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council sworn in

Whistler’s new council was sworn in by Madam Justice Janice Dillon Monday night and Mayor Hugh O’Reilly then outlined the challenges facing the council in the next three years.

Whistler’s new council was sworn in by Madam Justice Janice Dillon Monday night and Mayor Hugh O’Reilly then outlined the challenges facing the council in the next three years. In a prepared statement O’Reilly noted the phenomenal rate of growth of Whistler in recent years and said "The new council will have to face the challenges that have been created by this growth over the next three years. As a member of council for the last eight years, I have recognized the rapid growth has too often left us in a position of reacting to situations instead of foreseeing them and having the tools in place to deal with them. "We have an opportunity now, with both a new council and administrator, to turn this around if we will pause long enough to create these tools. Mr. (Jim) Godfrey (the municipality’s new administrator) has come to us from the Township of Langley which has experienced growth similar to ours and can help this council to work through a program to achieve a framework and business plan that will allow us to move forward with our community vision." O’Reilly said the new council and senior staff will go on a retreat early in January to draft a mission statement and identify values, goals and objectives for the next three years. "Council will have to set priorities, identify the hurdles that have to be overcome and rationalize the available resources," he said. Following the workshop the new council will bring its priorities back for community input. "Once we, as council, feel we have community agreement and can articulate these values into policy statements, then we can work on a three-year business plan that will allow us to tackle the challenges before us," O’Reilly concluded.