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Corridor’s labour dynamics changing

Does a burgeoning Squamish complicate an already challenging Whistler labour scenario?

For better or worse, a neighbour is a lot like a sibling. There’s an indelible connectivity between neighbours, and, as with siblings, that bond is often experienced in the most intimate of ways, be they hostile, loving or, as is sometimes the norm among fractured families, ostensibly indifferent. Suffice it to say that, in any family, the doings of one member often impact those of another.

Whistler has long been the most successful member of the Sea to Sky family. Ever the A-student, always in the best shape and with the coolest clothes, the resort municipality has typically been viewed as the family jewel. And sometimes a family needs that, especially if that particular jewel operates a huge business and has all kinds of extra work for its less entrepreneurial brothers and sisters.

But autonomy is among the holiest of grails, especially if you happen to be dependent on your siblings for a pay cheque.

In Squamish, autonomy is rising on a number of horizons. According to numbers crunched by the Squamish Sustainability Corporation (SSC), about one third of the town’s 8,300-strong workforce merges onto Highway 99 every Monday to Friday morning. Some are bound for Vancouver, others for Whistler. All are in pursuit of employment responsibilities.

In Whistler, that relationship has registered in a number of corners. According to the Whistler Housing Authority, there are 14,000 jobs in Whistler during the peak winter season. Four thousand of those workers come from outlying communities, be they Squamish, Pemberton or anywhere else not within the resort municipality’s boundaries.

“Locally here, we’re trying to do whatever we can to work with the federal government and immigration on extending foreign worker programs,” says Louise Lundy, president of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce. “And we’re making sure we have our own strategies for housing employees and attracting the best and brightest to Whistler.”

Thing is, a lot of people are interested in the best and brightest, and some of those people make their living behind soon-to-be flesh-magnets in places like Squamish.

The District of Squamish Downtown Neighbourhood Plan (DNP) is the product of people well aware of the town’s commuters, and one of its goals is to create a live, work and play environment.

“The majority of our zoning downtown is three storeys,” says Dave Thomson, business development lead with the SSC. “The first is retail; the second is residential; and the third is residential. The retail portion of the current zoning is quite small, and depending on who you talk to, it’s not big enough.”

And so a utopian downtown Squamish would turn that dynamic on its head. There would be four-storey developments, and therein would be two floors zoned for retail and office.

“We don’t want to be a place for one 500-person company,” Thomson added. “We want to be a place for 50 10-person companies.”

Much of the SSC’s economic development thinking has focused on knowledge-based industries, and, while some of the positions might be filled in the business park, where manufacturing for sports technologies would make sense, others would be ideal candidates for the new downtown, where animation firms might house their neo-office spaces full of yoga balls, gaming centres and young people who like to sip their morning coffees while strolling the storefronts.

Ask Thomson, and he’ll tell you Squamish outpaces Whistler in affordability, especially on the housing front. Ask Lundy, and she’ll tell you Squamish is fast losing that edge.

“When you hear about the price of housing in Squamish,” says Lundy, “it’s not making Whistler look so bad. It’s not as affordable. That’ll be an issue they’ll be challenged with.”

Lundy says Whistler is among North America’s exemplars when it comes to affordable housing. In fact, affordability in general is something the resort community has been making strides in.

Asides from the DNP, there are a few other developments taking shape in Squamish that may impact Whistler’s labour issues. While still largely hypothetical, Garibaldi at Squamish (G@S), the intensely controversial all-seasons resort proposed for the Cat Lake area, promises to create 13,000 direct and 5,000 indirect jobs during construction. After build-out, it guarantees 2,400 jobs.

Up until recently, G@S faced nothing but opposition, from Squamish residents and Whistler leadership alike. However, thanks to some creative courtship from G@S CEO Mike Esler, the Squamish Chamber of Commerce has come onboard, as has Councilor Jeff McKenzie, thus far the only elected representative in Squamish to take an official position. Ultimately, the decision will be a local one: Even if G@S passes all the provincial hurdles, the most likely scenario is for Squamish to expand its boundaries to include Cat Lake, thus triggering a re-zoning process, complete with public hearing.

For her part, Lundy hasn’t devoted too much attention to a project in such nascent stages.

“I think any project that scope and size would be something we would have on our radar,” she says. “On the one hand, it’s great news for the economy, but they have so many issues as it relates to the environment, as well as employment and economic sustainability.”

Perhaps of greater immediate concern would be the announcement of London Drugs moving to Squamish’s Garibaldi Village. While Whistler shut down an application for the same facility, the 30,000-square foot business will still have an impact on the corridor labour spread.

“With Squamish, when they opened Walmart and Home Depot and were able to create more jobs, we felt that,” Lundy says. “At the same time, we want a successful Squamish and a successful Pemberton, as well.”

To that end, jointly pursued initiatives are a part of the family dynamics. Some of those efforts are born from the Community Futures Network, a federal program that seeks to address labour and employment issues in small communities across Canada.

“We’re working with Community Futures in Squamish, as well as the chamber in Pemberton, to meet and develop strategies on how we can, as a corridor, attract more people,” says Lundy.

In the end, Whistler will experience labour issues regardless of development in neighbouring communities — and there are a multitude of initiatives taking shape to address that.

“From Whistler’s perspective,” says Lundy, “we just have to make sure we keep our focus on how we continue to attract and retain our workforce, as well as how we deal with our affordability challenge.”