Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Letters to the editor for the week of May 5

After hours licences valuable In regards to GD Maxwell's rant ( Pique, April 28): "When money talks in Tiny Town," respectfully, GD is asking the wrong questions, and his article leaves me wondering how a licence extension is even an issue? Here is s
opinion_letters1-1-b9c831ed2da93561
File photo by Dave Humphreys courtesy of WSSF

After hours licences valuable

In regards to GD Maxwell's rant (Pique, April 28): "When money talks in Tiny Town," respectfully, GD is asking the wrong questions, and his article leaves me wondering how a licence extension is even an issue?

Here is some background to the current municipal policy regarding licence extensions past 2 a.m., which now require "benefit to resort community" (not "extraordinary benefits to the community" as GD writes): Municipal staff presented council with a draft policy for licence extensions in 2011 that was neither requested nor solicited. It outlined a variety of conditions that were required to be met by businesses that wanted to extend their licences past the 2 a.m. mark.

It started with, "The Municipality does not support extensions of closing hours past 2:00 am...."

Previous to this draft policy, any application was considered on equal ground to those such as The End party of World Ski and Snowboard Festival, as any level playing field for businesses should.

However, this new policy now exempts these large-profile festival activations carte blanche and leaves small business operators with little recourse to level the field.

Flash to the present, I am wondering how anyone with a soapbox as high as GD's thinks Maxx Fish's application approval is negative and requires "council to look the other way?"

It certainly has nothing to do with zoning, as much as he tries to bridge that gap. In B.C. it is entirely legal to serve alcohol until 4 a.m., with approvals being up to the residing jurisdiction.

In this case, it is easy to discern that film producers having a wedding and a successful and legal after party can bring a positive exposure to Whistler. Unless we only want Après Ski filmed here year after year (as entertaining as it is).

Instead GD should be asking how The End party is allowed to be held year after year, and yet the nightclub sector cannot extend their hours on the same night and actually suffer on what used to be one of the busiest nights of their year?

 Brenton Smith

General Manager | O&R Entertainment

Rail service has its place

The loss of rail passenger service is also the loss of a lot of other services that went along with the passenger trains (Pique, April 28).

The B.C. government says low ridership and high maintenance costs make return to passenger service unpractical. At the same time, Less Than Carload was stopped, putting more trucks on the roads adding costs to highway maintenance and higher profits to the railways with their Only Carload service.

All governments preached the myth that private does it better and gave away the two government-owned railways. It is not cost effective, as they say, to eliminate service.

Buses aren't good enough and don't give even remotely what the Pacific Great Eastern railway (BC Rail pre 1972) did from Vancouver to Fort St. John.

We are now reminded once again in another story in the latest Pique about how defending the railway's private property was such a big thing because it is private, emphasizing that trespassing is illegal and they are looking out for your safety.

For many years, when we the people owned it, people commonly walked along the right of way as normal with no complaint from management.

Terry Smith

Squamish

Destruction vs. construction

This past week, construction began on a house next to where I live with my wife in an apartment rental in Pemberton.

We live in the basement of a house, and only have one entrance to our unit.

Now, I say the word construction, but it is really destruction because they are removing a large rock formation first with some kind of drilling machine I've never seen before — although I am hairstylist by trade and write poetry as a hobby, so I'm obviously not familiar with large machines.

To make a long story short, rocks that were chipped into little daggers began flying at my unit as they drilled, which scared me, not for my own safety, but for the safety of my wife.

When I went outside and presented the construction workers with the dagger-like evidence strewn across the walkway, and told them how I was concerned for the safety of my wife, one of them just turned his back to me and walked away. The other construction/destruction guy told me to, and I quote, "Watch my mouth."

What in the world kind of attitude is that, when it involves the safety of a woman who works with the children of our community?

Is this how we treat each other now? With no decency or respect, even when it involves safety, just so you can destroy some rock?

I hope you read this, and I hope you seriously consider your worldview.

By the way, to anyone who is in the construction business out there, why don't you go build a nice apartment somewhere? There is a housing crisis, in case you didn't hear over the thunderous noise of your machines.

As for me, I'm going to go write a poem about how much I love my wife, and pray to whoever is listening above that it doesn't become part of her obituary.

Tyler Cheverie

Pemberton