With just a week to go before Vail Resorts opens Whistler Blackcomb’s (WB) gondolas to the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, here are a few questions for readers to consider:
Question 1: What do Banff Sunshine, Lake Louise, Mount Norquay, Nakiska, Kicking Horse, Kimberley, Fernie, Revelstoke, Grouse Mountain, all 75 ski resorts in Quebec, all 435 ski stations in Austria and all the major ski areas in Italy know that B.C.’s provincial health authorities don’t know, and that U.S.-based Vail Resorts Inc. is negligently ignoring?
Answer: That a fully loaded and poorly ventilated gondola lift is not an “outdoor space” but the equivalent of a freezing-cold elevator packed with wet and panting strangers that is stuck between floors for up to an hour. Worse still, unlike in an elevator, gondola passengers are sitting across from each other breathing directly into each other’s faces.
Sadly, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, and B.C.’s health minister Adrian Dix continue to persist in refusing to amend their public health order to require proof of vaccination to board Whistler Blackcomb’s five enclosed gondolas. This, despite the pleas of over 11,000 fearful skiers, boarders and interested members of the public (a number more than the entire adult population of Whistler) who have signed a petition demanding that the B.C. government stand up to Vail Resorts in the interest of public health and the economic survival of Whistler resort.
Question 2: As Whistler Blackcomb is now a clear outlier from a health safety perspective, is Whistler likely to become “the No. 1 choice of anti-vaxxers”?
Answer: By not requiring proof of vaccination and suspending virtually all the other safety protocols that governed mountain operations last season (i.e. reservations, social distancing, “bubble loading”), it appears that Vail Resorts and Whistler Blackcomb are rolling out the welcome mat for all those who refuse to “get the jab.” No longer able to ski or board in Alberta, the B.C. Rockies or on the Lower Mainland at Grouse, it’s likely that we can expect many more of the unvaccinated to come here, further straining our healthcare resources and increasing the risk of yet another early shutdown.
Question 3: How did we end up in this situation?
Answer: These are the facts as I see them: a) Vail Resorts has no need to respond to local interests or public opinion. Whistler and Vancouver skiers and boarders are a captive market in the true sense of the word. In the absence of competitive pressure, Vail Resorts will only do the right thing if compelled by government edict; b) While widely and justly respected, it sometimes seems that Dr. Henry only changes her mind and her policies when forced to do so by yet another COVID-19 outbreak.
Question 4: Dr. Henry and Dix always say that their decisions are based on science. Where is the science that supports the safety of packing Whistler Blackcomb’s gondolas with a random mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated passengers? Has a scientific study of ventilation, airflows, CO2 levels, etc. confirming this assumption been made? Or do we have to await the emergence of a “Whistler Variant” before they will take the necessary action to protect our health and our livelihoods?
Answer: We don’t know.
Question 5: Where does this leave the vast majority of Whistler stakeholders who have done the right thing to protect themselves, their families and their fellow citizens by getting vaccinated against COVID-19? What can we do now?
Answer: To affect the necessary policy change, I believe pressure must push up from the frontlines of the battle against the pandemic, rather than down from Dr. Henry’s political masters. So WB skiers and boarders, please take up your pens and keyboards, and write a letter or email demanding that Vail Resorts not be allowed to open Whistler Blackcomb’s gondola lifts to the unvaccinated until it has been scientifically proven to be safe to do so. Address them to: Dr. John Harding, Medical Health Officer for Vancouver and Coast Garibaldi; email: [email protected]; and to Stephen Brown, Deputy Minister of Health; email: [email protected] c.c. : bonnie. [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. Please also contact your own doctor, nurse practitioner or anyone else you know in healthcare asking them to write expressing their concerns. The mountain opens next week, so please don’t delay.
