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Who's nuts?

In response to Andy Wills's letter regarding the Squamish Commuter Bus (The Tipping Point, Pique letters Nov.

In response to Andy Wills's letter regarding the Squamish Commuter Bus (The Tipping Point, Pique letters Nov. 18), would someone please tell the Squamish commuters to pay their own way? The alternative is asking the District of Squamish to pay it for them. This may require you to (gasp) pay more taxes. I pay enough and I don't think because I live in Whistler that I should subsidize you to live in Squamish. Most Squamptons moved there to buy cheaper houses and pay less taxes. Well, you can't have me buy your cake so you can eat it.

Regarding Mr. Wills's comment towards the RMOW - "incompetence and lack of foresight" - are the local Squamish governments blameless? Instead of finger pointing, put your good intentions - the road to hell is paved with them - to good use and contact Mick Gottardi from the District of Squamish. He has a focus group working on the 2031 Multi-modal Transportation Plan, a 20-year road map to improve local traffic as well as north and southbound commuter issues of Squamptons. I hope you filled out the online survey. Is 20 years enough foresight?

My annual property tax bill is in the area of $4,000 for the house I built in 1987. I live in a strata, so I don't get snow clearing, utilities and road maintenance done by the Muni. That's another $2,100 per annum and I might add rather brilliant of the RMOW and the province to figure out a way to collect more taxes while supplying less service as we have denser housing than Fee Simple lots. And now I'm going to have to pay more? To quote Andy Wills, "Are you nuts? There's a recession on."

The RMOW has a shortfall and wants to raise their tax revenue and part of that shortfall is transit. So tell me again why I should pay higher taxes to lower Squamish Commuters' fares and their tax bills. One of the RMOW's cost cutting measures is to reduce our library's operating hours. So how about you pay to keep the hours the way they are and I pay to keep your fares down? "Problem solved!  You're welcome!"

Cathy Jewett

Whistler

Transportation starts with communication

Sea to Sky Transit, the service between Squamish and Whistler, is in crisis. People in Whistler and Squamish use the buses to commute, shop, use government and medical services and for recreation. If you don't have a car you already know how important transit is. If you have no interest in using transit consider; each bus can remove over 30 cars from the traffic you drive in.

On Oct. 25, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) passed a motion, "THAT staff be directed to generate high level cost estimates for inter-city transit for Response Options 1-3." The first option builds on the existing Commuter Services connecting Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton. The second option adds service between Squamish and Horseshoe Bay. The third option looks at service to remaining areas, including Lillooet, which now have no transit service at all.

On Nov. 22, staff reported to council that information and questions from BC Transit are being distributed to municipalities within the SLRD. Staff hope to be able to report back to council at the January meeting.

People, you and I, need to make sure that our voices are heard. For more than five years, Sea to Sky Transit saw no changes in trip times. Tell your municipalities what times you need to travel. For more than five years there was only one fare increase, 50 cents, in 2008. Low revenue contributed to the panic-driven 60 per cent increase this winter. Fair fares are essential to provide revenue to the operator and incentive to the public. Reduced service will continue between January and March. What then?

If you live in Pinecrest or Black Tusk, tell the SLRD what you think about transit buses that drive by your homes without stopping. If you live in Lillooet, tell the SLRD what it's like living in a community two hours from medical and government services, that can only be reached by car. Should people in Cheakamus Crossing have to travel to Creekside to catch a bus going to Squamish? Do people in Brackendale need access to bus service to Whistler? If you commute from Squamish, what time do you want to arrive and depart Whistler? If you live in Whistler, where do you want to go in Squamish and when?

Sea to Sky Transit, between Squamish and Whistler, is not the only inter-community transit in the SLRD. It may not be the most important service needed in the SLRD. At the moment, it is pivotal for the future of transit within our district. If it succeeds, it will be an example of what can be done. If it fails, it may be another decade before anyone has the courage to look at regional transit again.

Write, e-mail and talk to your elected representatives within the SLRD, your municipal government and the province.

Murray Gamble

Squamish

Bang for the buck

If you ride the bus, frequent the library, park near the village or pay taxes then this letter might be of interest to you.

Whistler we have a problem. "There is a $2.8 million hole in the operating budget." This was the message a very attentive municipal staff passed onto the few community members who attended the budget open house on Friday. The $2.8 million equates to a possible nine per cent tax increase on a $46 million operating budget; $26 million of the $46 million operating budget goes towards salaries and benefits. What's mind boggling is that all municipal salary increases are tied by "policy" to the 27 unionized CUPE employees who keep our utilities running and to six communities in the Lower Mainland that are fully unionized. The "policy" rationale behind this is to avoid the possible unionization of all municipal employees and to keep salaries competitive with the Lower Mainland. What results is an arms race of salary increases and the perception that the fox is looking after the municipal chicken coop. If you do the math ($310,000 of operational costs equates to a one per cent tax increase) there is a good chance the planned increase in taxes of four per cent for 2011, which is solely for wages, could be as much as 13 per cent if the RMOW can't find other ways to cut costs. This could add up to a combined total of 29 per cent increase in taxes for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The bulk of the $2.8 million shortfall is the result of a $2.3 million deficit in transit. Parking revenue which was supposed to help pay for transit is $1 million less than projected. The problem with transit is that we don't control capital improvements, just share in their costs with BC Transit. The appropriately named Garage Mahal and shiny new hydrogen buses have left a significant hole in our operating budget. Besides the possibility of increasing taxes there were several ideas offered on how to mitigate the $2.8 million shortfall including increasing bus fares and implementing pay parking across the board. None of the choices will be easy ones.

The good news is that all municipal departmental budgets are being held to the planned four per cent increase. Unfortunately not all budgets are equal, as a result the library is short $54,000 due primarily to provincial cuts in funding, built-in increases of full-time staff wages, and higher than expected heating and electrical costs. The library board has decided to cut hours of operation from 53 a week to 44, a decrease in service of 17 per cent. The total operational budget of RMOW is in the $46 million neighborhood and if we can spend $96,000 on a Canada Day Party and $85,000 on an upgraded Muni website, $200,000 on art for the Great Lawn we can find $54,000 to keep the library open and yes I know the difference between RMI funds and operational funds. FYI: there were 1,360 visitors to the library last Friday; the Whistler Public Library has the highest user rate of any library in the province per capita and the province picks up about a third of the tab for the library and RMOW pays the rest. Besides the Re-Use-It Centre (which is an amazing profit centre) we get our biggest bang for the buck with the library.

Recommendations to the RMOW:

Look at where we get the most bang for the buck and distribute funds accordingly.

Drop the sacrosanct policy of tying all wages to CUPE's.

Lobby the provincial government to use some of the Hotel Tax funds (RMI funds) to pay for the free transit offered in the village loop and Benchlands and other operational costs that are directly increased by our valued guests.

Cutting the hours of the library, pay parking and increasing bus fares hurt the residents who least can afford it.

Thankfully the decisions are not cast in stone. The RMOW is looking for input and needs direction. Community members can e-mail budget @whistler.ca This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with any budget questions or feedback.

Stuart Munro

Whistler

Home cooking

As one of the many new arrivals in Whistler who enjoyed the warm welcome, great meal (OMG! Real food, not two-minute noodles!) and some handy local advice (Don't chase the bears it makes them grumpy!) I would like to say a big thank you to First Nations representatives and all involved in organizing, cooking, serving and hosting at the Jill Ackhurst Community Welcome Dinner last Wednesday. The children's artworks and "Welkom" messages on the table cards were super cute too!

As a second-season snowboarder and Aussie working holiday visa holder, I chose to come to Whistler this winter - despite having heard the horror stories of 10 people living in two-bedroom condos and late arrivals walking the street with signs seeking work - to enjoy your legendary ski hills and to live in a town that offers a great off hill lifestyle too. Having secured a great job and reasonably priced place to stay within days of arriving, I feel lucky to be calling Whistler my home for the next few months and feel humbled to have received such a sincere welcome by the members of the community.

Angela Cook

Whistler

Logging old growth makes sense

As a part owner of Crown land, I feel entitled to comment, even from Vancouver, on logging in the Cheakamus Community Forest (CCF). I can't understand the anti-logging hostility oozing from letters to the editor in recent issues of Pique . We paid for our schools, hospitals, transport infrastructure, etc. in large measure by logging and milling. Today, the province needs forest revenues more than ever, and loggers, mill workers and silvicultural contractors need employment.

Second, we already have some 13 million hectares of mostly old-growth forests preserved in parks, wilderness areas and ecological reserves all over the province (nearby Garibaldi Park, for example). That should be plenty. We should be able to log old growth outside the already protected areas provided it is done sustainably with immediate reforestation and intensive second growth management to follow. When we chip away at the commercial forest land base because somebody has made it a cause to preserve another patch of old growth, we have to reduce the annual allowable cut (AAC) both for the tenure and the province. In the CCF's case, that would mean lost revenue and employment for the municipality, participating First Nations and the B.C. government (me).

Third, old growth forests can actually be an environmental liability. They are carbon-neutral at best and over-mature stands can even be net carbon dioxide contributors to the atmosphere through increasing mortality, decay and decomposition. They are also far more insect-, disease- and fire-prone than younger forests. Logging second growth forests when they are still growing strong and absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, in place of old growth that no longer does, would surely be an environmental faux pas.

Forests being a provincial resource, I support Forest Minister Pat Bell's call back in September for harvesting the AAC in the CCF, as reported by Jesse Ferreras. Perhaps it's time to revive the old idea of a Commercial Forest Land Reserve, fashioned on the Agricultural Land Reserve, to keep productive forest land supporting the provincial AAC in timber production and compatible multiple use.

Joe Bako

Vancouver

To cut or not to cut trees

Loved Max's column last week. He seemed uncertain why Transport Canada would suddenly decide to enforce the rules surrounding the helipad. Perhaps it's because TC can now SEE the helipad since the council allowed the permanent removal of trees on the Blackcomb Way median. Ironic, eh?

Sarah Bourne

Whistler

Editorial or entertainment?

About a month ago Max's column "Stupid is where it's at" railed against Jesse's article of the previous week in the same paper regarding the dumbing down of the electorate using the impending election of Rob Ford for Mayor of Toronto as exhibit A and how that might relate to Whistler. Max's next article "The decline of the American Empire continues" carried on with a similar critical theme making use of the word dumb nine times.

The 1987 US repeal of the Fairness Doctrine set the media free to turn journalism and editorial in that country into a polarizing divisive free-for-all rather than using media to enlighten and inform. To many people in the states a statement like George W. Bush's famous: "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists" makes perfect sense - all issues are black and white - there is no middle ground.

Then last week I read in Max's "Do it and do it now" that three of us on council can't weigh saving a stand of trees against the value of human life: "...someone's going to die this year because we don't have a helipad." Max, you were in the audience for the debate, you saw the Powerpoint slide that suggested there may be an option for the emergency landing area on a part of Lot 4. The debate wasn't about cutting trees and saving lives versus not cutting trees and thus the taking of human lives, it was about buying a bit of time to fully explore whether there were any viable options to an issue which was only brought to council's attention by Vancouver Coastal Health a few short weeks ago.

I guess being labelled to thousands of readers as someone who can't understand the difference between saving a tree or taking a human life comes with the privilege of serving on Whistler council but it's getting harder to know whether Max's articles are editorial or entertainment. His values seem a bit out of sync with what he writes.

Eckhard Zeidler

Councillor, Whistler

Tips of the month

Right on Toulouse. I feel much better now with my new stash. I applaud the Movember movement but let's not stop there.

Cancer sucks, there is no doubt about it. I am a cancer survivor and am very aware of its brutal effect on myself, my family and friends. Here are a few more facts to be aware of. One in nine of us will get either breast or prostate cancer. One in three of us will get one or more types of cancer in our lifetimes. Old people don't seem to die of old age anymore.

OK too much bad news; maybe we should do more in the way of prevention. To start with do not wait for Health Canada to tell you plastic is an endochrine disrupter and could be a BIG reason we get prostate and breast cancer. Try and live plastic free (it's almost impossible).

Next tip is to trust a scientist not a politician (Stephen Harper telling Canada's scientists what they can and cannot say). The best awareness I can suggest is for us humans to lessen our toxic burdens, i.e. get tobacco out of your life, take that laptop off your crotch, move if you live near big electric transmission lines or microwave (cell towers), stop eating crap and take a look at organic food, breathe fresh air, get more exercise, try and forget about stress, I could go on and on. I found a book that helped me learn more, it's called Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic by Liz Armstrong, Guy Dauncy and Anne Wordsworth. Also a fairly heady website www.letsfcancer.com is an eye opener.

OK Toulouse, lets go for some turns and try and be more aware, rip it up.

Binty (Vincent Massey)

Whistler

Nurturing the planet

We would like to pass on our thanks for last week's article The Real Price of Today's Cheap Food and the accompanying cover image. It is great to see this information reaching a wider audience, helping to inform people about the consequences of their food choices.

Whistler is a community of people who are passionate about the environment, who think outside of "the Whistler bubble" to consider how their choices affect the planet. Dedication to the environment is demonstrated with popular community campaigns such as the Commuter Challenge, by many passionate individuals and by businesses that have environmental considerations in their business plans.

As detailed in your article, there are significant ways to help the environment and create a more sustainable planet by altering our food choices. Earthsave Whistler can help people learn more about their food choices and support them in making changes to their diet. We are a non-profit organization that educates, inspires and empowers people to shift toward a diet that is more healthy for people and the planet. For more information please visit our website at http://www.earthsave.ca/eswhistler or join our Earthsave Whistler facebook page.

Jennie Small

Hayley Ingman

Earthsave Whistler