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Whistler loses long-time residents to senior housing in city

There’s a comfortable home high in Alpine where a few outdoor signs give visitors a small inkling about the couple who lives inside.

There’s a comfortable home high in Alpine where a few outdoor signs give visitors a small inkling about the couple who lives inside.

The first sign proclaims "Welcome" which gives fair warning that once you step inside you’ll feel like you’re being enveloped in a warm hug.

The second sign says "There’s two people that live here, one is a lovely person and the other is a grouch," which tells you that you’ll probably have a good laugh with the resident grump and sweetheart, whomever they may be.

More recently there’s a new sign that says, "For Sale."

And so despite their greatest efforts and against their long-term wishes Eileen and Gordon Tomalty are leaving Whistler and settling in a seniors home in North Vancouver.

"I came to the mountains because I enjoy the outdoors and I enjoy skiing," said Gordon Tomalty, who had a stroke a little over a year ago and has been anxious to move to a home with access to care.

"I feel like I’m losing a big part of what I came here for. It’s going to be a big loss."

The Tomaltys’ dream of a building seniors housing in Whistler, a dream they first conceived 10 years ago when the Mature Action Committee was established, has yet to be realized. And they cannot wait around indefinitely any longer.

"You can only watch so many (deals) slip and fall," said Eileen.

"You get fed up and that’s what happened."

Both Eileen and Gordon are in their 70s and as health issues are becoming more and more worrisome, they have been eager to see some results from MAC’s work.

In March last year Eileen was confident that a new land deal would give MAC a seniors complex with around 25 to 30 units in White Gold.

This site was also slated for resident housing.

With a deal so close, Eileen was sure they could stay in Whistler until the development was built, despite Gordon’s health.

But in August, five months later, the deal feel apart.

"That was a bad weekend," said Eileen, who immediately began calling a host of seniors homes in the city when she heard the news.

"I had to find somewhere where we were going to be safe."

They found that new home in Balmoral House, a North Vancouver seniors complex. Seniors can live there totally independently and gradually move to more extended care as they need it.

It’s the kind of place they were hoping to see in Whistler.

For the past 16 years the Tomaltys have been calling Whistler home.

In this place, where the badge of local is bestowed on very few, the Tomaltys have earned the right to call themselves locals.

This has been a community where they have both volunteered a lot of time and put in a lot of energy.

Eileen started the Elizabeth Manso Visiting Volunteers Service seven years ago. It’s an invaluable community service where volunteers sit at the bedsides of sick patients, do grocery shopping for people with broken legs or give moral support for the lonely.

In 2001 she was voted Whistler’s Citizen of the Year.

And Gordon served on municipal council during the early ’90s and was key in getting seniors housing to be counted outside the official Whistler bed cap in the Official Community Plan, just like employee housing.

In a meeting over a year ago with Mayor Hugh O’Reilly MAC members were assured that seniors are an integral part of the Whistler community.

"Seniors build and strengthen the fabric of the community," said O’Reilly at the time.

Still, it’s the cost and the lack of land that’s presenting the major problem to MAC.

The organization’s original vision of a five-acre parcel of land with a number of suites and a limited care facility has been somewhat modified over the past year as the realities of Whistler become more and more apparent.

Most likely any development of seniors housing would be done in phases and in different locations in the community, rather than one big site.

MAC President Gordon Leidal, who has been instrumental in getting seniors housing to the forefront of the politicians’ minds, says he’s not giving up hope that a deal can still be worked out for the White Gold site which would still include a Phase 1 seniors housing.

But he also wants to have two or three housing sites on the table as other options should future deals fall through.

"We have to make sure that we grab onto the right opportunity when it comes along," he said.

In order to qualify for any seniors housing established by MAC, seniors must be at least 55 years old and a member of MAC for two consecutive years. Prospective occupants must have lived in Whistler, as their principal residence, for a minimum period of five consecutive years.

The new occupants must also sell their principal residence in Whistler at least four months before moving into the retirement community.

MAC is determined that the complex be for those people who have contributed to the Whistler community, not for those who are coming from afar to enjoy the mountain view in later life.

Time is of the essence now as more MAC members are forced to move and make their homes elsewhere away from family and friends.

In the meantime the Tomaltys have slowly started moving their things from their Whistler home to their new house in the city.

The "right opportunity" for seniors housing has not been realized in time enough for them to stay here.

Although sad to be leaving, they’re on the lookout for a condo in town so they can still spend time in the mountains that they have grown to love.

Still, there’s one question which remains.

Who’s the grouch that is referred to in the clay sign at the front door?

On separate occasions Eileen and Gordon both said that the grouch was the one who didn’t open the door!

The MAC Annual General Meeting will be held in Millennium Place on Monday, Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. All MAC members, potential MAC members and the public are welcome at the AGM.

Along with MAC news over the past year, Tim Wake, the general manager of the Whistler Housing Authority and Bob MacPherson, the interim manager of the planning department at the RMOW, will speak about seniors housing opportunities.