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Tele-entertaining Whistler Please note that I, Guitar Doug, will be calling in my gigs from Thailand, where I will work as a tanning instructor at my friend?s gulf shack on the peaceful island of Koh Samui.

Tele-entertaining Whistler

Please note that I, Guitar Doug, will be calling in my gigs from Thailand, where I will work as a tanning instructor at my friend?s gulf shack on the peaceful island of Koh Samui. I will be transmitting live shows from my cell phone, so please tell everyone to go to the Guitar Doug shows and continue to pay to see me entertain. I will hook up to Whistler bars, weddings and concert halls via a cell phone duct-taped to a microphone.

Thanks for everything. Visualize whirled peas.

Guitar Doug Craig

 

 

Recognize the trends

With respect to the last council meeting, Mayor Hugh O?Reilly commented that business was up in Hawaii, and at that time I did not understand the context. With respect to business, our community and the connection between the two, the positioning of the Whistler Community Centre/ice arena within the Whistler Village will help to position us for what are proving to be trends; baby boomers, young families and the increasing appeal of ?soft? recreation to travelers — including our ?retiring? mayor. Not to mention the need for indoor activities on our beloved Wet Coast, for guests and residents.

The mayor promised me that there would be a public forum prior to the decision of where the centre will stand. I hope there are more voices heard at the council meeting on the 15th of August.

Britt Germann

Whistler

 

 

A feeling of sadness

After almost a week of digesting the news of Hugh O'Reilly's resignation, I've finally figured out that the emotion I feel is sadness.

I wish Hugh and his family all the best in Hawaii. In spite of recent rumblings to the contrary, I believe Hugh has been a very good mayor.

What makes me sad is that so many long-term residents like Hugh don't see their future in Whistler. And it leads me to wonder if we can truly become a sustainable community if so many of our long-term residents sooner or later intend to leave.

Hugh's two major legacies are the Comprehensive Sustainability Plan and the 2010 Olympics. Early indications show these two initiatives are on a major collision course, with sustainability as the likely loser. We need committed locals to ensure VANOC lives up to its sustainability promises.

Too bad we've lost one of our key advocates

Bob Brett

Whistler

 

 

Answering the call

I am writing to express my disappointment with Mayor O'Reilly's decision to move to Hawaii before his term ends. Though only a few months are left for him in the post, our municipality is facing unprecedented challenges which require leadership to resolve. It seems that Mayor O'Reilly will rush to answer opportunity's knock in person. But when duty calls? He'll take that one on line 2.

Chris Hodkinson

Whistler

 

 

Top dogs and underdogs

Top Dog: Rainbow land developers

Underdogs: Eva Lake Residents (whose buildings are sinking)

Everybody needs to know that several of the developers of the Rainbow Lands were financially, professionally or technically involved in the construction of Eva Lake Estates. I know because I was there.

In all fairness to the Eva Lake residents, my value system screams out — Fix Eva Lake before we OK the Rainbow resident neighborhood.

Right now at Eva Lake you have owners/strata suing the engineer, whose insurance company is suing the builder (who is not insured) and ?silent? partners staying silent. Then you the us, the RMOW, who own and lease the Eva Lake land, and Whistler Housing Authority, whose primary job is to help our employees. And all are doing nothing to help our employee housing residents at Eva Lake. The only ones making money are the lawyers!   Something is very wrong about this picture.

Come on people! Everybody get together and resolve the problems at Eva Lake. Put your money where it?s needed. It will come back to you ten-fold with the Rainbow land resident housing project.

Without prejudice,

Marilyn Kapchinsky

Whistler

 

Less could be more

What would be wrong with leaving Lots 1 and 9 alone? This is a great green space right in the village. An ice rink might be nice there but I fail to see how anyone could argue that clearing that land is more sustainable then letting it stand and grow. Imagine an old growth forest in the village, it may take some time, but it will never happen if we bulldoze the land.

Why do we seem to think bigger is better? How many remember when the powder would last for days (not hours) in Whistler Bowl before the peak chair? Would less visitors really be such a tragedy? High cost of housing, longer hours for business owners, staff burnout are just some of the problems that a reduced visitor count could help solve. I would be just as happy to live in the No. 7 resort in North America as I am to live in the No. 1.

I truly believe that Whistler should be more concerned with quality over quantity. If Whistler was to follow this idea it is true that some businesses will close, some people will be forced to leave, and less profit made. I ask you, do we not already have those problems?

Some of the public may be shocked by my suggestions, and wonder how I can be so callus about people?s livelihood. Well to answer you, to all things change must come. I mean, how many blacksmiths do you see working in the village these days?

By the way, I would love the chance to vote Ken for Mayor!

D.W.Buchanan

Whistler

 

 

Just don?t get it

The opportunity to get $20 million, now, for a rink that Whistler has been promised, is being aggressively courted by another community. Good for them, and shame on our council for deceiving someone. If it goes to Squamish, shame on the council for taking away our legacy. If it goes to Whistler, shame on council for giving Squamish hope.

I always appreciated the line in the movie ?Philadelphia? when Denzel Washington?s character would look at someone squarely in the eyes and say: ?Now explain this to me like I was an eight year old, because I just don?t get it.? It is time for someone to explain to the community why we are going to have to fund the entire ice complex ourselves in 5-8 years. Will it take a piano falling on a future council?s head to discover we now need another facility? They will say, ?We should have taken the 2005 deal and found a way to make it work.? Could council explain to us why we will be driving to Squamish for hockey practices, and figure skating lessons because our Meadow Park arena was at capacity in 2004?

The real perk for the existing ?active? community of Whistler is the ice complex. Families, couples, individuals and visitors are looking for an alternative, something to take the pressure off Meadow Park?s jammed ice time schedule. Seven nights a week the ice is booked until at least 1 a.m., some nights later. My family wants what was promised, or this Olympic deal is a con to my children, a shell game, and a bait and switch tactic to garner support from the leery. Though construction in the Whistler Village region would seem more advantageous; if the rink cannot go in the village, put it close to the athletes village. Build a sports complex on the dump site, make it the gem of that new community: public golf course, ice rink, pool, curling, tennis and squash courts, and whatever else we love to do in Whistler. Build a sports and activity centre. Merge public and private ventures. Create something great. But pick sports that Canadians and Whistlerites do. My kids skate, ski, ride, and swim. You cannot get 15 children on a sliding track at one time.

The bobsled/luge/skeleton sliding centre: Now explain this to me like I?m an eight year old, when was the last time you saw Luging Night in Canada or Disney on the Bobsled Track? We are building a facility that children cannot use. We are going to be saddled with having to maintain an expensive facility that is usable five to six months per year, a facility that does not have a Canadian heritage behind it, a facility that could be a 2025 demolition project.

They are two different projects but look at what legacy we have to accept, and look at what is being pulled out from under us. This ice complex can be secured by a council that can create not deny. We said ?no? years ago to the World Economic Forum when they wanted to bring the world to our door and fill our hotels. ?We are too busy, try us when we need you,? was our answer. Well we are doing the same short-sighted thing. The community has a need for more recreation and activity. Another place for the young and old to build bodies, keep active, and strengthen our community spirit. Places that X-Box and PlayStation don?t conquer. Meadow Park was the catalyst. It has become an integral component of Whistler, and we are growing beyond its capacity. We will have another complex in Whistler, but when we finally build it we may have to settle for much less because we did not have somebody else?s $20 million to help pay for it.

John McBean

Whistler

 

Any communication in a storm?

Is this a joke? Ever since "we" won the bid, Whistler became the world's Whistler, everyone's Whistler. The world sees the entire Sea to Sky corridor as one big community. Can we stop bickering over who gets what like a bunch of children and focus on the real issue here? The lack of pertinent valuable information available to the members of the Sea to Sky community, on issues affecting our own backyard, is appalling.

Who knows, G.D. Maxwell, maybe these anonymous advertisers have grow ops in their basements and they're paranoid, or maybe they're Buddhists who want to remain anonymous because they don't have names anymore. Do you read a moving anonymous poem and say, "who wrote that!" and claim it's meaningless and suspect without an author?

Who cares who is behind the ad? The fact that it is there points to a serious problem, more serious than who gets a stupid arena. What about when there is a toxic spill in a local river, and the people whose drinking water could be poisoned aren't informed. Local sources are sparse and unreliable. Not everyone watches TV, or listens to the radio, and where is the local (important) info there anyway? We have to defer to rumours and overheard conversations of local workers, or read an article in a Toronto newspaper (Globe and Mail, Saturday, Aug.6, ?Train derails...?). The only reliable source of information in a crisis becomes the RCMP. Like communication is their speciality.

It's time for Whistler to stop thinking inside a bubble, the pain of being separated from neighbors to the north and south was felt not so long ago. Communities pulled together to help people from other communities, but information was hard to get. Can Whistler learn to communicate and share with neighboring communities, so that in the future we can continue to be at least as kind? The local authorities in communities of the Sea to Sky corridor and Vancouver (and their respective councils), had better start working together to improve our communication systems if we are going to weather the storm and still be on good terms when it passes, as all storms do.

Leanne Lamour

Whistler

 

 

Stand and be heard

With all the excitement and speculation surrounding our telecommuting mayor?s announcement, Councillor Davies?s declaration, the awesome weather and the fever surrounding the success of Crankworx Mountain Bike Festival, we are in danger of forgetting there is a major decision to be officially made regarding the Paralympic ice arena. Now the mayor and council will swear up and down that there have been no behind-closed-doors decision made, but all we have to do is look back at Councilor Lamont?s question to Bill Barratt at the council meeting one month ago, and we know there is serious duplicity in the denials. ?äcommitments have been made, what do we do if the community tells us at the public information meeting that they want the arena even after they see the numbers??

At the last council meeting the public question period was once again used to express exasperation at the present economic reality of Whistler. While Mayor O?Reilly expressed unwavering empathy for the situation (no easy feat with his intimate knowledge that he would soon be joining the real estate elite with Intrawest?s Playground Group), a few councillors quoted some stats and rationales from the previous Tourism Whistler all members meeting, asked staff for some reports they had been waiting for and a couple called for an imminent appointment of an economic development officer. Good intentions, but I suspect that by the time we went through the consultant choosing process, ignored the recommendations of staff and the public and picked the last person in the list with any real aptitude or energy for the job, the whole thing would be an election issue in another three years.

The other day a friend asked me what idea I had to make it better and why doesn?t the business community get involved politically. I told him we had just seen the answer at the council meeting earlier that night. It lays waiting in all the national and international awards received for the methods and results of the Whistler 2020 document.

The method used to create the 2020 document could easily have been used to engage the business community in a thorough analysis of the costs and opportunities of an arena at the beginning of the time frame instead of working for years behind closed doors negotiating away the opportunity. We know this system works through the success of the 2020 document to date. We have the tools to make informed and rational decisions on matters of our community. They are here now and instead of waiting for the mayor?s parting promise of ?delivered financial tools from Victoria,? we should be using the tools and the talent we have right here and now to guide our decisions.

Why didn?t the business community get involved? We were never asked!

The point is that the business community has known for four or five years that there is a decline in business and council has just recently seen fit to officially endorse this problem and now wants to give it the attention it deserves. Well they dropped the ball on the biggest opportunity to do something about it in years.

We have to stop relying on the mountains and other recreational operators to provide our guests with non-skiing based recreation in the village, where guests can easily walk from their hotels. This is what the guest are demanding on the street and in the shops. A shuttle service to ?an enhanced athlete centre? is not going to calm the families on a rainy day in January or entice a trade show to town in May or October.

There is going to be a public information meeting on the arena. Get out there, make your voice heard, demand the best for your town from those who represent you.

Let?s make the most of the opportunities we are given to strengthen our economic base and worry less about enhancing Squamish?s.

Christopher Quinlan

Whistler

 

 

No surprise

I was not surprised that Nick Davies will run for mayor, following the departure of Mayor O'Reilly. Nor was I shocked that economic issues will dominate his platform. My concern is what can he provide to the everyday working class citizen? As councillor and board member of the Whistler Housing Authority, he has offered no useful legal advise or compassion to the struggling owners of Eva Lake Village. Instead he chose to represent the developer, thus complicating the already complex legal issue. I sincerely hope that another candidate more concerned with the well being of our residents and environment challenges him for the position.

Just a note to all councillors; as long as the settlement issue at Eva Lake remains unresolved, we will continue to address the media, making it an unavoidable election topic and possibly creating negative pre Olympic exposure.

Mike Roger

Birken/Whistler

 

A community of order-takers

I have heard comments and complaints of business being soft in Whistler for the last three years. These comments have become a major point of discussion among business people in recent months. It seems when our business is not doing well we look for a scapegoat — ?let?s find somebody to blame?. At recent meetings I heard Tourism Whistler and RMOW being blamed for doing a poor job of promoting Whistler. I feel these comments are mean-spirited and ill-founded.

Considering what Canada and Whistler have had to live with I think we are fortunate. We have survived softwood lumber, mad cows, pine beetles, SARS, terrorism, mandatory passports to cross the border, very little snow last winter, unprecedented rain from April to the first week of July 2005, $1/litre gasoline, a very valuable highway improvement which for the last year has likely discouraged a number of day visitors, and an 82 cent dollar instead of 63 cents.

From 1986 until 1999 or so, our local residents helped the businesses reach a breakeven point during our slow seasons by buying their goods and services in Whistler, but thanks to municipal ?no growth? policies restricting the construction of housing, real estate prices went through the roof and a large percentage of our local workers are now forced to live in Pemberton and Squamish, where they now buy their goods and services. I believe this has had some impact on our local food and retail trade. This ?no growth? attitude has been so successful that housing in Pemberton and Squamish are now out of reach for many of our local workers. Who knows, if we keep it up, pretty soon our working folks will be forced to live in D?Arcy or Lillooet. Most Canadians support a reasonable immigration policy yet many communities have a no growth attitude — very interesting!

Prior to 2002, Whistler was buzzing with hundreds of tourists looking to buy a condo or home that was going to go up in value next year by $50,000 to $250,000. This excitement and passion to own a place in Whistler brought substantial money to the community that benefited our local businesses. Today, I see very few people coming to Whistler excited about buying a property that will increase in value substantially over the next year. We had 15 years of unprecedented tourist counts and we became a community of order-takers — just sit and wait, the tourists will flow in, and we?ll make another bank deposit. Today being an order-taker doesn?t ?cut it?. We must start prospecting, a word that Bill Gates and Donald Trump are very good at. It means talking to a prospect who might say no, or to a supplier about getting a better price on the inventory we need for our business to function. We need to treat the tourists well enough that they want to stay an extra day. If everyone stayed an extra day, we would all be very successful. I wonder if we are better off to give the tourist a $35 parking ticket instead of giving a polite warning for the first offence (the warning could include a $1 gift certificate to any or all of the coffee houses in Whistler). Much of our advertising money is spent to overcome bad service or lack of courtesy.

Considering these factors, I am surprised business is as good as it is and I believe Tourism Whistler and RMOW, in general terms, have done a very credible job.

Don Wensley

Whistler

 

Itch but no scratch for sewer

We read with concern the article by Betty Rebellato in the NatureSpeak column that once again people swimming in Alta Lake are suffering from swimmer's itch.

Residents along the west side of Alta Lake have for many years observed that the lake is no longer as pristine as it was and at least once each summer has to be closed because of a high e-coli count. One of the contributing factors to this must be due to the fact that there is still no sewer line to the 35 homes along Alta lake Road. Many are old cabins with antiquated septic systems and the residue eventually leaches into the lake. We all know "it" doesn't go uphill!

For at least the past 15 years the municipality has promised to provide this basic amenity, but there always seems to be other, more politically attractive projects to spend our money on.

So, in this world-class resort — with taxes to match — we grow frustrated waiting. How can a town justify spending millions of dollars building facilities for the Olympics but tell us they can't afford to provide a sewer line for its residents? So much for caring about the local environment and sustainability! Alta Lake is one of Whistler's jewels and needs to have the sparkle returned to it.

Brian and Gay Cluer

Whistler