With the simple flourish of a pen the master plan for the $800 million all-season Mt. Mackenzie ski resort was signed into existence last Tuesday.

"This community has come out year after year and time after time to tell previous mayors and councils they were 110 per cent behind this project," Mayor Mark McKee said at the public ceremony involving the City of Revelstoke, Cat Powder Skiing, Revelstoke Alpine Village Inc. (RAVI) - the development company - and BC Land and Water last Tuesday.

"Everybody in this town deserves a thank you." George Abbott, minister of sustainable resource management, told an enthusiastic crowd of almost 300 people that the agreement was a tremendous economic opportunity for the Revelstoke area. "Revelstoke is a living example of tourism potential in this province," he said. "It has- heli-skiing, CAT skiing, downhill skiing, cross country skiing, snowmobiling - all great winter activities. And obviously the mother of all those assets is Mount Mackenzie. There's nothing but an exciting future ahead for Revelstoke."

The initial investment plans call for developers to sink $270 million into the resort with an ultimate investment of $800 million. "This will be a world-class, year-round resort," MLA Wendy McMahon told the crowd and she said Resorts Minister Sandy Santori, a major proponent of the Mt. Mackenzie development, wished he could be there. Santori was under doctor's orders to take it easy after he suffered what was at first thought to be a heart attack about two weeks ago.

"We will create jobs and economic opportunities by attracting visitors into B.C.'s interior and enhancing the Golden-Revelstoke corridor as the Gateway to B.C.," she said. Under the agreement, the City has sold its 69 acres of land on the mountain to RAVI for $2.25 million. McKee said the City was to receive $100,000 when it signed the agreement and it would receive the balance of the money 60 days after the Master Development Agreement was signed. That is expected sometime in January.

"The No. 1 goal of the City, ever since it took over Mount Mackenzie 17 or 18 years ago, has been to get out of the ski hill business," McKee said. And now that it's out, the City will do everything in its power to ensure that the massive ski resort, projected to be the highest in B.C when it is completed later in this century, goes ahead.

"All levels of government - the City, the regional district and the province - are behind this project," McKee said. However, there is still work ahead for City Council. Council must formulate "an amendment to the Official Community Plan to recognize it as an all-season destination resort," he said.It must also agree to expand the municipal boundaries to bring the resort within the city limits, he said.

RAVI Chairman Hunter Milborne was very pleased with the agreement. "British Columbia is probably one of the best places in the world to invest," he said. "We're very pleased and proud to invest here and we promise that we are going to build a resort community Revelstoke can be proud of."