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Mostly about the money I was astonished to read that the RMOW has decided to charge for parking in lots 1-5 AND to raise the rates. Jobs are harder to come by than ever in this town (ask anyone).

Mostly about the money

I was astonished to read that the RMOW has decided to charge for parking in lots 1-5 AND to raise the rates.

Jobs are harder to come by than ever in this town (ask anyone). The economy is grim and people have to choose to visit Whistler.

A $13.50 parking fee for day-trippers means less money to spend and is a mighty poor welcome to Whistler. Downtown prices to park in a large (empty) lot.

Sit back and watch what happens to village businesses. The mantra of the RMOW appears to be: find more revenue.

Fire protection is usually not revenue producing, but if we want to have a fire pit in our yard, we now have to pay $60 to have an inspection.

Want to take a peek at your house plans or permits on file in the Muni Hall? That would now be another $60 or so.

Nickel and diming us all to death is a dead-end policy. Once every possible fee has been charged, what's next?

Whistler has a huge tax base compared to most communities its size. We have to accommodate and please large numbers of visitors and that requires extra funds, but if we cannot manage to live within our taxed means, there is something seriously wrong.

Living with what we have means prioritizing what is really important to us and making sure these things are funded. We all know what those things are: Valley Trail, parks, Meadow Park Rec Centre, village maintenance, library: all used by hundreds of people every day.

Add police and fire protection, infrastructure and mix well.

No new projects: let's just do a decent job with what we have. Cut out the consultants from afar, like the one who came up with the parking policy. New grants for new projects? Time to look a gift horse in the mouth and say, thanks, but no thanks. Funds from other sources still often require a financial commitment from the RMOW.

As for parking, most people would probably accept pay parking for a smaller fee in lots 1-5. Perhaps $1 per hour, $5 per day, and a $20/month local's fee. Then maybe someone would actually park in the lots.

If this had been done to start with, parking revenue would probably have been higher. I'd wager that most of the parking income last year was from the meters inside the village itself (because it surely wasn't from those six cars in Lot 1).

Now, the RMOW is going to force the issue: no parking unless we all pay too much for anyone's liking. The result: a whole bunch of resentful people, visitors included.

This, at a time when bus service is deteriorating, including the Squamish run. I don't think anyone truly believes this parking issue is all about getting people out of their cars.

It seems it's mostly about the money, mixed with a stubborn refusal to back down.

Jane Reid

Whistler

 

Wages now go to pay parking

Wow, well that truly sucks.

Yes, of course I am talking about the implementation of pay parking across the day lots coupled with increased rates. It is sometimes hard to look at the bigger picture and not just focus on self.

And on this occasion I am just focusing on self, how is this going to affect me? Badly! I live in Pemberton, and we also form part of the local work force and community.

From here there is a bus at 8:05 a.m. and then the next transit bus is not until 5:25 p.m. - over nine hours later.

So, if I am working a shift that starts at 4 p.m. in Whistler, I can leave for work eight hours early or drive and then pay to park. (And there would be no bus to get back home anyway, as the last transit bus to leave Whistler is at 6:10 p.m.)

And if that job is minimum wage, I am going to give over one and a half hours of my wages to pay for the parking.

Wow, well that truly sucks!

P.S.: I note the multi-month parking passes are tied to vehicle registrations and non-transferable. So not helping people to carpool then? Sucking some more.

Robbie Haydon

Pemberton

 

 

Pay parking defies logic

Almost three years ago, I wrote a letter to the editor saying why I thought taking over the Village day skier lots from the province was a bad deal for the citizens of Whistler.

The latest pay parking strategy from the RMOW reinforces my opinion and appears to defy logic. While other mountain resorts are trying to attract visitors to their resort villages, we are doing our best to discourage them.

If one of the goals is to change travel habits and encourage greater use of transit, why is the cost of a parking pass for a village employee less than half the price of a transit pass?

Reducing the use of single-occupant vehicles (SOV) should be the backbone of any traffic demand management strategy. The family car is an efficient method of transit for groups of two or more. While the latest proposal offers inexpensive parking for frequent users, it discourages casual users from making use of the village attractions.

Conversations around town over the winter have revealed that rather than reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the institution of pay parking has resulted in additional trips for many families that are choosing to drop off people at the village and come back in a second trip to pick them up rather than having them take one trip and park the car.

Often this proves more convenient and cost effective than the entire family group taking transit.

Other mountain resorts that have pay parking offer fast, frequent and free local transit and often provide free parking in more remote lots with a free shuttle service to the lifts.

As far as I know, no other mountain resort in British Columbia charges for parking in their day skier lots. Fifteen minutes of Internet research reveals that charging for parking outside of the ski season is relatively rare in North America.  The Town of Vail's two large parking structures are free for a duration of two hours or less, free from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. during the ski season and free outside the ski season. While parking in the structures for skiing is expensive, Vail provides free local transit and the outlying hotels provide free shuttles, so most locals and accommodation guests don't park and ski.

Keystone has three small close-in pay parking lots, but the main day skier lot at River Run Village is free.

In Breckenridge, there are a number of small lots throughout the downtown area for commercial parking. The main day skier lots at the base of the gondola cost $5 Monday to Thursday and $10 Friday to Sunday and holidays during the ski season. Parking in these lots is free after 2 p.m. and free outside the ski season. The mountain provides a free shuttle bus service from a free satellite parking area.

The City of Aspen has a limited parking supply. Street parking is metered or permitted and there is a pay for use parking structure that costs $1.50 per hour with a daily maximum of $15. Frequent use passes are available at a discount. Three of the four Aspen ski areas provide free day skier parking and there is a free shuttle bus service connecting the resorts that operates through the ski season. The city provides a free year round local transit service which includes travel to Snowmass Village.

Pay parking at the Whistler Conference Centre and along the village streets makes sense.  Providing a convenient supply of short duration, pay parking means people can make quick trips to village businesses with a reasonable expectation of finding available parking.  Charging more per hour for the day skier lots which are relatively inconvenient for quick trips is counter intuitive.  If the day skier lots must be pay to recover the cost of our foolish decision to take over the province's responsibility for the Fitzsimmons lots, price them reasonably, no more than $1 per hour, with a maximum of $8 per day.

And please, don't spend any more money to pave Lot 5, we've spent enough already.  Let's think about ways to attract our local families and regional visitors to Whistler Village, not chase them away.

Jill Almond

Whistler

 

Nothing but a cash grab?

With respect to the change in the parking situation with the Whistler lots, their move to paid parking makes very little sense to me.

I'm not privy to the inner workings and finances of RMOW and their profit sharing for the parking lots but this appears to be a cash grab and desperate effort by RMOW to make up for unrealized "forecasted" sales.

That's a conversation for another time (WB's approach to "forecasting" vs. "sales targets." It should be based on benchmarks from previous seasons and industry standards for that year).

All that said, I am employed by WB and I know that that lift sales were nowhere near their forecasted expectations (leading me to believe that they were more targets than they were structured and intelligently crafted forecasts) and this is an effort to level the playing field (though this was in the works for a few years).

What they need to do is very simply run a cost-benefit analysis; what do we have to gain, what do we have to lose.

Is the $9 in parking revenues worth risking the hundreds of dollars that will be spent on lift tickets, food, and beverages? (As well as moneys spent with the various vendors in Whistler Village).

Quick math tells you that all you need is roughly one in 20 (we'll say on average for argument's sake, assuming the individual buys two lift passes) to say they're not going to Whistler due to increased costs of attending the mountain for it not to work out in Whistler's favor.

Those are good betting odds. My view is that this was a shortsighted initiative; they saw a way to make money and weren't able to see the bigger picture - the forest for the trees, so-to-speak.

I'm not convinced that the powers that be at RMOW are sophisticated business thinkers, more likely they're municipal employees that saw an open door for some quick cash and made the move.

They're expecting the resistance to fade with time, maybe it will, but the effects on revenues will be undeniable and I haven't even mentioned the inconvenience and additional costs this puts on the locals that make minimum wage and are the heart and soul of the mountain, without which the mountain couldn't operate.

I look forward to seeing how the municipality handles this one.

Jamie Niebergall

Whistler

 

LLAC is representative

As the council representative of the Liquor License Advisory
Committee (LLAC), and in respect of the work the members of the committee have done, I feel I must address the comments of councillor Milner at the May 3 council meeting.

Councillor Milner is quoted as saying that he was happy to see a positive recommendation come from the LLAC, as they usually reject applications. When I requested clarification on the comment he referred to the members of the committee in a manner indicating a lack of understanding on his part,
of the make up or the procedures the LLAC operates under.
The municipality is required by law to provide comment on or approval
of most liquor licensing issues. The LLAC is a committee of council
that has been formed in order to address and provide input on issues
relating to service of liquor in Whistler.

The members of the committee are nominated by the sectors they represent within the community and are approved by Council. The sectors represented are the Restaurant Association of Whistler, the pub association, the nightclub association, the accommodation sector, Healthy Communities, RCMP, Fire Department, Liquor Control and Licensing (Liquor Inspector) and the RMOW, specifically resort experience.
The LLAC is chaired by an elected representative of the committee by
members of the committee. Recommendations of the committee are the
result of a democratic vote of the committee.

The LLAC reviews applications for extensions to operating hours, changes to license classes, requests for special occasion licenses for events and is
involved in discussions that help the RMOW form policies on issues
related to the service of liquor in Whistler.
The LLAC is a truly representative association of the stakeholders
involved in the hospitality industry in Whistler. The policies that
the LLAC helped the RMOW with have created a logical, transparent and
accountable process for licencees to meet the requirements to allow
them to be successful in their business.

It also provides a venue for concerns relating to the service of alcohol to be addressed in a positive and proactive manner by the stakeholders of the resort community.

Debate is always spirited yet remains respectful of all parties involved. At the end of the day all members of the committee have a better understanding of the issues facing the different stakeholders in our resort's hospitality industry. The LLAC has been a great benefit to the resort community of Whistler. There are many phenomenal events in the resort that the LLAC has provided recommendations on.
I would like to personally thank the members of the LLAC, both past
and present, for their contributions to the success of the hospitality
industry and the resort community we are all so passionate about.

Christopher Quinlan

Councillor, RMOW

Founding/ Past President, Restaurant Association of Whistler

 

 

Thank you

On May 6, 2011, Whistler held a celebration of life for one of its own. Billy Runge passed away April 30, 2011 of a sudden massive coronary. He had spent the last 31 years of his life in his beloved Whistler, and on Friday night his many friends came out to honour him. The evening was filled with stories, a slideshow, food, music and beer. It was an emotional evening for all his friends and family to witness.

My family and I wish to thank all involved in putting together this wonderful walk down memory lane, a true celebration of a life taken too soon.  Special thanks to the following people: Joel Chevalier, Laird Brown, the Whistler/Blackcomb Sign Shop (Scott, Chris and Jill) as well as others within the close knit department, Merlins, Brother Twang, Bob Boyar, Craig Stephen (Floyd), Wendell Moore, Dr. Damage, Jim Budge, and all of Billy's friends as well as neighbours near and far that came out to celebrate his life and offer their assistance.

We'd also like to thank the Emergency Responders (911 operator, ambulance and fire) for their heroic efforts in the early hours of April 30 as well as Wayne Flann and Suze Cummings for coming to the clinic to support Denise.

A heartfelt thanks to Denise Brown. She has been a constant support and has given me ongoing help and direction during this last week. She was with Billy for the last moments of his life, and for that I will always be grateful.

Forever Billy's little sister,

Barbara Maloley, Ottawa.

To all who loved Bill Runge, I thank you.

Whistler, a community of transplants from all over the world, showed yet again that not just blood makes us family. Best friends are fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters when our family is not nearby to lean on. Their children are our nieces and nephews that we love as much as we would our own.

The support that I have received from my Vancouver, Pemberton and Whistler "family" has been truly amazing and I couldn't have got through the past two weeks without you.  Thank you for listening. I will continue to lean on you in the hours, days and weeks to come as I miss my guy.

My two boys, Hayden and Griffin, are a constant joy and they are generous with their hugs/kisses for which I am eternally grateful as I know they will grow up too quickly.

Stop by the very start of the Dave Murray Downhill on Whistler Mountain and say hi to Bill. His ashes were scattered in the snow atop of one of his favourite ski runs on Monday.

I am blessed to be living amongst such wonderful people in Bill's and my favourite resort town.

Denise Brown

Whistler

 

 

 

Are we over-governed?

Al Raine, newly elected mayor of Sun Peaks, stated: "Many people are worried Sun Peaks will go the route of Whistler where rising taxes...have pushed out all but the elite."

Wondering about this I became determined to test the validity of Al's comments. First, I compared taxes/square feet for town houses in Western Canadian ski resorts versus Whistler. Here we pay $3.41/sq.ft., elsewhere $1.78. Then I considered the municipality's spending per resident - our number $5,418 versus $1,291 for other small B.C. communities.

Our growth of per resident spending has been 66 per cent from 2000 to 2008, despite stagnant tourist numbers.

We are over-governed.

Kamloops has 0.8 per cent of residents as municipal employees, Canmore one per cent, and White Rock 0.5 per cent - we have 3.5 per cent of residents as municipal employees. We even pay a gaggle of municipal employees generously, in fact in 2007 we had 15 employees making over $100,000 - White Rock and Port Moody had only five employees in six figures, while Kamloops had 14 over the magic mark - these municipalities have four times the population of Whistler on average.

We have titles galore - general manager of community life, manager of community planning, manager resort planning, my favourite - manager village animation and two general managers of resort experience! Compare this with Port Moody's titles ­- director of strategic planning and culture, director of planning and development and my favourite - director of engineering, parks and operations, who must be a busy boy compared to our charade of talent.

We are a small village with big city aspirations in the salary department. In 2007 our top three municipal employees earned $197,333, 42.5 per cent more than Kamloops, White Rock and Port Moody's top employees despite being five times our size. We pay more than the biggest cities - with Vancouver, Burnaby and Coquitlam paying on average $5,000 less per top employee, despite being 16 to 66 times larger communities.

If all this is not bad enough, I discover that the big ticket employees have expanded 60 per cent in number in the last two years and have received median increases of 16 per cent in remuneration - six times the inflation rate. The municipality is clearly out of control and the tail is wagging the dog, but the dog is going along with it.

We appear to be the only municipality in B.C. deducting one third of salaries from our council before reporting to taxpayers their cost. Our mayor's salary correctly reported would be $86,100, 50 per cent higher than reported at $57,100.

Are we on the slippery slope of lying to the electorate, joining Ireland, Greece and Iceland?

I'll let the reader decide the real reason we are about to enjoy pay parking.

Lennox McNeely, C.F.A

Whistler

 

Remember your riders
Bus drivers, please, if you will, I beg a moment of your time. This is meant as a courtesy, not a knock.

Many of you do your jobs with the utmost diligence and friendliness, this is for the not so many.

Being a transit driver is just another job, granted, but as you are working for/with the public, there are certain implications that arise. Among said implications, safety is paramount and is, therefore, the driving force behind most of the proceeding hints:

Speed:  Making "good time" makes no sense. You are paid to be at a certain place at a certain time and the schedule allows enough time for you to be there driving at the posted speed. If the schedule does not allow enough time, driving faster is not the answer, talking to your manager is.

You are entrusted with the lives of many citizens and the fractions of minutes saved on each journey aren't worth their safety.

Schedule:  If in doubt, be a minute late rather than early.

While a minute's wait at a bus stop may seem like a small margin for you, the "butterfly effect" that can precipitate, for someone who needs to catch the bus, can quickly add up to a large margin.

Speed 2.0 (Comfort as a passenger): Speed bumps are not ramps and roads are not banked. Maybe you do not realize it because you are sitting at the front of the bus, which is more balanced, or because you so often drive that you do not know the feeling of being a passenger.

The bus is awkwardly weighted so negotiating turns and speed bumps as if you were in an automobile doesn't make for a comfortable ride. It is not comfortable getting air-borne, which you may not notice due to instinctual bracing for the upcoming road and that fancy bouncy seat you have.

Do what you need to do, listen to Bob Marley, or breathe deeply or whatever it takes but before your shift calm yourself and please remember that you have jobs because of the people who take the bus; keep them happy and you will in-turn set yourself free.
Andreas Be
Whistler

 

The big picture

We would like to thank Village of Pemberton Councillor (Susie) Gimse and (Ted) Councillor Craddock for seeing the big picture when voting against the application by Cedar View Estate.

The application was a request for a Temporary Commercial Use Permit to legitimize the illegal wedding event business carried out last summer on this rural property - a property (that) is part of the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).

As clearly outlined in the FAQ on www.pemberton.ca, Cedar View Estate requires Agriculture Land Commission (ALC) approval for non-farm use as a condition of zoning approval, but has not applied for it and does not appear to be eligible.

Couples choose to come to Pemberton to wed because of the beautiful scenery and the lovely rural atmosphere - as do tourists.

Allowing commercial enterprises on land that has been set aside as Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) threatens to reduce access to the beautiful landscape - and hinder the very reason the wedding and tourism industry is attracted to the valley.

Why bother with all the work on the Official Community Plan, which designates the property as Residential/Agricultural, if spot zoning is going to be the practice?

If this property is allowed to rezone and hold large outdoor events in a residential neighbourhood, what is to stop it from happening beside you? There are exceptional wedding event venues on commercially zoned property around Pemberton, where the owners are supporting the community by paying commercial property taxes rather than the lower residential taxes Cedar View Estate enjoys.

They also conform to the Vancouver Coastal Heath regulations regarding food safety and sewage disposal.

They can handle weddings of up to 250-300 people (the upper limit advertised by Cedar View) without negatively impacting residents.

The owners of Cedar View Estate showed complete disregard for neighbours and there was excessive noise during multiple weekends in summer 2010.

It truly is a shame that the owners of Cedar View Estate weren't upfront with the couples whose weddings they booked this summer. Although their problem was identified in April of 2010, they continued to take bookings and operate without legal zoning, operating permits or food premises approvals, adequate provision for sewage disposal, and without seeking permission from the ALC, all of which suggests their business practices are questionable - and definitely inconsistent with the culture of our community.

Thanks, Councillors Ted and Susie!

You are completely supported by the facts. We encourage everyone to review the FAQ and reports posted on the home page of www.Pemberton.ca.

Randy Lincks, Karen Goodwin, Jack and Jenifer Reynolds and Lonnie and Susie Wray

Pemberton

 

Idle Free Whistler Is Nothing New

After reading Zbigniew Ciura's letter (April 21 edition) highlighting that the "RMOW has launched an Idle Free campaign to solve another non-existent problem," I briefly wanted to offer the following as a response.

The Idle Free Campaign is in fact not a new campaign but dates back to 2006 and was started after residents wanted to take action to protect local air quality.

The campaign has been repeatedly discussed during the community driven Whistler 2020 sustainability visioning process.

Past work on the ground has included having an Idle Free officer educating drivers of the impacts of idling, distribution of key chains and car stickers and the posting of anti-idling signage, which can still be seen today. However, in our transient community, education needs to be ongoing and vehicle idling continues to be one of the top three issues that AWARE (Whistler's local non-profit environmental group) receives member comments on each year (along with litter and shop doors left open during winter).

The thing that is set to change, and rightfully so, is that the time for which you can idle your vehicle without infringing a Whistler bylaw is hopefully being reduced from three minutes to one minute.

The start-up efficiency of a modern car means idling for more than 10 seconds now creates greater emissions (and costs you more) than shutting it off and starting up again.

Within the boundaries of Whistler vehicle transportation accounts for around 50 per cent of our community energy consumption.

Therefore if we as a community are to meet our targets for reducing emissions, the targets we endorsed through Whistler 2020, we will need to make behavioural changes small and large.

The Idle Free Campaign has always been (and still is) under resourced, especially considering the impacts of vehicle emissions on health (links to child asthma have long been proven).

So while emissions from idling may not be comparable to an asphalt plant, surely everything we can do to keep our air clean is important.

We have all seen situations where vehicles are left idling unnecessarily, whether it's parents waiting to collect school kids, taxis at the ranks or the guy spending five minutes grabbing a coffee.

Without the ongoing work of the Idle Free Campaign we would be accepting the status quo when there is actually great opportunity to reduce our emissions without negatively impacting perceived quality of life. Surely that is worth a little investment.
Sara Jennings

AWARE Vice President

 

For the record

In last week's Pique the article "Doorstep Organics" falsely stated that we, Ice Cap Organics, are partners with InspirEarth.

This is completely untrue and we wanted to address this bit of misinformation.

While we have no issues with InspirEarth, we do not want to be misrepresented or to have people thinking our produce is in their boxes. We will not be contributing vegetables to InspirEarth's harvest box and we will not be supplying them in any other way.

We had a phone conversation with them several months ago and spoke of the possibility of selling them surplus produce and that is all.

Ice Cap Organics is a family owned and operated, Certified Organic vegetable farm in the Pemberton meadows.

We have worked hard to build a reputation based on integrity and hard work and we would rather not have others piggyback on our hard work.

While InspirEarth has stated to us that this misinformation was a result of an honest miscommunication, we still felt it necessary to address this in the public domain to correct the mistake. Thanks for reading this and have a wonderful day.

Delaney and Alisha Zayac

Pemberton