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Worth Remembering

This week — and every week — remember the innocent of École Polytechnique de Montreal. B. Buchholz Whistler (Editor's note: Dec.
opinion_letters1

This week — and every week — remember the innocent of École Polytechnique de Montreal.

B. Buchholz

Whistler

(Editor's note: Dec. 6 marked the 22nd anniversary of the massacre at Montreal's École Polytechnique during which 14 innocent women were killed by an enraged gunman. The day is now recognized as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.)

Confusion over Callaghan skiing

I have a few questions for Keith Bennett, the CEO and President of Whistler Sport Legacies (Society), concerning Whistler Olympic Park (WOP): Is the trail leading out to Madeley Lake being groomed this season? By WOP? If not, why did the cost of my season pass go up when my skiable terrain has been significantly reduced?  

Is it a coincidence that the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Resources "asked WOP not to groom the [Madeley Lake] road," at around the same time WOP had its falling out with Callaghan Country? Why was WOP able to groom the road in previous years?  

How much money did Whistler Sport Legacies spend on the new trail on the Madeley Creek Loop that prevents skiers from accessing the Mainline trail going up to the Callaghan Lodge? And why did WSL spend this money when it says it's desperately short of money?

Ghlee MacLeod

Whistler

Solution needed for success

I know the Challaghan lodge group took the initial leadership some 20 years ago to develop the area and had the business acumen to know what a jewel they had. The Challaghan lodge group groomed and developed this area in anticipation of (this becoming a) World Class area. This eventually happened some 15 years later with the Olympic (Nordic) venue being (situated) in the Challaghan area.

Now, this conflict has become a sad reminder of the terrible mismanagement between Sovereign Lake and Silverstar Mountain. Both parties losing and still in conflict some 10 years later! The two groups must learn from this and work together to build unity for the sport, the children, and for the business of the Whistler area.

The combination of superb training facilities at Whistler Olympic Park and the incredibly diverse skiing terrain of Callaghan Country were sufficient enough enticement to lure me away from Silver Star several years ago. This was surely the Legacy that we all had dreamed and spoken of so proudly.

Does Whistler Sport Legacies Society really understand the consequences of severing the joint operation with Callaghan Country — for the present and the future?

Both Silver Star and the Metthow Valley offer significantly better and diverse facilities than does WOP as a stand-alone product.

Whoever is responsible for the decision to cut their product offering in half in the face of this competitive market needs to compromise and understand that working together is more efficient and effective and is required to survive in the competitive business today.

Raising the trail pass fee by two dollars given this conflict only hurts the customer and slows business down. The two entities have to work together for a solution

Hopefully Whistler Sport Legacies will have the business sense to understand teamwork and leadership are needed to collaborate and come to a solution for the success of the whole area.

I hope that the WOP will not continue to try to destroy all the hard work, passion and dedication to the sport that has been put into this area by the Challaghan lodge group

Mary Wolfe

Vancouver

Support culture

Unbelievable! A whole new slate and a new Chief Administrative Officer (Mike Furey) and a new financial officer (Ken Roggeman).

First of all, a big thank-you to the past mayor and council for their tireless energy and their committed passion for our town during the last three years on council. All of you were elected three years ago with a vision for a sustainably green utopian ski resort. Instead you were left with the task of digging our way out of a massive financial pit of Olympic debt. To say your mission was complex is an understatement.

Congratulations to the new mayor and council who must be over flowing with enthusiasm, ideas and dreams of fixing all that ails our town. Some of the platforms that you were elected on are lofty to say the least and we wish you calm waters and some good clean relationships.

We did not hear too much about the Arts and Culture in this election.

Please, no more studies on Arts and Culture. The art scene and Whistler culture is here and has been for years, all you need to do is acknowledge what we have and support it. We are talking about Millennium Place/Whistler Arts Council, Library, Museum, Celebration Plaza, The Point/Hostel Site, Station House on Alta Lake, the Farmers Market and Whistler Film Festival. Can we please celebrate and nurture the existing arts and culture in Whistler.

Some of our new councillors have promised a slash and burn method of accountability in municipal spending. Please take a hard look at what initiatives and ideas have been developed, some of them for years and all could be destroyed with a stroke of a pen. Now is the time to open a new way of thinking. By supporting and encouraging our creative culture, we can thrive as a positive, healthy, creative community.

Vincent (Binty) and Cheryl Massey

Whistler

$$$ down the drain?

This is my final word on the matter I promise you. If the political agenda on paved parking was to force people to take public transit then why did we bother to pave the lots?

In Europe there are countries that meter the discharge of water into the sewers. Naturally this conserves water, a diminishing luxury in most of the world. Ipso facto, all rainwater that falls onto gravelled driveways gets percolated and filtered into the ground, a natural cleansing process called nature.

Where as, the water that sheds so quickly off asphalt, while filling every raindrop with hydrocarbons and other pollutants, pours into the sewer system, racing the discharge meter of the home. $$$$$$$$ down the sewer.

Just wondering if you were aware of this?

Geoff Swan

Whistler

New bus schedule 'outrageous'

It used to be you could catch the #5 bus at the Marketplace bus stop every six to eight minutes during the ski-winter tourist season and get to the Blackcomb base lodge in three to four minutes.

Not any more!

This year, anyone residing or vacationing in the Marketplace area will have to wait 15 to 18 minutes between buses, hop on the so called Marketplace Shuttle for a three minute trip to the Gondola Transit Exchange, wait 15 minutes for the next Upper Village/Benchlands Shuttle, and finally travel another one to two minutes to the base of Blackcomb. This amounts to a difference of 25 to 27 minutes.

As a Canadian, a Whistler resident and a provincial taxpayer I find this new schedule to be outrageous.

A big thank you to all those involved in this change of schedule and those responsible for the subsequent inconvenience this will cause Marketplace residents and tourists.

Gary Crowe

Whistler

SHARE-ing the wealth

Wow! Thank you so much (for the Prior skis won through Pique's Share Whistler project). That's tremendous! Whistler has been —increasingly — important to me ever since I first came to ski around 12 years ago. I've made good friends, bought property, watched my now six-year-old daughter learn to ski, and come over from England as often as I could, winter and summer.

One day I hope I'm lucky enough to spend a good length of time living here. In the meantime I'm delighted to have contributed in a small way to the Share Whistler campaign and the Whistler community.

The prize far outweighs my contribution to the fundraiser. To help the karmic balance I've made an additional contribution to the campaign, which I hope goes that little bit further.

Thanks guys!

Julian Macedo

Isleworth, England

AWARE against wetland development

In the November 9 issue of Pique a letter from Doug Player suggested that the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment (AWARE) had, as part of its pre-election candidate survey, asked electoral candidates whether they supported the development of a university on the Zen wetlands. Mr Player's letter continued with scathing remarks questioning the validity of AWARE's research and ability to develop questions that provide "valid and reliable" data as well as accusing the group of providing misinformation.

Upon returning from holiday I called Doug to discuss his letter and as a Board we felt it was necessary to also respond publicly. During our discussions we touched on the following points

The question actually put to candidates was "as Whistler's wetlands have been reduced by almost three quarters, our remaining wetlands should not be developed." There was no mention of any proposed university or the Zen wetlands.

The question was posed as one of eight in a series of statements with which candidates could agree, disagree or highlight no specific opinion and could provide additional comments to qualify responses.

The responses to the candidate survey were made public on the day of the AWARE All Candidates Meeting and not before this (the deadline for responses was 5 p.m. the day before the meeting). This was the first time the questions were available to the public online.

If Mr. Player had attended the meeting or looked at the AWARE website to view the survey and results he would have seen that the question that was the focus of his letter was not the question that was presented to candidates.

As one of the longest running charitable and volunteer run organizations in Whistler, AWARE has long been the voice for the local environment and the current board are committed to focusing on facts and science as a basis for this voice. With regards to the development in which Mr. Player is interested both myself and our Vice President, Sara Jennings, have been to meetings regarding the potential Whistler U development and the four homes for which the site is currently zoned. Additionally, I read the environmental reports that were provided to us — in short we have done our research.

As a Board we feel that the decision about whether Whistler's future includes a university needs to be made by the community. However, we strongly believe that developments on, or that have an impact on, Whistler's few remaining wetland areas (through run off, increased human access, etc), should be avoided. Wetlands are one of the greatest environmental examples of how an area is impacted by what is put in to it, and taken out of it, and the significant impacts that human activity has on these delicately balanced ecosystems. The AWARE website (www.awarewhistler.org) is currently being updated but by Christmas we hope to have all our position statements (including those pertaining to wetlands) publicly listed there. But to summarize for now: AWARE would be against developments impacting any Whistler wetlands (no matter what names those lands are given) and according to our survey 96 per cent of recent electoral candidates agreed (1 candidate stated no opinion).

Thanks for letting us set the record straight.

Claire Ruddy

AWARE President

Super soccer supporters

From November 4 to 6, the Pemberton Secondary boy's soccer team participated in the "A" Soccer Provincials in Kamloops. The team did extremely well, finishing 4th out of 16 of the highest ranked teams in the province.

Pemberton finished as the highest placed public school for the second year running and made PSS history, improving on last years 5th place finish.

The boys would like to extend a huge thank you to Frontier St. Pharmacy, Di Carlos Pizza, Valley Chainsaw, Rona Hardware, AC Petroleum, Black's Hot Wheels, Pemberton Esso, Gobert Backhoe Service, and the Pemberton Legion for their donations to the silent auction.

Another thank you is due to the Village of Pemberton, which showed its support through a generous donation to our fundraising efforts.

We would like to thank everyone who came out to our Legion dinner; without the support of the community we would never have made the trip. Thank you Pemberton, you have once again shown why we are so fortunate to live here.

Soren Elsay

Team Captain

Mmmm good cookies

Just read the article about Sonya (Walos) (Pique Dec.1). We bought the cookies and they were great! This whole matter is ridiculous (Walos was disqualified from a Food Network show finals because an aunt works at a Vancouver Island store which is associated with a sponsor. Walos was unaware of the association).

With companies operating under so many banners these days, how is one to know if they may be ineligible to enter a contest because they have a relative that may work for one of them.

Some of us do not even know a lot of our relatives, let alone where they may work! I think Loblaws was totally unfair in this decision. Hope this does not discourage Sonya. Keep up the good work girl!!

Donna Benoit

Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia

Roller girls on a roll

On Tuesday, November 29, the Whistler Roller Girls Society roller derby league hosted our first ever fundraiser at Creekbread restaurant.

Thanks to an overwhelming turnout from this community, we were able to raise more than $1,000 to put towards training, equipment and uniforms. Our friends, family and colleagues in the Whistler community have been amazing, showing a tremendous amount of interest and support to help foster the sport of roller derby in this town.

We would especially like to thank Creekbread for hosting our benefit, as well as our sponsors for jumping on board: Nesters Market, Nagomi Sushi, Big Sky Golf Course, Hempire, and Pique Newsmagazine. We would also like to thank our musicians Susan Holden and fatymagee for volunteering their time to the cause.

Above all, we'd like to thank the Sea to Sky Community for the incredible show of solidarity. In addition to the amazing support we received last Tuesday, the Squamish Sirens roller derby team and coach have donated their time and venue to help us get on our feet. The Old Pemberton Community Centre has embraced our team, allowing us to train in their gym. We'd also like to send a special thank you to our new coach, Pemberton's own Bill Sirota (Coach Kill Bill), who has dedicated many hours to helping us hone our skills.

Thanks to the help of Coach, our training facility and the community, our next goal is to pass our skills assessment test in the New Year. From there, we'll be fine-tuning our game skills, and booking our first official team – the Black Diamond Betties - into our first competitive bout in the spring or summer of 2012.

We look forward to sharing this journey with you. To stay up to date on our future events, please visit whistlerrollergirls.com, "Like" us on Facebook at facebook/blackdiamondbetties or "follow" us on Twitter @DiamondBetties.

Thank you again, from the bottom of our skating hearts.

Amber Turnau

Whistler Roller Girls Society Team Member

Living the 'Yama' in you

On December 1st, I opened the doors to my new Yoga and Pilates studio at the Alpenglow in the Village. But this letter is more than just a BIG THANK YOU to all those friends, family and students who supported and helped me start Yama Yoga, it's about how amazed and grateful I am at being the focus of the Whistler community when it decided to step in and look after one of its own.

Even after eight and a half years of running Yoga classes, when Solarice Wellness Spa closed its doors this September it hadn't been my intention to open my own studio. But due to the incredible response, followed by hours of dedicated commitment and assistance of my fellow Whistlerites it all came together in two short months – it seems I almost didn't have a choice! This solidifies why living in Whistler is so much more than just a great place to enjoy life — it is truly a community that knows how to "give back."

I am stunned every day by the love that has been shown to me and because of this strong foundation, which has grown from the trust, support and joy of life from everyone around me, the naming of my studio is very much dedicated to the Whistler community — YAMA which simply means: "the attitude we have towards things and people."

Colleen Felgate

Whistler