Quebec — After it seemed like Mont-Sainte-Anne was finally on the right track with Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, something surprising has occurred. It appears that one of their main competitors is making a move to acquire the soon-to-be-grown ski resort.
Quebec news outlet Le Soleil reported earlier this month that Le Massif de Charlevoix has created a lobbying group with the province to discuss the potential acquisition of Mont-Sainte-Anne. This allows Le Massif to discuss a potential deal with Jean-François Simard, the Minister of the Capitale-Nationale part of Quebec. The reason for its creation is “in order to bring to his attention the positive impacts of a possible merger between Mont Sainte-Anne and Le Massif.”
However, Le Massif has made past pushes for Mont-Sainte-Anne and has been unsuccessful.
“We do not comment on our strategic approaches or the exchanges or representations that may be carried out within the framework of our activities,” said Groupe Le Massif to Le Soleil.
Changing Landscape
The news comes as a bit of a shocker at first, but there could be a benefit that Le Massif sees in the merger.
Last winter began with Le Massif and nearby competitor Mont Grand-Fonds being reciprocal partners, as had been the case for many years. However, the workers’ strike against Le Massif changed the landscape. When Le Massif announced a limited reopening, they didn’t include access to Mont Grand-Fonds passholders. In response, Mont-Grand-Fonds announced that they’re withdrawing from the reciprocal agreement. This left most Le Massif passholders without a place to ski (unless they were able to secure a ticket through Le Massif’s limited offerings). The Quebec ski resort eventually reopened after reaching an agreement with its workers.
It should be noted that Mont Grand-Fonds is part of a relatively new ski resort company. The Quebec Mountains Ski Company is a growing group of ski resorts in Quebec that is seeing major investments from Swiss entrepreneur Christian Mars. Their multi-mountain pass now includes five ski resorts: Massif du Sud, Mont Grand-Fonds, Mont Lac-Vert, Mont Édouard, and Belle Neige. The goal is to eventually create a network of ten mountains. While the logic behind the ski resort leaving the reciprocal pass is reasonable, it’s also possible that there was a separate reason: to get people to switch to their season pass.
The odd thing about this report is that Mont-Sainte-Anne is finally heading in the right direction. After announcing a partnership with Quebec on a revitalization plan, which includes new lifts, you’d think RCR would want to keep operating it. So that makes me a little skeptical that a deal could happen. It would also hurt RCR’s pass sales, which currently enjoy access to Mont-Sainte-Anne and Stoneham. Could the compromise here be for Mont-Sainte-Anne to become a reciprocal partner of Le Massif?
Combining these two ski resorts would enable Le Massif to create a new pass that would attract many skiers to the Quebec City market. We’ll see if it becomes a reality, or if its just another failed attempt by Le Massif.
Image/Video Credits: Le Massif de Charlevoix
