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Whistler secures $34 million, 'lion's share' of RMI contract

Mayor talks about meetings, money and infrastructure from the UBCM conference in Victoria
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rmi secured The RMOW and provincial government inked a new deal to secure RMI funding through 2016. This year $340,000 of RMI funding was spent on street entertainment. Photo BY joern rohde

Whistler Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden has confirmed that B.C.'s minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation, Pat Bell, has inked a new five-year Resort Municipality Initiative contract worth $34 million.

The signed Memorandum of Understanding was received by the Resort Municipality of Whistler last Friday, the mayor confirmed from the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) conference in Victoria on Tuesday, Sept. 25.

Wilhelm-Morden had a 90-minute meeting with Bell on Monday, where she made a presentation with three other resort mayors on the RMI.

"He understands what a great program the RMI program is, how innovative it allows resort municipalities across the province to be. He is a big supporter," Wilhelm-Morden said.

She was delighted to announce the agreement. "It has been in the works for quite some time. It secures about $34 million in funding, from 2012 to 2016, subject to, of course, money being in the bank in the province," said Wilhelm-Morden.

The RMI is a special fund created by the province to pay for infrastructure and programming in order to attract more visitors. Examples include the Whistler Presents concert series, street performers and support for festivals.

She said while other resort municipalities like Golden, Tofino and Harrison Hot Springs also received renewed funding, Whistler gets "the lion's share" because of higher accommodation unit numbers.

"It's tremendous news. The RMI funds are used by us to do programming for our guests and to do projects that stimulate visits to Whistler that we just wouldn't otherwise be able to do. All you have to do is look at this summer with the FE&A programming and how successful that has been, and how we've had the second busiest summer ever, and the busiest August on record to know that funds are being spent wisely and are having the desired results."

Wilhelm-Morden spent most of Monday at the BC Mayor's Caucus, along with Mayors Rob Kirkham of Squamish and Jordan Sturdy of Pemberton; 140 mayors endorsed a statement in support of seeking long-term infrastructure investment from the federal and provincial governments.

The statement reads:

"We agree that our communities require immediate action to provide stable, predictable, long term infrastructure funding from federal and provincial governments, to meet municipal needs as defined by each community's priorities. This statement affirms and complements the efforts of UBCM and FCM to address the infrastructure needs of communities to ensure social, economic and environmental well-being."

The session was the second such gathering of the caucus. Wilhelm-Morden said there was tremendous pressure on some communities when it came to infrastructure, which became the main subject of discussion.

"Fortunately, Whistler, because we are young and most of our infrastructure is relatively new, we're not facing the same crunch that other municipalities are. The federal government has an infrastructure-funding program, but it expires in 2014. By all accounts it is going to be replaced with something, but we really need to pin that down and achieve some certainty," she said.

Wilhelm-Morden said all participants in the Mayor's Caucus were on equal footing, no matter the size of the community, and had value for the participating communities.

"Dean Fortis, (mayor of Victoria) reminded us when he gave us his opening remarks the mayors are the only people who are voted for directly by the population in the country. When we put our voices together we are an influential group," she said.

"We need to move the group forward. One thing would be to improve communication... it came out from Minister (Shirley) Bond in May that all the mayors were looking for was more money, and that is simply not true."

Apart from the Mayor's Caucus, Wilhelm-Morden said she has already had meetings "all over the place," though the conference continues until Friday.

"I had a meeting at lunch yesterday with an assistant deputy minister about our draft OCP (Official Community Plan), and the RMI meeting," she said.

She and Whistler's councillors held an impromptu meeting in the parking lot on Tuesday morning to connect and share what they've accomplished so far.

On Tuesday, Wilhelm-Morden sat in on a discussion about Rural Resource Roads because of Whistler's interest in retaining road access to the backcountry.

"There is a discussion about these roads being decommissioned and closed, and so much of our backcountry is accessed by these resource roads. We have a real interest in finding out what the province has in mind," she said.

Later, she sat in on an economic development session.

On Tuesday afternoon, Wilhelm-Morden, along with Sturdy, Chair of the SLRD Susie Gimse and and CAO of the SLRD Linda Flynn, met with minister of energy and mines Rich Coleman to discuss their four-point resolution for changes in liquour laws that is being presented at the UBCM.

She added that three of the four points in the resolution were already being addressed by the provincial government.

"I spoke to the fourth point, which relates to special occasion permits," Wilhelm-Morden wrote in an email late Tuesday. "I pointed to the letter to the editor of the local papers recently in which a GranFondo participant wrote of drinking his celebratory beverage in a pen without his family and how that detracted from his overall experience... Minister Coleman is considering further changes to liquor licensing regulations as they relate to special occasion permits.

"Changes are being made although I have to say that I am impatient at the pace," Wilhelm-Morden added.

A discussion about the RMOW's gas tax application for the Alta Lake Road sewer and a discussion with BC Transit about Whistler's transit issues are due to take place later this week.

The next Mayors' Caucus will take place April 29th and 30th, 2013 in Prince George, and invitations will be sent to Premier Christy Clark; Leader of the Official Opposition Adrian Dix; BC Conservative Leader John Cummins and Green Party Leader Jane Sterk as well as the Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities for the Government of Canada.