Kudos to Mr. Doucette ("Business 101") and Max ("Cinching Up Once Again") for their perspectives last week on the Whistler municipal tax scene.
Having been a city manager in three major Canadian cities (the smallest being over 100,000 pop.) as well as having been a business owner in Alberta, and now being about to retire to Whistler after having a home there for years, I recall always being told by the municipal administration of each city at first instance that there was no fat to cut and services had to shrink. Nonetheless, we were always able to find significant ongoing annual savings in each community where I worked (from over $1.5 million in savings in the smallest community to over $70 million in savings in the largest one).
There was no magic to it and it was not due to any brilliance on my part. It took a committed team of staff and council to get it done. It was a combination of deferring some infrastructure maintenance and acquisition (admittedly not all of which were a great idea, but we were charged in those days with "zero per cent tax increases"), not immediately filling vacancies, checking every supervisory position to see why exactly those below needed such supervision ("paying checkers to check others who check others"), comparing inside costs against similar outside costs (in-house vehicle maintenance versus a deal with an outside lube shop for example), doing an analysis of our fees charged and the cost of those services and then seeing to what extent we were subsidizing each area etc.
We started with the "big ticket" costs like transit, emergency services etc. We also looked at what was a minimum return on each transit route (e.g. if revenues did not at least cover a set portion of the cost of the run, it became an endangered route).
We also looked at things like men's hockey, and discovered we were heavily subsidizing their ice time, when that group could afford to pay the actual cost.
We also looked at our processes and discovered, for example, that we had three staff positions to process payables of under $10,000. So, instead we went to our regular suppliers of things like shovels, fanbelts, office equipment etc., set up credit lines for these smaller purchases, and then did not need the positions.
All of these efforts paid off. We even had an exercise where we took away 25 per cent of each department's budget and then asked them what they would keep doing at that level. Then they got to "buy back" another 15 per cent of their current budget and looked at what they would protect with that money. That left a remaining 10 per cent of their current budget and we looked at what they had protected last.
All of these approaches like this need to be considered and pursued in a quest for efficiency.
Bruce E. Thom
Whistler
Not all belts tightened equally
Inflation has nothing to do with the bulk of the population (ordinary working folk) in that they did not cause it to happen. Working people have not had a rise in wages for 30 years, yet the lower end wages must pay the inflationary rises in cost that have been implemented by those who have a better grip on income than those who do not. Prices rise because they can, as though they came unbidden, like municipal taxes.
It is exceedingly strange that in so-called difficult times when everybody is asked to "tighten their belts" it does not apply to big business nor governments large or small. If even civic governments do not fight against inflation why should the rest of us have to pay? This seems part of the same problem of when the "lenders" (the banks) screw up they continue to get their pound of flesh and blame the problem on the borrower and the retired, as has been done in Britain, France and Greece.
To say that property tax, which has already increased by 15 or 20 times in the past 40 years, is now to be "limited" to four per cent is strangely blind to what is pretending to be automatic. The provincial government, which has control over everything done by all civic governments, has reduced income taxes considerably, cutting back on everything everybody does and apparently pushing costs onto municipalities.
At the same time the provincial government has set sales taxes upon us that are unfair and inefficient and only manage to raise prices. They are costly to collect and lower income earners pay a larger part of their income than those who are better off. Sales taxes, unlike income taxes, are inflationary and as we see in budgetary decisions are recessionary.
All of this is without considering the cost of the Games or anybody's salary.
Terry Smith
Garibaldi Highlands
Start with salaries
Wow, as if anyone who actually pays the bills (non-resident homeowner taxpayers) will be able to attend the RMOW's Monday evening "we have nothing better to do before Christmas" budget geist. In homage to G.D. Maxwell, I wonder how many consultants they paid to choose the optimal date to ensure the minimal turnout - "Well we asked for public input but nobody came." Duh!
Whistler is fast becoming a microcosm of the dynamic that let up to the current Euro-zone upheaval that, in turn, was and is a direct consequence of the 2007-08 global financial crisis. The essence is this: highly socialized governments make vast entitlement commitments to a tier of society and initially laden the non-entitlement tier with the tax burden to pay for the entitlements. As the tax base is tapped out, they then turn to the "this-is-too-good-to-be-true" "phony-bologna" Wall Street-concocted CDO instruments that promised huge rates of return supposedly at levels of risk associated with government debt.
But excuse me, the house of cards was at the input cash-flow level - the poor fool with the sub-prime mortgage was never going to be able to pay. Results: 1) the asset bubble explodes like never before - almost as bad as '29 and: 2) socialist governments, who were "banking" on the cash flows from the Goldman Sachs CDO garbage can no longer fulfill their fiscal obligations and actually have to cut-back AND the entitlement class rebels.
The RMOW needs to start doing some serious budget cutting, wage freezes, hiring freezes, work-force reductions, capital project moratoria, etc, etc, etc. If $26 million of the budget is salaries for ____ sake start right there.
"Say, I smell bacon. Does anyone else smell bacon?"
"Yeah, I definitely smell a pork product of some type."
Christopher Shackleton
Whistler
Keeping it reel in Whistler
Thank you for 10 years; and for all of your support. This is my 20th season in Whistler and I remain truly grateful for this remarkable discovery. Whistler has always exploded with possibilities and opportunities. It is a place where people stretch themselves to new heights, push themselves to new limits and carve out new landscapes. It's not just our mountains that are big; it's our imaginations too.
We have spent a decade building the Whistler Film Festival, conceived from vision inspired by the people that made this place real. Whistler is a place where real people come together; where stories come together. As we complete our 10th edition, we remain deeply committed to providing filmmakers with unrestricted access to audiences, an intimate environment that fosters appreciation of film and an inspiring setting conducive for industry to connect.
Thank you to the "stars" of the fest. You know who you are. What a team! What a show! To all who have helped make it happen and been part of the adventure, I hope it was rewarding and that you loved it. So from us at the Whistler Film Festival to all of you who have been a part of our journey thus far, thank you! We passionately ask that you stay the course. Our hope is that upon the culmination of 10 years of cinema in paradise is that the stories and inspiration behind this year's Festival moved you to new heights. And if you liked what you saw, please tell everyone you know and get involved.
Where we go from here and in the years to come is entirely dependent on the support of our community, partners and industry. With your support, we'll set the world on fire with our vision for the future. Please support our campaign to transform the Rainbow Theatre into a state of the art digital cinema... Be part of the revolution... and let's get busy putting the "festive" back into this magical place.
Happy holidays, blessings to all, and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
Shauna Hardy Mishaw
Executive Director & Co-Founder
Whistler Film Festival Society
whistlerfilmfestival.com
New approach needed to OCP
As a Whistler business owner, long-time resident and parent of a teenager and youth I feel that the OCP workbook provides very little, if any, direction for long-term employment for young people or even current residents. The 2020 sustainability study, the municipal budget deficit and the affirmation of the current development cap combine to create a perfect storm to lead to only one possible long-term option: leave town, don't come back, except to stay in a hotel and spend money in our retail outlets. Thanks for building the place, now don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
What we have created is a place for wealthy retirees and short-term employment for young travellers (Aussies). The only people that will have well-enough paying jobs to be permanent residents will be current municipal employees (although many will be forced to leave because of layoffs due to budget constraints) and the few managers that survive in the tourism industry. Even they will struggle despite employee housing options because without shoulder season local support many tourism-based businesses will be forced to have temporary layoffs. Current proposed municipal tax increases are not going to encourage working people to try to stick it out or encourage even moderately wealthy retirees to stay, and won't even cover our spending deficit. This is creating a slippery slope that will continue to drag the local economy down until the pain is so prevalent that the entire thing will have to be scrapped in favor of any possible revenue-generating endeavor including poorly planned developments.
I believe it is time for the current Whistler council and municipal staff to stop patting themselves on the back over the hosting of the Olympics and start facing the reality of the economy. It is time for younger people with vision and energy to step up and become involved and hopefully take the reins from the stuffy old hierarchy that promote the status quo because now that they are established they don't want their real estate price to be eroded by further development. I believe it is time to start planning for some reasonable growth that can be constructed over time rather than completely trying to deny it until forced to accept the first thing to come along because of financial pressure.
Between asphalt plant relocations and pay parking we have completely taken our eye off the ball and forgot that people have to work two jobs to live here and provide for their families. The way things are going right now it is difficult to find one job, let alone two. Unless we promote some new development and some business growth, be it tourism-based or what-have--you, we are going to lose our workforce.
For those that think working people are not important to our community maybe you should consider that without them the snow does not get plowed, the lifts don't turn and your plumbing and electrical does not get repaired, let alone the fact that they also pay taxes and support local businesses.
It looks to me like the people that have commented on the OCP update are all retirees or consultants and none of the working class has had an opportunity because they are too busy trying to make ends meet to waste all day in a roundtable workshop or on a long, drawn-out work book. Maybe a different approach should be used to consult with the local working class, possibly through simple questionnaires made available at local businesses such as Nesters Market, Alpine Market or Meadow Park arena. I think the results would be quite different.
Paul Boulanger
Whistler
A deposit on bags
I've got an idea regarding the plastic bag issue. I'm sure someone much smarter than me has already thought of it, but here goes...
We can't just "ban" plastic bags and offer no solution. We need to find a solution that works to eliminate the plastic bags but also keeps tourists happy. Charging tourists for reusable bags will just annoy them, and reinforce the concept that Whistler is an expensive place that gouges.
Before there were deposits on beer and pop bottles, people would throw them in the garbage, out the window of their car, leave them at the beach or wherever they happened to be. It wasn't until these empty bottles had value that people recycled them.
Why not do the same to reusable bags in Whistler? Make Standard Whistler Reusable bags. Sell them to all the businesses for $2. Businesses charge $2 per bag but inform people that they can return their bag to any retail location or hotel and they will be redeemed the $2.
The bags would be standardized so they could be accepted at any location. So a family can shop all week, end up with 10 bags and then turn them into the hotel at checkout and redeem their $20.
Or they can drop them off at any retail location and get the deposit back.
Or they can take them home as a Whistler souvenir if they like.
Lots of education in the form of signs and verbal communication to tourists at retail points would likely give a positive impression to tourists about Whistler's commitment to the environment, rather than a simple negative impression of "forcing" them to buy reusable bags.
This concept would require the commitment of the whole community and add an extra burden to most retail and accommodation businesses when they take in and redeem bags, but it is a solution to plastic bags that might just work.
Clarke Gatehouse
Mount Currie
Going bagless
The news that Carney's Waste Systems will no longer be able to accept plastic bags for recycling is disappointing, but not all bad. The Pique article on this subject reminded me of a New Year's resolution that I made two years ago not to use any plastic bags. When asked by store clerks if I needed a bag, I politely refused, but I also mentioned my resolution to them - most people thought it was a great idea. I can only hope that many tried it themselves.
As I recall, that year I made it until April without using a single plastic bag (other than garbage bags as I could not think of a viable solution for replacing those). This year, I'm going to try and make it all the way through without using plastic bags. The added effect of this resolution is that I am now acutely aware of the number of plastic bags that I use.
Not only do these bags end up in landfills, but the process for making plastic materials is hugely costly to the environment and to our health. (I grew up next to a GE plastics plant and Owens Corning Fiberglass Plant in upstate New York).
Suggestions for going plastic bagless: Small purchases can often fit in a purse, backpack or briefcase. If purchasing only one item, or several small items, a bag is not needed. For purchasing several items at once, I keep a washable, reusable bag in my purse. (Keychains with fold-up reusable bags attached are also available for those who do not carry purses).
For grocery shopping, I keep several reusable bags in my car. I also do not recommend purchasing reusable bags every visit to the grocery store as this does not solve the problem of excess bag production and waste.
I hope these suggestions help us all to reduce our use of plastic bags this year. This is just one small, easy New Year's resolution we all can make to help our environment.
Stefanie Hostetter
Whistler
