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Searching for a clean line

Whistler residents talk frankly about election issues and get ready to take a run at choosing a new path
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Municipal elections are just weeks away and with that in mind Pique is looking at what issues are top of mind for voters. This week's feature is a chance for "everyday" residents to reflect on what matters most to them as we head toward the Nov. 19 election date. It is, after all, about choice - who we chose to support and on what issues our votes turn. Over the coming weeks Pique will continue to investigate the issues as well as tell you about the candidates. Readers will find complete coverage in the paper as well as online at www.piquenewsmagazine.com.

 

 

''Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.''

Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President

 

Every year around this time, all Whistler's thoughts turn to the burning question: When will the snow come? Once every three years, that heightened anticipation is tempered by the prospect of a municipal election. For some, it's an eagerly awaited ritual through which we renew our people-powered democracy. For others, it's another exercise in delayed disappointment.

But it seems, for many of us, it's all about hope. It's about the hope we can, by letting our opinions be known and finding candidates we've determined share them, nudge this town a little further along the road towards the kind of place we hope it will become. Of course, what you want it to become and what I want it to become may be quite different things, but politics is the art of compromise, the art of what's possible. And that's where it gets interesting enough to make us, momentarily at least, forget about whether it's snowing or not.

On a clear, Thursday evening at the end of September, ten Whistlerites were invited to come to the library and spend a couple of hours engaged in the town's favourite, seasonal, non-contact sport: discussing local politics. Nine made it. That they all made it on time was, perhaps, the first indication the upcoming municipal election has taken on a gravitas somewhat weightier than past races. Especially since so few candidates had announced by then.

Drawn from a reasonably diverse cross-section of residents, the roundtable participants agreed to come with an open mind, a thoughtful approach and a willingness to forego forceful debate, settling instead for calm discussion. Who were they? Glad you asked.

Danielle Kristmanson is a two-decade local and the owner and partner in Origin Design and Communications, a marketing and creative agency. With two young children, Danielle's been active on numerous boards responsible for children's activities and is currently a board member of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce.

Jeremy Roche recently celebrated 10 years in town and 10 years with Whistler Blackcomb where he's held a number of jobs, most recently in investor relations. He was the hard working guy behind Crankworx for four years, sits on the festival event committee with Tourism Whistler and the BC Mountain Bike Association board. He was speaking for himself, not as a representative of any of those groups.

Kerry Chalmers has worked in hospitality, ski school and the non-profit sector since arriving in Whistler 15 years ago. She's now in the private sector, doing project management for a multinational IT company and is currently on maternity leave, raising a young family.

Colin Pitt-Taylor is a man of few words and great food, having fed Whistlerites for many of his 30+ years here. He recently opened Burnt Stew Café in Function Junction, sits on the board of the Whistler Museum and has volunteered for just about everything in this town.

Janet Hart arrived in Whistler in the mid '80s and was sales and marketing director for Fairmont Hotels. She continues to consult but is mostly retired. She was speaking on behalf of the Whistler Coalition of Concerned Citizens.

Greg McDonnell liked skiing here so much as a kid growing up in North Vancouver that he moved here 15 years ago. Most of those years he worked in the non-profit sector, most recently as executive director of Whistler Community Services. He stepped down in January to devote more time to his private psychotherapy practice and his young son.

Marg Pallot was a teacher and principal in the Howe Sound school district for three decades, the last two in Whistler. She's sold real estate for the past five years and sits on a number of boards, the Whistler Healthcare Foundation among them. She was speaking on behalf of the Mature Action Committee.

Christine Buttkus is a school trustee and mental health worker with the North Shore Schizophrenia Society. A 13-year Whistlerite, she has an 8-year-old at Myrtle Philip and has been involved with a wide range of non-profits throughout the Sea to Sky corridor.

Jayson Faulkner's been here off and on since 1977. He's raised three sons and has been active with the Chamber of Commerce, Parks and Rec committee, and others. He is a founder of the Whistler section of the Alpine Club of Canada and is chair of the Spearhead Hut committee. He just sold his share in the Escape Route and shortly after taking part in this roundtable, announced his candidacy for Whistler Council. Which is why I can't really use anything he said.

But that doesn't really matter because much of what follows is a distillation of what the group said. While direct quotes are used to illustrate the points being made, they are without attribution since that was the wish of several of the participants. But in most instances, there was a consensus around the table and in the pursuit of open discussion, what follows can safely be considered the group's take on hot button issues, 2011.

 

''Things are more like they are now than they have ever been.''

Gerald Ford, 38th U.S. President

 

The evening got started with a discussion of the key issues facing Whistler and our to-be elected/re-elected council and mayor during their coming term. Not surprisingly, everyone quickly latched on to municipal finances as the keystone issue. We spend too much, we spend it on the wrong things, we can't control our spending.

But it wasn't long before the financial picture became a little less clear cut. "Finances are interrelated into so many things we're struggling with: transportation, pay parking, economic development and diversification, sustainability, value for money. It comes down to where the money's coming from and where it's going."

Where the money's coming from, for the most part, is property taxes. The increases over the past three years have galvanized the town and the people around the table. "We're looking at the budget and it's $77.6 million. Before the Olympics came along, around 2005, it was more in the line of $55 million. How does that happen? When most people in a community of 10,000 are living with wage rollbacks, reduced hours and no cost-of-living increases, how is that sustainable."

It wasn't simply the increases reflected in property tax bills though. There was vocal discontent with the way the budgeting process leading to those jumps was handled, especially since it resulted in abandoning what had become a traditional approach of linking tax increases to inflation.

Several people around the table, having attended the budget open house session at Spruce Grove Field House, said they felt manipulated. "We turned out in massive numbers but our questions weren't answered, our concerns weren't reflected in the final outcome and we seemed to generally be ignored. The budget was a foregone conclusion," was an observation quickly agreed to by several participants.

The other significant source of funds, the RMI grant from the provincial government, was seen both as a salvation and hot button issue. While there was agreement that the concert series this summer at Whistler Olympic Plaza was a huge success and quite possibly saved summer for many local businesses, there were a number of concerns voiced about the long-term security of RMI funding and how the money was being spent.

Everyone acknowledged the good work done to secure the funding, and the close working relationships that have been developed between municipal government and the province, but many participants were worried the funding could disappear. Those worries are fuelled by the province's own budget woes, particularly the liability to repay the federal government created by the HST referendum, an amount pegged at $3 billion, and the concern that whomever is elected continues to nurture Whistler's relationships with Victoria.

Notwithstanding that the summer concert series was generally viewed as a positive, there was no agreement on what RMI funding should be used for... including the festivals and village animation initiative responsible for those concerts. Concerns were expressed that the municipality, in using RMI funds, was moving too far away from both its core competencies and the legitimate role of local government.

 

''Did you ever think that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.''

Lyndon Johnson, 36th U.S. President

 

This is probably a good place to bring up a political truism: In politics, perception is reality. As we went around the table, facts became a casualty of conversation. RMI wasn't well understood. What it could and couldn't be used for was murky. What initiatives like festivals and animation and the Whistler Centre for Sustainability, among others, were costing and who was paying for them was unclear. But in a world where perception is reality, does that matter?

It was, as it turned out, a good segue into an issue identified as underlying much of the group's discontent with the RMOW: Communication.

"Lack of public trust is big issue and much of it can be traced to bad communication. Communication is so broken within municipal government. There's nothing that raises my ire more than issues that are purely a result of poor communication. I've been in Chamber presentations where someone from muni hall explains something they're doing and I'm so incensed by what I'm hearing... because it makes so much sense! Why didn't you tell us that from the beginning?"

Others agreed, expanding on the point to include ways they felt the RMOW had tried to use the perception of communication and participation to their advantage. Of particular pique was the survey conducted to gauge resident's preferences for increasing taxes or cutting services. "I felt manipulated by that survey. The questions were very black and white, raise taxes or cut core services everyone values, like snow removal, Meadow Park or library hours. Aren't there other places we could have found the money?"

Pay parking was one place we might have found the money. But don't go looking for much support for it around the table. Hobbled by poor communication at its initial rollout, pay parking has become a poster child for what many saw as a dysfunctional council. There was no consensus on the issue - not surprisingly - and opinions ran the gamut from pay-to-play to free parking being a cost of doing business.

There was, however, agreement on one impact of pay parking. "Eldon Beck designed the resort to foster the interaction between residents and visitors. Effectively what pay parking has done is drive people down to Creekside and up to Base II. There was a time when walking through the village took a long time because you met people you knew or helped lost visitors. Now, we've lost that interaction... and it was one of our points of difference."

The interconnectedness between pay parking and transit was also a sore point. With parking revenue having been seen as both a subsidy to transit and a way to recapture the cost of building the debris barrier on Fitzsimmons Creek, there was frustration that neither was going to be realized and the impact that shortfall was already having on transit. Coupled with what was seen to be a heavy-handed, unfair distribution of costs for Whistler Transit's new "garage mahal", the resulting cutback in transit service and proposed pay parking structure was seen as moving us further away from our environmental goals.

"What it's going to mean is more car trips as people who would have driven in, parked and done whatever they had to do are going to be driven in, dropped off and picked up again, resulting in two trips instead of one."

How pay parking came about, the agreements between the RMOW, the province and Whistler Blackcomb that were only made public as a result of Freedom of Information filings, brought out another issue for many around the table. "We need more transparency. I don't really know how to improve it because I don't understand why it (the lack of transparency) exists. So many decisions seem to be taken in camera that don't strictly have to be. It breeds distrust."

Another issue that emerged was the need, at municipal hall, to make it easier for local businesses to, if not thrive, at least get on with business with fewer impediments and a greater sense of partnership with local government. Anecdotal examples aside, there was a sense of bewilderment at how long permitting processes took to meander their way through muni hall, and how best a new administration and administrator might instill a service culture within the various operating departments.

At the same time, there were concerns expressed about not using the current economic slowdown to throw the town open to business for the sake of business. "This is a time of crisis unlike anything we've seen since the mid/late '80s. I don't want this to be used as an excuse to bring in anything that generates a buck, gambling for example or blowing the bed cap. That's dangerous for us as a community."

That concern was echoed by participants who wondered whether Whistler was suffering a crisis of identity now that we're no longer focused on the Olympics. "We need to focus on making this a healthy community. We can talk about visions and income streams but it needs to focus on what we can do to sustain our community in a healthy way for all of us, not just business. There are young families in this community who are really being damaged trying to stay here, damaged financially, physically and mentally. This has to be a community for all those who live here, not just visitors coming up to party."

For some, it came down to the value for money equation. "Taxes and cost of living are going up but are we seeing value for the money? Sewage (on Alta Lake Road), transportation, social support, the overall health and wellness of community are all issues I'm not seeing tackled. I'm not seeing that value and too many other people, who are choosing to move away, aren't either."

 

''Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.''

Groucho Marx

 

Everybody can tell you what's wrong with local government... and everybody does. What's so much harder, as those who've served can attest to, is how you make things right, or at least better. That's why the second question the group tackled involved sharing their solutions to some of the issues raised.

It shouldn't come as a shock there were fewer hit-the-ground-running solutions that leapt out than ideas about what the issues were. Part of that was captured in the dialog on communication. "It's hard to know how we might actually tackle some of the issues we've identified because I feel we don't have the information necessary. So much of it seems to involve details that aren't released to the public."

There was general agreement that much of what, for lack of a better word, could be described as funk or displeasure, the throw-all-the-bums-out attitude that seems closer to the surface this election cycle than others, has a lot to do with things completely outside council's sphere of influence.

For those who've been in town a long time, this is the first time since the financial crisis of the 1980s they've felt Whistler is on a downward slide. "The uncertainty in world markets and how that's going to affect tourism here simply can't be understood at this time. But housing values are going down and that makes everyone feel poor. That's real and makes everyone feel more exposed."

Another participant took that observation and added, "Working in lean times takes real discipline. Governments all have a hard time transitioning from good times to hard times and we've had lots of years not having to operate in hard times. Because of the Olympics, we've enjoyed being somewhat insulated from what's been going on, but that's over."

Everyone was pleased to hear all the current candidates speaking to the importance of fiscal responsibility. But there was some skepticism. "Having an election timed with desperate times is good news because if anyone is running and doesn't have this message, it'll be an absolute shock. No one coming in now can make it if they're not willing to take a hard look at how things are done and how money is spent."

And there was this comment: "Even the mayor says he understands the importance of fiscal responsibility. But it's going to take a council and mayor who are prepared to do what it takes to turn talk into action. I mean how hard should it be to trim 10 per cent off a $77 million budget?"

Asked where, exactly, they thought budgets should be cut; there was a long pause. "Is it really our job to be telling them? For example, if the voters give them a mandate to knock 10 per cent off the budget, we shouldn't be telling them how to do that, that's their job to figure it out."

It took a surprisingly long time for the issue of municipal salaries to surface. And when it did, staff should be happy that no one wanted to swing the axe... and no one thought any candidate could be successful with that approach.

That having been said, there was agreement that the increases in RMOW wages posted over the past few years had to be a thing of the past. When the inevitable question of whether a blanket freeze might not result, as is so often raised, in municipal employees flocking to unions, one participant noted, "We pay union rates anyway. And if employees did unionize we might benefit from having a professional negotiator working on our behalf as opposed to someone who benefits from what they negotiate."

There was genuine hope the current service review at the RMOW would result in concrete savings. This was often expressed as a frustration that, for example, "We have the same size planning department despite the fact we're almost at build-out. How does that make sense?"

 

''Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.''

Mark Twain

 

As the evening wore down, it became clear to everyone that solutions would be a lot more difficult than identifying problems. That revelation underscored the thoughtful answers to the final question: What personality traits or characteristics would you like to see in successful candidates?

"I'd like to think this election is a good opportunity for a collective, community stomach pump," piped up one participant. When the laughter died down, he continued, "I feel there's way too much poison in the community, both at the council/muni level and in the community. Whether it's coming from the community and causing council to be shady or the other way around, it needs to be reset."

Another joined in, "Whomever we elect, they need to find the ability to work together. This council from the first day has had people on it who have no respect for each other. You can see it in the way they treat each other at times. One councillor speaking while two others laugh. There's no excuse for that. When you join council, you're supposed to wear the decisions council makes."

Voicing agreement, someone else added, "We need collaborators, not agitators. I feel as though we've been on the campaign trail for quite a while. People's voting records keep coming up and there's a lot of posturing that works against effective communication."

There was, in fact, widespread agreement on the need to elect people who could find ways to communicate with residents. "All the issues we've talked about have this in common. We elect smart people. I'm sure they make rational decisions. But when they can't let us in on what's behind those decisions, we're left wondering."

"Ability to execute, play well in the sandbox with others, collaborate... and a big dose of integrity.

"The word consensus builder resonates with me. I want someone who can make a decision and bringing everyone who was on the other side along with them. That's an amazing skill set and an inspiring thing to watch."

Far from leaving the evening with a feeling this council has failed, there was a quiet and somber consensus that despite all the contentious issues that have surfaced, they deserve more recognition for the hard work they've done than they've gotten. "I think existing council have done a fantastic job in most respects. It's a hard and thankless job."

The last word went to one of the quieter members of the group. "I hope those who step up are warriors and have the ability to see it through and not take it too personally."

We left the library on a note of agreement, enthusiastic agreement. None of us could imagine a better place to live and all of us had the highest hopes for the next group of brave souls who'll have their hands on the levers of power.

 

 



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