[Note: this chronology is presently a living document, and will be subject to changes.]

The following chronology is mostly a compilation of excerpts from B.C. provincial government documents, letters, and reports.  The chronology is divided into three parts:

1.  1990-1993.
2.  1994-1997.
3.  1998-2000.

Many of the excerpts from SPEC's retrieved Freedom of Information government files relate to concerns about grizzly bears, because government agencies have concluded, in contrast to earlier concerns (1990-1997), that grizzlies need not be studied in relation to the effects that a large ski development will have on a high elevation alpine environment, and adjacent valleys, over the long term.  In this sense, there are currently not as many excerpts concerning mountain goats from SPEC's files.  This does not predetermine that grizzly bears are more important than mountain goats, merely that little attention has been cast on grizzly bears because of continual suggestions and pressures not to.

Other excerpts relate to the process from the beginning.  Events from 1990 to May 1995 are perhaps the most interesting, as this was when government wildlife biologists and experts held their ground to protect the grizzly and mountain goat habitat in the heart of the Cayoosh Mountain Range.  Since the Deputy Minister's Committee and B.C. Cabinet interfered in May of 1995 to put development ahead of science, conservation, and the strong advice from their wildlife experts, the process has been directed toward allowing the proponent, NGR Resort Consultants Inc. (Al and Nancy Greene Raine), to proceed with its development proposal.

Environmental Assessment Act Review

On June 30, 1995, the B.C. government legislated the Environmental Assessment Act, which combined all major review projects (mining, energy, industrial, major recreational) under one process.  Because Cabinet ordered its biologists to remove Melvin Creek as a candidate for protection in May 1995 (see chronology above), that allowed the Minister of Environment, Lands, and Parks to sign a transition order on June 28, 1995 to bring the Melvin Creek ski development from previous possible review under the Canadian Alpine Ski Policy (CASP) to the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO).

Since the Environmental Assessment Office began to review NGR Resort Consultants Inc's four season ski development proposal (which can be seen at www.eao.gov.bc.ca) in December 1996, there have been seven meetings of the Cayoosh Resort Project Committee, composed of inter-government agencies, local municipal governments, and St'at'imc First Nations (some of the First Nations confederacy only participated at the outset).  Unlike another ski development review, referred to as the Jumbo Creek project, a public advisory body was not struck under the EAO for the Melvin Creek project.  According to the Environmental Assessment Office, the Project Committee will now send its final recommendations to the two Ministers of Environment, Lands, and Parks, and Employment and Investment on May 17, 2000.  Those two Ministers will in turn make their recommendations to the B.C. Cabinet.  The final recommendation documents are not available for public review until Cabinet has made its determination.  Here are the previous meeting dates:

1.  January 9, 1997 - Lillooet;
2.  March 12, 1997 - Lillooet;
3.  July 24, 1997 - Lillooet;
4.  September 24, 1997 - Lillooet;
5.  July 27, 1999 - Teleconference (re proponent's project report);
6.  March 17, 2000 - Teleconference (re draft of final recommendations to Ministers);
7.  April 12, 2000 - Teleconference (re draft of final recommendations to Ministers) - meeting closed to observers.