A Christmas to remember...
I think it would be an amazing tribute to Nodar Kumaritashvili (and every single athlete) if there were to be a day that our community would gather to commemorate the memory of an athlete that believed in the Olympic dream. I could never have the power to set the day. But I truly believe, if there could be a picture sent to his family (even if they do not celebrate the same holidays we do) to let them know he will never be forgotten. Show them how proud we are of his dreams.
He is one of the great... and the fallen. Just as Dave Murray, Shane McConkey and all the others that have been lost to this valley. All have been great. All should be remembered.
And how amazing would it be to remember them all at the holidays. The Whistler Way. Be strong, live life as if it were your last day.
We, as a community, could arrange a date around the holidays to give tribute to such spirit and soul. Gather around Nodar's memorial (a tribute to all the fallen, in my opinion), close to Celebration Plaza. I think it would be one of the most moving experiences of the holidays we could ever have. Come one, come all... celebrate the spirit of the season. The spirit of Whistler. The spirit of life!
Souls, dreams and hope. That is really what we should be remembering at this time of year. I hope every person reading this feels love at this time of year. And if you don't... come find me! You will get hugs and love that will take you through it. Happy Holidays!
Meghan Lorena Deschenes
Whistler
Unsustainable Whistler
Re: Your life in Whistler (Pique feature, Dec. 9)
Ironic that Mrs. Holdaway writes about her Whistler experience in the same issue where there are several articles about the pay parking, unsustainable tax levels and one about how Whistler is different and really can sustain its spending.
I've been skiing at Whistler since 1976 and bring my family for occasional ski weekends. We enjoy the biking in the summer as well. So I understand the attraction of the area.
To read about how the locals know where to park for free while the expanded population (paying tourists) pays for the services that Whistler locals enjoy is an insult to your visitors.
I also read that Whistler is concerned that the parking revenue isn't higher. In the last couple of years I've been to Jackson Hole (pay parking or a free shuttle from a distant lot), Deer Valley (free shuttle from the lot), the Canyons (free gondola from the lot), Snowbird, Alta, Powder Mountain and a host of other more local ski areas that have free parking. The Canyons gondola is the most convenient but the Deer Valley setup is very good as well. Granted, these are ski areas not the RMOW. They are providing a service to customers, not creating another revenue stream to pay for a lifestyle that is unsustainable.
P.S. In addition to paying for parking and skiing I'm paying for my daughter's degree!
Roy Miller
Abbotsford
A win-win for everybody
It's good to hear that the municipal deficit has been reduced to $1.4 million.
There is a simple common sense solution that would give minimum economic stress to a few, placate the anger of the many and create good will all around. The current payroll is $26 million. If the staff at the muni would agree to a five per cent pay rollback, that would save a further $1.3 million and the deficit would just about be eliminated and an unwanted tax increase could be avoided. It's a win-win situation for everybody.
Jim Kennedy
Whistler
Simple requests
Why aren't there ski and snowboard racks on the new buses? Could the old ones not have been transferred?
And can we have an underpass at the Sundial crossing?
William Charlton
Whistler
Commuter numbers don't add up
The only way for Sea to Sky Transit (Squamish commuter) to succeed is if it is removed from the hands of the RMOW. On Nov. 1, there was a 60 per cent fare increase. From Jan. 1, to March 31, there will be reduced service on the portion of the route that serves Squamish. We don't know what to expect on April Fool's Day but I don't think it will be good.
More than 55 per cent of the people on the first bus to Squamish each day are from Whistler, yet Whistler council keeps repeating that Whistler taxpayers shouldn't help pay for it.
BC Transit provides almost 47 per cent of the cost of the service. Fares are subtracted from the municipal portion. Any increase in revenue benefits the municipality. The higher the revenue from fares, the lower the subsidy.
The number of people on the two trips I use has dropped by almost half. If these trips reflect the number of people on the other trips each day then the drop in customers has exceeded the increase in fares, increasing the subsidy required from Whistler and Squamish. Improving service and increasing the number of people on the bus didn't seem to be part of the business plan.
The 2006 census indicates that 1,300 people from Squamish work in Whistler. There are probably more than 2,000 return trips made between Squamish and Whistler each day. Some originate in Squamish, others originate in Whistler and Pemberton for shopping and other services. How hard should it be to get five per cent of those people out of their cars?
If 150 people bought passes and used them five days per week and 17 people paid cash fare each day (two more than in October) 75 per cent of the seats would be full and the municipal contribution would be zero.
The question that taxpayers and newspapers should be asking Whistler, Squamish and BC Transit is this: how can you pour money into a sure thing for five years and still screw it up so bad?
Six of the eight trips each day have schedule segments that aren't actually used. Those little, imaginary trips add up to 1.5 hours per day. At $200 per hour that is over $100,000 per year. Ten per cent of the annual cost of Sea to Sky Transit is for imaginary trips that only exist on paper.
The trip times have remained essentially the same for five years. The largest black hole is the pair of trips which leaves commuters in Whistler for 10 hours each day. Almost no riders used this pair of trips in 2005. The same thing happened in 2008. It hasn't changed.
Why not put them closer together? Trips which are nine hours apart have riders on them The 10 hour trips do not.
The list goes on!
There has been almost nothing done to make this service succeed. No improvements have been made to routes. No improvements have been made to trip times. No effort has been made to promote the service. No analysis has been done to see who uses the bus. No effort was made to raise fares gradually, reflecting rising costs.
For far too long, Sea to Sky Transit has been treated as if it was a charitable service for the poor working class of Squamish. It can be a viable, inter-community transit service. If managed properly it will require very little or no local subsidy.
If Sea to Sky Transit is allowed to fail, it may be years before another attempt is made. If we cannot operate a service between two small towns with limited stops in each town then there is no point in thinking about a commuter to the five large cities to the south of us.
Murray Gamble
Squamish
An early Christmas present
It's a very exciting time of the year for kids right now. There's fresh snow on the mountains, Santa's almost here and there seems to be lots of candy canes and other treats around.
With all the excitement, kids get fairly amped up and I'm extremely impressed at the foresight of Tourism Whistler to open their doors and give kids a chance to run and play inside at the Holiday Experience in the conference centre.
For years there's been talk about getting locals and visitors together and it's happening right now. Some people say the kids are the real winners with bouncy castles and activities galore but at night when your little boy says "daddy, I'm sooooo tired... can I please go to bed," we know who's really winning.
Thanks to everyone at the conference centre and Watermark for creating a fun and welcoming environment.
Mike Mills
Whistler
A call to action
Starting in January Carney's will no longer be accepting film plastics for recycling. This includes things like grocery bags, bread bags, cereal bags, cellophane wrap, commercial plastic wrap and all other forms of film plastics. While plastic film can be a challenge for recycling companies, due to the variety of plastic types and frequent contamination caused by unclean plastics, Carneys' decision makes it more challenging for the community of Whistler and our locals and visitors to move towards a waste free environment. However, the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment (AWARE) believes there are opportunities that come with this decision.
Many people who care about the environment make recycling a main focus because it makes a visible difference and is relatively easy to do. Having said that, the three R's are placed in order of importance: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, with recycling being the last resort. With the removal of plastic film from the recycling stream in Whistler the emphasis is again on us to look at ways we can reduce or reuse those film plastics that we used to put in the Carney's recycling bin. AWARE still believes that one solution would be a full ban on the use of plastic shopping bags in Whistler. A ban would drastically REDUCE the amount of plastic bags that will no longer be recycled and, as of Jan. 1, go directly into landfill. It would also increase the REUSE of reusable shopping bags by locals and tourists alike. In order to do this we are looking for support. We need volunteers to help, over the next three months, demonstrate Whistler's appetite for a plastic bag ban.
AWARE has been working to ban the use of plastic shopping bags in Whistler since 2007 and handed the project to council in 2008. Unfortunately, they voted against the ban at the October council meeting this year, before Carney's decision to stop accepting film plastic for recycling was made public. Given the new circumstances, and if provided with more evidence of how a ban on plastic bags could work and would be widely accepted, AWARE is hopeful that council may reconsider their earlier decision. At the December council meeting councillors supported the delivery of a reusable bag campaign and AWARE is hopeful that this will provide us with more time to demonstrate the case for a full ban on plastic shopping bags in Whistler.
If you want to help us work towards a plastic bag free resort please get in touch with us at [email protected] or phone me directly at 604-966-7806. These are important issues, and we need your help.
For more ideas and inspiration on how you can reduce your plastic use check out the blog www.fakeplasticfish.com.
Claire Ruddy
AWARE President
More bag ideas
Here's an idea: $2 reusable bags that come from an automated dispenser.
The dispenser would also be able to accept returns, by either having a bar code on each bag or perhaps a tiny microchip inside each bag.
The dispensers could be spread out throughout the village in key locations; hotels could accept returns without a dispenser. There could be a private company in charge of taking the used bags out of the dispensers and cleaning them if necessary and also collecting the bags from hotels.
If the bags had a nice design I'm sure tourists wouldn't mind keeping them if they were leaving and didn't have time to return them to a dispenser.
There must be someone out there who could develop this idea. I would do it myself but I'm too busy enjoying all the snow we have this year!
Adrien Dubreuil
Whistler
Museum is fabulous
I recently had the pleasure of volunteering at my son's Grade 3 Spring Creek school class field trip to the Whistler Museum. We had not been to the newly renovated museum since it was relocated to its current location behind the new library. It was absolutely fabulous. The museum is filled with both interactive "props" and fantastic storyboards. The history of Whistler is beautifully displayed, in a very pleasant setting. The museum staff did an excellent job at challenging the kids to learn more about the history of the community we live in and its wonderful natural surroundings. We will definitely plan, as a family, to go more often to the museum. I recommend you do too. You will not be disappointed.
Marvin Haasen
Whistler
A happy 25 th
I would like to extend a warm thank you to the staff of Sushi Village and Black's Pub for hosting such a well attended 25th anniversary party Sunday, Dec. 12.
Special appreciation goes to Miki Homma and Lawrence Black, the respective independent owners/operators of the two fine establishments. Their hard work has not gone unnoticed over the years as they strove to help sustain the local economy and become pillars of the community.
Thanks to their effort, old friends and new alike gathered to share memories and laughs while enjoying great food, drinks and local entertainment. Who could forget that spectacular fireworks display! I truly enjoyed seeing such animation in the village. The icing on the birthday cake is that all proceeds were donated to Whistler charities.
Thank you Sushi Village, Black's, Mikki, and Lawrence - cheers to another 25 years!
Flora Ferraro
Whistler
Polar bears on their own
For the past few years there has been a family-oriented polar bear swim at the Nexen Lands in Squamish on New Year's Day. This has become a tradition and thanks to newspapers like yours we have even had individuals staying in Whistler or living in Whistler participate in this swim.
The Squamish Polar Bear Club regretfully is informing Whistlerites and visitors to Whistler there will be no organized Polar Bear swim this year. However, everyone is still encouraged to come down for a non-organized Polar Bear swim where we take the dare and swim like a polar bear at 12 p.m. sharp on New Year's Day!
Because of insurance issues and the cost to put on a one-hour event (at most) it is not feasible for a non-profit organization to go ahead with an organized swim. So this Jan. 1, 2011 it will be just as fun but as a group of friends and strangers getting together for a fun swim at the Squamish Oceanfront Lands at Nexen Beach. We will be swimming at our own risk, bringing our own coffee or hot chocolate, having a few laughs, and still bringing the families as we will discourage those with booze.
Happy holidays everyone, and it is hoped in the future that an organized swim can take place. It is a shame a $5 million liability insurance coverage is needed on public land where the District of Squamish has control and can easily waive it or cover it.
Michael Enders
Squamish
A perfect set
Sean Hirtle's letter (Heroes in Harvey's, Pique letters, Dec. 9) and his three reasons for writing reminded me of skiing at Austin Pass, Mt. Baker, spring 1955. A friend with us was a better skier and stopped, waiting for me at the edge of a tree well. I arrived, we started talking, when suddenly without warning the edge gave way and he tumbled into the hole, fracturing one of his legs.
Fortunately, there was a ski patrol available but it was dark before we could extricate and move him into the basement of the old Mt. Baker Lodge. Lo and behold, a skier and orthopedic surgeon from Bellingham showed up and by candlelight set the leg in a cast.
I had a station wagon and we made a bed in the back to drive him back to Vancouver. The return trip went well until we hit the border. Wally announced he had to go pee, and we had no means in the car to relieve him! What to do?
With my fellow skiers, we searched the grounds around the customs house and finally found a tin can with the lid still on it. 'Nuf said!
We drove him to the UBC Hospital and they X-rayed his leg - a perfect set!
Oh, I forgot to mention, the orthopod didn't charge for his service - maybe he had some deal with the ski patrol.
Gordon Knight
West Vancouver
