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Locals discount, money-grubbing Olympics, sardonic thanks, and why people leave

Some facts of life in Whistler This letter is kind of reaction to the one about the dog beach incident at Lost Lake (Pique letters Aug.

Some facts of life in Whistler

This letter is kind of reaction to the one about the dog beach incident at Lost Lake (Pique letters Aug. 24) and also just a general expression of frustration about how the word "local" has gained such a negative meaning for me and perhaps others.

Maybe I’m just paying more attention to those letters lately but it seems like through the summer I read more than a few about some of our visitors complaining about having to pay full price for stuff when "locals" enjoy a discount. Well, my dear tourists and guests, let me put things into perspective for you. In every town I've been to in my life the following things are true. Restaurant employees usually get half-priced food, employees in a video store get to take home free movies and games, mountain staff get a free ski pass for the season, and hotel employees get staff rated rooms. Why? Because we are the ones that ensure your food gets to you piping hot and delicious, that your wine glass is full, that your kids have a great time with the babysitter while you’re out for the night. We’re the ones that have to wake up at bitter cold ungodly hours of the morning to make sure that lifts are up and running when you’re done sleeping off your hangover. We’re the ones who clean your room while you’re skiing and put fresh sheets on your bed. We’re the ones who clean up the garbage and vomit off the streets after your drunken misadventures last night. You have such a great time here because we bust our asses to make it happen.

Now, on to my fellow Whistlerites. It drives me mad when I hear someone who’s been here a few months and has managed to learn where all the bars and liquor stores are but has no idea where the municipal hall is or the garbage compactors(!!!) say "Oh, I’m a local." No you’re not. In fact you’re even further from it than the average weekend warrior. You’re under the impression that your short residence here entitles you to everything. But beyond having learned which bar has which specials on which night you’re completely ignorant to the rest of the community. I’ve lived here for seven years now. I’ve volunteered for a number of events, I’ve taken dogs out for walks from WAG, participated in several charity drives but still sometimes have a hard time saying "I’m a local" because I feel I should be doing more.

And a lot of those people who lived here longer than that (sorry to say, a lot of my friends too) tend to think of their "local" status as an all-access VIP pass that puts them above the rules and also gives them the right to look down on tourists and visitors to our slice of paradise as intruders and/or second rate citizens. To quote an old adage, "Don’t bite the that hand feeds you!" Tourists are our bread ’n’ butter and you’d have to be pretty stupid to not understand that pissing them off will result in them not spending money here. Sure it’s frustrating to be running to grab lunch in your uniform and then having to waste 10 precious minutes explaining how to get to Merlin’s. And I also get annoyed when asked for the zillionth time if something is in U.S. dollars.

But that’s the reality of living in Whistler, and if you can’t deal with it you need to seriously consider moving away from here because answering those questions will always be a part the local life.

So smile, nod and say "The village shuttle will drop you off right beside Merlin's. Just ask the bus driver to tell you when you're there."

Y'all have a good day now!

Victor Lezu

Whistler

 

The Olympics explained

If I had to explain what the Olympics are to a non-resident of the earth, which of the following do you feel would be more true?

A) It is a great event where countries come together in the spirit of sport to foster friendship and peace. Athletes are encouraged to be their best and in reality, everyone wins as the games are an exhibition of man’s co-operation and success.

B) It is a money grubbing event, where every two years corporations, television studios, hotels and restaurants fight for their share of the pie. Athletes are led to believe that if they beat their opponents by 1/100th of a second, they are more important and will make more money, especially if they do not get caught taking banned drugs. Judges play politics and more money is spent on security (because of the policies and hypocrisy of most of the governments involved) than is possible to believe. The corporations, as usual, win.

Daniel Akler

Whistler

 

For these things we give thanks

We would like to thank the mayor and the council for being so community minded in their sustainable decisions.

Here is our list that we are so thankful for:

1.   Thank you for using our tax dollars to create a new business venture to compete against our business. We are very happy to see your new “Whistler logo wear” shirt program going to a Vancouver company. We are a local silk screening company that has been doing business in the valley since 1989, yet we did not even get an invitation to bid on the opportunity to print these eco friendly & sweatshop free garments. We wonder if it was all the slave children that we have working in the cold and windowless basement of our toxic and dark sweatshop that disqualified Toad Hall Studios from this contract. Well, we guess it is not sustainable to print Whistler logo shirts in Whistler. We guess it is not sustainable to use a local company that employs only Whistler residents. We do guess it is sustainable to use our tax dollars to create competition against local established enterprises. We guess that is sustainable for the muni to make it even harder to survive in this already hostile business environment. The T-shirt business is a cutthroat business as it is, heck even Canada Post sells T-shirts now, so let’s cheer council in this business-wise decision that now has the municipality jumping in the action as well. Let’s make sure that we put those tax dollars to work against the locals.

2. Thank you for losing the precious opportunity to have had an additional arena in Whistler — but getting instead the much needed bobsled facilities. The arena would have been a great legacy for Whistler after the Olympic Games. The arena could have been operated as a business, as a venture that did not conflict with existing businesses but complemented them, and thus creating its own revenue and becoming a sustainable “resource”. This concept was clearly outlined in the plan presented to council by Norbert Doeblin. It made economic sense. Hey, but what do we know, if the price tag went from $20 million to $60 million in 10 months, imagine how much it would have ended up costing after three years! No such thing as binding contracts and such measures apply to the two empty lots in the village. But it makes us wonder if that also means that the new municipal hall expansion cost will inflate astronomically like the arena? Oh boy, these decisions sure make a lot of business sense.

3. Thank you for the future expansion of the municipal hall. Do we really need to make a bigger hall and to hire the extra people that will be needed to staff it? Let’s add one more negative element to the current employee shortage crisis that we are enjoying at the moment. Hmm… let us think, arena bad business but new and bigger muni hall good business? Duh! Of course it is a BIG YES, let’s go for the expanded municipal hall. Thank you again for such great, economically sustainable decisions.

4. Thank you for the 50 per cent increase in “wages” for council, and the most expensive payroll for a municipal staff in this province — while the rest of us are struggling in a flat local economy that shows no early signs of a speedy recovery. We guess decreasing taxes for local business so they can get some breathing room in this present economy is not a sustainable idea.

5. And finally, thank you for spending $900,000 in a study to tell us that we could not afford the arena. Thank you for spending our tax dollars so wisely.

Jorge Alvarez and The Toads

Toad Hall Studios

Whistler

 

A real Olympic legacy

Re: Worker shortage

This comes as no surprise to me that experienced workers are and have been leaving this town in droves over the past three years.

Since I arrived in town 10 years ago, there has been nothing but lip service paid to the issue of affordable employee rentals.

It's time for the mayor and town council to stop pandering to the real estate agents and big business and start to help the people who really run this town.

Those are the cooks who cook the food, the people who clean the hotel rooms, the servers in the dining establishments and the countless other hardworking people.

Looking towards other countries to supply the cheap labour you are looking for is not an answer. The whole world is presently going through the same types of labour shortages and to bring someone in from another country to work a minimum wage job while living six to a room is inhumane treatment as far as I am concerned.

At the present rate of people leaving this town, the outlook for having enough staff to work during the Olympics is looking very doubtful.

Volunteers will only go so far and from my experience, people work harder when they are actually paid to do the jobs.

The mayor and council continually talk about the Olympic legacies that they want to see happen for Whistler. How about this one?

An affordable employee rental complex that is fit to live in, and I am sure that you can build it for a lot less than an arena that would have only left us a legacy of 30 years of increased taxes to pay for it. Remember Montreal?

The rental fees would cover the construction costs and upkeep on such a project.

Affordable housing isn't and has never been a feasible idea in this town and should be abandoned. To put restrictions on how much you can sell your unit for in a real estate market such as this one just encourages the people buying these units to break the covenants they have signed in order to get the housing in the first place. They see the unbridled greed and outrageous prices created by the real estate agents in this town and say, "Why not me?"

I, for one, cannot blame them. I would do the same in their shoes.

Get your thumbs out of your rear ends, Mr. Mayor and council and leave us a real Olympic legacy. A town that we can live in. A town that is fit to live in.

Chris Field

Whistler

 

It takes a village… to attract the best

I am intrigued by the ongoing discussion about attracting and retaining foreign workers in Whistler. One question comes to mind: why are we so obsessed on attracting solely entry-level staff doing mediocre jobs? Why stop there? Why not try to attract and retain the best minds and skills in the tourism and hospitality industry from all over the world?

If we all aspire to be the best resort community, we will need the best minds to lead the way and the best skills to serve our guests.

Attracting the best minds and skills though is not only about giving them the highest salary in the market. It will be a matter of one part remuneration and one part inspiration and challenge. Ultimately, there must be something better than money, because someone out there will always be willing to pay more. Like the old adage says, “Only a bright company can attract bright minds.” The same thing can be said about our community; only a lively community can attract energetic and smart people from all over the world to live here.

And to create a lively community, it will take the effort of the whole village, not just the mayor, councils, MPs or MLAs.

Jay Wahono   Whistler

 

Missed the news

After an amazing and wonderful day at Slow Food Cycle Sunday in the Pemberton Valley, we eagerly awaited the next edition of Pique for coverage of this very public social event as well as coverage the Feast of Fields. Well, there was nothing in that edition so we thought, gee, must not have had time before the paper went to press. So, again, we dove into the edition after that to find... nothing!

Here we are with a wonderful opportunity focusing on local agritourism, and not one article about these hugely successful events. Aside from the Sea the Sky corridor, Pique is distributed all over the Lower Mainland, a large readership which didn't get the “news.” Guess we'll have to try to pick up a copy of City Food somewhere, perhaps they will have found it a story worth reporting.

Susan Morris

North Vancouver/Pemberton