The Resort Municipality of Whistler’s (RMOW) proposed project list for 2024 runs long at 121 separate items divided between a suite of different funding sources and reserve accounts.
Pique pulled a few items up for a closer look—here’s just two of them.
Village Stroll Tree Strategy
This project receives funding from the Resort Municipality Initiative in 2024, with $95,440 budgeted towards the strategy which is managed by the RMOW’s climate action, planning and development team.
The description in the project list is relatively vague, and the project has been on the books since 2022, when the RMOW received $120,000 to carry it out.
But what is it? Well, it’s a three-year project intended to take inventory of all the trees along the Whistler Village neighbourhood area.
“The project involves tallying and identifying tree species, age, condition, and soil volume, considering climate change and other factors, looking at current and potential tree canopy cover to help with storm water mitigation, summer shade and heat mitigation, and creating a long-term strategy,” said an RMOW communications official in an email to Pique.
“Ultimately the goal is to help these trees thrive, which helps our village flourish.”
The official said the strategy is focused on the Whistler Village Stroll and the Upper Village, where the RMOW is seeing “disproportionate tree loss in these areas due to the conditions.”
The conditions, as laid out in the project description, are essentially overdevelopment, retail pressures, and root health.
“The number and health of mature trees in the Village has been in decline through redevelopment, retail store visibility concerns, and early mortality due to inadequate tree rooting conditions,” reads the project description. “Wildfire and climate change are new considerations.”
According to the official, the Village Stroll and Upper Village are areas the RMOW regards as needing healthy trees and canopy cover.
Having healthy trees in the most built-up area of the municipality is key to the health of the environment both artificial and natural.
“With the anticipated impact of climate change, these trees will become more important, and it will become more challenging for them to survive. We need to monitor and take care of them as the effects of climate change become more pronounced.
“They also improve the aesthetics in the village and are important for Whistler’s celebrated festival lights.”
Looking ahead, the project will see the RMOW use the data on all the trees’ health and condition to gauge expected lifespan, and develop a replacement plan for trees as they age out or decline prematurely, with a priority planting and replacement plan and potential associated costs.
The project had $40,000 budgeted per year, but the 2024 allocation runs high at more than $95k thanks to unused funds from 2023. Currently, the RMOW does not have a timeline for when a report will be brought before council for action, but under the original timeline the $120,000 will need to be spent by the end of 2025.
Air-quality monitoring
Listed under projects funded from the general operating reserve, air-quality monitoring at Cheakamus Crossing is an annual program designed to keep tabs on the impact of the expensed operational hours at the Whistler asphalt plant.
The RMOW switched from sourcing asphalt from Squamish to Whistler in 2020 following council direction amid concerns about the cost of sourcing asphalt from further away. The issue was contentious, as council went against long-standing policy that ruled against sourcing asphalt from facilities located within three kilometers of residential neighborhoods.
The change in policy was justified by cost savings, reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to the facility being closer to Whistler, and other indirect savings. The RMOW voted to continue sourcing asphalt locally in 2021, and introduced stipulations requiring expanded air-quality monitoring in the area due to the growing community in Cheakamus Crossing.
For 2024, the RMOW budgeted $65,000 for improvements to the monitoring program, which will include: upgrading the particulate matter detection to PM2.5 from the current PM10; adding volatile organic compound monitoring for a year; adding additional monitoring stations in more locations in the Cheakamus Crossing neighborhood; and covering capital and operational costs and reporting by an air-quality monitoring consultant.
According to the official, results of air-quality sample collection are being collated, and staff expect to share a report with council in the spring of 2024.
You can read the full RMOW proposed project list for 2024 online at the engage.whistler.ca website.
A more complete report will be brought before council at the Dec. 19 council meeting.
