Fortune has existing fueling facilities, and no equipment refueling will be required outside of these facilities.

The required excavation for new lighting standards (54 in total) would be seven feet 2.1 m in depth with a base of approximately 1.5 m by 1.5 m. Approximately 4.725 m3 will thus be excavated per hole. The holes will be dug with a 20-ton excavator, braced, and then backfilled in 12" lifts with 0-3/4" gravel, then compacted with a small ‘jumping jack' style compactor.

Additional groundworks are required along the actively maintained Meech chairlift corridor to facilitate lighting installation on six existing chairlift support towers.

Lights will be to the same specification as those used on the ski trails. The required excavation would comprise a trench with maximum dimensions of 0.5 m – 1 m deep and ~1 m wide. Cables will be laid out 40 cm below grade, where possible. Upon completion of lighting installation, the trench would be backfilled with the native soil material previously excavated and left to regenerate naturally. Utilizing the existing chairlift support towers was the preferred approach for lighting the Meech chairlift corridor, as it is most cost-effective and minimizes ground disturbance.

The project specifications were designed to reduce excavation and groundworks to the highest extent possible, promote the sustainable re-use of materials wherever possible, and improve the sustainability of night skiing by utilizing high efficiency, dark-sky approved and ecologically sound LED lighting.