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Local leaders pledge to find transit links to Squamish

Wells hopes to use funds to start service by April 1 Kristi Wells, chair of Whistler’s Transit Management Committee, will be asking council for roughly $350,000 in the coming weeks to start up a public bus service between Squamish and Whistler.

Wells hopes to use funds to start service by April 1

Kristi Wells, chair of Whistler’s Transit Management Committee, will be asking council for roughly $350,000 in the coming weeks to start up a public bus service between Squamish and Whistler.

A portion of the money will also go towards expansion of the current bus service connecting Mount Currie, Pemberton and Whistler, including more morning and late night runs.

"If we pushed it and pushed it, we could have it operational by April 1," Wells said this week after a Transit Management Committee meeting on Monday.

"We already have everything done on how it would work so it’s not logistical concerns. Right now it’s money concerns."

Wells is proposing that council take the money from the parking in lieu fund, which totals more than $1 million. That money came from Intrawest last year as a penalty for a parking shortfall at their new Pan Pacific Hotel. It has yet to be allocated to any project in the 10-year financial plan, said Wells.

"I think the community would love to see us use it for this kind of initiative," she said.

The $350,000 would go towards a short-term bus service over a two-year period, she said, while the transit committee works for a more long-term solution that would include a regional transportation service.

Commuter transit between Squamish and Whistler has been under the spotlight recently after a deadly crash on the Sea to Sky Highway on Jan. 31 left seven people dead, including five Whistler hotel workers.

The workers had finished the night shift early Saturday morning and were on their way home to Squamish when their car crashed with a northbound SUV, killing the two passengers in that car along with all the hotel workers.

At an emotional memorial service at the Telus Conference Centre at Whistler on Wednesday, Squamish Mayor Ian Sutherland also pledged to bring public transit between the two communities.

"You have my commitment, along with Mayor (Hugh) O’Reilly from Whistler and B.C. Transit and the hotels, that we will find a way to have a commuter service for the communities that will work for everyone," said Sutherland.

"And it we can do that, and do it properly, that will be the legacy of the seven people who lost their lives on that Saturday."

Local governments aren’t the only ones looking at transportation options.

Kevin Toth, general manager of the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, is one of a number of hoteliers who are considering establishing a task force to address this issue of employee transportation.

"From my point of view I don’t think there’s a clear focus yet (for the task force)," said Toth.

But they will be looking at transit options for hotel employees who work on the overnight shift and commute between Squamish and Whistler.

Toth said this is a good opportunity to work with the hotel community, co-ordinate work shifts and perhaps engage a private company that could ferry employees back and forth, particularly after night shifts.

Likewise Sylvia Simpson, a spokesperson with the Canadian Auto Workers Union, said she is meeting with all of the Whistler properties represented by the union to discuss the issue of transportation.

"The consensus is that we are just going to have a frank discussion... and also have in mind the possibility of doing something collectively or pursuing public transportation."

The union represents 250 to 300 Whistler workers at various properties, including the Coast Whistler Hotel, the Whistler Lodging Co., the Tantalus Lodge, the Mountainside Lodge, Sundial Boutique Hotel and the Westin.

Simpson said none of the properties currently provide transit for their employees.

That meeting was scheduled to take place on Thursday, Feb. 12, after Pique went to press.

"When I spoke with the hotels right after the accident each one of them expressed real concern about the situation and expressed very strongly that something just had to be done," she said.

"So I’m very optimistic that we’re going to go in the right direction. It’s not anything that will happen overnight, that’s for sure. We need to think long term on that issue."

Some hotels, such as the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, provide travel allowances to staff who live outside Whistler and must travel to work.

Wells suggests if the properties could contribute a portion of that travel allowance to the Squamish/Whistler transit, along with a portion contributed from Squamish council, then there could be a really viable bus service between the two communities for the two-year period.

"The one other carrot to this whole thing that we never had before is we have the interest of the properties," said Wells.

Wells, who has been chair of the transit committee for the past five years, said she tried to get the Squamish route established for this winter season. Despite the support from both councils, it came down to a funding issue, she said.

The proposed service has been in the pipeline since a 2001 study highlighted the need for the service, but it has been stymied by lack of funding for the past three years.

B.C. Transit, the Crown corporation that partners with municipalities on public transit, froze funding some time ago.

Squamish and Whistler aren’t the only ones looking for more money for transit service.

"There certainly is a line up of communities that would like to see... their share of expansion dollars available for their transit system," said Chris Foord, marketing manager with B.C. Transit.

"Make no bones about it, the province has indicated ‘I’m sorry. We wish we did have the funds for you but we don’t’ and that’s just a reality. (B.C.) Transit certainly has to live with that, but on the other hand we have to be very creative."

Wells said the transit committee is also exploring long term goals for the future of transit through corridor.

"As a transit group we agreed in principle to start working on the foundations of a regional transit authority and we’re going to start doing the legal work right away," said Wells.

That regional transit system could stretch from West Vancouver all the way to Mount Currie, servicing all the communities in between, making it easier to bargain for funding collectively.

In the meantime Wells will approach council for the money to address the commuter issue at the March 1 council meeting.

— with files from Clare Ogilvie