A B.C. business delegation is in France to promote Jumbo Glacier Resort — a controversial year-round ski resort west of Invermere.

The project would see a 16-hectare ski resort developed on an abandoned sawmill site. Developers say the resort would eventually expand to the size of the Lake Louise ski area and resort.

The resort has been stalled for decades; it still does not have the final zoning approval it needs from the province for developers to begin construction.

MLA Bill Bennett is one of the project's big supporters. He said he is paying his own way to Paris, but he's not just there to talk about Jumbo.

"I'm not going to promote Jumbo Glacier Resort, I'm going to promote British Columbia. I'm going to talk to a very large, successful, French ski resort company that is thinking about investing in my province and and creating jobs in two areas of the province that could really use those job. That's why I'm going," said Bennett.

Bennett says the company is interested in Jumbo, but also a similar project in the Valemont area, and plans to make a trip to see the sites in-person later this year.

With files from the CBC's Bob Keating