Marble Mountain doubles down on definition of family pass, after denying rate to single mom

Marble Mountain is standing by its definition of a family pass rate, despite a single mother calling the policy discriminatory after she and her seven-year-old son were told they didn't qualify.

In a Facebook message, theboard of directors for the ski resort referred CBC to its website for a definition of its family season pass. That definition defines a family pass as consisting of a group of three or more members residing at the same residence, with at least one parent, and children under 18 or full-time students.

"The classification of a family pass at Marble Mountain is comparable to various other ski hills in Atlantic Canada," said the statement, which did not have a name attached to the comment.

Dawn Leja of Corner Brook went publicafter she bought the family passes online for her and her son, only for Marble to later tell her purchase didn't qualify for the discount and she would have to spend an extra $150 for the two of them to purchase individual passes for the upcoming ski season. Leja said Marble should reword the rate to call it a group rate, or expand its definition of "family."

• Ski resort in N.L. denies family pass rate to single mom and son

Marble's statement did not address those concerns.

Flexible definitions

The statement cited White Hills in Clarenville, as well as New Brunswick's Crabbe Mountain and Nova Scotia's Ski Wentworth, as offering similar passes.

The family passes at those ski resorts all require at least three members to qualify. But to purchase one adult pass and a child pass atWhite Hills, as Leja sought to do, is cheaper than its bundled family pass. Marble Mountain's pricing system, however, separates individual passes for sale at the family rate.

Further west, large resorts like Quebec's Mont Tremblant and Ontario's Blue Mountain offer only individual passes at various rates, while Mont-Saint-Anne, near Quebec City, offers family passes in a variety of formats, including one adult and one child.

The YMCA in St. John's is also flexible in its definition of a family pass,as including at least one adult and dependant child, with prices discounted based on the number of members.

Marble's statement came after CBCwas initially told the resort had no comment on the matter, as itwas being referred to the provincial government.

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The province owns Marble Mountain and operates it through the Marble Mountain Development Corporation, an entity that originally comprisedcommunity members and civil servants, but since mid-2017 has been operatingsolely underprovincial government staff.

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