Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Council Briefs

‘Gong Show’ at Whistler’s public parks A complaint about drugs, booze and off-leash dogs at Rainbow Park has prompted council to look into various strategies to address these problems at all of Whistler’s public parks.

‘Gong Show’ at Whistler’s public parks

A complaint about drugs, booze and off-leash dogs at Rainbow Park has prompted council to look into various strategies to address these problems at all of Whistler’s public parks.

"I don’t go to the beach anymore it is so upsetting and so unpleasant and I am a Whistler taxpayer," wrote Barbara Jane Dow, who called the weekends at Rainbow Park a "Gong Show:"

"I ask council to consider more enforcement, even undercover police."

Bylaw Services Supervisor Sandra Smith said they have been trying to work with youth about open booze as well as trying to educate people about leashing their dogs, but the problems still persist.

They have also doubled enforcement patrols and two bylaw officers patrol the parks about three times a day, in addition to RCMP patrols.

One of the next steps may be putting sandwich boards up at the entrance to every park outlining the rules.

Bylaw officers issued 171 tickets for open liquor in parks during the month of May. Less than 20 were issued last year during the same time period. This is because the municipality can now give a $100 fine to anyone who is carrying open liquor in the parks.

The fine for having a dog off-leash is $50 but usually the dog owner is given a warning first.

Councillor Nick Davies questioned: "Why is it when I park in a fire lane, I don’t get a warning?"

Smith said that most of the people hanging out at Rainbow Park are residents as opposed to visitors. And though Lost Lake Park has tourists during the day, it switches back to a resident’s park in the evenings.

If the problems persist, Councillor Ken Melamed is not averse to taking a tough approach, particularly for the dog walkers breaking the law.

"We’ve reached out by creating non-leash hours at the park," he said.

"I’m quite comfortable banning dogs from out parks if that’s what it takes."

Old clothes provide funds for community services

It’s no wonder the Re-Use-It Centre has had a 25 per cent increase in profits this year.

Every day roughly 38 bags of clothing gets dropped off at the front doors.

"And those are the usable ones!" said Jessie Pendygrasse, one of the board members of the Whistler Community Services Society.

Pendygrasse and fellow board member Gill Ackhurst updated council on the society’s progress over the past year at Monday’s council meeting.

The WCSS is a non-profit organization heading up a number of community programs in Whistler.

"The revenue that comes into all the programs is entirely from the sales of all the donated goods that come to the Re-Use-It Centre," said Pendygrasse.

The increase in sales and profits from the centre has led to the expansion of WCSS programs.

The Food Bank increased by 30 per cent this year. The Emergency Assistance program doubled and the Christmas Hamper program almost doubled.

The WCSS also added a new female youth outreach worker and launched an eating disorder group this year.

And there are more plans on the horizon. The WCSS plans to initiate a Whistler Welcome Week to introduce the seasonal workers to the heart of the community this year. Ackhurst described it as a fun way of discovering the different services in the community as well as meeting long-time locals.

Members of the board were at council on Monday night to thank the municipality for granting at least a 1,000 square foot expansion to the Re-Use-It Centre, the lifeblood of so many community programs.

The group is hoping to break ground at the current site in the fall and have the expanded centre up and running just in time for the busy season in October.

Pendygrasse added that the Re-Use-It Centre is always looking for volunteers on Monday and Thursday evenings.

No more jet-skis on Green Lake

The municipality is banning jet-skis and snowmobiles on all of Whistler’s lakes and rivers.

The move comes after a series of complaints last fall about the increased use of personal watercrafts on Green Lake. Some of those watercrafts were also going up the River of Golden Dreams, a sensitive local ecosystem.

"These guys are buzzing everywhere," said Bylaw Services Supervisor Sandra Smith.

"They really are a nuisance."

The Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment also objected to the use of personal watercrafts in local lakes.

They were concerned about the unburned fuel from the two-stroke engines threatening the birds, fish and marine mammals.

They are also worried that one hour using a personal watercraft equals roughly one year of emissions from an average passenger car.

After taking into consideration the concerns from local residents as well as AWARE, the municipality enacted a noise control bylaw under a section of the Local Government Act which will prohibit the machines.

Noise control bylaws have been adopted successfully in other places. When the bylaws have been challenged in provincial courts, they have been upheld.