I take exception to your article of Thursday Dec 14 th , “Bralorne’s gold mine is open but local motel is shut down”, by Cindy Filipenko.
I think that Mr. Beaudoin shaded things to his liking. When he and his group of investors came into the valley, it was with an attitude that they were going to come show the locals how to do things, they were doing us a favour by coming here. Fine, they brought a lot of snowmobilers here, but only for their own benefit. Snowmobilers stayed in their motel, drank and ate in their bar. I don’t believe that the snowmobilers were encouraged to visit any other part of the valley. They are not team players. They are solely here to put money in their own pockets, and to hell with the rest of the valley.
Tyax Mountain Lake Resort currently has 15 local people employed, many which drive from Gun Lake and Gold Bridge. The Gold Bridge Store and Hotel currently employs 11 people, who come from Bralorne, Gold Bridge and Gun Lake areas. Even the small gas station in Gold Bridge has three employees (as many as Claim Jumper had last year). Also, I do know that the Bralorne Mine will hire locally, if possible. Mr. Beaudoin’s group might have better luck finding employees if the wages they paid were higher and they treated their employees better. There are approximately 103 full time valley residents including the 40+ Bralorne residents (twice as many as the article states) the 43 in Gold Bridge and some at Gun and Tyax Lakes areas. So from this number “the group” should have been able to find someone.
Mr. Beaudoin shows his arrogant self in his comment about the gas station in Gold Bridge. “The Guy,” as he refers to him, has been here for 24 years and the hours of operation are always posted. In the summer months the station is open seven days a week. In winter, when tourism is down, it is open four days weekly. In the winter, the snowmobliers can call the owner at home and he will accommodate them. Many groups call and make prior arrangements with “the guy” to meet him and get their fuel, and it doesn’t matter what day it is. Mr. Beaudoin does realize that the winter here is the “slow” period as he had the Claim Jumper closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this fall prior to the manager getting injured.
Instead of canceling their New Year’s reservations why didn’t they refer their clients to the Gold Bridge Hotel, The Gold Dust Motel or the Bralorne Pioneer Motel? Because they only care about lining their own pockets. These other businesses would have worked to accommodate the snowmobilers and make their stay in the valley a memorable one. The people here consider Bralone, Gold Bridge, Gun and Tyax Lakes as one unit, the valley. We do not separate ourselves into groups from different regions, we all try to work together to bring as much to the economy as possible.
I think Ms Filipenko should have contacted other businesses in the valley prior to writing this article as Bralorne and the Claim Jumper are not all we have to offer here. Mr. Beaudoin should be happy, as he has got free advertising for the sale of his business.
Viviene Ross
Gold Bridge
The Sea to Sky nightmare
For 16 winters I worked in Davos, Switzerland. In most of Europe winter tires or chains are mandatory on all vehicles when conditions are bad, during the months of winter. So when leaving Chur to drive to Klosters or Davos for example one would pass a sign that said from date A to date B winter tires or chains are required during periods of snow.
When conditions required it, police would stop all vehicles passing the sign, check the vehicle for winter tires/chains, and turn back any vehicles that had neither. Any vehicle driver found past that point without winter tires or chains on their vehicle would receive an automatic fine and possible impounding of their vehicle.
Looking at the number of cars (and, amazingly, public service vehicles) that seem unable to negotiate the slightest slope (up or down) on the Sea to Sky Highway when it snows, and reading almost every week this winter of the thousands inconvenienced by holdups caused by crashes or even simple snowfall on the Sea to Sky Highway, it seems quite ludicrous that no similar law is in place here.
The gate at Squamish would be the perfect place for the sign, and an enterprising company with chains for sale/hire and fitting just by the gate would be perfectly placed to reap a reward while saving lives.
Colin McCubbin
Whistler
We are richer than we think
Canadians spent about $6 billion last Christmas on gifts for relatives, friends and colleagues who already have everything, and donate “only” about $80 million to people who live on $1 a day. Many of these people have to rely on their relatives, who work 12-15 hours a day to make those clothes, toys and electronics that ended up as our Christmas Gifts.
During Christmas alone, we also spend another $5 billion for vacations in resorts all over North America (Disneyland, Florida, Arizona, Aspen and yes, Whistler), and yet over the year we only spend about $10 million in resorts located in developing countries like Indonesia, where the tourism industry is their only hope to improve their life.
To give some perspective, a 10 per cent drop in our yearly occupancy rate in Whistler will only affect hundreds in our labour market, but in places like Bali or Yogyakarta (Indonesia) it will affect millions.
In terms of food, we spend about $77 billion over the course of one year and throw about $10 billion worth of food into the garbage every year — food that never finds its way to nourish anybody but worms and insects in garbage dumps all across the country.
This pattern of aggressive spending isn't limited to Canada, of course. In the United States, the numbers above are probably five times bigger or even more. So, why should we care about all this?
A recent article in Pique Newsmagazine (Looking for the spark, Dec. 14), only focused on charity to the impoverished people in developing countries and failed to see the bigger picture. Who ever thought that our spending habits are the very culprits of this global injustice? Governments are not the only parties responsible for this social change, it should also be the responsibility of individuals and communities who benefit from this injustice, people like you and me who live, work or even vacation in Whistler. Communities in developed countries like Canada can do much more for communities in developing countries like Indonesia if they choose to.
Much of our resources available to address the social/economic development needs are used to maintain the status quo, or are available only in times of natural disasters — money is given to NGOs that are wedded to their current solutions, delivery models and recipients. Many provide relatively specific, sometimes sophisticated, offerings to a narrow range of people. While they may do a good and important job serving those people, these organizations are unlikely ever to reach the far broader populations that are in need — and would be satisfied by simpler offerings if only they were available.
What is required is a new approach to address the social problems in fundamentally new ways and create scalable, system-changing solutions. One simple example of how to change our way of thinking: Why don't we nurture communities in developing countries to become our “customers” rather than just charity recipients?
Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize winner, showed us that millions of people in Bangladesh can benefit from micro lending, provided that the system is there to maintain the service. So, can we ask our financial companies to help establish operations over there?
How about our “room-night currency”? Can we use this currency to “buy” goods and services from companies and organizations in Canada and the U.S. to help communities in developing countries? Don't donate those room nights, ask CIDA/FCM to pay as a way of distributing Canadian Foreign Aid to communities in developing countries. That way, the sky is the limit in terms of what kind of goods and services we can supply to communities in developing countries.
In this whole process, Whistler can be instrumental in bringing about social change in developing countries — rather than just talking about it or being satisfied with another fundraising effort in a time of natural disasters.
Mainstream organizations like CIDA and FCM could use additional resources to grow, refine, and revitalize their current valuable offerings, and invest in maintaining the status quo. However, when the objective is to get a system unstuck and to create new models for change, it is time to go in search of creative solutions, something Whistler should be able to initiate rater than wait for “the right opportunity”.
Jay Wahono
Whistler
