Council candidate: Tyler Mosher: Tyler Mosher hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has spent the last nine summers in Whistler and has been a full-time resident for the last four years. Mosher has a degree in environmental planning and has studied business and fine arts. He currently works as an environmental planning consultant and owns and operates a landscape design and installation company. He rents in Nicklaus North and does not own property in Whistler. Pique: Why are you running for council? Mosher: I want to be on council because I think I can do a good job representing the average Whistlerite. I understand the language. I have learned how to develop policy and more importantly, I am a community-oriented person. As such, I want to increase my responsibilities as a member of Whistler, from being a member of the Advisory Parks and Recreation Commission to being a councillor. Pique: How would council be different with you on board? Mosher: The current council has done a relatively good job over the last three years. I am happy to see the environmental strategy completed. The initiatives put forward by the current council will be coming to a head over the next three years: issues such as the proposed cultural policy, the proposed community forest, the new library, museum and the hockey arena. The hockey arena has been part of the Official Community Plan and village plan for a while. In other words some of the things the current council has got the ball rolling on, I would like to see happen. With respect to their failings, it is my belief that there are too many in-camera debates and the public is not being properly represented in the process. This municipal council did not have the capabilities to deal with a lot of the tourist accommodation issues to the point they stopped debating them. I would like to learn more about licensing opportunities. I am not necessarily pro-a licensing system for short-term rentals, I am pro-solving the problem. I also would have negotiated better deals on behalf of Whistler’s public. I think this municipal council could have created better win-win situations. Pique: What are the important issues the next council has to deal with? Mosher: The major issue is developing the community. A lot of the land base has been developed and we should settle into the development cap or the ceiling. Once that is met, I think that there is a great opportunity to focus on illustrating what a resort community is all about and providing the amenities to facilitate a Whistler culture or community. I am pro-the Olympics but I feel that a lot of the community would like to have their voice heard in the way of a referendum. The debate there is that Whistler is already a success, the Olympics won’t necessarily make it any better than what it is. But I have a bias: I have always looked up to Olympic athletes and the idealism behind the Olympics and I would like to be a part of that. As far as the Stoltmann goes, I am not against a national park in the area. but basically I would like to see more old growth in the valley bottoms of the area preserved and linked to the existing protected areas. However I think it is more important for Whistler’s community and political influence to be directed towards getting the community forest proposal accepted. This would enable us to be more in charge of our own natural resources, of our valley and of our forests, and I think that we could be better ambassadors to the environment by achieving the community forest proposal acceptance. One of the ways to get it accepted is to put a lot of pressure on the B.C. forest service and the provincial government. I think it’s achievable. I think a big part of it though would be working with our neighbouring logging communities. Pique: How do you balance community needs against the needs of the resort. Mosher: Whistler is an established world-class, four-season resort. Our corporate partners and associations do a fine job of advertising our amenities throughout the world but our community facilitates the resort’s success day in and day out. Now that Whistler’s population has grown to a point and now that young families are developing, we are able to observe true community and unique culture from its birth and are now able to focus on their developments through policy and planned initiatives. There is a fine line in the balance and I think that a lot of the people here enjoy the amenities our resort town provides, I know I do. I much prefer to have tourism as the industry and living in a resort to having any other type of industry being the town business. I think its a win-win situation all the way around — having a resort, having a community, having the two co-exist. It’s the municipal council’s job to balance the scale. The realism is we have to work together. We are interdependent and it’s all a good thing. We are not bad. It’s just the priorities on each side are different. Pique: Why should people vote for you? Mosher: I can negotiate well based on my experiences and planning education. And, I feel that I can make better decisions on behalf of Whistler’s community and their locals which I feel are currently underrepresented, especially those between the ages of 25 and 34. They are not necessarily younger and that is the misconception here. These are the people who are the managers of a lot of the businesses here. These are the people who work here, these are the people who are raising their families, these people are 64 per cent of the population. I am involved in the community and understand municipal process. I am able to represent all of Whistler from the aged right down to the homeowner who doesn’t live here. Of the 17 people running I think I am definitely among the top four choices for all of the population and all of the voters.
