Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Buses worked during Games, why not every day?

First of all I would like to say congratulations to the locals, volunteers and people of Whistler for putting on an amazingly successful Olympic Winter Games.

First of all I would like to say congratulations to the locals, volunteers and people of Whistler for putting on an amazingly successful Olympic Winter Games. Your hard work, patience and true Whistler spirit will be echoed all around the world for years to come.

I, however, was one of the many to leave town for something else and rented my place to a volunteer (for a price less than the rent I currently pay - how many people can actually say that?).

Upon my return I have heard amazing stories of how this event has changed our lives and the people that make this town work. As a Pemberton resident, I heard stories of the greatest addition this town has ever seen: reliable and frequent transit to Whistler. A bus every 10 minutes that pretty much every Pembertonian rode into and out of Whistler.

Now given that a bus every 10 minutes isn't exactly a full-time affordable option, maybe one every hour or two is.

Let's take a look at how we could offset these costs, hypothetically.

We have a fantastic new paved day lot that unfortunately we are going to have to pay for very soon. Now, given that I spend $300 a month in gas just to get to work in Whistler, I am going to be faced with a pay-parking problem.

Here are some "ballpark" figures to bring some light to the situation. The day lots cost the municipality $600,000 to pave. In the winter it will cost $8/day to park; $12/day in the summer. Now, let's just say on average $10/day times the amount of parking spaces (750 or so...). That would generate $7,500 a day in revenue. Multiply that figure by 365 days a year and that pay parking would generate approx $2.7 million in one year. By my calculations, that would pay off the cost of paving, and then some.

Subtract the maintenance costs and whatever else there is, and there would still be money left over. Imagine if some of that money was allocated into the transit system to put one bus per hour on the road to Pemberton during peak times...

Now that the Pemberton locals have had a taste for transit, and how much more efficient it is, I can almost guarantee that one bus to and from Pemberton every hour for, say, 14 hours a day would be easily attainable. And it would save the Pemberton local working in Whistler a whack of cash.

Pemberton was supposed to have an Olympic legacy, yet we did not get one.... The locals in this town are constantly finding themselves on the losing end of a place they once cherished. Families are no longer able to raise children here, people are falling further into the red just trying to make it work.

I would like to remind the people who make the decisions in this town that without these long-term, short-term and seasonal workers, this machine of a town starts to fall apart. When we are trying to survive and constantly looking at another $10 per day out of our pockets the morale falls and inevitably the service and spirit does too.

Please, speaking from 10 years of life in this beautiful place I like to call home, offer up some sort of break for the locals. Offer up a local parking pass for say, $100 a year, put some of those green buses on the road to Pemberton. Happy locals that aren't broke make the machine work better.

We are the number one resort in the world but when you sit on your laurels the ones below you are always nipping at the bud. Lead the way. Bring the bus back. We'll use it.

Ryan McKeeman

Pemberton

 

In defense of speaking out

It's been downright weird watching one person slag the credibility of AWARE for the last few weeks. I refer to Al Whitney's dislike of AWARE's position regarding the IOC and the Olympics.

While one man's own opinion in a letter to the editor is as good as any other, Jesse Ferreras's follow up piece in last week's Pique (Has AWARE lost its way?) dedicated largely to regurgitating one man's own opinion inspired me to comment. Slow news week?

As a former board member who served many great years with my friend and neighbor Al, I must say that I find bizarre the need to publicly discredit this organization he served so well for years. I am in support of some statements AWARE made that Al disagrees with, while others I don't agree with at all and share Al's views. But if he's that unhappy with the new direction, there's a much more positive way to change it - work with or rejoin the board at the next AGM in April.

But what no one has dared to say through all of this is "good for you AWARE!"

Here is a grass roots, under-funded, under-supported volunteer group doing its best to deliver a better future for all residents of the Sea to Sky corridor in what is truly a thankless watchdog task. When AWARE succeeds, everyone here benefits. A few developers with $ in their eyes may disagree, but most of us sleep a lot better knowing AWARE exists whether we actively support them or not. This is one of the few places in the world where our vote is not dominated by business interests above all else.

I, for one, think AWARE deserves a ton of credit for being willing to stand up to the IOC - almost regardless of their message and possibly overstepping their mandate. So what? How many other groups have the cojones to stand up to the IOC's steamroller tactics? The astounding transfer of taxpayer funds for a sports event while our health care and education systems suffer not to mention critical tourism funding support we all rely on (read about that in Bob Barnett's op-ed in the same issue)?

So AWARE stood up on its hind legs and tried to get a message to the 900,000 pound elephant sitting squarely on top of our beloved corridor for the past seven years. Priceless, I say! Gutsy, I say! Saying out loud what so many have thought - and GD Maxwell has written about for years - is deserving of public praise. Don't let one person's opinion and an incomplete column burst your lofty ideals. Maybe Jesse could have covered some of the points they tried to make instead and asked those difficult questions.

I was thoroughly impressed with VANOC's overall execution of this event including their very solid sustainability platform and team - assisted back in the day by AWARE. I congratulate VANOC for this and so much more, and the thousands of volunteers (incl. Al W.) who worked so hard to make this massive event an unprecedented success. This is not about VANOC - an organization created solely to execute the demands of the IOC. The IOC's endless requirements and huge influx of outside contractors (or 'IOC' for short - displacing countless local suppliers despite dismal skier visits) needed to hold an Olympics dictate an infrastructure that could have delivered the same thrills, spill, and chills for a small fraction of the business and environmental displacement (and related carbon consumption) that took place. It is a classic vestige of better days gone by and any efforts to reform IOC demands into something better, and smaller, in the future deserve credit.

Brad Kasselman

Whistler

 

Set point

I had second thoughts about a retort to the assertions of John Hunter, P. Eng., and his public wager/challenge. After all, the letters section need not transgress into a tennis match with issues bashed back and forth. And secondly I did not wish to dignify his challenge with a response. But over the last couple weeks he has been crowing in the media about no one stepping up to claim the $100 for charity of choice if they are able to prove the proliferation of independent power production in B.C. is "not in the public interest," stating the quote does not appear in BCUC document from last summer.

Well, using the link he provided to the British Columbia Utilities Commission document dated July 27, 2009 we can read on page 47, paragraph two, that if hydro purchases power from IPPs for double the market rate "the annual net loss will be in the range of $150 million a year and it's going to be the customers that are going to bear that cost, not the IPPs."

The reader could arrive at their own conclusion if that is in the public interest or not. But we don't see it verbatim as Mr. Hunter's challenge states.

Until page 131. There in bold print is the commission's finding that "...B.C. Hydro's 2008 LTAP (long term acquisition plan) is not in the public interest and rejects it." In brief, the LTAP was one in which B.C. Hydro purchase power at artificially high prices that we do not need now, or over the next 20 years, from private producers.

I will leave this wager for Bob Barnett to decide. Should John Hunter, P. Eng., be notified to pay up I would like the $100 to be split evenly between the B.C. Health and Education ministries. Something tells me when the next budget comes down our provincial government's lavish spending tendencies of late will spell trouble for these two departments.

Should Mr. Hunter choose to continue the tennis match I sincerely hope he enlightens the readers as to how much the potential 17 river diversions in Bute Inlet is worth to his engineering firm.

That could explain his motive.

Steve Anderson

Whistler

 

Praise for caregivers

Last Wednesday afternoon while volunteering I was collecting panels after the Paralympic downhill training run when I suddenly lost about half my vision and asked for help. Within seconds I was being attended to by patrollers and doctors - mostly volunteers for the races.

I was quickly transported to an ambulance, then to the Polyclinic and finally by helicopter to VGH and a waiting stroke team. The quick administration of the "clot-busting" drug restored about half of the lost vision within 24 hours and the rest is still improving.

I must have passed through the hands of at least 30 caregivers in that first three hours and have only the highest praise for everyone who treated me. It is impossible to adequately express my thanks to the many patrollers, doctors, volunteers, VANOC staff, ambulance attendants, nurses, medivac staff and the hospital staff - but THANK YOU!

I hope to be back skiing soon and you made it possible.

Jamie Pike

Whistler

 

An Olympic record?

I hope you will allow me this opportunity to express the pride of the Sea to Sky School District in the participation and performance of our former students in the recent Winter Olympic Games. We do not know if this is an Olympic record, but the following participants have been formerly enrolled in local schools:

Ashleigh McIvor, Julia Murray, Mercedes Nicoll, Michael Janyk, Britt Janyk, Robbie Dixon, Emily Brydon, Anastasiya Skryabina, Davey Barr.

The Sea to Sky School District congratulates these athletes for so ably representing our country and our communities.

Rick Price

Board Chair

Sea to Sky School District

 

Thanks for 14 years

After 14 years in this amazing, beautiful place of Whistler I have decided to move on for a great business opportunity. There are so many people to thank and give appreciation to who have helped me over the years by being my friend, hiring me or golfing with me.

Some of theses people are: Dan McGowan, who convinced me to move here and gave me a place to stay. Ron Hosner from Hoz's Pub who took a chance and hired an unknown bartender from Ontario that gave me my start in Whistler. Jeff Cotter, Donny Pashleigh, Mike Brisbois who all believed in my abilities and gave me employment opportunities. A special thanks to Scott Gadsby and Jeff Cockle who employed me when they knew I was leaving and allowed me to stay and enjoy the Olympics while working at the best bar and night club in Whistler.

Finally I would like to thank "da boyz" - Big Rich, Colbster, Digger, Pauly, Stinky and Zoo - for always being there for me , through the highs and lows, the good times (there was a lot) and the bad times.

It's been a great ride. Hope to see everybody Sunday night at Brandy's or Tommy's. I pre-appogolize for the hugs and I love you mans.

Thanks everyone, and if you are ever in Kingston stop by and I will buy you a beer.

Chris "Tank" Irwin

Whistler