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Now comes the hard part

After a tough, emotional and at times ugly election campaign, in which some voters threw as much dirt as the politicians did, Whistler has a new mayor and council poised to lead us into a critical three-year period.
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After a tough, emotional and at times ugly election campaign, in which some voters threw as much dirt as the politicians did, Whistler has a new mayor and council poised to lead us into a critical three-year period. Congratulations are in order for all who put their names forward as candidates, and especially for those who were elected: Ken Melamed, Nancy Wilhelm-Morden, Bob Lorriman, Gordon McKeever, Ralph Forsyth, Tim Wake and Eckhard Zeidler.

Now comes the hard part. With McKeever and Melamed the only members of the current council returning, and with mayor-elect Melamed setting a 60-day action plan, it would appear the new council faces a steep learning curve. But Wilhelm-Morden is hardly a rookie, having served three previous terms on council, and Wake knows one of Whistler’s most pressing issues – affordable housing – better than anyone. And the others have been enmeshed in local politics and municipal hall for years.

As was noted many times during the campaign, the new council will be in office for an important three-year period when almost all the remaining decisions on the Olympics, and plans for Whistler post-Olympics, will have to be made. They will be the beneficiaries of some good work that was done in the last three years, particularly in regard to municipal procedures and the CSP, but there is plenty more to do.

One of the areas where improvement is needed is in communications. While there was lots of talk about specific issues during the campaign, there’s still a need for a general discussion and common understanding of where Whistler is and where it’s going. More than striving to be "the premier mountain resort community" we need to come to a common understanding of what our problems are, what needs to be done to fix them and recognize the issues that lie ahead. And those aren’t just questions for council to consider; the public has to be invited to participate and stay involved.

There are also some specific issues that need to be resolved. One of the longest such sagas is financial tools.

There seems to be an assumption that this is a four-year-old problem that began when Premier Gordon Campbell apparently made a commitment to Whistler. At an open house on Olympic legacies in February of 2002 municipal staff were saying that financial tools, boundary expansion and the 300-acre land bank could all be realities by the end of that year. The fact that we don’t have them, and that we’ve coincidentally had four straight winters of declining visitor numbers, is taken as proof that the Liberals are messing with us. As the Olympics get closer we will need those financial tools even more.

The basic argument for financial tools is sound: resort towns have to provide infrastructure and services for people well in excess of their population and therefore need additional sources of revenue. But Whistler began lobbying for additional sources of revenue back in the mid-80s when a delegation went to Victoria with a packaged proposal for a resort tax, known as Whistler Inc. Eventually Victoria decided Whistler should get a slice of the hotel tax.

Then about eight and a half years ago a new Whistler council toured Colorado resorts and came away with renewed interest in finding additional sources of revenue. Whistler again tried to make the case to Victoria alone, rather than partner with other resort towns in B.C.

Then, apparently, after several years with no results, came the premiere’s promise to Whistler. That was nearly four years ago, at a time when financial tools were part of the draft Community Charter and would have been available to every municipality. The idea that individual municipalities could collect a tax on their primary industry scared a lot of business people, including many in the ski industry, and the provision was quietly dropped from the Community Charter.

Since then Whistler has begun working with other resort communities to try and convince Victoria that towns dependent on tourism need additional sources of revenue. The most recent efforts are believed to focus on convincing Victoria to hand over a greater percentage of the hotel tax. But if Victoria is considering this it appears it won’t happen before the spring session of the legislature. If it goes ahead then it could still mean there wouldn’t be any new revenue for Whistler before 2007.

The issue for the new council to ponder is: what’s an honest assessment of whether we’re really any closer to getting some new source of revenue? The argument is sound but does Victoria really want to give up some of its revenue – $3 million-$4 million annually has been talked about – to a town where approximately $200 million is being spent on Olympic facilities? And if Victoria does decide to forfeit $3 million-$4 million annually to Whistler, what’s the cumulative financial hit the province will take when Sun Peaks, Rossland, Fernie, Tofino and other resort towns decide they should get more of the hotel tax too?

With a strong economy at the moment, and policies that encourage tourism and resort development, Victoria may be able to afford to give up some hotel tax revenue now, but it also has to look several years ahead.

After they’ve made an honest assessment of where we are in the eight-year quest for financial tools from Victoria, the new council should then consider whether there are alternatives. Do we continue to wait for Victoria or is there something else we could be or should be concentrating our efforts on?