After 50 days of COVID-19 quarantine, B.C. officials are eyeing a four-stage reopening and a sustainable "new normal" for life in the province.
But what that new normal looks like in Whistler—and for tourism—remains to be seen.
"That new normal means a physically distanced experience for much longer than I had expected going into this," said Mayor Jack Crompton on May 7.
"It's something that we're talking about around the dinner table, and I hope people are talking about around theirs. It's not easy, and it's not intuitive. It means doing things differently than we've done them in the past.
"That change in the way we do things applies to tourism as well."
On Wednesday, May 6, Premier John Horgan announced plans to reopen the province, starting in mid-May with (under enhanced protocols): elective surgeries; personal care services, like dentistry, hair salons, retail; and the reopening of provincial parks for day use.
But concerts, conventions and other large gatherings could continue to be banned for one to two years, as their resumption is contingent on a vaccine being developed, the development of herd immunity or a new drug to treat the COVID-19 virus.
Nightclubs and casinos have fallen into a grey zone, and it's not clear when they might be able to reopen.
"It seems to me like a careful, patient and deliberate plan. It's one that we'll be paying very close attention to and including in all planning moving forward," Crompton said.
"Whistler's planning for reopening has been happening for a long time, [but] the B.C. restart plan is a critical piece of new information that will inform that work."
Though municipal staff were still working on the details of what exactly the provincial reopening plan will look like in Whistler on Thursday, May 7, more details are expected early next week.
"There's lots of thought that needs to go into understanding what a physically distanced but hospitable experience looks like," Crompton said.
"I am incredibly confident in Whistler and Whistlerites. If anybody can do it, we are the ones."
