The mission of the Canadian Ski Council (CSC) is to grow participation in recreational snow sports across Canada.  With your support, the CSC executes development programs to create awareness, generate interest and convert Canadians into snow sport enthusiasts. 

Your continued support of these Canada wide programs produces more new skiers and snowboarders and strengthens our industry.  

Together we have taken strong steps towards fulfilling the goal of introducing 1 million additional Canadians to skiing and snowboarding over the next 5 years.  Despite the shortened season, we have many successes to build on for the coming seasons.   

This past year has been the most challenging in memory.  The pandemic created a ripple of uncertainty throughout our industry.  These past few months have also made us proud to be a part of an industry that has pulled together in a genuine spirit of collaboration and community support. We have embraced our opportunity to adapt, change and move forward with new business models that support our guests’ needs for both safety and enjoyment.   The CSC is no different from Canada’s ski areas.  We have used the time afforded to us to adapt to the new realities of operating in what may be a capacity limited, social distanced winter.  

For the coming season, we have taken numerous steps to upgrade our programs to make them faster and safer to redeem. These changes include; 

Number 1:  We have gone cardless for both the Grade 4 & 5 SnowPass and the Canadian Lift Pass programs!   

• Confirmations for the CSC products will be able to be scanned (from paper or smartphone) via a barcode reader which will facilitate a reduction in interaction time between the guest and ticket seller.  
• For resorts with the need to integrate with a POS system, we have created API’s so you can scan barcodes directly into your system. 

Number 2:  Visits made using CSC products will need to be pre-booked prior to the day of use.  

• Pre-booking will ensure that we know who is visiting any ski area should contact tracing be required this winter.   
• In keeping with the need to manage capacity on site, ski areas will be able to set a maximum number of visits available to each of these programs by the day.  

Please review the changes to each of our major programs below:

Grade 4 & 5 SnowPass

The Grade 4 & 5 SnowPass program continues to be one of the best programs to help create lifetime skiers and snowboarders. 

• 35,256 Grade 4 & 5 SnowPass active passholders  
• 2.3 Average visits per passholder 
• 40% Of SnowPass Users Are Beginners or First Timers 
• 24,189 SnowPass holders are First Timers or Beginners 

For the 2020-21 season, each SnowPass user will have access to two ( 2) free visits at each participating ski area over the two years.  Ski areas can still decide on Adult Accompaniment.  We continue to recommend selecting “adult on-site required” (as opposed to “full paying adult required”) to help improve the success of the program in attracting new Canadians. 

Changes for 2020/21 include:

• Removing all standardized and optional blackout dates.  Instead you will set  the capacity limits to control the number of users permitted each day.
• SnowPass users will be required to pre-book their visit in advance.
• The program delivery is now cardless to limit interaction time between guests and staff.  

Never Ever Days

Never Ever Days is the ultimate program to introduce beginners to skiing and snowboarding.  The program is designed to remove all the barriers, identified through our research, that discourages people from trying snow sports.   

Never Ever Days is our best program to find new participants and nurture them into skiers and snowboarders with comeback offers. 

Key stats: 

• Over 36% of participants are under the age of 18
• Over 60% are visible minorities 
• 56% are female 
• Over 90% are very likely or extremely likely to go again because of their Never Ever Days experience 
• Over 50% have never participated in skiing, snowboarding or cross-country skiing, while 19% had lapsed for 4 or more years

At this time, it is uncertain if we will be able to offer the Never Ever Days program for the 2020-21 season.  However, we are preparing as normal so should the opportunity arrive, we are ready to go. 

Please indicate your interest in holding one or more Never Ever Days experiences should the opportunity arrive. 

Little Riders

Little Riders is an important link in developing our future snow sports participants.  This program is delivered in conjunction with Canada Snowboard in seven provinces across the country.  Teams of instructors visit schools with primary aged kids to deliver a gym program aimed at teaching the fundamentals of sliding, all in a fun environment.

At this time, we do not know if we will be able to offer the Little Riders program for the 2020-21 season.  However, we are preparing as normal so should the opportunity arrive, we are ready to go. 

In order to participate in the follow up lesson, your ski area should indicate that it is willing to deliver Never Ever Days  lessons in the 6-8 age range.  That is all that is required to sign up and welcome a Little Rider to your ski area for the follow up on snow session.

Canadian Lift Pass

The Canadian Lift Pass program will continue for one more year.  The purpose of this program is to fund the skier development programs and research studies at no additional costs to the resorts.  For that reason, we ask all resorts to participate.   

The program allows customers to purchase discounted lift tickets in bulk prior to the season, which can be used at ski areas across Canada. Program highlights include; 

• Tickets are sold in the early fall  at an approximately 30% discount from window pricing
• The CSC will pay the resort 60% of the value of the tickets that are redeemed 
• Payment of the funds will occur in April of 2021 

Changes for 2020/21 include:

• Removing all standardized and optional blackout dates.  Instead you will set  the capacity limits to control the number of users permitted each day.
• CLP users will be required to pre-book their visit in advance.
• The program delivery is now cardless to limit interaction time between guests and staff.  

To help us properly allocate your ski area into the correct ticket category, please be prepared to select your anticipated regular full-day (8 hour) alpine lift ticket for the  2020/21 season and whether your ski area also offers cross country skiing options and would like to jointly participate in that ticket category. 

Go Skiing Go Snowboarding

The Go Skiing Go Snowboarding marketing program for Winter 2020 was a success.  The goal of this program is to provide “how to” information and an incentive for people who are interested, but unaware of how to start skiing or snowboarding.

Last season the program added testimonial videos and first timer resort content aimed at making our offer more inclusive for Canadians, especially persons of colour.

For the coming winter, the CSC is planning to expand the Go Skiing Go Snowboarding marketing program.   

• The CSC is planning to expand the Go Skiing marketing program to include the opportunity to create a joint national and provincial campaign to drive skier visits.  The plan is to use media in each province to generate visits to specific provincial landing pages built into goskiinggosnowboarding.ca.   
• These provincial pages will be a hub for content that is specific to ski areas in the province and can include deals, events, offers and social content.   
• We hope to further expand this effort by partnering with resorts and government to access recovery funding for tourism, recreation and health. 

Please read through the information above to make an informed decision to continue your support of the Canadian Ski Council and our efforts to reach potential new skiers and snowboarders. 

Lastly, just a quick reminder to look at your email for your resort specific or national statistics from the 2019/20 season to assist you in setting capacity limits for the Grade 4 & 5 SnowPass program and Canadian Lift Pass program.

See you on the slopes!