Some facts of life in Whistler
This letter is kind of reaction to the one about the dog beach
incident at Lost Lake (Pique letters Aug. 24) and also just a general
expression of frustration about how the word "local" has gained such
a negative meaning for me and perhaps others.
Maybe I’m just paying more attention to those letters lately
but it seems like through the summer I read more than a few about some of our
visitors complaining about having to pay full price for stuff when
"locals" enjoy a discount. Well, my dear tourists and guests, let me
put things into perspective for you. In every town I've been to in my life the
following things are true. Restaurant employees usually get half-priced food, employees
in a video store get to take home free movies and games, mountain staff get a
free ski pass for the season, and hotel employees get staff rated rooms. Why?
Because we are the ones that ensure your food gets to you piping hot and
delicious, that your wine glass is full, that your kids have a great time with
the babysitter while you’re out for the night. We’re the ones that have to wake
up at bitter cold ungodly hours of the morning to make sure that lifts are up
and running when you’re done sleeping off your hangover. We’re the ones who
clean your room while you’re skiing and put fresh sheets on your bed. We’re the
ones who clean up the garbage and vomit off the streets after your drunken
misadventures last night. You have such a great time here because we bust our
asses to make it happen.
Now, on to my fellow Whistlerites. It drives me mad when I hear
someone who’s been here a few months and has managed to learn where all the
bars and liquor stores are but has no idea where the municipal hall is or the
garbage compactors(!!!) say "Oh, I’m a local." No you’re not. In fact
you’re even further from it than the average weekend warrior. You’re under the
impression that your short residence here entitles you to everything. But
beyond having learned which bar has which specials on which night you’re
completely ignorant to the rest of the community. I’ve lived here for seven
years now. I’ve volunteered for a number of events, I’ve taken dogs out for
walks from WAG, participated in several charity drives but still sometimes have
a hard time saying "I’m a local" because I feel I should be doing
more.
And a lot of those people who lived here longer than that
(sorry to say, a lot of my friends too) tend to think of their
"local" status as an all-access VIP pass that puts them above the
rules and also gives them the right to look down on tourists and visitors to
our slice of paradise as intruders and/or second rate citizens. To quote an old
adage, "Don’t bite the that hand feeds you!" Tourists are our bread
’n’ butter and you’d have to be pretty stupid to not understand that pissing
them off will result in them not spending money here. Sure it’s frustrating to
be running to grab lunch in your uniform and then having to waste 10 precious
minutes explaining how to get to Merlin’s. And I also get annoyed when asked
for the zillionth time if something is in U.S. dollars.
But that’s the reality of living in Whistler, and if you can’t
deal with it you need to seriously consider moving away from here because
answering those questions will always be a part the local life.
So smile, nod and say "The village shuttle will drop you
off right beside Merlin's. Just ask the bus driver to tell you when you're
there."
Y'all have a good day now!
Victor Lezu
Whistler
The Olympics explained
If I had to explain what the Olympics are to a non-resident of
the earth, which of the following do you feel would be more true?
A) It is a great event where countries come together in the
spirit of sport to foster friendship and peace. Athletes are encouraged to be
their best and in reality, everyone wins as the games are an exhibition of
man’s co-operation and success.
B) It is a money grubbing event, where every two years
corporations, television studios, hotels and restaurants fight for their share
of the pie. Athletes are led to believe that if they beat their opponents by
1/100th of a second, they are more important and will make more money,
especially if they do not get caught taking banned drugs. Judges play politics
and more money is spent on security (because of the policies and hypocrisy of
most of the governments involved) than is possible to believe. The
corporations, as usual, win.
Daniel Akler
Whistler
For these things we give thanks
We would like to thank the mayor and the council for being so
community minded in their sustainable decisions.
Here is our list that we are so thankful for:
1.
Thank you for
using our tax dollars to create a new business venture to compete against our
business. We are very happy to see your new “Whistler logo wear” shirt program
going to a Vancouver company. We are a local silk screening company that has
been doing business in the valley since 1989, yet we did not even get an
invitation to bid on the opportunity to print these eco friendly &
sweatshop free garments.
We wonder if it
was all the slave children that we have working in the cold and windowless
basement of our toxic and dark sweatshop that disqualified Toad Hall Studios
from this contract. Well, we guess it is not sustainable to print Whistler logo
shirts in Whistler. We guess it is not sustainable to use a local company that
employs only Whistler residents. We do guess it is sustainable to use our tax
dollars to create competition against local established enterprises. We guess
that is sustainable for the muni to make it even harder to survive in this
already hostile business environment. The T-shirt business is a cutthroat
business as it is, heck even Canada Post sells T-shirts now, so let’s cheer
council in this business-wise decision that now has the municipality jumping in
the action as well. Let’s make sure that we put those tax dollars to work
against the locals.
2. Thank you for losing the precious opportunity to have had an
additional arena in Whistler — but getting instead the much needed
bobsled facilities. The arena would have been a great legacy for Whistler after
the Olympic Games. The arena could have been operated as a business, as a
venture that did not conflict with existing businesses but complemented them,
and thus creating its own revenue and becoming a sustainable “resource”. This
concept was clearly outlined in the plan presented to council by Norbert
Doeblin. It made economic sense. Hey, but what do we know, if the price tag
went from $20 million to $60 million in 10 months, imagine how much it would
have ended up costing after three years! No such thing as binding contracts and
such measures apply to the two empty lots in the village. But it makes us
wonder if that also means that the new municipal hall expansion cost will
inflate astronomically like the arena? Oh boy, these decisions sure make a lot
of business sense.
3. Thank you for the future expansion of the municipal hall. Do
we really need to make a bigger hall and to hire the extra people that will be
needed to staff it? Let’s add one more negative element to the current employee
shortage crisis that we are enjoying at the moment. Hmm… let us think, arena
bad business but new and bigger muni hall good business? Duh! Of course it is a
BIG YES, let’s go for the expanded municipal hall. Thank you again for such
great, economically sustainable decisions.
4. Thank you for the 50 per cent increase in “wages” for
council, and the most expensive payroll for a municipal staff in this province
— while the rest of us are struggling in a flat local economy that shows
no early signs of a speedy recovery. We guess decreasing taxes for local
business so they can get some breathing room in this present economy is not a
sustainable idea.
5. And finally, thank you for spending $900,000 in a study to
tell us that we could not afford the arena. Thank you for spending our tax
dollars so wisely.
Jorge Alvarez and The Toads
Toad Hall Studios
Whistler
A real Olympic legacy
Re: Worker shortage
This comes as no surprise to me that experienced workers are
and have been leaving this town in droves over the past three years.
Since I arrived in town 10 years ago, there has been nothing
but lip service paid to the issue of affordable employee rentals.
It's time for the mayor and town council to stop pandering to
the real estate agents and big business and start to help the people who really
run this town.
Those are the cooks who cook the food, the people who clean the
hotel rooms, the servers in the dining establishments and the countless other
hardworking people.
Looking towards other countries to supply the cheap labour you
are looking for is not an answer. The whole world is presently going through
the same types of labour shortages and to bring someone in from another country
to work a minimum wage job while living six to a room is inhumane treatment as
far as I am concerned.
At the present rate of people leaving this town, the outlook
for having enough staff to work during the Olympics is looking very doubtful.
Volunteers will only go so far and from my experience, people
work harder when they are actually paid to do the jobs.
The mayor and council continually talk about the Olympic
legacies that they want to see happen for Whistler. How about this one?
An affordable employee rental complex that is fit to live in,
and I am sure that you can build it for a lot less than an arena that would
have only left us a legacy of 30 years of increased taxes to pay for it.
Remember Montreal?
The rental fees would cover the construction costs and upkeep
on such a project.
Affordable housing isn't and has never been a feasible idea in
this town and should be abandoned. To put restrictions on how much you can sell
your unit for in a real estate market such as this one just encourages the
people buying these units to break the covenants they have signed in order to
get the housing in the first place. They see the unbridled greed and outrageous
prices created by the real estate agents in this town and say, "Why not
me?"
I, for one, cannot blame them. I would do the same in their
shoes.
Get your thumbs out of your rear ends, Mr. Mayor and council
and leave us a real Olympic legacy. A town that we can live in. A town that is
fit to live in.
Chris Field
Whistler
It takes a village… to attract the best
I am intrigued by the ongoing discussion about attracting and retaining foreign workers in Whistler. One question comes to mind: why are we so obsessed on attracting solely entry-level staff doing mediocre jobs? Why stop there? Why not try to attract and retain the best minds and skills in the tourism and hospitality industry from all over the world?
If we all aspire to be the best resort community, we will need the best minds to lead the way and the best skills to serve our guests.
Attracting the best minds and skills though is not only about giving them the highest salary in the market. It will be a matter of one part remuneration and one part inspiration and challenge. Ultimately, there must be something better than money, because someone out there will always be willing to pay more. Like the old adage says, “Only a bright company can attract bright minds.” The same thing can be said about our community; only a lively community can attract energetic and smart people from all over the world to live here.
And to create a lively community, it will take the effort of the whole village, not just the mayor, councils, MPs or MLAs.
Jay Wahono Whistler
Missed the news
After an amazing and wonderful day at Slow Food Cycle Sunday in the Pemberton Valley, we eagerly awaited the next edition of Pique for coverage of this very public social event as well as coverage the Feast of Fields. Well, there was nothing in that edition so we thought, gee, must not have had time before the paper went to press. So, again, we dove into the edition after that to find... nothing!
Here we are with a wonderful opportunity focusing on local
agritourism, and not one article about these hugely successful events. Aside
from the Sea the Sky corridor, Pique is distributed all over the Lower
Mainland, a large readership which didn't get the “news.” Guess we'll have to
try to pick up a copy of City Food somewhere, perhaps they will have found it a
story worth reporting.
Susan Morris
North Vancouver/Pemberton