Today I’m writing to everyone who doesn’t own a home in Whistler but some day would like to buy a property of their own here.
I’m writing to all of you who flip through the Pique every week hoping to see that dream home in Emerald or Alpine for under $500,000 (not that half a million dollars is remotely affordable but at least it’s not a million dollars!) and think maybe it could be yours.
I’m writing to all of you who have been sitting on the Whistler Housing Authority waiting list for a year and a half, waiting listlessly for something, anything, to become available.
I’m writing to all of you who watch your friends leave Whistler month after month, giving up on the dream, and wonder when your turn is up.
Stop wondering. Stop watching. Stop sitting. Stop flipping. Stop dreaming.
Listen up – there are five scenarios up for grabs right now, painting a picture of what Whistler will look like in the year 2020.
I’ll be 45 years old then – forty-five years old. I’ll be about to go through menopause and yet I still can’t even imagine having children.
Will I be married by then? Will I have written my Giller prize-winning book? What will I look like? Tough to imagine myself as anything other than the person who stares back at me every morning in the mirror.
But forget what I’m going to look like or what you’re going to look like in 17 years. The chances are we’ll all have a few more grey hairs, a few more wrinkles, and, god forbid, a few more pounds. That’s just the way it goes.
Whistler’s future on the other hand is an unpainted canvas that’s still waiting to be drawn. And we, the community, are the artists. It almost sounds too good to be true. But that’s what they’re telling us.
They also say that we, the 20 to 30 something’s, don’t participate and yet we’re the ones who will be affected the most in the year 2020. We’ll be, I shudder to write this, "middle-aged" by then.
So if you want to live in Whistler, own a house in Whistler, play in Whistler, raise a family in Whistler, protect Whistler, it’s time to pay attention.
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.
At the risk of beating a dead horse, I’m writing about Whistler. It’s Our Future. It’s an initiative spearheaded by the municipality, allowing community members to pick Whistler’s preferred future. Sounds boring? Don’t stop reading. Stay with me a little longer.
Now I know the words Comprehensive Sustainability Plan, bed unit, development cap, and employee leakage are about as interesting as watching milk curdle. I know when you see those news stories in the Pique you flip the page and read stories about 10 cent burgers at McDonald’s and, well let’s face it, even the classifieds don’t make your eyes glaze over as much as the weekly story on the CSP process.
But if you’re still with me I’m going to let you in on a little secret.
It turns out that this stuff is pretty interesting and readable and dare I say it, exciting. I don’t mean that in a dorky sort of way. I don’t mean it’s interesting in the same way the municipal Five-Year Financial Plan is interesting… because let’s be honest, I would never describe the Five-Year Financial Plan as interesting.
The future however applies to each and every one of us.
This is our lives we’re talking about here. The outcome of this process could be our defining moment. It could determine if we stay or if we go.
So do you want to look back and say you were given a chance to shape the future but you opted out of it? Do you want your excuse to be you were too lazy, too tired, too confused to join in?
Here’s the deal.
Whistler. It’s Our Future
is our way of figuring out where we’re all going to live and work and thrive and survive in this place. It’s a lofty exercise with a lot of assumptions but that’s just the way it has to be.Ask yourself: Do you want to live in Squamish or Pemberton and commute to work every day? Do you want to live in the Callaghan Valley? Do you want to see nodes of resident housing developed from Function to Emerald? Do you want there to be more market homes developed? Do you want our tourism numbers to increase? Do you want most of our employees to live in Whistler? Do you even give a shit about any of this?
The thing is I think you do care.
So here’s the clincher. There’s only three days left to provide input and there are boards to be waxed, ski boots to dig out, goggles to dust off. Not to mention that a whole big huge mountain playground is opening for the first time in months and we’re thinking about fresh turns and lines and floating on snow.
Who can think about the future when this is our present?
So here’s what I propose. Log on to www.whistlerfuture.com and read through the workbook tonight (Friday). It shouldn’t take very long. Call the help line if you have questions or refer to the backgrounder online. Don’t make any decisions right away. Give it a little thought on the chairlifts this weekend. Subtly sneak it into the conversation at après on Saturday. Then on Sunday night, exhausted and spent from the mountains and remembering just why you moved here in the first place, think about the future. Then choose one.
All the responses are due on Monday, Nov. 24.
It still remains to be seen if this Whistler. It’s Our Future process will be a success. The number of people who join in will be the measure of its success.
And let’s not be cynical about our local government now. Let’s assume that they will listen to the majority and will act accordingly. If they don’t, we’ll bitch about them later. For the time being give this thing a chance.
Don’t opt out. Choose a future. Do it for Whistler. Do it for yourself.
