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Many in community still want referendum on hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games

Council moves ahead with endorsement despite on-going calls for community vote.

Council moves ahead with endorsement despite on-going calls for community vote.

There were more calls for a referendum on the Olympics this week even as Whistler council finally endorsed the bid at the end of a five-and-a-half hour council meeting at the Chateau Whistler.

The community has been "deprived of a public hearing on this issue," said local Casey Niewerth reiterating his call for a vote on the Games.

"The issue is that this is not your call. It is up to the community.

"You cannot railroad through an issue of this scale without putting it to a plebiscite. Failing to accommodate us will hopefully cost you your jobs."

Others asked the vote be delayed or a question be added to the Nov. 16 municipal election ballot.

But after an hour long presentation by Mayor Hugh O’Reilly, an hour-long presentation by the Olympic bid’s Terry Wright, and a couple of hours of public comments and questions from an audience of 400, council voted five to one Monday to endorse the bid.

The lone dissenter, Ken Melamed, said he could not stand behind the bid because he felt it failed to shield the community from some serious issues.

"At this time I do not believe we have sufficient safeguards to withstand the coming pressure that the bid brings," he said.

"I would like to see a number of policies put in place to put those safeguards in place. Locally we need an affordability strategy. We need a workable teardown policy and we need to have a new integrated capped growth employee housing strategy.

"If we as a community, in good faith, were to endorse the Olympic bid tonight what assurance would we have from tomorrow onwards that senior governments, who are providing the major funding, will not unilaterally do what they please, as has happened with virtually every past Olympic bid in the world?

"As councillors representing our constituents what assurance do we have that our Vancouver-Whistler bid criteria will continue to be respected?"

Melamed is concerned that several components of the bid may not be in the best interests of the community. He questioned the plan to build employee-restricted housing in the Callaghan, the site of a 300 acre land bank negotiated by the municipality as part of the legacy package from the provincial government.

"Is a satellite resident housing project down valley integration or segregation?" asked Melamed rhetorically.

"Will it mitigate the effects or does it in fact entrench us firmly on that path. "The proposed employee housing, which is needed now in Whistler not eight years out and down valley, comes with a $30 million enticement to what I believe will become a post games subsidy and commits us to the dilution of Whistler’s soul."

He also questioned the likelihood of getting new financial tools to relieve some of the tax burden on Whistler homeowners – another legacy promised by the provincial government.

And there is the whole question of the bid’s commitment to environmental issues and sustainability.

"There is no question that this bid has raised the bar on the profile of sustainability in the Olympic context," said Melamed.

"The Games legacy package seems more like a business-as-usual approach to growth and investment while those of use who are advocating for a paradigm shift look for scraps of sustainability to fall off the table."

His concerns were echoed by Eckhard Zeidler, treasurer of AWARE.

"While it is true the policy and guidelines described by the bid committee will moderate the considerable environmental impact of the Games, sadly the committee’s current principles can only be described as weak at best," he told council and a panel of bid officials.

"After studying the latest proposals for the lasting legacies we have concluded that they do not contain any environmental legacy whatsoever.

"New buildings and developments are not an environmental legacy. They are just more development. Should the Olympic bid prove successful AWARE will be proposing environmental legacies for our natural environment. We urge municipal council and the Olympic Bid Committee and the federal and provincial governments to seriously consider a legacy designed to maintain what is most precious to our community."

A poll conducted for the municipality and revealed at the special council meeting Monday night at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler showed that only 57 per cent of residents support hosting the Games here. Eight per cent are either undecided or don’t know if they support it.

"Thirty-five per cent are not in favour of the Games," Sarah Leach pointed out to council and a panel of Bid Corporation officials.

"By taking this vote without a referendum you are making the coming election in to a one-issue election. You are forcing those of us who disagree with the Olympics to replace council instead of letting our voices be heard."

Since council made it clear a referendum was unlikely another local asked for a show of hands on the issue.

In the unscientific poll about 70 per cent of the audience supported the Games, about 20 per cent voted no and about 10 per cent were undecided.

Mayor Hugh O’Reilly was encouraged by the response.

"That was better than what we were getting," he said. "And that was a very informed group."

Whistler has been holding out while it negotiated some special deals with the provincial government. The agreements – regardless of whether the bid is successful or not – will see the municipality get a 300 acre parcel of land to be used for employee restricted housing, an expansion of the municipal boundaries and new taxing options to remove some of the burden from the local homeowner.

But the delay has been a concern.

"The bid has been asking, ‘When can we get your endorsement?’ said O’Reilly.

"We said, ‘When you can deliver on the agreement?’

"A lot of what we needed was commitment from the provincial government so all the bid could do was say, ‘we are on a deadline and we need this to happen.’

"They do want to see our endorsement in the Bid Book. It is critical and I think it is a very powerful message. We have been conspicuous by our absence so this is a powerful statement that we are on board."

Others in the audience asked what could be done to help protect tenants from landlords with dollar signs in their eyes.

O’Reilly could offer no guarantees but hoped that education and community spirit would work together to keep rental suites for locals at a reasonable price should the Games come to town.

Many in the audience supported the bid to host the Games.

Said Ann Chiasson, owner of Windermere Sea to Sky Real Estate: "The opportunity this gives us to present ourselves to the rest of the world is one that will only come once in a lifetime.

"My daughter is dreaming of being in the Olympics in 2010 and she is only 12."

Suzanne Denbak, head of Tourism Whistler, also spoke in support of the bid, as did Tyler Mosher who is running for council.

John Nadeau, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce spoke in support, as did Anne Fenwick chairwoman of the library-museum, capital campaign steering committee.

And Squamish Nation Chief Gibby Jacobs also praised both council and the Bid Corporation for its open and honest discussions about the Games and the promise of partnerships throughout the process.

"We see this as a huge opportunity to make the changes we need as a community," said Jacobs pointing out that most of the Squamish Nation is less than 25 years old.

"We are here to do the proper thing for our youth."

Council’s endorsement comes not a minute too soon. The Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation is putting the final touches on the bid book, a 420-page tome that details B.C.’s plans for the International Olympic Committee.

Other partners in the bid process, including the City of Vancouver and the provincial and federal governments, put their support behind the Games months ago.

After the meeting Jack Poole, chairman and chief executive officer of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games Bid Corporation, said Whistler’s decision was a welcome one.

"It was a great day and I think it was a great day for the Whistler council and the mayor and a relief for the bid to have that behind us," he said.

"It was democracy in action. I thought the questions and the comments were very articulate and exactly what you would expect from people in a community who are genuinely concerned about how this is going to impact them."

Poole took the opportunity at the meeting to describe the financial picture of the Games as laid out by the bid corporation.

He said the Games will cost $1.3 billion to put on. But revenues form various sources are expected to at least match that cost. Poole is hopeful there will be a surplus.

On top of this it is expected that there will be $2.5 billion generated in taxes trough visitor spending.

The capital budget – money for venues and such – is $620 million. Security is expected to cost $180 million and both these costs are to be covered by senior levels of government.

"Economically it is a huge win for both communities," said Poole.

"The money for legacies and costs is recovered from visitor spending.

"Deep down everybody is for (the Games), but they have fears and concerns and only when those concerns are addressed will the support get way up there where it should be. So we will keep educating they way we have been."

In supporting the bid Councillor Nick Davies outlined the positive response he had personally seen when travelling to Park City and Salt Lake for the 2002 Winter Games held in February. He also pointed to the number of B.C. companies which sold goods and services to Salt Lake for the Games.

And he praised the diligence of both council and the bid corporation in reaching an agreement.

"As a community we have done exceedingly well," he said.

Councillor Stephanie Sloan outlined the tremendous benefits she believed the Games would bring to arts and culture in the community.

"The cultural opportunities that come with the bid are very exciting and not to be overlooked," she said.

"I say we go for gold."

Kristi Wells put forward the motion to endorse the bid at the invitation of O’Reilly. It’s the second time she has put the motion up for adoption. The first time, last summer, it brought a sea of silence and other councillors backed away from endorsement preferring to wait until the legacy package was fleshed out.

She told the audience that the bid process was a catalyst to achieving the community’s shared goals and visions for the future.

Dave Kirk admitted he had reservations about the bid especially when the original plan for the highway was described. But in the end the promise of opportunity swayed his vote to endorse the Games.

For Ted Milner coming to support the bid was an exercise in accounting: Would the potential returns outweigh the downside risks. For Milner the answer was yes.

All agreed the work is not over, in fact it is just beginning.

O’Reilly told the audience that there are "options within options" for the community and the work would continue to investigate which ones were best for the resort.