Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Whistler takes $20 million, will build arena

Community referendum will be held if council borrows money for Paralympic facility

Council has unanimously voted in favour of taking the $20 million from the Vancouver Organizing Committee and finding a way to build the Paralympic arena in the village.

One caveat, however, is that if they cannot build it without borrowing millions of dollars, the issue will go to the community to decide in a referendum.

This decision is an about-face from an earlier municipal staff recommendation not to take to the $20 million. Two months ago staff recommended council take $8 million from VANOC and forgo building an arena for the Games.

Monday’s decision marks the end of months of negotiations and deadline extensions and leaves VANOC spokesperson Maureen Douglas feeling very pleased.

"It gives all of us a place to actually move forward with now," said Douglas, who was at Monday’s meeting. "And we’re thrilled with the ability to keep the Paralympic Games in a compact site like was always envisioned."

Work will now begin on fleshing out the two arena concepts – one proposed by the local business community, the other by Whistler’s master planner Eldon Beck – and figuring out just how much an arena capable of hosting the Paralympic sledge hockey events will cost Whistler.

A development manager will be hired for the task.

The unanimous decision by the six councillors (Mayor Hugh O’Reilly was absent) is a shift for the majority of council, most of whom were not originally in support of taking the $20 million for a village arena. Though they were all in agreement Monday night, they spent most of the discussion debating the wording of the motion.

"I think in some ways it was an easy decision made hard," said Acting Mayor Gord McKeever upon reflection of the evening’s discussion.

The following day Councillor Kristi Wells wanted to focus on the positive outcome of the decision rather than the confusing debate itself.

"We haven’t been able to be unanimous about a lot of things this term. So I’m going to hold on to the outcome," she said.

Wells has always advocated taking the $20 million and building the arena on Lot 1/9 in the village. Not so the rest of her colleagues.

One factor which changed their opinion in recent months was the outpouring of support from the community to take the $20 million and build a facility in the village. More than 60 per cent of people at two recent open houses were of that opinion. The first open house drew almost 300 people.

"What made me change my mind is that the community really wanted it," Councillor Marianne Wade said after the meeting.

Along with the community support, Councillor Caroline Lamont also changed her position on the arena for economic reasons. Whistler has to understand the need to reinvest in its resort product she said.

"If there’s going to be monies available to help us get there, then we should look at it and explore it," she said the day after the meeting. "The reality in Whistler is we can have a really great community but the great community won’t be supported unless we have a strong business and economic environment."

That was Councillor Nick Davies’s point at the council meeting.

Davies opened the arena debate Monday night with his arguments to take the $20 million.

"In my view our economy is in a deep recession," he said. "We need some shock and awe tactics to revive our economy."

Those tactics include supporting Whistler-Blackcomb’s Peak to Peak gondola, pursuing air access to the resort and building something with some "sizzle," an arena that’s lively and dramatic on Lots 1/9 in the village.

He said the financial risk to accept the money is worth it in these challenging economic times.

Davies, however, was adamant the taxpayers should not be stuck with the arena bill; instead council should put pressure on the provincial government for the financial tools that were negotiated as an Olympic legacy and have yet to materialize.

Another major factor that swayed the councillors’ decision was a last minute deal negotiated by Whistler staff. That deal allows Whistler to accept the $20 million but if the community votes against borrowing more money in a referendum, VANOC may still give the resort $8 million for the practice ice sheet at Meadow Park.

This deal minimizes the risk of accepting the larger sum of money.

"I’m pleased because we have an agreement from VANOC that allows us to engage the community more fully in the face of rising pressure to develop the Lot 1/ Lot 9 concept, which I think tends to put us in greater financial risk," said Councillor Ken Melamed after the meeting. "It gives us the option of having the referendum as well as a fallback which we didn’t have before."

Melamed was keen to ensure staff explores the practice ice sheet concept more fully in case of a referendum.

The community has to understand its options if it has to take a vote on borrowing more money or not, said Melamed.

But the $8 million option is not guaranteed. Though the VANOC board supported it, it has yet to get approval from the federal and provincial governments.

Council’s decision, while a reflection of the majority of the community’s wishes, was a blow to one of Whistler’s corridor partners. Squamish Mayor Ian Sutherland said he was very disappointed council opted for the $20 million.

"They’ve had a long time to try and figure this one out," he said. "They should have made a clear decision a long time ago."

Closed-door negotiations earlier this year resulted in a business deal that would have seen Squamish get the arena and some VANOC money for it. Whistler would have received $12 million – $8 million to build a practice ice sheet at Meadow Park; the remaining $4 million for community amenities.

Though he knew the decision was always in Whistler’s hands, Sutherland couldn’t help but be optimistic for Squamish.

"We acted in good faith and we moved forward in good faith based on what we were told by the Whistler council and Whistler staff, so we feel a bit probably that we’ve been led down the garden path," said Sutherland on Tuesday.

"If there wasn’t an election this year there’s no way the Whistler council would have voted to take this because it doesn’t make economic sense. From a strictly economic point of view Whistler was far better off to not build the arena."

Sutherland also points to Monday’s staff report highlighting the fact that Whistler still does not know what it is going to build, or how it is going to pay for it.

The two concepts on the table right now have been estimated to cost between $32 million and $33.4 million. Those figures do not take into consideration any opportunities that may come through public/private partnerships, sponsorships, or leveraging Olympic money for other capital projects such as the Olympic medals plaza by hosting that in the arena instead.

Alternatively council could look at its capital plan budget and shift funds accordingly.

"We do have ways where we could probably fund this without going to referendum," said Keith Bennett, general manager of parks and recreation at the council meeting.

It is expected to take a development manager roughly six months to develop the concepts and flesh out a design along with an economic program.

Council wants to ensure the community is engaged in this process along the way.