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Time to settle Callaghan legacy

Legacy. It's a word that has so many layers. On a personal level it's what many of us think about when we imagine we are gone and wonder what we might leave behind — perhaps for our kids, our community, even our nation.
opinion_editorial1

Legacy.

It's a word that has so many layers. On a personal level it's what many of us think about when we imagine we are gone and wonder what we might leave behind — perhaps for our kids, our community, even our nation.

It can conjure up those big "meaning of life discussions" if one is left too long to ponder it in all its aspects.

In many ways the word has been hijacked in Whistler as it is constantly linked to the hosting of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

For years leading up to the event the talk was all about the legacy the Games would leave behind, not just in our town, but also in Vancouver and beyond.

There were, after all, not just the physical legacies of the Games — sliding tracks, skating ovals, athlete villages — there was the emotional legacy too. That feel good, we did it, rah-rah sort of blanket we wrapped ourselves in.

And there is no doubt that Whistler gained many crucial legacies from the Games including the athletes' village, now our Cheakamus neighbourhood, a boundary expansion, and an upgraded highway to the resort to mention just a few.

But I can't help but remember several inspiring conversations I had with top officials of the organizing committee put together to host the Games about how one of the greatest legacies would always be the idea that in Canada everyone competes on a level playing field, that a sense of fair play is part of how we would put on the Games.

Perhaps it is the recollection of these understandings that causes me to struggle with the situation in the Callaghan.

In the last few months we have learned of on-going discussions between Callaghan Country and the Whistler Legacies Society (WLS). These talks have not gone well and the result has been that users of the area now have to buy a pass to all three local cross-country areas — Lost Lake, Whistler Olympic Park (WOP) and the Callaghan — or choose between WOP and the Callaghan.

No more joint use, joint parking, joint grooming. No more feeling like we are all in this together.

I remember chatting with Brad Sills of Callaghan Country years before the Games. I can still recall the passion as he spoke about "his valley" and how it was a natural for the Nordic events. Back then there was even talk of putting the sliding events out there. I travelled by snowmobile down the proposed line of the track. Not even the speed of the ride could wipe the smiles off our faces.

Back then talking about the Games with Sills was like talking to a kid who had just learned that he was about to get every present he ever wanted for Christmas all at the same time.

As the planning went forward Sills kept a steady eye on it all, mindful of the natural bounty of the area for users and that development, handled well, could open a whole new world of possibilities.

And so it went along. All considered the 2010 Nordic events a great success and in the months following the Games most just assumed that the great partnership that appeared to be working between the $120 million Olympic venue and Callaghan Country would continue.

Hence the shock when it became obvious that something was going wrong.

It is to some extent a conundrum. Taxpayers don't want to support a private operation by providing benefits to it that other business might not have access to.

But nor do most of us want a private operation that went out of its way, an operation that had to give up a quarter of its tenure to accommodate the Games, to be shafted by the organization set up to manage the physical legacies of the Games in Whistler. An organization that as a private not-for-profit is not required to post annual budgets or provide financial details to the public. Instead, the organization shares that information with its appointed board of directors.

It may be that "paperwork" is the un-doing of the partnership, but is it really the intent of an organization managing our Olympic legacies to cause financial hardship to a long-time local business — one that went out its way to embrace the very event that gave rise to the legacy?

We do want WLS to eventually be sustainable using the money put in trust by government before the Olympic Games to support the legacies in the long term. We don't want a publicly funded organization with deep pockets — the province has already given millions in extra funding to WLS to cover an on-going deficit – to be competing with a locally operated business working to bring visitors to Whistler since 1981.

It seems to me from my excursion to the area that both operations actually offer something completely different to the user. WOP, while it definitely offers some challenging trails is really a destination draw on a daily basis. Callaghan rounds out the experience and offers those with perhaps a more adventurous heart, or more time, a ski-touring experience.

But both, I would argue, are key components of helping to make the area a destination draw for Nordic travellers and local residents alike.

Clearly it is time for both WSL and Callaghan country to sit at the table and work this out — either themselves or through a third party.

Perhaps those at WLS should be asking themselves what legacy they would like to be remembered for?