The Jennifer Jones Whistler Bear Foundation will receive the balance of more than $13,000 in the municipality's Whistler Bear Fund. Jones, a former sales manager at the Delta Whistler Resort, was killed in a car accident on Highway 99 in December. The Delta, which provided the municipality with $5,000 to kick-start the bear fund last summer, launched a non-profit foundation in Jones's name at a tribute to her last month. Jones had a keen interest in the preservation of bears. The bear fund is used to tranquillise and relocate bears that become habituated to garbage or wander into the village and would otherwise be destroyed. Getting cool ones in the Creek Hoz's Pub could soon be the new site of the southernmost Cold Beer and Wine store in the Whistler Valley. The proposal is in the public input stage and Creekside residents who live within .8 of a kilometre from the Whistler Resort and Club on Lake Placid Road have until March 30 to submit comments to the province's senior liquor inspector. Owner Ron Hosner has made the application to sell cold beer and wine in the remodelled lobby area of Hoz's Pub — word has it an intricate conveyor system will transport wine from Hoz's well-stocked wine cellar to the store. The hours for the store would be 9 a.m to 11 p.m. seven days a week. The new facility will expand the cold beer and wine stores in the valley to three — the first two are at the Glacier Lodge and the other at The Boot Pub. Recalling recall When the NDP government passed B.C.'s first recall legislation, they hampered the future of direct democracy in the province according to West Vancouver-Garibaldi independent MLA David Mitchell. Mitchell, long a champion of direct democracy, has initiated his own Private Member's Bill on initiative and recall. But the one written by the NDP is watered down and almost useless, he says. "This law is not a step toward direct democracy, it is a step backwards," Mitchell says. The law is useless, he says, because it requires 40 per cent of constituents to sign a recall petition — all within a 60 day time frame. If direct democracy is to be served in B.C. Mitchell says, the recall law will have to be rewritten to create some realistic parameters for constituents to recall their elected representatives. Train service back on track Cleanup of a BC Rail freight train, which derailed north of Whistler along the Soo River, should be complete this weekend. The train derailed early Monday morning 16 kilometres south of Pemberton at Mile 86.6. Pemberton is Mile 95.8. The line was re-opened Tuesday night. According to Hilary Thomson, senior communications officer with BC Rail, the cause of the 19-car derailment is still under investigation. The accident forced the closure of the rail line and passengers scheduled to travel on southbound trains were bussed from Lillooet to Vancouver. Seven cars went down a steep 20-metre embankment in the derailment and two ended up on the banks of the Soo River. The 87-car train, loaded with lumber products, was not carrying any chemicals or hazardous products, according to Thomson. "About 100 sheets of waferboard landed in the river," says Thomson. No injuries were reported from the three person crew.
