The municipality is asking the province if the planned daytime
closures of Highway 99 between Function Junction and the village can be moved
to night, Mayor Ken Melamed said this week.
The full closures — which would take place in this spring
— are currently planned between 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. as part of the
Whistler highway upgrades. Other closure times are 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. and 3 a.m.
to 5 a.m.
Melamed said the Ministry of Transportation scheduled the
daytime closures for blasting work, which they did not want to be done at night
because of noise. The municipality, however, is wondering if a different
arrangement can be worked out.
“We continue to dialogue with them to see if they can work with
the contractor and move to nighttime,” said Melamed.
He added that the province has said there will be no full
highway closures in the winter.
Construction on the highway started this week, and the $9.8
million project is expected to wrap up in 2009.
The project will add a temporary third lane between Function
Junction and Creekside during the 2010 Games, which will later be converted
back into two lanes with wider highway shoulders. The grade on Nordic Hill will
also be improved.
Spring Creek day care closures moves to provincial level
MLA Joan McIntyre will continue lobbying the provincial
government about Whistler’s day care challenges, after meeting with council
this week to discuss the problem.
The West Vancouver-Garibaldi MLA is familiar with Spring Creek
day care’s announced closures, as well as other issues Whistler has faced over
the past few years, said Mayor Ken Melamed.
“Ms. McIntyre is well versed on the file and has been speaking
with her minister responsible, trying to find out what we can do,” said
Melamed, stressing that childcare is a federal and provincial government
responsibility, not a municipal one.
“We told Ms. McIntyre that the municipality is looking at its
bylaws around home care provision, but that is really as far as we can go. The
province is the one that regulates and sets training levels and provides the
training courses.”
McIntyre has also told the municipality that she will be
looking at speeding up the accreditation process for childcare workers who are
not from B.C., although Melamed acknowledged this legislation will probably not
come on board in time to save the Spring Creek program.
To further alert higher levels of government about local day
care challenges, Melamed said the municipality is also speaking to newly
elected MP John Weston.
These discussions follow an announcement last week that Spring
Creek will shut down two of its day care programs because not enough staff have
appropriate child care certification.
The Daises program for children aged three months to 18 months
and the Blueberries program for children aged 18 months to 36 months will both
be cancelled on Nov. 28.
Second gas station is a go
The Squamish and Lil’wat Nations’ plans for a gas station at
Function Junction are moving full steam ahead, after no one spoke at Monday
night’s public hearing.
The First Nations have proposed a 5,000 square metre gas
station on their plot of land, sandwiched between Highway 99 and the railway
south of Alpha Lake Road. They will also build a light industrial and
commercial space, similar to what already exists on Millar Creek Road.
“It is a good proposal,” said Mayor Ken Melamed, after
commenting that the quiet public hearing did not surprise him.
“To the proponents’ credit, they have listened and read our
plan. There was not very much that was contentious about it.”
The timeline for the project has not been made public yet, but
council has said they are anxious to get the second gas station in Whistler
before the 2010 Olympics.
Following the public hearing, council unanimously approved
third reading of zoning bylaws.
The First Nations received the land, along with eight other
parcels, as part of the Olympic Legacy Agreement, signed in May 2007. Revenue
from developing the legacy lands is expected to offset the costs of running the
Squamish-Lil’wat Cultural Centre.
New financial plan in the works
A group of financial experts from across the province has
gathered together to scrutinize and update Whistler’s long-term financial plan,
which dates back to 1999.
The revision comes at a time when council and municipal staff
are coming to grips with the current economic challenges Whistler is facing,
like build out and a possible global recession, said Mayor Ken Melamed at
Monday’s council meeting. The outdated financial plan was brought to council’s
attention by senior municipal staff.
“We want to forecast longer term trends so we can be adaptable
and flexible as we meet challenges,” said Melamed.
“We understand that there are immediate challenges that need to
be taken into consideration as we move into a new longer term perspective and a
new way of visioning.”
The steering committee is composed of 15 people, including Ken
Dobell from VANOC, Jamie Bruce from Capital West Partners, Scott Riley from the
Royal Bank of Canada and Tamara Vrooman from Vancity.
Fiona Famulak is representing the Whistler Chamber of
Commerce on the committee.
Councillor Bob Lorriman, who was part of the first task force
meeting on Oct. 9, said Whistler’s long term financial outlook appears to be
positive, as long as the municipality proceeds carefully.
“The key message we got (from the first meeting) is Whistler is
in a very strong place to start from, but we have challenges looking forward
because we have reached built out,” reported Lorriman, adding that the 51-page
1999 plan anticipated Whistler would reach build out.
Whistler is one of the few jurisdictions in Canada that has a
10-year financial plan that examines things like tourism and demographic
trends, as well as financial strategies. According to Melamed, the Government
Finance Officers Association adopted Whistler’s financial plan as a best
practice in their 2008 guide.
RBC illuminated sign OKed
Council approved an application by
Olympic sponsor Royal Bank of Canada to display an illuminated 2010 Games sign
on the outside of its building, after some discussion Monday.
The sign is bigger than the temporary
signs bylaw allows, and Councillor Tim Wake was concerned that allowing the RBC
sign would set a precedent for the Games. However, Councillor Gord McKeever
reassured that the sign is subdued-looking and appropriate for the Games.
Mike Kirkegaard, manager of resort
planning, said the municipality expects to receive more requests for temporary
Olympic signs as February 2010 gets nearer.
"This one we see as a little
different than some other corporate sponsors in the Games who may not already
have a physical presence in the municipality," said Kirkegaard.
"For that scenario, we will be
looking at the Games office and VANOC to establish a protocol. We see this as
being a bit of a warming up."
The only other Olympic sponsor with a
permanent storefront in Whistler is McDonald's.
Municipality applies for Westside
sewer grant, again
For the 10
th
year in a
row, the municipality will apply for a grant from the Building Canada Fund to
construct a sewer collection system for residents on Alta Lake Road, also known
as Westside.
"The money has been set aside in
our budget for 2011, if we are successful with this grant application,"
said Mayor Ken Melamed.
"Of course, we'll keep applying.
Hopefully we'll be successful in time."
According to Brian Barnett, soil and
lake water tests show that 60 per cent of the 39 septic systems on Alta Lake
Road are discharging untreated water onto private property, nearby ditches and
Alta Lake.
The project, estimated to cost $3.8
million, is a "post 2010" priority, said Melamed.
Garbage fines cleaned up
Leave garbage or pet food outside,
and you could receive a $500 fine.
The municipality is upgrading its
garbage bylaw, and the new version — which received second reading on
Monday — includes fines for people who leave wildlife attractants
outdoors.
If adopted, the bylaw would allow the
municipality to give tickets ranging from $200 to $500 every day a person does not
comply, explained Heather Beresford, environment stewardship manager for the
municipality.
And if the problem persists, the
municipality could take the case to provincial court, where a judge could doll
out fines from $2,000 to $10,000, or up to three months imprisonment.
Wildlife attractants include food
products, domestic garbage, pet food, seed, restaurant grease, and game meat.
Environment land plan gets green
light
Council gave the Protected Areas
Network (PAN) plan second reading Monday night, six years after the land use
plan was first assembled.
The plan identifies Whistler’s
sensitive ecosystems and connectivity corridors, assigning each type of land a
level of designation. The most stringently protected lands are wetlands, which
no human structures can be built on, according to the document.
Mayor Ken Melamed commended PAN for
its proactive approach to development.
“Historically each time a landowner
comes up for rezoning, we are in react mode,” said Melamed. “Now we can get to
a proactive state and actually take an upstream approach rather than a
defensive approach.”
The PAN document received first reading in 2005 and has been developed with input from a public steering committee, two public open houses, a peer review, and a professor from Simon Fraser University, among others.