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Accommodating the Games

For most of Whistler, there is and always has been one basic question about the period of the Olympics that has never been adequately answered: Who is going to be here? It seems like the simplest question, but the answer has been elusive.

For most of Whistler, there is and always has been one basic question about the period of the Olympics that has never been adequately answered: Who is going to be here?

It seems like the simplest question, but the answer has been elusive. And 14 months before the Games begin the answer is still vague.

VANOC, of course, is central to the issue. The organizing committee plays a key role in determining who stays in Whistler during the Olympics. However, some of the groups coming in 2010 — some media, national Olympic committees, corporate sponsors — can stay in Vancouver just as easily, and less expensively, than in Whistler. Where they decide to stay doesn’t matter too much to VANOC.

But it’s important to Whistler, to the retailers, restaurateurs, hoteliers — the people in the valley who form the basis of most people’s Whistler experience. It’s important for schools and for residents trying to decide whether they will stay for the Games or leave town. It’s important for any business trying to develop a plan for the Olympics.

The municipality’s estimate of how many people will be in the valley in February 2010, including friends and family of residents, is fluid. It will be updated next month.

VANOC said this week that accommodating and transporting workers and volunteers in the corridor is “complex” and is still an area of concern.

Last month VANOC’s vice president of accommodation and services, Jacqui Murdoch, said the organization is still 411 rooms short of what it needs for media in Whistler. All media accommodation must be secured by February, although some media organizations have already decided to base their operations in Vancouver, rather than Whistler.

“It seems like every week or two we hear about a group which has decided to have their main base down in Vancouver instead of Whistler when their absolute first choice would have been… Whistler,” the RMOW’s Michele Comeau Thompson said last month. “They are being forced to make that decision to be in Vancouver and Whistler becomes the satellite.”

Murdoch sounded exasperated by the situation in Whistler.

“…Out of 10,000 bedrooms (in Whistler) we have only secured 3,000, so where are the rest?”

The problem, if anyone didn’t know, is that most hotel accommodation in Whistler is strata-titled. That is, each room is privately owned. Owners generally don’t have to commit their room to the rental pool more than 12 months in advance. Media organizations, national Olympic committees, corporate sponsors and others have to make their Olympic plans more than 12 months in advance.

The other factor is money. VANOC has promised owners a rate for their accommodation during the Games. It’s significantly higher than what’s being paid for accommodation in Vancouver but some owners — despite months of pleading from Tourism Whistler and property managers — are holding out for more money or longer commitments from Olympic guests.

In this scenario we are all going to lose.

“We are at a point where in the next couple of weeks we are going to have to make some commitment (to temporary solutions),” Murdoch said last month.

One of the last acts of the previous Whistler council, to bring back the temporary commercial use permits (TCUPs) system, was at least partially in response to the need for accommodation during the Olympics. VANOC has issued a request for proposals to provide cruise ships in Squamish to house some Olympic volunteers and paid workers. Olympic organizers are also looking into constructing temporary housing in campsites up and down the corridor. They may be in competition for campsite space with up to 1,800 military personnel who are expected in the corridor and on the North Shore.

So with Olympic organizers investigating alternative accommodation arrangements and time winding down, Whistler — through the inaction of condo-hotel owners — is losing out. The list of organizations that could still choose to stay in Whistler is dwindling rapidly.

The RCMP has quietly rented houses in town. The military will be self-sufficient in their camps. One private security firm is training First Nations residents of the corridor who have their own homes.

Olympic sponsors, as expected, will all be based in Vancouver during the Games and will make day trips to Whistler.

Most national Olympic committees have committed to Vancouver. The official Olympic broadcasters for each country usually base their operations in the same area as their NOC.

The Germans, who have won more medals in each of the last two Winter Olympics than any other country, would like to be based here. But after nearly five months they still haven’t found what they’re looking for in Whistler accommodation.

There is little talk, anymore, of the Neighbourhood of Nations buildings.

So if most of the corporate sponsors and NOCs, and many of the media, paid workers and volunteers, will be staying outside of Whistler what is our Plan B? No doubt there are still Olympic tourists who would like to stay in Whistler, but they too have budgets. And it may take some convincing to get them here.