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Letters to the Editor for the week of August 2nd, 2012

Hitting in the cleanup spot...
opinion_letters1

I have followed with interest the asphalt plant saga over the last several months. It seems to me that this is an issue between neighbours and could have been settled long ago if there had have been a little more flexibility on the part of Mr. Silveri. He knows his neighbours don't like his plant operating nearby and he played hardball with them, going right to the Supreme Court of B.C. to got legal approval to operate where his plant sits.

It is my understanding that the plant is portable and that there is another location north of Whistler that is available to operate the plant. If I am not mistaken, the municipality was willing to assist with the costs of relocation. But with the court decision, Mr Silveri has hardened his stance and plans to operate at the present location.

Now the municipality has put a condition on the tendering process for asphalt used for Whistler that says it must come from outside of the Whistler boundary, which means that Whistler Aggregates does not qualify. Even though Whistler Aggregates has won the contract, the asphalt must come from their Squamish plant. Mayor Nancy Wilhelm Morden says this is acceptable business practice and prefers to purchase asphalt that's not manufactured next to a neighbourhood. Touche!

Did Mr Silveri not expect a little blowback from this community? He is naive if he didn't.A little advice to Mr Silveri about playing hardball: if you are going to pitch, you should learn how to catch.

Terry SpenceTapley's Farm

Is anybody keeping count?

I generally abhor this kind of sensationalist, attention grabbing kind of introduction. However, my several previous letters, thoughtfully articulating the issue and my reasoning have not resulted in any action. I am of course referring to the most recent serious, crossing-the-centerline, collision which took place north of Brandywine on July 19. Once again members of my immediate family were in the lineup and one must think of "there but for the grace of God" etc.

Since my last letter, at least three major accidents of this kind have taken place, all resulting in deaths or serious injuries. These can no longer be classified as accidents. They are as predictable as the rising of the sun. Those of us traveling this road frequently are surely in a lottery with no good possible outcome. I must repeat, no amount of care, enforcement or anything else will protect the innocent traveller from the intoxicated, the asleep or the inattentive who cross the centreline unexpectedly!

The one solution we know will work is median dividers. We also know that there are issues around these but there are also solutions. I submit, once again, that it is past time that we seriously consider and implement these solutions. Failing that, we can predict that, not long from now, I will again have to write some variation of this letter. Can we not do better?

Eric Mitterndorfer

Whistler

Whistler re-discovered

Like most people in the Lower Mainland, I have a long history of visiting Whistler. It was the place to party in my 20s; a place where I worked briefly (doing demos for a meat company at Nesters), dated a local (even briefer). As a young mother I brought my sons here and more recently it has been a getaway for my husband and I.

Over the years I have fallen in and out of love with the place. Early on it seemed a great and exciting place where locals shared the wonders of the landscape and the infrastructure which supports it with us visitors. We mixed with locals and felt at home and welcome.

Then, for a time in the early 2000s, I started to hate Whistler. On two weekend visits, one in winter and one in summer, I felt more like I was visiting Las Vegas or some other American tourist trap. All that was wanted was my money. The other people here were rich and snotty and entitled (or so it seemed at the time — a fellow beside us one night was talking about buying several homes and then "dumping them" as get rich quick investments). Everything cost too much and my husband, who smokes, was made to feel like a leper rather than as a person making a bad personal choice. We only interacted with shop workers, most of whom seemed to be waiting for closing time so they could party. After our last visit, we vowed not to come back.

Well, circumstances brought us here again last weekend (a free night at the Crystal Lodge) and are we ever glad! We are back in love with Whistler again. The prices seemed more reasonable, the staff at the restaurants and shops were kind and interested and locals seemed to be mixing with the tourists. There were the usual weekend partiers, but we saw far more families and older couples than ever before. This is Whistler at its best. A place where the average person can go and mix with those who live here all year around. A place where children go to school and parents can make a living. That is why I was so heartened to read the story of the Richardsons (Living on Easy Street by Michel Beaudry) who, although they didn't have it easy, stuck it out, raised their family and are still a fixture in town.

The Pique itself is a bastion of hope for the future of Whistler. I expected it to be a tourist-centred rag full of escort services and surface news to entertain the party going crowd. While it has those elements (what paper doesn't?) it was full of insightful and thought-provoking articles (such as It's just a game) and features on locals such as the Richardsons. We will definitely be back in Whistler and hope the road it is on now is the one it continues to follow.

Jennifer Thuncher

Burnaby

Questions about questions

This letter was addressed to MP John Weston, MP Randy Kamp, Sue Farlinger and Dan Cody of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. A copy was forwarded to Pique for publication.

Thank you for time to meet in Squamish this past Tuesday at Totem Hall. We feel this was a valuable preliminary meeting to begin a consultative process. We look forward to a second and further meetings, as indicated by the Parliamentary Secretary Kamp. We think it's important however to recognize that this was a preliminary meeting — as structured and with the limited time available, it was not possible to respond to 10 questions without at least a week's advance notice to digest the material.

With respect to the document "Understanding the Amended Fisheries Act: Questions for Consideration" you requested input from our group specifically to address the Regulations that derive their authority from the Act. In order to effectively provide input on the 10 questions asked we need to know:

• Can you provide a clear timeline set out in advance that allows for reasonable periods of time to review and consult on the process and content?

• Who drafted these questions and which office is going to receive the answer to the questions?

• What assurance do we have that our input will be given serious consideration?

• What would be reviewed under the old Fisheries Act that won't be reviewed under the new?

• What scientific analysis will be made before the regulations are finalized? Will that analysis include scientists outside the Department of Fisheries and Oceans?

• How will the new regulations integrate the Wild Salmon Policy and take into account the forth coming results of the Cohen Commission?

• What assurance can we be given that with a 33 per cent cut to DFO Habitat staff and closure of five DFO offices in the province of British Columbia on key Salmonids habitat areas the new Fisheries Protection Program will be effective?

• What assurance is there that the traditional "precautionary principle" will be applied under the new act, given that the new emphasis appears to be more on "fish kill", rather than the broader traditional, more protective "habitat."

We very much appreciate John Weston's continuing efforts to have community meetings relating to fisheries and habitat issues. We look forward to your prompt response on these questions.

On Behalf of Sea to Sky Fisheries Roundtable Group

Honorable John Fraser

Randall W Lewis, Squamish First Nation

Dave Brown, Vice-Chair Squamish to Lillooet Sportfish Advisory Committee

Giving away the store

There is nothing more to think about as to what the B.C. government thinks about on the Enbridge pipeline. There was never any doubt they wanted it. First of all, they never said no. They were only waiting for an opportunity or an excuse to say yes since it was obvious that most of the affected (B.C. residents) were clearly against it. Now our premier has said yes, if I get my way. She thinks getting a pay-off will make people feel good. She also said it would be good to take care of the environment. Everybody knows a pipeline to the coast is not a safeguard.

What would be good is not to ship any of our oil outside of Canada. We have enough for all our needs and we need to keep it here, refine it here and use it here. There would be no need to import expensive oil. We would be outside the world price arrangement, eliminating the expense of a hazardous pipeline and shipping. New refining would create many permanent jobs.

Why all governments aren't clamoring for this enhancement of Canadian industry is beyond understanding. Giving away the store seems to be what our governments do. More new refining ability has long been needed here. Why do we not recognize our country as one country instead of many half-cobbled together, each with its own set of rules and indifferent to others?

Terry Smith

Garibaldi Highlands

Dog could have choked to death

On the evening of Saturday, July 28th I was enjoying a nice relaxing evening at the dog park along with a group of people eating a picnic at one of the benches. I saw the group leave the bench, pack up their picnic and head for the parking lot — then they stopped and looked back at the bench as if they had forgotten something.

What they had realized they had forgotten, and were too lazy to go back and dispose of, was a whole (still warm) chicken carcass! My dog thought he had hit the jackpot, running around triumphantly with the whole carcass in his mouth. To my horror, as I tried to take it from him, the spine snapped off and quickly disappeared down his throat.

Micah has not had any ill effects of what he swallowed... yet. However it has only been 30 minutes (as I write this) and he is a puppy, I only hope he does not try to bring it back up in the night and choke!

Despite the title of this letter a dog did not die, thankfully. I just hope it grabs the attention of the group who were in the park and makes them painfully aware of what could happen as a result of their careless actions.

Pack out what you pack in people, please — especially in the dog park.

Vicky Farrand

Whistler

Bridging drunken waters

Well it seems I have stirred the pot with my letter two weeks ago about being pestered by the cops in even the most private of nature's locations, and touched on a much more sensitive subject than I had initially thought. A lot of the responses made sense, and some were just downright not worth my time to respond to... But what's the fun in that? So, here we go:

Drinking in public is illegal, no doubt. What shouldn't be illegal is to have the freedom to go into the woods, or on a river in my native country of Canada and have a few beers.

I haven't noticed a massive abundance of litter on the river, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I totally agree we should all do our best too keep the river clean. Littering is never cool, especially in nature. Maybe the cops should give out more tickets for that.

We need to figure out a way we can all get along and share the river. Both drunk locals and tourists. Last time I checked, locals drinking and being rowdy is nothing new in Whistler. This is part of life in Whistler. I don't seem to ever remember tourists paying my bills or my rent for me, but I do remember a bunch of Aussies running the chairlift for me before they go home and pay absurd amounts of rent while sleeping 15 in a room stacked like jenga blocks. Tourists visit and put a lot of money into the town. But the town is run by locals! We live here, tourists don't. To deny us our leisure time by threatening to fine us for stupid things like having a beer or not having a rope on our boat is ludicrous. We're allowed to have fun on the river too. Not just the tourists.

I'm sure we can all share and exist together on the nut-shrinking current of the great golden river. We are Canadian after all aren't we?

Jonny Fleet

Whistler

Bioblitz a success

The sixth annual Whistler BioBlitz at Alpha Lake Park was a huge success, thanks to great weather and enthusiastic scientists and participants. It was a great opportunity to see (and handle!) live critters like garter snakes and alligator lizards, check out carnivorous plants and truffles, and learn about bats and owls.

Preliminary results show about 600 species in total counted over the 24-hour event, of which about 50 are new records in Whistler.

The Whistler Naturalists would like to send thanks to: the scientists who volunteered their time, everyone who came out to the public events, the volunteers who helped put on the event, Community Foundation of Whistler, Whistler Blackcomb Foundation Environment Fund, RMOW, Whistler Biodiversity Project, AWARE, Creekside Market, Legends Hotel, Dusty's, Whistler Blackcomb, Creekbread, Nesters Market, Riverside Café, ZipTrek, Whistler Eco-Tours, Sea to Sky Invasive Species Council, The Adventure Group, Avalanche Pizza, Whistler Museum, Squamish River Watershed Society, Whistler Question, Whistler Golf Club and Nicklaus North Golf Club.

Kristina Swerhun and Bob Brett

On behalf of the Whistler Naturalists