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Pique'n'yer interest

Reality sets in

This week heralds the opening of the 2010 Paralympic Games, which are a far bigger deal than most people acknowledge and should really be embraced by all - broadcasters included - as much as the Olympics. After all, sports is all about character, the struggle to be your best so that on one golden day you have a chance to be The Best - and nobody knows struggle better than our Paralympians.

After that it's a long road back to reality for Whistler, albeit with a few happy diversions along the way like the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Reality sets in

Festival.

As a community we elected a slate of councillors that pledged to get our municipal finances under control - wages, staff levels, operating costs - once the Olympics were over. With property taxes due in June every resident will be painfully reminded of that pledge and we're going to expect to see real progress on that front before municipal elections roll around again in 2011. That gives us about a year and a half to get our house in order.

It's not going to be easy. Whistler has relied on development charges and fees to balance its budget in the past, but with the resort nearing build-out that source of revenue is about to dry up.

The obvious thing to do would be to bend a little on our bed unit cap, but there was no support for that during the last election, and for a resort that has invested so heavily in sustainability it's also the very definition of irresponsible - we can't keep growing our way out of our problems and put off that day of reckoning. Besides, the one-time windfall of development money is quickly spent and the community will ultimately be left with more homes to service, more roads to clear, more sewage to treat, and so on.

If we accept the fact that growth will be extremely limited in the future that leaves the municipality with four options - cutting services, cutting wages, cutting staffing levels or cutting all three.

Cutting services is a tough one, because most services are popular and I doubt many people could even agree what services to cut. But cuts are inevitable to all non-essential services if Whistler is ever going to balance its budget, whether that means letting our landscaping go wild or forgoing a few capital projects.

The wages issue is extremely tough, which is why I would never suggest cutting any wages for anybody working for the municipality right now. I would, however, suggest paying any new hires significantly less to reflect the prevailing wages of the resort. We all know (or suspect) that the municipality generally pays the highest wages and benefits in the resort, which is already a point of resentment among non-municipal workers, as well as completely unrealistic.

I know the RMOW is confident that it's paying workers their market value because they compare their salaries to a Union of B.C. Municipalities index of other local governments, but to really be fair to everyone you absolutely have to take the local economy into account. Whistler's economy is down right now and private sector wages are clearly not keeping pace with inflation.

Also, it's worth pointing out that the index system itself is a little absurd. Here's why: when municipality A raises salaries, then neighbouring municipalities B, C, D and E usually follow suit. A year later municipality F might look at the index and use some of those increases for A through E to justify their own wage increase - which municipality A notices the following year and then raises its wages again. The index is a self-sustaining feedback loop, not an impartial or objective arbiter of fair pay.

The final piece of the economic puzzle is staffing, which now accounts for about 70 per cent of our annual budget. There needs to be a gentle paring down of staff by attrition and other means to a more realistic size, recognizing that we are moving from a period of intense growth to a period where we'll be spending more time maintaining than building. What's the least number of staff members we need to keep our local government functioning and how soon can we get there?

I recognize the need to provide a higher level of services to support the tourism industry, but that's why we have the hotel tax. Going forward, we simply can't provide more services and amenities to visitors than the hotel tax pays for.

We can also be creative. For example, Squamish has imposed a $5 per person trail fee for events that utilize their local trails, using the money to upkeep and expand the trail network. We should absolutely have that here.

Whistler is already well-served by its volunteers. Groups like WORCA and the Whistler Nordics are providing affordable youth camps and youth recreation, Pitch-In Day cuts maintenance costs, etc. People would probably volunteer to do a lot of jobs around town in exchange for grants, waived user fees, and so on. Using private contractors for some roles can also save money, depending on the job.

Reality sucks, but sooner or later we all have to face it. And sooner is always better than later.