The McLean family makes major gift to BC Conservation Fund: "It's not too late to do this right"

When the McLean family sold its interests in Blackcomb Helicopters and Tyax Adventures, they knew they wanted to do something meaningful with a portion of the proceeds.

For more than two decades, the businesses had operated in and around some of British Columbia's most spectacular landscapes. Through heli-skiing, heli-hiking, sightseeing flights, wilderness lodges, and backcountry adventures, their success was closely tied to the parks, protected areas, and wild places that draw people to BC from around the world.

"We felt that we ought to give something back to this sector that supported our business over 20-plus years," says Jason McLean, CEO of the McLean Group.

That thinking led the McLean family to support the BC Conservation Fund, a BC Parks Foundation initiative that combines private donations and provincial funding to support conservation projects across British Columbia.

The opportunity to have their contribution matched by the Province of BC was a significant factor.

"Wherever you find matching opportunities that are fairly broad, this makes a big difference to advancing the mandate," Jason says. "It'll be doubled, and that is just fantastic efficiency."

Before law school and before joining the family business, Jason wanted to be a mountaineering instructor.

He travelled to Everest Base Camp as part of an expedition removing garbage from the mountain. Later, he spent nearly five weeks climbing Denali. During one storm, pinned down high on the mountain with severe weather closing in around his team, he found himself confronting a difficult question: "Is this how I would like to go?"

"The answer was a definite no," he says today.

But the mountains remain a central part of his life, now alongside his wife and children.

Jason and his wife are avid ski tourers. They and their two young kids spend a lot of time near Gun Lake, adjacent to South Chilcotin Mountains Park. One of his favourite memories is a nine-day trip through northern Canada with his daughter Lucy. The pair camped under a rooftop tent, hiked through treeless mountains, and watched caribou wander close enough that Jason found himself reassuring Lucy that the curious animals weren't actually interested in eating them.

"Spending time outdoors has always been about a connection with the infinite,” Jason says. “It's a connection with the natural, it's a connection with the earth, it's a connection with God, however you define that. I come back really recharged and with a much better perspective on what's important."

Those same landscapes also shaped the family's businesses.

Through Tyax Adventures, the McLeans helped people access remote corners of the South Chilcotin Mountains. Through Blackcomb Helicopters, they worked throughout the Sea-to-Sky corridor and beyond. Their businesses operated on provincial tenures and park-use permits, often in places where outdoor recreation and conservation existed side by side.

"It was really significant to us and our success to have access to wild places, to be able to bring customers into these places and run excursions and do these incredible things."

The McLean family's connection to conservation stretches back decades.

Jason's father, David McLean, served on the board of Wetlands America Trust, an organization affiliated with Ducks Unlimited. What has always fascinated Jason is how Ducks Unlimited began.

"It started with a group of hunters in enlightened self-interest," he says. "If we don't preserve wetlands and get the regulators to work together, there won't be any ducks for us eventually."

The story reflects something Jason thinks about often: time horizons.

"Canada is still in a window where it's not too late to do this right," he says. "In business, we like to think we're very long-term thinkers, but we're probably five- to 10-year thinkers. Preserving landscapes is a longer time scale."

He compares parks and protected areas to a balance sheet built over generations.

"If you can get through the fight to have a great system of parks and protected areas, that will yield great benefits for the future."

"I see parks as being an underpinning of both a rich and diverse ecosystem, and I also see it as helping Canada be successful in the world as a treasured part of our national balance sheet."

Jason attributes his approach to philanthropy directly to his parents.

"I grew up in a family where giving was mandatory and expected and highly valued," he says. "In fact, it was a part of our work."

Today, he hopes the next generation of the family will learn those same values by participating directly in philanthropic decisions.

He talks excitedly about bringing younger family members to the table, hearing different perspectives, and working together to decide where they can make the greatest difference.

"It's a really good place for kids to see us work together and figure that stuff out."

And despite the weight of those decisions, he says there is joy in the process.

"Giving money away in an intentional, proactive, responsive way is actually really fun! And really rewarding."

Asked what his father would think of the family's support for the BC Conservation Fund, Jason doesn't hesitate.

"He would be delighted."

After a pause, he adds:

"He'd say, 'Well done, but as expected.'"

If you're like the McLean family and you believe it's not too late to do this right, you can help protect the places that will shape generations to come. Learn more about the BC Conservation Fund and make your matched gift today.