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There's got to be a better way - highway closures, P3s, and avalanches

Motorists deserve some signs At 4pm on Saturday afternoon my son and I set off for Vancouver under blue skies and in perfect driving conditions. At about 5:15 p.m.

Motorists deserve some signs

At 4pm on Saturday afternoon my son and I set off for Vancouver under blue skies and in perfect driving conditions. At about 5:15 p.m. we reached an impasse at Furry Creek, only to learn that the highway had been closed all afternoon due to an earlier accident near Lion's Bay. They were hopeful that it would re-open to single-lane, alternating traffic at 7 p.m. (I later heard on the news that it actually re-opened at 9 p.m., over eight hours from the time of closure.)

I was incredulous that our world class resort had no signage whatsoever to alert travelers to this emergency situation, which had been in effect all afternoon. Many hundreds of vehicles headed down the highway in similar oblivion, only to reach the same frustrating end. A simple "Highway Closed" sign at the south end of Whistler would have prompted us to tune into Mountain FM and turn back. Instead, we were among the legions of unsuspecting motorists scrambling to backtrack and find hotel and dinner arrangements in Squamish, a town verily "slammed" by the surprise onslaught.

Basic signage seems like such a simple and obvious solution to what surely is not an uncommon problem on Highway 99, especially in the winter. When I called the Squamish RCMP at about 6 p.m. to express my dismay, I was told without sympathy that they had "no time" to deal with signage. I reminded her that not everyone listens to Mountain FM.

Surely the countless vehicles backed up in both directions only exacerbate a bad situation, and could have so easily been averted. As could the immense frustration, wasted time and fuel, and unexpected overnight costs for so many drivers and their families/friends.

To the powers that be, as our own Olympics are only four years away, please let's not wait till then to bring our emergency highway communications into the 21st century.

Shelley Phelan

Whistler

Keep highway open

While the death of the motorcyclist on the Sea to Sky highway last Saturday was tragic and the cars stretching from Brittania to Horseshoe Bay nothing short of a nightmare, questions need to be asked like why the highway was closed for eight hours and how the situation could have been mitigated.

Why weren’t the cars stopped at Squamish and advised of the situation? As it was, we didn’t learn of the accident until south of Porteau Cove. We then elected to turn around and go back to Squamish (as did others). But what of those driving north on the divided highway with an abutment down the middle? They had no place to turn around and were trapped for hours.

CKWX (News 1130) and the local Squamish station did their best to appraise us of expected opening times, however these varied from 3 p.m. to eventually 8 p.m.

From talking to people along the highway and sharing and food and water with them and their small children, I can only guess at the stress they were suffering. I can’t imagine what would have happened had a medical crisis occurred and someone had become grievously ill. At no time did we see a police car patrolling the road in case of an emergency.

Correct me if I’m wrong but couldn’t one lane have been opened earlier?

I wonder how long the road would have been closed had the Olympics been on.

Norma Butt

Whistler

There is a hot market out there

Does anyone else find it odd that the Resort Municipality of Whistler is paying each of the four short-listed corporations $100,000 each, just to respond to the RFP (Request for Proposal) for Whistler ð s sewage treatment plant? Why has this misappropriation of taxpayer money garnered so little public attention? Even before selecting a contractor, Whistler ð s wastewater treatment plant upgrade has cost Whistler taxpayers over $1 million.

It appears that the B.C. government has adopted a practice of paying an ð honoraria ð to consortiums bidding on P3 projects. For all RFPs, it is clearly stated that the bidder is responsible for covering all the costs incurred in the proposal preparation, presentation, and travel and/or negotiation process. It is not the ð norm ð for contractors to be paid when responding to an RFP or tender. This expense has always been incurred by the bidder ð it ð s the price of doing business.

The 2005 earnings for the four short-listed corporations were as follows:

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Veolia (France) - $25.2 billion

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American Water (RWE AG - Germany) - $2.1 billion

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CH2M Hill (USA) - $3.1 billion (2004)

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EPCOR (Canada) - $86.5 million

As Brian Barnett, RMOW Director of Public Works claimed during last week's heated council meeting, it’s a hot market.

Surely these companies should be banging on Whistler ð s door for its business (and fresh water), not the other way around. Based on these corporations ð lavish earnings, these large multinationals should be able to cover their own costs for putting together a proposal.

As taxpayers of this town, do you not question why these practices are going on underneath our noses? It's truly ridiculous.

The contract that the RMOW is undertaking for our sewage treatment plant will be granted to one of these corporations, who will then operate our wastewater management for the next 20 years. Where is that petition? I need my children to sign it.

Sonya McCarthy

Whistler

On privatization…

The general public or any politician cannot be against the privatization of public water but for the privatization of sewage. They are the same thing. There is no difference between the privatization of the water system which transfers water from the environment to your home and the privatization of the sewage system which transfers water from your home to the environment. Both are integral parts of a single cyclic system and cannot exist independently. So now that one part of the system has been privatized there is no longer any argument for the second part to remain in public hands.

My only question here is whether it will be Aquafina pouring from our faucets and Dasani going down the toilet or will it be the other way around?

Bjorn Gimse

Victoria

Re: Some points clarified regarding the January 14 avalanche in West Bowl

Mr. Leighton's attempt to clarify what happened on January 14 when a skier was seriously injured by an in-bounds avalanche only brings up more troubling questions about why Intrawest tried to downplay this incident after it occurred, and did not use it to further avalanche awareness.

The Canadian Avalanche Association states that a Class 2 avalanche involves one that runs 100 metres, has 100 tonnes of snow, and is big enough to cause injury or death. We know this slide caused serious injury, so what "facts of the investigation" did Intrawest use to justify calling it only a Class 1.5, instead of a Class 2 avalanche? The CAA also suggests that multiple avalanches should be grouped – in this case, witnesses reported that four avalanches occurred, not just the one that caused injury, and so the recorded size should be adjusted accordingly.

When Mr. Leighton claims that this incident "was investigated at length and witness information has been gathered and verified" and that "all parties involved learned from this incident", it makes me wonder why this information has not been released to the public so that we can all learn from this unfortunate incident.

Perhaps they could start by releasing the Avalanche Involvement Form required by the CAA, a form intended to "draw attention to avalanche dangers and assist in the development of safety measures".

Robert Moysychyn

Burnaby

Thanks and sorry

The Whistler Arts Council presented a Cultural Cabaret on Sunday, February 12 at Millennium Place as part of the 4 th annual CELEBRATION 2010™: Whistler Arts Festival.

The event featured several performing groups from the Sea to Sky Corridor and Lower Mainland in an evening of dance, music and comedy. 

To the significant surprise and dismay of the Whistler Arts Council, one of our invited performing groups chose this particular event to make negative comments about the Olympic movement and about Whistler and visitors to the community.

I would like to apologize to the audience members who joined us expecting an evening that celebrates the relationship between sports, arts and culture in Whistler and to the other entertainers whose wonderful performances were tarnished by the behaviour of one act.

On behalf of the Whistler Arts Council Board of Directors and staff, I sincerely apologize to our invited guests who have been so supportive over the years, to VANOC and to the community members who have worked so very hard to bring the 2010 Olympic Winter & Paralympic Games to Whistler. We appreciate your continued support and sincerely hope that you enjoy the fine line-up of artists contributing to this year's Celebration 2010. 

Doti Niedermayer

Executive Director, Whistler Arts Council

Thanks from Harley and Ian

This is a letter of thanks to the citizens of Whistler.

On Wednesday, Feb. 1 at around 11 a.m., my dog Harley, a smallish 7-year-old black Labrador retriever with a red collar, vanished up a pathway from the Valley Trail near Buckhorn and Alta Lake Road, presumably following the scent of an attractive female.

After searching for several hours I reported the loss to WAG and continued looking. I received two calls from a bylaw officer about a dog fitting Harley's description being seen in White Gold, Brio and crossing the highway at various points. I looked for him in all those areas without success. My daughter-in-law aided in the search, also without success. We finally gave up at about 6 p.m., resigning ourselves to the worst as the snowstorm which began in the late afternoon intensified.

I have since heard from several people who saw Harley that evening on the Highway – with cars stopped and people trying to shepherd him out of harm’s way. Harley and I thank all of you for your care and help.

There is a happy ending. At 4 a.m. Thursday morning Harley was found howling outside my sister-in-law's condo in Alta Vista – a place Harley had only visited once or twice years ago. My sister-in-law does have two dogs who Harley knows well from walks and visits elsewhere. Harley was looking very thin and soggy so he was hard to recognize. Luckily he was given a bed and is fine. I discovered his rescue Thursday morning with a call from my sister-in-law who confirmed his identification from a rabies tag from Collingwood Ontario.

Thank you again to all of you who helped.

Ian Hamilton

Youth Forum a success

Recently the communities of Pemberton and Mt. Currie hosted a successful Youth Forum. Over 60 youth spent their weekend at YOUth Decide participating in cultural activities, sharing of information and resources, and providing comments to better involve the youth of our communities. On behalf of those who participated in the weekend event, I look forward to presenting the information to Council Members from the Village of Pemberton and the Mt. Currie Band.

The Video/Screen Dance was an overwhelming success, over 200 youth joined in on the fun.

Thanks to so many people; Community Futures for the financial support, the Village of Pemberton, Mt. Currie Band, Mike Peters, Ian Tyson, Karen Love, Holly Overgaard, Whitecap Team Members: Martina Franko and Geordie Lyall, and The Pemberton Valley Lodge. A big, giant thanks to the Forum Committee Members; Kelby, Alex, Yelarah, Geoff and Margaret, all your hard work paid off, congratulations. To Chris of Stardust Sounds, thanks for a FUNtastic dance, can’t wait to have you back! To the Pemberton Fire Department for chaperoning the evening and to Geoff, Shayne and Laurel who lent helping hands throughout the entire Forum.

To the youth who participated in the Forum, thank you and remember the ‘power’ is within you.

Stephanie Coughlin

Youth Forum, YOUth Decide, Coordinator

Where will it end?

I'm sick of traditionalist skiers blaming everything on "hooligan" snowboarders. It's self-righteous attitudes like yours that give snowboarding a bad name.

Last season I was sitting in a clearly visible spot, on the side of a run adjusting my binding when a skier plowed into me. He didn't even bother checking whether I was alright or not. I wasn't. Ended up with a fractured rib and a concussion.

The point I'm trying to make is that an a**hole is a**hole despite what's strapped to his or her feet on the slopes.

Snowboarding is a respectable sport just like skiing is. What needs to end is the silly rivalry that exists between the two. There's plenty of room for everyone... even snow-bladers.

Victor Lezu

I was thinking about energy and sustainability the other day. I guess it was US President George Bush saying that America was addicted to foreign oil during the recent American State of the Union address that did it. Here are a few crazy ideas.

As well as following American politics, one of my hobbies is running financial equations, and here’s something to think about. For the last three years, the United States has been spending approximately $150 billion a year for the occupation of Iraq.

I got to wondering about how many electric or hybrid cars you could buy with that. Figuring a rough total of $30,000 US (probably low, but I figure you could get a bulk discount) per car, you could buy approximately five million hybrid cars for each year of the Iraq occupation, and simply give them away to anybody who could bring in a car that gets less than 20 m.p.g. I wonder what that would do to America’s reliance on foreign oil.

The other thing I was wondering about is how hard would it be to have my own electrical generation system in my house. I have a deck on the south side of my house that gets so hot in the summer that you can’t walk on it between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. I’d love to be able to cover it in solar panels and use that energy to run my fridge or something.

Right now, solar panels are basically an unchanged design in use since the 1970s, and built by hand in small localized factories. As a result, they’re very expensive and not very efficient. Think of where the cell phone industry would be if they were still using 1989 technology. Some day I’d love to be able go down to Home Depot and get a 4x8 sheet of solar panel (or a small windmill, or a personal sized run of the stream generator, etc) and plug it into my power meter.

I wonder what’s going to happen in 50 years or so when we finally do run out of oil and people start trying to run their HUMMERS on electricity. There’s going to be such a demand for power that there won’t be a river in BC without a power plant on it.

David Buzzard

Whistler

 

 

 

 

In your article on new people entering the Whistler community, Jamie Kramer comments "You need to get a job where you are working with a big crew of people – that's where you build your base from. You don't want a job in some retail shop where you're there by yourself all day."

Having run Whistler Hemp Company for the last 6 years, I was initially upset with this comment. It seemed to slight the small businesses that need hard-working staff as much as the bigger companies in town, as well as suggesting that people that work in a smaller staffed environment can’t make friends.

However, upon reflection, it made some sense to me. When I first came to town I began work at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Now, if you want to make great friends, this is the place to do it! In the winter they have over 100 staff on the go and you meet tons of great people who all know many others working in other places in town (including retail!).

I would agree to a degree that if you were totally brand new to town, it is potentially harder to meet friends if you only have one or two others you work with, but hardly impossible with all that goes on in Whistler.

That said, it made me think that perhaps the Chamber of Commerce could get involved with this. Target the many retail shops in town, coffee shops and other small businesses that are a large part of the community make-up and have a social mixer at the beginning of the season for everyone to network and make friends. Perhaps hold them once or twice a month from October until December, giving new people a firm footing in town. It would be very inexpensive to possibly free and would give people working in smaller operations a great opportunity to meet new people and set them off on the right foot.

Peter Skeels

Whistler, BC