Pique Newsmagazine 2716

APRIL 16, 2020 ISSUE 27.16

WWW.PIQUENEWSMAGAZINE.COM

FREE HEROISM

WHERE ARE ALL THE

FAMILY DOCTORS?

Whistler’s family doctor shortage is acute—but efforts are underway to change that

12

FALLING FUNDING Community groups are scrambling as pandemic causes cuts to funding

14

TASK FORCE

Business leaders form

task force in face of COVID-19

32

PUPPET PALS Jesse Thom and his puppets release a new uplifting video for kids

WE’RE WORKING SAFER AND SMARTER! Contact your local Whistler Real Estate Agent for information on how we can help during this time. Please stay safe, support local businesses and do your part for our community!

Real Estate is deemed an essential service

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THIS WEEK IN PIQUE

28

24

32

Where are all the family doctors?

Whistler’s family doctor shortage is acute—but efforts are underway to change that. - By Joel Barde

08

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A letter writer this week

28

IN REFLECTION

Whistler’s Thompson siblings, ski-cross racer

sends thanks to healthcare workers, while another encourages hikers to put off their

Marielle and alpine racer Broderick, reflect on the 2019-20 season that was as they look

expeditions for now.

toward the 2022 Winter Olympics.

12

COMMUNITY CUTS

Whistler community organizations from

32

PUPPET PALS

With some help from his puppets, Jesse Thom

Arts Whistler to the Whistler Museum and Archives to the Whistler Chamber face tough

released a new video for kids (and perhaps adults, too) in self-isolation that’s quickly

decisions as COVID-19 wipes out funding sources.

gained attention.

20

COMING TOGETHER

The community of Pemberton

42

MAXED OUT

Whistler has some amazing stories to share that

is coming together to look after some of those people most affected by COVID-19

illustrate creativity and tenacity—which are good things to think about right now in the

shutdowns.

midst of COVID-19.

COVER

I’d like to thank Dr. Ian Tamplin for making such a big difference in my healing life for the past 15 or so years. If all GPs could be as friendly and understanding as him, the world would be a better place. - Jon Parris

#103 -1390 ALPHA LAKE RD., FUNCTION JUNCTION, WHISTLER, B.C. V8E 0H9.

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4 APRIL 16, 2020

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OPENING REMARKS

Our financial meltdown THIS WEEK, IT REALLY feels like the financial implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are settling at the front of our consciousness.

Obviously, we have all observed it with the resort emptying after the mid-March closure of both Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. But somehow, it was as if we were in a holding pattern, waiting to be told when things could reopen and how long we had to keep our stiff upper lip in place.

The reality is it could be weeks or even months longer, and if we see a resurgence of the pandemic during next winter’s flu season

BY CLARE OGILVIE edit@piquenewsmagazine.com

with no vaccine in place, well… it hardly feels bearable to imagine what that will mean.

With snow melting off the trails, we are all giving our bikes a spring tune-up (though sticking to valley trails so as not to end up at the healthcare centre with injuries) and looking fondly at the downhill

degree to understand that small businesses and their landlords are not going to come through this unscathed. Some partnerships are going to have to be forged in Whistler if landlords want to have occupants at all.

Surely some rent is better than nothing?

And our amazing community groups are threatened as well. Of course, they understand that things can’t go on as they were when it comes to funding support from local government, so we must move into a time when we are focusing what we have on what we need most. Keep in mind that our largest organization offering social supports is the Whistler Community Services Society (WCSS), which runs the food bank and much more— and it has lost its main source of revenue in the Re-Build It and Re-Use-It centres.

These amazing social enterprises generated total revenues of $1.67 million in 2019 and after expenses, there was about $671,000 for programs and so on. That revenue is gone for now at a time when it is needed the most. Those behind the scenes are leaving no stone unturned in addressing where to get grant money or other funding, but it’s tough out there. We are competing against the entire country—what a situation to be in.

[C]an our local government do more to help residents? bike park trails.

But can we even open the bike park if we are still dealing with endemic coronavirus here? Let’s remember that the bike park is responsible for a large percentage of the patients the Whistler Health Care Centre deals with.

Everyone is going to have to be creative to survive this. Small business does have some tools it can access now through federal and provincial programs, but there has to be a realization that this is simply not enough. You don’t need an economics

6 APRIL 16, 2020

The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) is working on funding ideas to help WCSS but let’s be clear—more funding for this organization means another important community group will have to do without.

Apart from the announcement a couple of weeks ago that the RMOW is temporarily laying off all casual and auxiliary employees (about 200 people)—which came into effect this Monday—we have had little information about what local government’s financial plan is. We know some costs are down—for example, they are not operating the Meadow

Park Sports Centre, nor the family activities at Olympic Plaza and so on. But by the same token, no fees are coming in from these things and, of course, other income sources are down too, such as pay parking.

What will get cut? Capital projects, staff housing, parks and rec, the festival program? Nothing will be sacred, I fear, as we deal with the fallout of COVID-19.

At least we are not Toronto, which is projecting a budget shortfall of more than $780 million across 12 weeks (assuming no one defaults on their taxes), or Vancouver, which says it is at risk of going bankrupt.

A Research Co. poll commissioned by Vancouver’s mayor found that a quarter of all property owners would not be able to pay more than half their property tax owed in 2020 and that six per cent were not expecting to pay anything at all. I would imagine the situation would be much worse here in Whistler as tourism is totally halted. Most people have little to no income coming in.

Cities and municipalities are calling on all levels of governments to fund them through this, and I would argue that with Whistler generating $1.37 million a day in tourism revenues pre-pandemic, we should have no problem putting our hand out to get a little help after giving so much to all levels of government for so long.

But can our local government do more to help residents? I hesitate to point to a U.S. example, but according to the Aspen Times, Aspen council recently voted to take money from various city funds to the tune of US$6 million to help people.

“The money will cover everything from rent and mortgage relief for local workers and residents to child care subsidies for working families to possible bridge loans or grants to Aspen businesses, along with costs associated with disease testing and personal protective equipment for health care workers,” said the Times.

The money has to be paid back to those funds, but at least money is helping people right now who need it. Interesting. n

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Gratitude for health care at its best Three weeks ago, as we were just starting to realize the impact a global pandemic would have on our community, my three-year-old son broke his femur.

At the time, terms like “social distancing” and “flatten the curve” were new to our vocabulary. We assumed time would be measured in weeks, not months. The thought of schools closing seemed far-fetched and hasty.

And on a day my son was meant to be attending ski school, we were still processing Vail Resorts’ abrupt closure of Whistler Blackcomb.

Big decisions from all levels of government (globally!) were being made one after another, and shock was becoming such a normal part of life I was starting to feel immune to the state of it.

Perhaps that’s why I didn’t panic when I saw my son fall awkwardly while playing with his older brother; why I managed to keep it together as his eyes met mine with an urgency I hadn’t seen before. Instinctively, I knew his leg was broken. But what does shock feel like again? As I struggle to describe the numbness, a meme my friend sent says it best: “I’m just taking it one are-you-fucking-kidding-me at a time.”

Over the next 48 hours, we’d find ourselves in the cumulative care of more than 20 healthcare professionals. Every time I attempt to count, I realize I’ve overlooked someone. From Dr. Clark Lewis and a calming force of nurses at the clinic here in Whistler, to the paramedics along for our transfer to Vancouver, and the doctors and (so many) nurses and staff from the E.R., Orthopedic and O.R. units that would tend to us in our time at Children’s Hospital, [there are many to thank].

Let me be clear that our son’s injury wasn’t life threatening or even critical. This is just our remarkable healthcare system at work. A system of individuals who happened to be in a notable state of unease due to an impending crisis—that cared for us without hesitation in a way that leaves me emotional with gratitude.

Individuals like the nurses at Whistler Health Care Centre who treated us—patient and family—as one. Who spoke candidly to us, but gently to my son—the words my husband and I couldn’t find. Who swooped in as I froze and held me up as I fell apart.

We are each making a difference as individuals.

Working together in our community, we will find a positive and proactive resolution to COVID-19.

This kind of focus will help bring innovation and streamlined systems for all age groups around the world. With our cooperative spirit, we will move our world forward with balance, health and wellness!

To connect with Whistler MAC for updates— visit our website at www.whistlermac.org, Whistler MAC Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ groups/960888177281796/, or email: chair@ whistlermac.org for further assistance.

Kathy White // Chair, Whistler MAC

Save the hikes for later

I watched you dance around us, none of you missing a step. I am so grateful for these moments of raw compassion and empathy— for you being damn good at your jobs.

To the dozens of healthcare professionals we met in our brief experience and the thousands more that are somehow keeping it together in these unprecedented times: Please know you are valued.

These moments in a day’s work can mean the world to the families you care for. I can’t imagine what this is like for you, but my heart aches as I consider the trauma you may be left with from helping others through their own.

Take care of yourselves in these strange times.

To everyone else: this innocent accident involved more resources than I can count.

Think about that as you struggle to sit still. We live in a society that tends to push boundaries.

Whistlerites—an anomaly to the human race, most comfortable while challenging our own comfort zones. A lingering winter may keep our impulses at bay but inevitably, the snow will melt, the trails will clear and we’ll be itching to get out there (out anywhere!) to take advantage of what lies beneath.

Please take it easy. Try sitting still even.

I know it’s hard. I know you aren’t used to it.

But the last thing our healthcare system needs right now is even the slightest possibility of having to take on more than it already is. Don’t risk adding to the burden.

Stay home, play safe.

Lindsey Ataya // Whistler

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8 APRIL 16, 2020

Whistler MAC says thanks On behalf of the Whistler Mature Action Community (Whistler MAC) board and membership, we want to acknowledge and thank all the community businesses, the organizations and health professionals, and the many residents who help our Whistler 55+ / Seniors. Daily throughout the year, and especially now during current COVID-19 global pandemic, you have been so supportive of us.

By following government and health authority protocol requirements, we sometimes feel alone and isolated. Like many residents in our community, we are missing in-person time with family and friends. At the same time, we all realize the importance to staying at home and self-distancing when going out in the community.

We join in to recognize our medical professionals by clapping and banging pots at 7 p.m. daily.

We thank Pique Newsmagazine for continuing to publish and keep us all connected!

We really appreciate all the stores, grocery and other services, for opening early for seniors’ needs. We are able to shop, to get medications, and to manage other health/life services at a safe distance and with less stress.

Thank you Whistler Transit for free bus services and the Resort Municipality of Whistler for your community health and social services page updates (whistler.ca/about/ community-health-and-social-services).

As always, we appreciate the Whistler Community Services Society’s programs and counselling services (mywcss.org) and the United Way/ Better at Home programs (betterathome.ca).

I’m disappointed by the selfishness on display by many in the hiking community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Too many of us are asking, “What loopholes can I find in the public-health advisories to justify my next hike?” instead of “What can I do to help limit the number of people who will die from coronavirus?”

Many hikers are laser-focused on the twometre rule, ignoring other equally important aspects of social and physical distancing.

The sacrifice we’re being asked to make as hikers is minor in comparison to what’s at stake, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized people. Clearly, any weakening of our collective efforts to reduce the spread of the virus will also prolong the need for widespread park, trail, and campsite closures.

Your favourite hike isn’t going anywhere.

Please stay home, go outside in your neighbourhood for exercise, and do your part to flatten the curve.

Stephen Hui // Author, 105 Hikes In and Around Southwestern British Columbia

Recycle with gloves, please I observe about 35 per cent of users of the Recycle Depot are not wearing gloves. To date in Whistler, we have been very lucky not to have a coronavirus outbreak of major proportions despite the number of visitors we host. Could GFL spare some money from their Green Paint-a-thon to post a few signs to suggest that the doors on the bins can only be accessed with gloves—or better still, not allow those without gloves to enter the facility?

Maybe with traffic on Highway 99 down at least 70 per cent, a few [RCMP] officers could be spared to enforce this edict.

Lennox McNeely // Whistler n

To all our friends, clients and their families please stay safe!!

We are always here to help you in any way Susan and Steve Steve Shuster

t: 604.698.7347 e: steve@steveshusterrealestate.com www.steveshusterrealestate.com

An opportunity to share a note of thanks, greetings or celebration for a frontline health care worker, helpful friend or colleague, or celebrate a birthday in print! Or a personal reminder to donate to the foodbank or another worthy Whistler cause.

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16

COVID-19

Thank you to the amazing Heidi Rode.

PYJAMA PARTY

Whistler’s community steps

up to look after those in need

20

BUSINESS HELP

Chamber offering to

lend a hand to businesses

42

BURNOUT

SWAN SONG

Animal Nation’s Garnet

Clare shares the stories of his new album

Thank you

to Phil, my favourite millwright in the sea to sky corridor, and all the other behind-the-scenes workers keeping this place running!

We appreciate you!

COVID-19:

Pique's office manager who juggles several balls and holds down the fort.

WHISTLER STEPPING UP TO DEAL WITH PANDEMIC

Thank you 16

COVID-19

Whistler left reeling as

COVID-19 virus spreads

18

CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE Whistler Chamber announces best and brightest

45

AUDAIN ADDITION

Levi Nelson’s

art bought by Audain museum

SunValley

THE FIRE THAT SAVED

A Whistler backcountry skier tours the scorched earth of Central Idaho

12

COVID-19

13

MEDICAL CARE Whistler ‘still on the

Glen Valentine, manager, for keeping the Fresh Street Market open, clean and well stocked. We appreciate you and your hardworking staff!

Jan and the rest of Market Pavilion Strata

Thank You Karl

Businesses investigate how

to survive a pandemic

upslope’ of COVID-19 curve

38

BOUNCING BACK Local musicians are tapping into other talents to make a living

Thank you Whistler for supporting Local Business To serve our community we are staying open Hours are Monday- Friday 10AM-6PM We offer free same day delivery anywhere in Whistler.

Please call us at 604-905-7790 Owr find our order form on our website quantumvitamins.ca

Stay safe and boost your immune system.

Greg would like to acknowledge the character of the Whistler community for coming together during this time of uncertainty.

M.Ed., RCC, SEP

P: 604-935-0968 E: Greg@McdonnellCounselling.ca W: McdonnellCounselling.ca

PIQUE’N YER INTEREST

The optimist’s guide to self-isolation I HAVE A CONFESSION to make.

I may have unintentionally manifested an international lockdown.

Six weeks ago, I was telling a friend how I hadn’t been home for more than an hour and a half at a time, apart from sleeping, in two full weeks. Between balancing two jobs, picking up extra

BY MEGAN LALONDE serving shifts, over-committing to social obligations and using whatever spare time was left to snowboard, my laundry was beginning to pile up. I had a deadline for a freelance project quickly approaching, my taxes needed to be done, and I couldn’t remember the last time I cooked anything that wasn’t scrambled eggs.

“I just wish I had, like, five days to stay at home and get shit done without having to feel guilty about not using my day off to snowboard,” I told her.

Wish granted, I guess, although I’d say the powers of the universe overreacted a little.

Despite this, I didn’t exactly react well to society’s swift-moving shutdown.

I wasn’t hoarding toilet paper or breaking

down in the middle of a parking lot, but it’s pretty much impossible to ignore the overall sense of impending doom while walking through empty grocery store aisles, or finding out mid-shift that the restaurant you work at is closing.

Now, five weeks into these physicaldistancing measures, I still haven’t figured out how to ward off the sympathetic pit I feel in my stomach when a friend tells me their wedding is postponed, or the anxious jitters when hearing just how far revenue has fallen at my remaining job, let alone the overwhelming heartbreak when reading news articles about families who’ve unexpectedly lost loved ones to COVID-19.

There’s no getting around it: this sucks.

I could go on and on about all the negative impacts of this pandemic, but to do so risks heading down a slippery slope that ends in cracking open a bottle of wine at 3 p.m. while watching Dr. Bonnie’s daily briefing and furiously Googling banana bread recipes.

That, and I like to consider myself somewhat of an optimist. We might not know when life will return to normal, but worrying about worst-case scenarios or dwelling on the most depressing parts of self-isolation will only make this time even more painful than it already is.

There’s scientific proof to back this up: One technique to regulating emotions—

which means accepting and processing feelings rather than being overwhelmed by emotions, as clinical neuropsychologist Dr. Vinay Bharadia told our sister paper in Victoria, The Times Colonist—is known as cognitive reappraisal. It entails reinterpreting adverse events to reframe them more positively.

According to Bharadia, the technique is based on the understanding that thoughts, feelings and behaviour are all interrelated, so thoughts influence how one feels and acts. For example, swap out the thought, “I’m stuck in my house” for “I’m safe in the house,” he suggested.

So, in the spirit of reframing negative thoughts, I thought I’d share a list of the silver linings I’m focusing on in an attempt to stay moderately sane while self-isolating: • Living alone? Yeah, it can be lonely. But I don’t need to worry about any roommates bringing home the virus, and no one’s around to bother me while I’m working.

• Working from home makes me miss my coworkers, but I’m lucky to: A) still have a job, and; B) have one that allows me to work from the safety of my home.

Also, sweatpants.

• The fact that both the mountains and B.C.’s provincial parks are closed is understandable, but that doesn’t make it any less of a bummer. However, we’re incredibly privileged to ride out this

pandemic in Whistler, where the air is fresh and nature is easily accessible.

• I miss making plans with friends.

I miss drinking Caesars on sunny patios and stopping to pet dogs on the Village Stroll or Valley Trail. But on the upside, no one is expecting me to leave home for any reason, at any point in the day. It’s strangely freeing, when you think about it.

• Some friends have also got into the habit of leaving surprises on each other’s doormats or car hoods. So far I’ve landed cupcakes, the best vegan cookies, beer and even a hand-sewn facemask. It’s the highlight of my day every time—somehow, in the middle of a pandemic, a pale ale left on the hood of your car feels even more thoughtful than a friend tossing you a can from their fridge.

• With my family and most friends based in Ontario, I don’t get to see or speak with them nearly as much as I’d like to. Now, I don’t know when the next time I’ll be able to travel back to visit them will be. But none of them are hanging out with each other either, which means the Zoom chats and FaceTime hangs have been aplenty, and I’ve been able to see faces—albeit virtually—that I haven’t seen in months.

So, while you’re staying at home, stay informed and stay safe, but don’t forget to look on the bright side every once in a while. n

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11

NEWS WHISTLER

Local groups face tough choices as COVID-19 wipes out funding WITH GRANTS, MUNICIPAL FUNDING AND OTHER REVENUES DRYING UP, COMMUNITY ORGS FACE UNCERTAIN FUTURE

BY BRADEN DUPUIS COMMUNITY groups and organizations in Whistler are scrambling as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc on their funding sources.

Three organizations that receive Fee for Service (FFS) funding from the Resort Municipality of Whistler—the Whistler Chamber of Commerce, Arts Whistler and the Whistler Museum and Archives— have all had their second quarter funding rescinded, while a fourth, the Whistler Off-Road Cycling Association, saw a big reduction in money received.

The cuts amount to $170,774 from Arts Whistler, $45,542 from the Museum, $40,023 from the Chamber and a drop from $120,000 to $40,000 for WORCA. For Arts Whistler, the cuts are “completely understandable,” said executive director Mo Douglas, noting that the Maury Young Arts Centre (which Arts Whistler operates) has been closed since March 16.

“We’ve done some rejigging to the budget. Because we don’t have the building open, there are some savings there,” she said, adding that the organization is looking at federal supports.

“In the meantime, this wasn’t a surprise, and the municipality like everybody else is having the same revenue challenges, so we understood it, and we’re grateful that they’re there most of the time.”

FFS funding makes up about one third

CRUNCH TIME Community organizations like the Whistler Museum and Archives are taking a hard look at their finances as COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on budgets everywhere.

FILE PHOTO

12 APRIL 16, 2020

of Arts Whistler’s total budget, Douglas said.

The organization has temporarily laid off 10 staff, and is hoping to come back at “full strength” in September, she added.

“And it might be that things do get juggled or rescheduled a little bit, but right now we are planning the Anonymous Art Show will be in September, we will launch Fall for Arts, [and] we’ll have the Hear and Now, the music festival,” she said. “[Losing the funding] doesn’t put us at risk. The point of this is to make sure we manage the money and make decisions all the way along so we come back to a strong organization.”

But for the Museum, losing the funding is “huge,” said executive director Brad Nichols.

“That pays for key members of staff, so yeah, we’re working out scenarios of what it looks like not receiving this, and also potentially not receiving FFS for the other two quarters as well.”

Losing funding for the whole year would put the museum in “a very, very tough situation,” Nichols added, noting that other grants the museum receives are related to projects and students, and couldn’t be utilized right now even if they were received.

Meetings with the board are ongoing, and “potentially laying off one of our core members of staff” is still on the table, “which is quite difficult as well,” Nichols said.

At the Chamber, “we are making adjustments where needed,” said chief executive officer Melissa Pace, in an email.

“We continue to look at programs that will support the re-integration of employees/managers back into the workforce, when the time is right, as well as continuing our long-term partnership with UVic and our service excellence program, the 3R’s,” Pace said.

“The Whistler Experience program will continue to evolve to suit the needs of today’s workforce and look forward to seeing how we can innovate through these critical times.”

But Fee for Service groups aren’t the only organizations feeling the pinch.

At the April 7 council meeting, Nikki Best, administrator for the Restaurant Association of Whistler (RAW), asked in an emailed question about the status of the Community Enrichment Program, and whether RAW might apply for funds to help its struggling members.

The RMOW will not be opening the Community Enrichment Program (CEP) for another round of funding at this point, said Mayor Jack Crompton.

“I do think that there’s probably some thought going to be put to reallocating some of those funds towards social services and supporting the organizations that are going to be taking us through this difficult time, but at this point we’re not opening the CEP for additional granting,” Crompton said.

On April 8, council allocated $25,000 from the CEP to Sea to Sky Community Services to support the Lil’wat Nation’s needs through the Sea to Sky Community Service’s food bank located in Pemberton.

The donation was initiated by the RMOW “based on an understanding that the Lil’wat Nation has an increasing need for food security and limited resources as a result of the COVID-19 crisis,” a spokesperson said.

Other decisions on 2020 CEP funding have yet to be finalized.

In 2019, the CEP supported 31 community groups to the tune of $136,800.

For those groups hoping to receive funding this year, losing the program would just add to the growing list of lost

revenue streams.

In the case of the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment (AWARE), the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a projected loss of more than $100,000 against what was planned for 2020.

“That represents half our 2019 revenues —all of which represents lost environmental programs,” said executive director Claire Ruddy, adding that AWARE has had to return grant funding, cancel hiring of summer staff, plan for a summer without events, lay off staff and reduce hours.

“Right now we’re really focused on, what is the biggest impact that we can have in the community or for the community, and we’re really focusing our attention on the recovery planning work that’s happening around COVID, and trying to ensure that the conservation and the climate goals that we’ve clearly articulated as a community are maintained,” Ruddy said.

“As we think about how we recover our tourism economy, how do we make sure that this is equitable and that we bring everybody along in this recovery phase?

And then longer term, how do we build resilience that protects us not just from emerging challenges like global pandemics, but also the more well-known issue of our changing climate?”

Like other organizations, AWARE is moving resources and programs online as well as it can, and the organization will hold its AGM digitally on Wednesday, April 22 (see www.awarewhistler.org for more).

Whistler’s proposed 2020 budget (before COVID-19 threw the numbers in a blender) was worth $90.4 million, up from $87 million in 2019.

The 2020-2024 proposed projects list included 162 projects with a proposed cost of $39 million in 2020. n

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Whistler healthcare providers settling into new normal COVID-19 CRISIS HAS TRIGGERED STREAMLINING OF MEDICAL OPERATIONS, PLANNING

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BY BRANDON BARRETT THERE IS LITTLE that can be described as “normal” in our new COVID-19 reality, but Whistler’s healthcare providers are settling into a semblance of routine as pandemic procedures enter their second month in Whistler.

“We’ll continue doing things the way we’ve always done them, but in terms of operating at a time of a contagious disease, we have had to change the way we do things,” noted Dr. Bruce Mohr, medical director for the Whistler Health Care Centre (WHCC).

At the WHCC, staff has had to rejig its operational model on the fly. Mohr said personnel hold several daily “staff huddles”— at an appropriate distance—to deal with issues as they come up. And although Whistler has yet to see a surge in novel coronavirus cases, Mohr added that the work staff is doing now ensures “we will be better prepared the next time something like this does happen.”

Dr. Karin Kausky of the Whistler Medical Clinic believes virtual healthcare will play a bigger role going forward as local family practices have had to adapt to physical-distancing measures.

“I definitely think virtual care, which is telehealth or by phone, will play a big part in primary care because we’ve now figured out the things that are very doable with that,” she said.

Last month, the Sea to Sky Division of Family Practice set up a virtual clinic for locals without a family doctor. Through that portal, accessed at divisionsbc.ca/seasky, patients can consult with a GP and set up a primary care appointment by phone or teleconference as required.

Other patients are asked to contact their family physician or specialist for all nonurgent matters as they normally would in order to arrange an appointment via phone or teleconference. “[The virtual clinic] has still had slow pickup because I’m not sure people know how to find it. But it’s interesting: people that aren’t attached also just call the Whistler Medical Clinic, so we will look after them that way as well, and I’m sure the other clinics are the same,” explained Kausky.

The Whistler Medical Clinic is also beefing up its communications this week, sending out email updates to its roughly 6,000 patients for the first time.

“We’re just letting them know that we’re available and how we’re operating. We’re going to try and do that weekly moving forward, which is something we’ve never done before,” said Kausky.

While patient volumes have been down

through the crisis, Kausky anticipates that trend could begin to swing the other way as non-urgent patients require assessment.

“We’ve temporized a lot of things and said, ‘Let’s look at this again in a couple weeks,’ but those chickens are coming home to roost now,” she said. “Now we’re going to need to see more people in person than we have in the past two weeks because you can’t temporize forever.”

With hospitalizations and active COVID-19 cases staying stagnant, public health officials say B.C. could be entering the maintenance phase of the pandemic, which means we may soon begin to see a gradual loosening of restrictions. (All current restrictions will remain in place until at least the end of April, however.)

It’s important to not get complacent, or risk a second wave of cases, Mohr said.

“There’s going to be a tendency to think this is over, and we don’t know that yet,” he noted. “I suspect that there will be an urge for people to get back to normal, but we’re just not there yet. But I’m optimistic that because of all the good work we’ve done, and if we continue to do it, we might just be looking sooner rather than later at gradually reintroducing some normalcy. That’s going to be something to look forward to, but we can’t take it upon ourselves to do it until we’re guided that way.”

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NO ‘GOOD EVIDENCE’ AGAINST IBUPROFEN USE, SAYS DOC In the midst of the pandemic, there has been a wave of misinformation relating to the use of anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, after a French physician tweeted that it should be avoided in COVID-19 patients.

After rumours have circulated on social media that ibuprofen can worsen the effects of the virus, Mohr has joined other medical professionals to set the record straight.

“There was not a good evidence base for telling people not to take ibuprofen.

There are people who do take non-steroidal anti-inflammatories for chronic conditions and they should definitely be continuing to take those for their medical condition,” he advised.

For patients that have developed flulike symptoms, Mohr says they can consider taking Tylenol instead of ibuprofen “just to be on the safe side,” but reiterated that there’s no compelling data to suggest “that ibuprofen or non-steroidal antiinflammatories are harmful even if you have an influenza-like illness.”

Consult your physician if you have any questions or concerns around the use of ibuprofen. n

APRIL 16, 2020

13

NEWS WHISTLER

Advocating for tourism will be ‘huge part’ of new provincial task force ECONOMIC CONTINUITY GROUP FORMED IN WHISTLER TO MONITOR BUSINESS IMPACTS OF COVID-19

BY BRANDON BARRETT AS THE FORMER head of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce, Val Litwin understands full well the importance of tourism to B.C.’s economy. And with the recent formation of a provincial task force aimed at long-term economic recovery, the resort will have a significant and sympathetic voice at the table.

“A huge part of our advocacy on the task force is speaking up for tourism,” explained Litwin, who sits on the task force as the president and CEO of the BC Chamber of Commerce. “For tourism and hospitality, it’s been so tough and Whistler feels this more acutely than anyone.”

Formed April 2, the Economic Recovery Task Force will help advise the crossgovernmental economic response to COVID-19, and includes representatives from B.C.’s business, labour, trade, social service and cultural sectors, as well as First Nations.

One of the biggest things Litwin and the BC Chamber had been pushing for in recent weeks was the relaxing of eligibility

requirements to Ottawa’s 75-per-cent wage subsidy for businesses. Last week, the feds bowed to the business sector’s concerns and reduced the 30-per-cent year over year revenue decline to 15 per cent for the month of March in order to be eligible.

But even with the changes, the program doesn’t fairly consider businesses that have scaled up significantly in the last year, posited Paul Kennea, who co-owns Whistler Medical Aesthetics with his wife, Sarah.

“The problem with the wage subsidy is that any business that was doing really well, generally, is going to struggle to show that they took enough of a hit when you compare the numbers,” he said, adding that they’re not eligible for the subsidy despite seeing virtually all of their revenue disappear in a matter of weeks. Without any major, urgent support, Kennea predicted the business wouldn’t last more than three months.

The other major pinchpoint for many is rent, with businesses across the country calling for an emergency commercial rent relief program inspired by a similar initiative in Australia that sees landlords and tenants sharing the burden of financial losses.

In an April 14 press conference, Prime

Minister Justin Trudeau noted that Ottawa was working on a commercial rent program, with more details to come, a welcome development for Whistler Chamber CEO Melissa Pace.

“The most important piece that I’m hearing from businesses … is that we need to put more money in their pockets, and not loans, but subsidies,” she said. “Right now, honestly, it’s around, ‘How do we get through the next few weeks when rent is coming up again on May 1?’ They don’t have the money, they don’t have the cash in hand, so it’s really about putting money back into their pockets immediately.”

That was echoed by Kennea, who questioned the logic of deferring taxes and other payments in an uncertain climate in which businesses are already reluctant to take on more debt.

“You add a loan on top of your business commitments and the operating capital that they’ve lent to you is already spent on your staff and your overhead costs,” he said, referring to a $40,000 interestfree loan program the federal government launched last week. “There’s no money left to actually operate the business before you even start repaying it. It’s almost

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laughable if it wasn’t so painful.”

A task force has also been formed locally as a way to keep Whistler’s various industries updated on the rapidly changing COVID19 situation, and to inform the resort’s eventual recovery plan. Called the Economic Continuity Group, the roundtable includes representatives from the municipality, the chamber, and the hospitality, tourism, retail, restaurant and arts sectors.

“We’re giving updates on where our industry is at and what we are hearing on the ground,” Pace said.

Without any Whistler-specific data at this point, Pace is urging resort business owners to complete a survey detailing how COVID-19 has impacted them in order to bolster the chamber’s advocacy efforts.

“It’s so vital that they do because it’s all based on postal code,” she explained. “If only 20 people answer, it doesn’t give me enough substantial information to go on.

I know everyone is suffering; we get that.

It’s just that getting the information and data clear on a survey is how I can push and support this community.”

The survey can be accessed at bcmindreader.com. n

NEWS WHISTLER

Roughly 75% of Whistler’s hotels have suspended operations RESORT’S LARGEST HOTEL, FAIRMONT CHATEAU WHISTLER, ANNOUNCED TEMPORARY CLOSURE LAST WEEK

BY BRANDON BARRETT WITH THE CLOSURE last week of the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, roughly threequarters of the resort’s hotels have now suspended operations in light of COVID-19.

“Many of the accommodations have in some form or other had to shut down their operations,” said Hotel Association of Whistler president Saad Hasan. “I wasn’t surprised at all, from the perspective that the mayor is asking for people not to travel. The hotels can serve the local communities only so much.”

Last week, Whistler’s largest hotel followed suit, announcing in a statement posted to its Facebook page that the Fairmont would suspend operations as of noon on April 10.

“We must support our local authorities as they work to halt the spread of COVID-19.

And so, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily close the doors of our hotel,” the April 8 statement read.

By and large, hotels are keeping a limited crew on to allow for any maintenance or renovation work that is required.

“None of these properties can be shut down completely, purely because they are very large operations and there are various systems at place 24/7, 365, so you have to have a certain skeleton staff that has to be there, for a variety of [reasons], including insurance coverage,” Hasan explained.

The hotels that are still open tend to be smaller operators that also operate residential units through contracted property management companies, Hasan noted.

For those smaller operators, it’s likely the economic impacts of the pandemic will be longer lasting than for their larger, corporate counterparts, which makes any available government support all the more crucial—and urgent.

“Most of the hotels or brands have a certain amount of cash flow and a certain amount of contingency,” Hasan said. “If they are smaller operators, then they have no choice but to rely on some kind of government subsidy that comes through.

The sooner they come, the better, otherwise you will have a very different economic situation when the markets do open up.”

Federal aid through a 75-per-cent wagesubsidy program, approved by Parliament

SUSPENDED The Fairmont Chateau Whistler, whose Portobello restaurant is pictured, temporarily suspended operations on April 10.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

this weekend, will be available by early May. Additional help in the form of a new loan program to help eligible small businesses is also set to arrive next week.

But business leaders, as well as the Opposition Conservatives, have called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals for a plan that specifically addresses the needs of Canada’s restaurant, tourism and hospitality operators, among the earliest

and hardest hit sectors of the crisis.

Among the ideas being floated is a proposal to temporarily allow owner-operators to qualify for the federal wage-subsidy program as well as refunding a year’s worth of GST remittances to small businesses, which officials have calculated would cost Ottawa’s coffers about $12.9 billion.

“A lot is being done and offered but it’s a question of how easy it will be [to access support] for hotels—especially the smaller properties,” said Hasan, adding that hotel operators would like to see government relief as opposed to tax deferrals.

Given the pandemic’s effect on global travel, there’s also the question of how Whistler’s hotel industry, which relies significantly on foreign workers, would adapt without the same ability to recruit and hire employees from abroad as in years past.

“Thankfully, we are going into summer, and summer is when we also have quite a few B.C. students, Whistler students coming back home [to work],” said Hasan, adding that he believes hotels will be able to incrementally build up staffing levels as distancing and travel restrictions are gradually loosened over time. n

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15

NEWS WHISTLER

As humans self-isolate, Whistler’s bears emerge RESIDENTS REMINDED TO MANAGE ATTRACTANTS

BY BRADEN DUPUIS AS WHISTLERITES continue to selfisolate at home, nature carries on—including for Whistler’s resident bear population.

Bear activity is starting to ramp up slowly in the region, according to Sgt. Simon Gravel with the Conservation Officer Service (COS).

“We do see a bit of a bear activity in Squamish, on the North Shore, but it’s really just the beginning, and it’s consistent with past years, where bears are starting to be active slowly,” Gravel said.

“Obviously it’s all weather dependent, but yeah, it’s consistent with past years.”

With so many confined to their homes due to COVID-19, now is a good time to secure attractants and brush up on education, Gravel said.

“The situation can be good for the bears,” he said.

“I think if everyone takes a little bit more time to go above and beyond to secure attractants around their house, [then] they’re not going to be surprised by the

16 APRIL 16, 2020

bears, and everyone will benefit [from] it.”

Residents should take the time to manage attractants such as garbage, fruit trees, composts, gardens and chickens, Gravel said, adding that there are good resources at wildsafebc.com.

“Perhaps it could be a fun time with the kids right now to look at this bear aware and bear-smart behaviour, and making sure the house is ready for spring, and not attracting any bears,” he said.

Like it has for so many others, COVID-19 is changing day-to-day operations for B.C.’s conservation officers—mostly for the fact that many more people seem to be getting outdoors on weekdays.

Call volumes are similar to a normal year, but officers on mid-week patrols are encountering an “unusual amount of people,” Gravel said.

“It seems like every day is kind of a weekend day right now, so that’s a big change for us, but we’re adapting to that, and we have a strong presence out there, and we make sure everyone’s safe,” he said, adding that the COS is taking extra precautions to keep staff safe and following the recommendations from public health officials.

OUT OF ISOLATION A bear crosses the street in Alpine earlier this week, serving as a reminder for Whistlerites to secure their attractants.

PHOTO BY JANNAH CADARIAN

It’s not the COS’ mandate to tell people to stay home, Gravel added.

“Our job is to make sure the resources are protected. There’s a lot of laws involved, a lot of regulations for hunting and fishing, and we’re there to make sure people are respecting that,” he said.

“And obviously we’re spreading the word, and we’re definitely inviting people to follow the province’s recommendations.”

While COVID-19 quarantines have led to

wildlife “reclaiming” urban spaces in some parts of the world, there haven’t yet been reports of animals pushing boundaries in the Whistler area.

“As far as our zone right now, we don’t really witness that. Time will tell, but it doesn’t raise any concerns for me at this time,” Gravel said.

“Here, there’s not much boundary for wildlife. We have bears right in town, we have coyotes, we have wolf and cougars, and so that’s not different for us.” n

NEWS WHISTLER

Should TW members have to pay their fees amidst COVID-19?

LAWYER ARGUES MEMBER CONTRACT IS ‘FRUSTRATED,’ RESIGNS MEMBERSHIP

BY BRADEN DUPUIS WITH TOURISM at a standstill and Whistler effectively closed, should Tourism Whistler (TW) members have to pay their fees?

That’s the question being posed by some members as COVID-19 continues to take its toll.

“Essentially, we had decent rentals forecasted all the way through the shoulder season in the fall, and they just evaporated. Vanished. Gone,” said Arnold Schwisberg, a Toronto-based lawyer who has owned a condo in the resort since 2006.

“Meanwhile, there’s still strata fees, and there’s still a mortgage, and insurance, and all the other attendant costs with being a residential landlord.”

When Schwisberg raised the point with TW, he was offered a deferral of payment until the end of May. In a message to all members on April 9, TW’s president and CEO Barrett Fisher explained the tough financial situation the organization finds itself in.

TW relies on two primary funding streams, she said: member assessments and Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT) collected from tourists.

With MRDT dried up (the resort is currently at about one-per-cent occupancy, TW estimates), TW has had to make cuts, Fisher explained, including temporarily laying off 60 per cent of its staff.

Fisher was not available for an interview before Pique’s deadline.

In an emailed statement, she said TW is offering members the option to defer payment of annual fees without penalty, as well as the option to transition to a monthly installment plan at no cost, and that member fees “are still being invested into priority marketing and sales efforts to set our resort up for future success—including research analysis and insights into recovery scenarios, traveller intentions and global best practices; creation and sharing of brand awareness content through our social media, blog and website channels; and the securing of group meetings business for late 2020, 2021 and 2022.

“Member assessments are also being preserved for the launch of full recovery efforts. These initiatives will be critically important to regenerating Whistler’s visitor economy for the benefit of local businesses, jobs, real estate values, and community well being,”

For Schwisberg, the explanation sent in the April 9 message to members doesn’t hold up. In response to Fisher’s letter, Schwisberg resigned his TW membership, stating that he will no longer pay any membership fees or levies, and is prepared to take legal proceedings on behalf of himself and all TW members.

Schwisberg has been involved in local legal proceedings in the past, taking the Resort Municipality of Whistler to court in 2012 over a dispute around the Jazz On the Mountain At Whistler festival, which he organized.

He said his annual TW fees (which must be paid in advance) amount to between $2,000 and $2,400.

In TW’s bylaws, Schwisberg argued, it has set up what is “fundamentally the mandate” of the organization, he said.

“The members pay, and TW promotes the resort. In the simplest possible terms, that’s how it goes. But now, TW can’t promote the resort,” Schwisberg said, adding that in legal terms that would be what’s referred to as a “frustrated contract” (one that can’t be met due to unforeseen circumstances).

“So if the contract has been frustrated, essentially there’s no more contract.”

Further, Schwisberg noted that the wording in TW’s bylaws states that the organization shall provide a suitable continuing marketing program.

“This concept of mandatory obligations isn’t unilateral. It’s bilateral,” he said.

“The members are required to pay their assessments, and TW shall, as their own bylaws say—shall—do the following things: marketing, advertising, and further … They can’t do those things. If they’re required to do those things by their own bylaws, and they can’t do them, they’re not entitled to collect assessment fees.”

On the legal front, Schwisberg said TW is covered by the provincial Societies Act, which allows for members to apply to the court for relief if an organization is acting in an “oppressive manner” to members.

“This concept of oppression is very broad. It essentially could mean different things according to the circumstances, but the circumstances here … are completely unique,” he said.

“I would like them to do the right thing, and acknowledge that at present there’s not a heck of a lot they should do, [and] that membership is suffering. Each and every member they have, whether they’re residential landlords or commercial landlords, have no income. Zero.

“To have TW continue to charge is somehow inconsistent with that.” n

VALLEY TRAIL NOTICE STAY

2 METRES

APART

• Stay at least 2 m (6ft) from others • No groups • Walk in single file on far right when passing others • Leash dogs • Avoid busy times Please visit www.whistler.ca/covid19 for the latest updates from the RMOW.

www.whistler.ca/ covid19 APRIL 16, 2020

17

NEWS WHISTLER

SD48 outlines education plan during pandemic SCHOOL BOARD BRIEFS: CLASSROOMS OPEN FOR KIDS OF ESSENTIAL SERVICES WORKERS; GRAD STUDENTS A PRIORITY

BY ALYSSA NOEL THE SEA TO SKY School District (SD48) laid out its plans to the school board for educating and caring for its students during the COVID-19 pandemic during its regularly scheduled meeting Wed., April 8, on Zoom.

One example of the lengths local educators are going to, heard the board, was a principal went to a student’s home in the evening, sat outside a glass door, and, through it, taught a student and the parents how to use a specific electronic device.

“Whether we’re reading on doorsteps and helping through the door or [Educational Assistants (EA)] are calling and walking families through how to use the devices with the child, eventually we’ll get to the place where we have a significant plan for each child,” said Lisa McCullough, superintendent for the district.

SD48 is following four guiding principles to ensure all students have their needs met, and staff and students are in a healthy environment. In priority order, they include: maintaining a healthy and safe environment for all students, families, and employees; providing services to children of essential workers; supporting vulnerable

students who may need special assistance, and providing continuity of educational opportunities for all students.

MAINTAINING A HEALTHY AND SAFE ENVIRONMENT On a practical level, the district has stepped up custodial services at all schools for “a pandemic-level of cleaning,” said Ian Currie, director of operations at the district.

“We have daytime custodians, as well as the regular shift custodians, so the afternoon/ evening shift as well, to do the extra, deep cleaning,” he said. “We’ve installed signage, we have a number of things in place where we’re getting the message out. We pushed information out to all the schools through our website, through our general emails to all the principals and vice principals … we’ve set up a number of initiatives with respect to hours of operations.”

On top of that, the number of spaces in the schools have been restricted, the district has purchased hand sanitizer from a Squamish distillery, and has procured proper gloves, as well as a few N95 masks.

Protocols have also been put in place to help students retrieve items they might still have at school. Some schools have escorted parents into the classroom and others have

bagged up lockers and brought personal items outside for pick up.

Efforts are also underway to help staff, students, and families navigate mentalhealth concerns during this stressful time. Staff members filled out a wellness consideration survey and resources have been offered. Community support is listed on the district’s COVID-19 website, and Whistler counsellor Greg McDonell last week put on an online webinar for parents and students about wellness planning.

PROVIDING SERVICES TO CHILDREN OF ESSENTIAL WORKERS While schools in the corridor are open for students whose parents have been deemed essential workers, “I want to be clear that this is not intended to be childcare,” said McCullough. “We do not intend to become licensed child-care providers. This is a topic that started quite urgently to get childcare in place, but we’re evolving quite quickly.”

“We were the first district to get up and running on Monday (April 6), with support for our essential service workers. No family needed us Monday, but we were ready on Tuesday when they did.”

By the meeting on Wednesday, 17 families

in Squamish with 22 children were sending kids to school, along with three families in Whistler with five children, and five families in Pemberton with seven children.

“We’re really here to support those who have no other options that need to get to work,” said Phillip Clarke, director of instruction with the district.

“We’ve been staffing with … substitute teachers and we’re open from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.—[that] is the latest we’ve had to go. The goal is to meet that 12-hour shift that service workers typically do.”

The district is the only childcare provider currently in Pemberton and Whistler, but work is underway to collaborate with Kids on the Go in the latter community, he added.

“The BC Centre for Disease Control has been updating us regularly with health and safety information and the most current information we have about caring for kids,” Clarke said. “Overall, children have very low infection rates, estimated between one to five per cent world wide. The majority of cases in children are the result of household transmission by droplets spread by another family member with symptoms. Children infected by the virus develop milder symptoms, if any, and very few become critically ill … Unlike adults, the rates of transmission are unknown, but there’s no

Landscape Workers are Following PHO regulations With the weather changing to sunshine and warmer temperatures, landscape season is just around the corner. We want to assure you that we have been using our time in self-isolation to consider our best approach to doing what we do so safely.

Together with the BC Landscape and Nursery Association, we have developed Best Management Practices based on Provincial regulations. As COVID-19 is affecting our lives and continues to evolve daily, it is imperative that landscapers implement those safe operating procedures. Our first priority is the safety of staff, clients and the community as a whole.

Building Permits and Inspections are required for all renovation and construction projects in Whistler.

The RMOW Building Department has adjusted procedures to enable application submissions, permit issuance, and site inspections during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Permits are required for renovation and construction projects, as outlined in Building and Plumbing Regulation Bylaw no. 1617, 2002.

For more information on permit applications, and current procedures, please visit www.whistler.ca/building.

Resor t Municipality of Whistler whistler.ca/building

18 APRIL 16, 2020

Remember plants are an oxygen source, they are good for you and provide healthy living spaces.

Why is our landscape company working?

• It is our job to ensure your plants are healthy and continue to thrive.

• A well-maintained landscape contributes to peoples’ happiness and well-being, particularly important when people are isolated.

• Public safety is another aspect of our work; overgrown lawns and gardens provide cover for pests or vermin, as well as increase the crime rate.

• While the COVID-19 crisis continues, we need to continue to support actions to com bat climate change by caring for trees and plants.

How are we complying with COVID-19 procedures?

• Workers are keeping the required physical distance and staying current with Provincial requirements with information provided by the BC Landscape & Nursery Association (BCLNA).

• Workers are avoiding contact with the public; please stay inside while we work. Please email or call us if you need to communicate with us.

• Physical distancing is being maintained by our crews onsite with separate vehicles for travelling. Tools, trucks, and hands are being sanitized regularly.

Our BCLNA member landscapers will continue to provide pest management and plant health services, with safety measures in place as per Provincial regulations and Best Management Practices (BMP’s). This is in addition to their regular plant maintenance practices.

NEWS WHISTLER documented evidence of child-to-adult transmission. There are no documented cases of children bringing an infection into the home from school.”

So far, the district has been taking on students whose parents are labelled by the province as tier one (including health-care workers and emergency responders) and tier two essential workers. “Now when we move onto tier three, these become people like our teachers who are trying to provide continuity of learning, but have young children at home, and so it promises to create a situation for us where an enormous number of children will need Phil’s attention on providing the learning care for their child during the day,” McCullough said. “We are about to enter another zone that will be tricky.”

Eventually, if needed, an EA might be spending more time with a child. “It’s just triaging to see and figure out what the best method of approach is going to be in order to do that,” he said.

Part of the effort also includes working with community partners like counsellors or occupational therapists. “Everyone is up and running; we’re just looking at doing it a different way,” Clarke said.

“Everyone is up and running; we’re just looking at doing it a different way.”

- PHILLIP CLARKE

SUPPORTING VULNERABLE STUDENTS Classroom teachers are considered the “first line of support” for vulnerable children, Clarke said.

They’re also collaborating with support teachers and learning-service teachers to figure out how to deliver materials and instruction. If extra support is needed, “we have to figure out what that is,” he said.

“Maybe it’s spending an extra 15 minutes on the phone or on a video chat with that family to make sure they have the right app up and running so they can effectively get their visual schedules.”

Moving forward, McCullough added, students with greater needs who can’t be fully helped online or over the phone might start attending school while social distancing as much as possible.

The district has also reached out to every Indigenous student, some in remote communities where online connections might be an issue, as well. For those families, a digital-needs assessment survey was conducted.

“We proceeded to support our ISW [Indigenous support workers] with six tasks that they can do during the day—a weekly report, like a book or a schedule, so they

had meaningful work to do, not only [to] check in with their community, [but also to] check in with their principal, check in with their nation, to update contact information to work on something creative that they could share with their students and families through Google Hangout or Google Classroom, and make sure they’re sending one communication to every school for teachers to pick up and send out to students in the school,” said Susan Leslie, district principal of Aboriginal Education.

Food and school-lunch distribution also began in Pemberton and its surrounding communities last week, she added. (For more on that, see page 20.)

PROVIDING CONTINUITY OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES Ensuring students are still learning is also a Ministry priority, and many teachers in the district were working on it concurrently with other priorities, McCullough said.

“Our way of being in [the district] was to put our social-emotional connection ahead of everything else, so the first plan was to make that social-emotional connection and say, ‘Hey, is there anything you need? What do I need to know? Here are resources for you,’” she added.

For students from kindergarten to Grade 3, the focus for the remainder of the year will be on “foundational skills” like literacy and

numeracy. That continues for Grades 4 to 9.

At both levels, individual teachers will deliver instruction in different ways.

“We know there’s quite a continuum out there,” said Paul Lorette, assistant superintendent. “Some families, after an hour or two of work, that might be enough and that’s what they can manage. Other families may be looking for a full-on day of activity and a schedule to try and have that sense of routine and normalcy. What we’re trying to provide are some frameworks that are flexible so that families can adapt and use what they need.”

The messaging, meanwhile, for students in high school: “Every student on track to graduate, will graduate,” said Chris Nicholson, assistant superintendent.

“There will be support for those students who have been stumbling to get the support they need to make it through. Our teachers know they’re focused on essential learnings for each of their courses, so that there are access points for every student to be engaged as well as opportunities for those that want to go further, to do so.”

The grad assessments for Grades 10 and 11 have been postponed while the only assessment for the Grade 12s is the Grade 10 numeracy assessment that most have completed, he added. There will be opportunities for those who haven’t completed that to do so.

More information on all of this can be found at sd48seatosky.org/covid-19information. n

The Resort Municipality of Whistler has closed all non-essential facilities and suspended all programs and events until further notice.

Please visit www.whistler.ca/covid19 for the latest updates from the RMOW. RMOW services now available online include: Building services, Planning services, Finance services, permits and payments Visit www.whistler.ca/virtualservices

Resort Municipality of Whistler www.whistler.ca/covid19 APRIL 16, 2020

19

NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLEY

Pemberton community working to ensure students get lunch amidst classroom upheaval SCHOOL DISTRICT PUTS PLAN IN PLACE TO HELP KIDS IN VILLAGE AND SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES ACCESS FOOD

BY ALYSSA NOEL THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC might have put an end to regular, in-school classroom learning for the rest of the year, but Pemberton has banded together to make sure its students—and their counterparts in neighbouring communities—are still getting lunches.

During the Sea to Sky School Board meeting—via Zoom—last Wednesday, April 8, Phillip Clarke, director of instruction, learning services, was overcome with emotion describing the various businesses and organizations that have been working hard to make that happen.

“It’s this beautiful community assembly—sorry, I get a little emotional— we’re all coming together to figure it out and get through this,” he said. “We’ll be changing some of the models of deliveries in a couple weeks and we’ll work to get that information out to our families. We’ll reassess our model and maybe by May we’ll be doing something completely different because we realize this was a great idea to start but there’s a better way of doing it.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT The Pemberton community

has come together to help bring lunch to kids who would normally get it at school.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

20 APRIL 16, 2020

“It’s been really inspiring to be doing this work.”

That work has taken place across the Sea to Sky, but Clarke highlighted that in Pemberton, partners have included the Pemberton Food Bank (which does “an awesome job getting care packages to everyone that needs it”), but also Grimm’s Gourmet & Deli and the Pemberton Valley Supermarket.

everyone’s been putting together on the fly.

But everybody is stepping up.”

Last Wednesday marked the first day the food program was organized for reserve communities both north and south of Pemberton, said Susan Leslie, district principal of Aboriginal education.

“ISWs [Indigenous support workers] came in and sorted the lunches, put them

“It’s this beautiful community assembly ... We’re all coming together to figure it out and get through this.”

- PHILLIP CLARKE

“Grimm’s has put together 55 sandwiches and some fruit, and [from] the grocery store we’re buying hot breakfast cereal and some granola bars and nutritional items there, and they then go to the high school where our principals are coordinating and our CUPE staff, Indigenous support workers, and my admin assistant Linda, and our bus garage is figuring out what’s the most efficient way to get the food to these separate communities—whether it’s D’Arcy or Mount Currie or just Pemberton proper— and following all these logic models that

in delivery-area boxes and then delivered to all reserves in the north and Pemberton community, as well as to the south,” Leslie said. “We keep collecting and updating information to add families who may need support and to look at best ways to support families in the future in the coming weeks.”

Mark Mendonca, owner of Grimm’s Deli, said the principal at Pemberton Secondary School suggested the school board reach out to him about quickly putting together the lunches on a shortterm contract.

“During that initial chat, the numbers went from 52 to 72,” Mendonca said. “That’s what it will be ongoing. Obviously, there’s a pretty big need in the community for a lunch program—that’s a big number.”

As he was working on the lunch program last week, he realized that many of the kids might not be getting an Easter treat.

So he reached out to several businesses— including I.D.A. Frontier Street Pharmacy, RONA, Scotia Bank, and AC Petroleum— and they quickly put together Easter baskets to send along with last Thursday’s lunches.

“They all got delivered and there’s lots of appreciation going on out there for that,” he says.

Meanwhile, Mendonca said he witnessed another Pembertonian’s act of kindness recently.

“We had a local come in—a regular to the deli; she wishes to remain anonymous—but she provided us with enough money to feed all of the essential workers,” he said. “She provided enough money to feed all the fire fighters, ambulance attendants, the bank, post office, two grocery stores, RONA, and now we’re working on the health centre— each got a meal. We’ve been delivering pizza for these locations … There are a lot of acts of kindness.”

If you live in Pemberton or its surrounding area and need food bank assistance—or would like to make a donation to the Pemberton Food Bank—visit sscs.ca/ programs/pemberton-food-bank/. n

NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLEY

Raven Backcountry Festival boosts bursary LISA KORTHALS MEMORIAL BURSARY APPRECIATES $16,000 LIFT

BY DAN FALLOON LISA KORTHALS WAS KNOWN for inspiring others, and now, even two years after her passing, continues to do so.

During the inaugural edition of the Raven Backcountry Festival in Pemberton on Feb. 7 and 8, organizers collected roughly $16,000 for the bursary, which helps women aspiring to start their mechanized, ski-guiding careers.

The total amount raised was announced on March 28, the two-year anniversary of Korthals’ death in an avalanche while guiding near Pemberton.

Vlad Lamoureux of the Canadian Ski Guide Association (CSGA), who organized the GoFundMe for the bursary starting in 2018, said the festival’s decision to support the cause says volumes about the type of person Korthals was.

“It really highlights the effect that Lisa had on people’s lives. For those people to do all that work to get the Raven Backcountry Festival up and moving, and follow through with it, and then they decide to donate the money to the fund, it’s just a testament to how important Lisa was in people’s lives,” he said.

“It seems like it’s been longer [than two years]. We miss her every day,” he said.

“She’s still in the forefront of our minds.”

Co-organizer and Tourism Pemberton director Andy Meeker was thrilled with the festival’s success, noting the festival raised more money for the bursary than it anticipated.

The kick-off welcome social with presenters Kye Petersen, Tatum Monod, Wayne Flann, Eric Pehota, Blake Jorgenson, Heather Geluk and Daryl Treadway sold all 110 tickets, while the second night’s après had just a handful of tickets remaining.

Half of the 16 backcountry clinics offered, meanwhile, also filled up.

“Our goal was to sell out and we pretty much hit all of our expectation marks for not 100-per-cent knowing what we were going to be at the end of the day,” said Meeker, a pilot with Blackcomb Helicopters.

“We were very pleasantly surprised and happy with the turnout that we did have for the inaugural year.”

Meeker said the festival tried to appeal to as many outdoor enthusiasts as possible as it offered backcountry skiing, splitboarding, ski touring, crevasse rescue, snowmobile skills, and skiing by both helicopter or sled to a variety of ability levels. As well,

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“It really highlights the effect that Lisa had on people’s lives.”

- VLAD LAMOUREUX

Lamoureux said the donation goes a long way to help the fund reach its $50,000 goal. As of April 3, the GoFundMe had raised $21,671 on its own.

“It’s going to ensure the viability of this bursary for a long time,” he said. “We don’t want it to be a flash in the pan. We don’t want it to be three years, four years and then done.”

Lamoureux explained the selection committee looks for applicants embodying Korthals’ “adventurous mountain spirit,” as well as someone who supports others in the outdoors. The first recipient, announced in 2019, was Jessica Roy of Nelson’s Baldface Lodge. Applications for this past season were due on April 1.

“We’re hoping to find somebody annually, but we don’t want to willy-nilly toss it. We want to make sure somebody is worthy and not just worthy, but is going to continue their career as a ski guide through the CSGA,” he said.

Lamoureux added that, on the flip side, if two worthy candidates applied and there was money to support both, multiple bursaries would be awarded.

Lamoureux said that he and his fellow ski guides notice Korthals’ absence constantly.

four sessions were offered specifically for women: intro to backcountry skiing; a heliassisted backcountry day; and beginner or intermediate snowmobile skills.

“We wanted to make sure that we were offering a wide variety of options and a larger audience to take part, not just having generic backcountry or advanced backcountry. We wanted to branch out and do some things that maybe hadn’t been done before,” he said. “The ones we picked out that were more skill- and gender-specific definitely had the largest numbers.”

Meeker said the bulk of clients came from the Sea to Sky corridor with numbers filled out from Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

What differentiated the Raven Backcountry Festival from others on offer, he added, was the keen focus on supporting as many local businesses and the opportunity to focus on the Pemberton area.

“It’s a great platform that we’ve found as a local tourist-based operation to motivate people and show people what is going on out there,” said Meeker, adding that plans are in the works to bring the festival back in 2021. “There’s nothing too big or too small that people can’t achieve when there’s something important steering the ship.” n

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RMOW goes back to drawing board on grizzly management CONFLICT MITIGATION STRATEGY ENDORSED BY COUNCIL

BY BRADEN DUPUIS WHILE WHISTLER’S Alpine Trail Network—consisting of backcountry hiking and mountain-biking trails on Mount Sproatt and Rainbow Mountain—opened to the public to much fanfare in 2017, by the following summer, parts of the trail network were closed after two separate groups had run-ins with grizzly bears.

Since then, the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) has been working backwards to correct the problem.

“We built trails up there without really understanding the use of the area by bears.

I think if we could do it now, we would do things differently,” said environmental stewardship manager Heather Beresford in a presentation to Whistler council on April 7.

“We made a commitment as a municipal council a number of years ago to support the restoration of grizzly bears in the area, and so we have to do the best we can now.”

The network consists of almost 40 kilometres of trails, and in the summer of 2018 there were about 2,500 users per month (for a total of about 14,000 users through the summer/fall season).

And the grizzly presence in the area is growing, with about eight adult grizzlies now living in the Callaghan area, Beresford said.

“It’s not that we’re going to suddenly be overrun with grizzlies everywhere—it’s a slow increase in bear numbers,” she said.

“But certainly since 2005, the data that we’ve had shared with us by the province is showing us that, slowly and steadily, grizzly bears are using more of the area— particularly to the west of our valley—and that we will continue to see them there.”

Beresford was on hand for the teleconference meeting to present the RMOW’s new human-grizzly bear conflict mitigation strategy, which council endorsed.

Developed in conjunction with Recreation Sites and Trails BC and the Conservation Officer Service (COS), the strategy’s main objectives are threefold: identify actions to minimize impacts of recreation on grizzly habitat and use patterns; identify actions to minimize human interactions with grizzlies on alpine trails; and develop a response and communication plan.

While the expansion of the Alpine Trail Network into the Sproatt and Rainbow Mountain area was preceded by a grizzly bear risk assessment and conflict management strategy, an independent review of both documents in 2019 by renowned grizzly expert Lana Ciarniello found some big, unanswered questions.

“Neither of the documents that I read question the effects of the expansion of

recreation on grizzly bear habitat or discuss the implication of this increased network on grizzly bears and the conservation of grizzly bears,” Ciarniello said in a presentation to Whistler’s Committee of the Whole on May 28, 2019. (See “Grizzly plan review reveals unanswered, and unasked, questions,” Pique, June 3, 2019.)

The RMOW went back to the drawing board following Ciarniello’s review, hiring grizzly expert Grant MacHutchon to complete a habitat-mapping project with implications for trail management.

MacHutchon spent about a week in Whistler last fall walking the trails, analyzing different areas and the vegetation—and how the bears were using it—and incorporating collared grizzly-bear data collected by the province as well, Beresford said.

“So there was quite a lot of data that we could overlay with our other [geographic information system] mapping to identify where those collared bears had been using it, and then measure it against what the landscape looked like, and be able to identify hotspots,” Beresford said.

MacHutchon came back with some key recommendations: that the RMOW not build trails to Gin and Tonic lakes, or Beverley Lake; reconsider the routing for the Flank Trail south, as well as reroutes for the Skywalk and Pot of Gold trails; install additional signs, information and monitoring, and; continue to ban e-bikes and dogs on alpine trails.

“He recognized there was a key spring grizzly bear meeting area just south of Function Junction [at] a higher elevation above the Flank Trail south,” Beresford said.

“There had been consideration of reopening that Flank Trail south into the Callaghan Valley. Knowing what we know now … is there an alternative route to locate that Flank Trail south? We’ll be looking at that very closely this year.”

The strategy breaks the Rainbow and Sproatt alpine into three zones, allowing for a staged response rather than blanket closures, Beresford said.

If a bear is in the Skywalk area, for example, “we can focus our response there and not have to close down everything in the whole area,” she said.

The Coast to Cascades Grizzly Bear Initiative—which tapped Ciarniello to review the original mitigation strategy— was appreciative of the new document.

“Although ideally this study would have been done several years ago before the alpine trails were laid out and substantially built, it is a good product overall and an important piece of work that provides better information for trail management and planning, and it fills in a number of gaps in the earlier assessment the RMOW commissioned,” wrote field director Johnny Mikes in a letter to council. n

OUTSIDER

The outdoor industry is stepping up to help fight the pandemic ONE OF MY morning rituals I’ve adhered to over the years has been listening to the CBC World Report podcast. I put on my headphones, walk my dog, pick up his poo

BY VINCE SHULEY and hear about what’s going on in Canada and the world. It’s my daily reality check (I always check in with the CBC before perusing the questionably sourced headlines of social media) where I realize that I’m so lucky to be living where I am and not trying to survive political oppression or a natural disaster. Not yet, anyway.

World news was generally bad news before this global pandemic. Now the bad news has taken a backseat to make room for worse news. The still-escalating casualties are sobering enough, but I also dread every time CBC business reporter Scott Peterson gets on the show to tell us how much the businesses are suffering in Canada and how much worse we can expect it to get in the next few months, or even years.

While I’m waiting for the vaccine we’re all praying for to come along—I’m staying at home and minimizing my community spread the best I can (i.e. not biking in Pemberton/Squamish, not heading into the backcountry, limiting distanced driveway

HELPING OUT Goggles for Docs is helping

supply PPE for healthcare workers in the U.S. PHOTO SUBMITTED

parties to about four people)—I’m also trying to subject myself to some good-news antibodies. The ones I’ve enjoyed the most are about companies that are leveraging their assets to assist healthcare workers and others in need. There are those in the outdoor industry who are doing their part, so a big salute to everyone that’s made a difference lately.

“CHILL THE SHRED, SAVE A BED” INITIATIVE— STEEDS ENDURO MOUNTAIN BIKE TEAM This crew of mountain bikers in Canmore, Alta. made the front page of Pinkbike.com with a cleverly crafted title, and has switched up its collective mantra from “Just Send It” to “You can break yourself later.” By shipping out decals with the above-mentioned slogan and getting mountain bikers to spread the word to at least three friends, Steeds is hoping to start a “safety pandemic” that will ease the strain on the Canadian medical system this summer and raise money for Canmore’s community food program. Our local mountain bike clubs in the Sea to Sky have urged all riders to take it easy and physical distance accordingly on trails and at trail heads, or stay at home altogether. Let’s see if we can adopt the Chill the Shred mantra ourselves in this corner of B.C.

ARC’TERYX SHIFTS SOME OF ITS PRODUCTION CAPACITY INTO CREATING SURGICAL GOWNS The big Vancouver-based name in outerwear

is helping source 90,000 gowns for frontline workers in local hospitals. It plans to produce 30,000 gowns at the ARC’One manufacturing facility in New Westminster, while the remaining units will be produced by local manufacturing partners Mustang Survival and Boardroom Clothing. Many of us wear this brand and are proud of the fact that it was founded in North Vancouver (though ownership is held by global sporting goods conglomerate Amer Sports.) In any case, it’s great to see Arc’teryx using its facilities to help local healthcare workers.

GOGGLES FOR DOCS In an effort to provide goggles as Personal Protective Equipment for healthcare workers, GogglesforDocs.com is acting as a hub to coordinate donations and dropoffs to hospitals across the United States in need of eye protection. Burton-owned optics company Anon has already donated 1,300 pairs of goggles and Californiabased SportRx is offering free prescription goggle inserts. I couldn’t find a Canadian equivalent of Goggles for Docs at the time of writing this, though some hospitals in Toronto have reached out to their communities for goggle donations.

OUTDOOR ADVENTURE FILMS STREAMING FOR FREE Now that you’ve burned through Tiger King, it’s time to watch something a bit more inspiring. Many outdoor film festivals and production houses are releasing

their works online as a gesture to the community. I’ll be checking out works from the Banff Film Fest World Tour this week, but there’s plenty more quality quarantine screen time coming out from the brands that sponsor the films, so keep your eyes out or check Feet’s recommendations a few pages over in “Notes From the Back Row.” There’s also been some amazing indoor-created content such as the viral stop-motion masterpiece Freeride Skiing at Home by Philipp Klein.

TOURISM WHISTLER: FEEL-GOOD STORIES FROM WHISTLER While we’re all adapting to the new norm it’s worth checking out the feel-good stories from our own community. From weekly live shows by local musicians to the local businesses rallying together to stay afloat, let’s not forget about all the good stuff right down the street. The Whistler Insider blog has been aggregating a lot of the great messaging coming through, so head over and give it a read at whistler.com/blog.

There’s, of course, been a multitude of selfless acts that have taken place locally in Whistler but there are just too many to list here. I’ll leave it for my newsroom colleagues to bring those to you.

Stay safe and let’s all pray for some more good news.

Vince Shuley remains an optimist. For questions, comments or suggestions for The Outsider email vince@vinceshuley.com or Instagram @whis_vince. ■

APRIL 16, 2020

23

“

-

FEATURE STORY

WHERE ARE ALL THE

FAMILY DOCTORS?

24 APRIL 16, 2020

FEATURE STORY

Whistler’s family doctor shortage is acute—but efforts are underway to change that By Joel Barde

H

aving one’s own doctor holds numerous benefits.

They know your particular constellation of ailments, you develop a rapport, and you don’t have to explain your issues to a new doctor every time you visit the clinic.

Moreover, research has shown that access to family physicians leads to better health outcomes for patients and cost savings for healthcare systems.

Yet like other communities across the country, Whistler had a dearth of family doctors even before the current health crisis, counting about 10 operating in the community (with some working on a parttime basis or splitting their time between family practice and emergency room care).

Experts say the community needs about 15 operating on a full-time basis.

For people with serious ailments, access to a family doctor is critical.

“You want to feel taken care of. You want to have a doctor that understands you and respects you and has compassion,” says Linda Epp. A longtime local who is battling cancer and awaiting surgery for a brain aneurysm, Epp says she struggled to find a family doctor earlier this year. (While Epp technically has had a family physician since 1997, the walk-in clinic doctor was often unavailable, she notes.) Epp believes walk-in clinics are challenged to provide the type of care that she needs.

“It’s pretty much get them in, get them out,” she says. “I’m not a robot. I’m human. I feel like it’s not personal.”

According to the local physicians Pique spoke to, Whistler’s family doctor shortage has been exacerbated by the province’s current feefor-service model and rates.

Under the current framework, doctors looking to work in a family medicine practice are effectively smallbusiness owners, responsible for a host of overhead costs (from IT to administrative personnel) associated with running a clinic.

“The cost of operating a practice has far outpaced the fee structure,” says Dr. Karin Kausky, a family physician at the Whistler Medical Clinic who also practices sports medicine.

Over the years, family medicine has become far more complex and costly, says Kausky.

“For example, 10 years ago we did not have electronic medical records,” she says.

And while this advancement

has been “very good for patient care” and a impossible to carry on, she says. positive development overall, maintaining “I did not want to close my practice,” good records and infrastructure is time says Zeglinski. “I thought I was going to consuming and adds “another level of end my medical life as a doctor in Whistler.” complexity” to one’s practice, she explains.

Moreover, recruiting doctors to work at With a growing (at least before the the clinic was a problem.

COVID-19 pandemic) and aging population, “What’s specific to Whistler is the Whistler’s doctor shortage isn’t set to cost of living here is exceptionally high improve anytime soon. by any Canadian standards,” she says.

But luckily, the issue has been identified “And doctors cannot charge ... in order to as a real problem, and a group of well- compensate for that extra cost of living. So placed stakeholders is pushing for change. attracting new doctors has always been a Though still in its early stages, there are challenge.” even discussions underway to potentially Zeglinski adds that the pace doctors are build a new local healthcare facility they forced to work at under the current model— hope will serve as a major draw for young seeing four to five patients an hour—can physicians looking to practice family be gruelling. medicine.

Zeglinski describes a tension between her desire to provide “patient-centred care” and the efficiency needed to run a medical FAMILY DOCTORS ARE practice in a business market that was as BUSINESS PEOPLE, TOO hot as Whistler’s.

“I never made a lot of money as a doctor.

One might think that Whistler—with its That was not the point of it,” she says. “But endless options for outdoor recreation, I also couldn’t afford to keep my staff happy. laidback lifestyle, and educated, progressive I couldn’t afford to pay the payroll taxes, I population—would be an ideal place for a couldn’t afford to rent the building.” newly minted doctor to move.

With the closure of Zeglinski’s But according to Dr. Cathy Zeglinski, Northlands Medical Clinic, Whistler now the finances of operating a clinic in the has just two clinics dedicated to family community are challenging. medicine and long-term longitudinal care: In 2017, Zeglinski closed the medical Town Plaza Medical Clinic and the Whistler clinic she founded in 2005.

Medical Clinic.

The cost of rent and staffing made it Dr. Diane Patterson, a family physician

LINDA EPP Longtime Whistler local Linda Epp, who is battling cancer and awaiting surgery for a brain aneurysm, says that Whistler’s family doctor shortage is acute and in urgent need of attention. (Photo submitted)

at the Whistler Medical Clinic, agrees that the current fee-for-service model that most family doctors operate under is problematic.

Young doctors, she says, recognize this, and are attracted to other types of practices where they are not responsible for the same overhead costs.

“Over the last 10 years in the province, there have been fewer and fewer medicalschool graduates who want to go into family practice,” says Patterson.

“You combine that with the economic difficulties that we have in Whistler—with housing and recruitment and retention of staff—and we’ve kind of got a perfect storm.”

According to Dr. Kathleen Ross, president of Doctors of BC, it isn’t so much that young doctors don’t want to work in family medicine—it’s that they want to work in a different manner.

“What we’re seeing is new graduates want to work differently—they would prefer to set up in a situation where they have lots of support.”

According to Doctors of BC—a voluntary association comprising 14,000 physicians—residents and medical students spend, on average, 40 to 50 per cent of what they bill on overhead costs, money that goes towards office rent, equipment purchase, utilities, administrative staff, salary and benefits.

Ross says that this proportion of income has risen over the years. “We have seen a rise in the percentage of family physicians’ income that winds up going towards overhead costs, because those office costs are rising at a rate higher than physician salaries.”

Doctors of BC was unable to provide an average salary for family doctors working in the Sea to Sky. But in an email to Pique, the organization noted that Whistler physicians are eligible for “Rural Isolation Points,” which marginally increases what they are paid over their counterparts in urban centres.

“Whistler currently gets 11.4 Rural Isolation Points,” reads the statement. “This means that they receive 7.98 per cent on their [fee-for service] billings plus an annual flat fee of approximately $8,000.

“They are eligible for a number of other Rural Programs including (but not limited to): Rural Emergency Enhancement Fund ($200,000 for the group of physicians working in the Emergency Department), Recruitment Incentive Fund, Recruitment Contingency Fund,

APRIL 16, 2020

25

FEATURE STORY MODEL BUILDING Local physicians and decision makers are in the early stages of looking at various models of healthcare centres that could be built in Whistler to help alleviate its family doctors shortage. Dr. Karin Kausky points to the Gabriola Community Health Centre, which was built and is operated by the Gabriola Health Care Foundation, as an interesting model. (Photo submitted)

Rural [Continuing Medical Education funding] (up to $4,400 for GPs and $6,000 for Specialists), etc.”

WORKABLE MODELS DO EXIST Though still in its early stages, an effort to address Whistler’s family doctor shortage is underway.

Launched a little more than a year ago, the Primary Care Task Force was set up to look at various models that could attract more family doctors to Whistler and create an environment in which they want to stay in the community on a long-term basis.

As part of this work, the task force is

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looking at clinic models around the province, focusing on those that offer a team-based approach to healthcare and alleviate the administrative costs facing family physicians.

The task force features representatives from the Whistler Community Services Society, the Whistler Community Foundation, the Whistler Health Care Foundation, medical officials and the Sea to Sky Division of Family Practice, as well as political representatives at both the municipal and provincial level.

Kausky says research has shown that access to longitudinal care is tied to better health outcomes for patients and is costeffective for the overall healthcare system, but that reforms are needed to attract more people to family practice.

“The complexity and cost of operating [a family medicine] business has really blown up, and that seems to be the reason that people are hesitant to enter into this,” she says.

As part of her work with the task force, Kausky has looked at the Gabriola Community Health Centre, which is owned and operated by the non-profit Gabriola Health Care Foundation, as a potential model.

She visited the clinic and says she was impressed with what she saw, saying that it has helped attract three or four new doctors to the small island with a population of around 4,000.

Kausky was also impressed with the clinic’s collaborative approach to medicine.

“They are part of a bigger island

wellness collaborative, so that they’re linked in with other wellness provided on the island,” she adds.

Bringing various service providers under one roof is greatly beneficial to patients, Kausky notes.

“Right now, if I have a person struggling with housing or mental-health issues, it’s difficult to look after that on your own,” she says. “But when you’re part of a team with people that specifically do that, it’s much easier.”

Kausky adds that having administrative duties taken over by a non-profit is also an attractive prospect.

“Could we see more patients if we weren’t doing all of those things? Maybe.

Are there people that are better at it than

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26 APRIL 16, 2020

FEATURE STORY us? Probably.

“It just seems that a lot of the younger physicians graduating are not interested in being small-business owners.”

Whistler Councillor Jen Ford—who also serves as chair of the Sea to Sky Regional Hospital District board—said Victoria’s Rebalance MD musculoskeletal clinic offers an attractive model.

The publicly funded healthcare clinic, founded by surgeon Patrick McAllister and physiotherapist Stefan Fletcher, is a one-stop shop for people’s surgical needs, bringing orthopedic surgeons, physiotherapists, and sports medicine physicians all under one roof.

The centre has been widely praised

Like Ford, he thinks a focus on addressing musculoskeletal injuries could be a good route.

“The question that I’ve posed is, ‘What do we want to excel at?’ Yes, we need to have more family physicians—but should we be a little more ambitious in what we want to try and achieve as a community?”

THE PROVINCIAL RESPONSE B.C’s family-doctor shortage is nothing new to the province.

To address the issue, Victoria is investing in primary care networks—

practices, we’re making sure new doctors are supported to focus on diagnostic medicine and developing strong relationships with their patients, and receive a good salary while they are also paying down their student debt. This kind of support can encourage more residents educated and trained in B.C. to stay and serve in the province’s primary-care system.”

In a statement to Pique, a spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Health said that the province understands the burdens placed on family doctors.

“Patients want to get their health care where and when they need it,” reads the statement. “Doctors want more manageable patient loads and a shared responsibility for

as an “early ask” of a primary care network, says Kausky.

Kausky adds that the ethos of the primary care network—which underlines the importance of a team-based approach to medicine—will be baked into any facility that’s eventually created.

“Poverty is the single biggest determinant of poor health across the world,” she says, addressing the need to tie in social-services workers.

Speaking of her difficulties with the current healthcare model, Epp says she hopes that her story can help shed some light on the current situation.

“I think that the doctors want to continue being doctors,” she says. “They

“It’s a model that works really, really well for the doctors so that they can practice and not be bogged down with administration and cost of staffing and all of that ... ” - Jen Ford for cutting down on surgical waitlists and streamlining the surgical process.

“It’s a model that works really, really well for the doctors so that they can practice and not be bogged down with administration and cost of staffing and all of that,” says Ford.

Ford notes that traditionally (preCOVID-19), the majority of people visiting Whistler’s food bank did so because of injuries.

Local MLA Jordan Sturdy says that building a new facility where doctors can work in a team environment is a “fundamental objective” of current discussions and that he is impressed with the Rebalance MD model, saying that it can be tailored to fit Whistler’s specific needs.

networks that operate at a regional level, streamlining the referrals process between them—and hiring family doctors and nurse practitioners to work within them. It has also introduced a payment method for new doctors that allows them to be paid on a salary basis, rather than under the traditional fee-for-service model.

“To address the gap in primary care, we are recruiting 200 nurse practitioners and 200 family doctors, including new graduates and residents of family medicine,” Minister of Health Adrian Dix said in a May 2018 release. (Dix was unavailable for an interview due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation.)

“Through implementing team-based

the business and costs of running a practice.

“Through the province’s primary care strategy, we are working to address the needs of patients and care providers.”

LOOSE TIMELINE FOR CHANGE While formal planning for a Sea to Sky primary care network is yet to get underway, Kausky notes that discussions are moving forward, and that Whistler is already benefiting from them.

A new nurse practitioner was recently added on to the Whistler Medical Centre’s team. The position was created in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health

don’t want to be businesspeople [and] take care of the clinic and the overhead and the cost of rent.”

The COVID-19 situation has, of course, forced the stakeholders involved in the Primary Care Task Force to put their planning for any new clinic on the backburner.

But according to Ford, in the long term, the crisis we are collectively going through could help galvanize the community to move forward with a solution at a quicker pace.

“I think it will shine a light on some of the gaps [in our healthcare system],” she says.

“People understand better than ever how important our healthcare system is.” ■

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APRIL 16, 2020

27

SPORTS THE SCORE

Thompsons look back on campaigns SKI-CROSSER MARIELLE FINISHED THIRD OVERALL WHILE ALPINE RACER BRODERICK MADE RETURN FROM INJURY

BY DAN FALLOON THE THOMPSON SIBLINGS both made some strides forward in different ways in the 2019-20 ski season, and both are feeling amped up for whenever competition returns after the COVID-19 pandemic is under control.

For older sister Marielle, the 2014 Olympic ski-cross champion and three-time FIS Crystal Globe winner, the season had several ups and downs. Though she had three victories and finished third in the overall chase for the second consecutive year, the 27-year-old said she had her share of frustrating contests as well.

“I’m happy with how it went. I had a few tough races where I think I just wasn’t quite on it and it showed. I got stuck behind other athletes with nowhere to go and I got fourth a few times [on three occasions],” she said. “I think, otherwise, I skied well and won three World Cups, which is pretty awesome.”

While the ski-cross World Cup didn’t drop many events due to pandemic precautions, Thompson said losing the finals at Veysonnaz, Switzerland scuttled her opportunity to at least climb past Switzerland’s Fanny Smith into second overall. Also disappointingly, her mom had come all the way over to watch the racing and faced additional challenges getting

CROSSED UP Marielle Thompson, shown here

during the 2019 World Cup finals in Switzerland, took third overall in 2019-20.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FIS

28 APRIL 16, 2020

home after the contest was wiped out.

“The World Cup finals got cancelled less than a day beforehand,” Thompson said. “I was definitely skiing fast on that track, so it was tough news to get.”

As part of the trip, Thompson was planning to compete in the first Red Bull SuperSkiCross at Andermatt, Switzerland, but the contest was also postponed until next year.

Thompson noted that she felt she was “just getting going” heading into the final events in Switzerland, and heading into

day-to-day is still fairly similar.

“For us winter athletes, it would be our holiday time anyway, a little break from the gym and a break from skiing,” she said. “We wouldn’t be doing that much different except it might be on a beach or somewhere nicer.”

Younger brother Broderick, an Alpine Canada racer, was working his way back from a devastating injury at Nakiska Ski Area while training downhill in advance of the season. Thompson suffered a dislocated knee, a torn ACL, MCL, LCL,

”I think I’ll be on the same level as everyone else once everything gets going again.”

- BRODERICK THOMPSON

the Olympic qualification years of the quadrennial, feels she’s in the spot she wants to be in as part of the four-year flow.

“I’m definitely building. I had some things I wanted to work on this spring, but that’s not going to happen with no ski resorts open,” she said. “Having to navigate these next few months, having to play it by ear, we don’t really know what’s going to happen.”

Thompson said her conditioning coach has brought over some equipment for her to use at home to keep training over the summer.

Admittedly, Thompson acknowledged even after losing a race, it’s been difficult to grasp the situation fully, as her springtime

and a completely ruptured patella tendon.

However, he did return to snow this winter. ”I think I’ll be on the same level as everyone else once everything gets going again,” he said.

Thompson said he had a return-to-snow camp at resorts in Alberta, doing plenty of freeskiing, before taking the opportunity to focus on skills such as getting back into gates and regaining his speed. Those later camps took place in Panorama and, conveniently, in his own backyard here in Whistler.

“I feel like I’m where I was trainingwise,” he said. “It worked well with the terrain because in Panorama, the terrain is

a little bit more mellow and in Whistler, the Dave Murray Training Centre has a little bit more terrain and picks up the pace a bit. It was a good progression.

“To finish it off in Panorama, it was a good slope where I could push it a bit.”

During his local training session, Thompson dropped in with some of the WMSC athletes, working with U14 and U12 racers.

“Coming from me, it gives them a good idea because it’s stuff that I’m doing on a regular basis that their coaches are telling them to do,” he said. “They might not think it’s necessary, but it totally is, and I think when they saw me doing it, they really got the idea.

“I like to give back to the kids because they’re in the same boat, just 10 years younger than me.”

Thompson is eager to re-join the team and continue his training with new Alpine Canada men’s head coach and outgoing Whistler Mountain Ski Club executive director Mark Tilston.

When he does line up in the gate again, Thompson will have a new sticker on his helmet, as he’s teamed up with renewableresource data analytics company Inspiratia, which organized an electric vehicle summit in Whistler last November.

Thompson also feels he’ll be in strong shape, all things considered.

“I’ve been working out in isolation with what I have. I have some weights around the house and have adapted my training program accordingly to what I have. I’m making do,” he said.

“Everyone’s in the same boat and making the most of it.” ■

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VELOCITY PROJECT

Life is now a million LEGO pieces, and it’s OK to name this as loss THE OTHER MORNING, my kid woke up with an idea in his mind. Literally, the first words out of his mouth, still prone and pyjama-clad, were: “I’m going to make an Inukshuk. Where’s the LEGO?” As someone who enters the day like a hard drive in need of defragmentation, files all scattered and hard to access, unable to start processing until half an hour after the coffee kicks in, I find this joyful anticipation

BY LISA RICHARDSON perplexing, admirable, and hard to match.

Resilient little maker, I thought, blearyproud, drinking my coffee.

He got out the old Duplo blocks, and the box of LEGO. We looked at a few photos of inuksuit online, for inspiration, but mostly I was blessedly able to leave him to his own devices, and do my morning defrag. I even had enough brainspace to do a post proof of our creative little home to Instagram, and he segued seamlessly from Project Inukshuk into building an elaborate castle spaceship with secret tunnels and solar panels.

An hour later, cracks in the boy’s resilience-armour were showing. He wanted to watch some TV. I had indicated in the morning that if we did some creative-maker things, then he could chill out with a show. Dad wanted to encourage him outside for some fresh air and was using the promise of a TV show as leverage. Seven-year-old lost his temper

IN PIECES We are all dealing with the collective loss of the world we knew—and it’s OK to feel the grief of that loss, writes Lisa Richardson.

GETTY IMAGES

30 APRIL 16, 2020

and threw his LEGO creation down on the ground, hard. Our floor is concrete. The smash was effective. LEGO pieces went flying everywhere. Across three rooms.

I suspect he felt a tiny rage-flare of satisfaction, a little adrenaline hit maybe, from the release of that frustration. I could understand that he felt thwarted by two parents who weren’t on the same page and were basically making the rules up as we went along. “You’re going to need to clean all that up, but would you like to spend some time in your room first, calming down?”

And then, he started crying.

Melted-puddle, dropped-my-ice-cream-onthe-ground-and-didn’t-even-get-a-properlick, break-your-heart kind of crying.

“I want it back the way it was,” he cried.

“I want it back the way it was.” Over and over.

And suddenly I was crying too, because it felt to me like it was the story of the whole world right now.

I want it back the way it was, too.

Things weren’t perfect.

But our lives were of our own making, our creations, the things we built for ourselves, and others, with all our attention and devotion and energy and love. Our businesses. Our social calendar.

Our plans. Everything.

All in pieces.

“We can build it again,” I said, trying to help shift him from his repetitive griefchant back to that joyful anticipation or emotional stability or creative resilience that I had spent the morning admiring.

“I can’t remember how I did it,” he moaned.

Sitting on the ground with him on my lap, I felt the great weight of starting over, starting from scratch, and even though I knew it was possible, I knew we had everything we needed to do it, I knew we

could probably take what we’ve learned and build something even better, blending memory and experience and imagination, I could feel his fatigue at this idea, his grief, and it felt like such a pure mirror of what we’re all feeling.

The loss.

Simply, the loss.

I don’t want to start over. I don’t want it to be in pieces. I want to keep enjoying the momentum of what I created.

And that is simply sit-on-the-floor Hard.

Sit-on-the-floor-hopefully-with-someoneyou-love-in-your-lap-and-cry Hard.

So we sat and we cried.

And then, we made ourselves a snack.

Nutella on toast. Because needs must.

And then, we rallied.

And the afternoon was lovely.

And it felt good, to have felt that, and let it pass through me, and to realize it kept moving. The loss remains. But, the possibility in the pieces remains too.

We haven’t started rebuilding yet. We cleared the pieces away and moved onto something else. We’ve got time. We don’t have to rush to bright-side it, or rebuild it.

We can take the time to honour the loss. We can acknowledge that a room full of LEGO pieces is a fucking minefield, and warrants treading really carefully.

In her new podcast series, Unlocking Us, Brene Brown spoke with grief expert, David Kessler, who worked for decades with Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and recently wrote a book called Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief.

“We are all dealing with the collective loss of the world we knew,” said Kessler.

“The world we have all been accustomed to is now gone. And this feeling is grief. Grief is the death of something—of someone, a relationship, a job loss. This is a collective loss of the world we all lived in before the pandemic, and like every other loss,

we didn’t know what we had until it was gone. So here we are. Trying to find ways to virtually hold each other’s hands. We have to feel these feelings.”

Kessler names just a few of the losses: the loss of physical connection, the loss of routine, the loss of work, the loss of physical touch, the loss of gathering for meals. And offers permission to name it, even with this charged scary word that we’d rather barge past and body-slam to the curb.

“We have to name this for what it is. If we don’t name it, we can’t feel it. We don’t have to compare losses. The worst loss is always your loss. Kids are complaining about missing school or their friends, and we have to remember that school is maybe their worst loss they’ve ever [experienced].

And as a bereaved parent, I’m telling you, this is some hideous losses we’re in right now, and you can name them, they’re valid and legitimate.”

In an interview in the Harvard Business Review, Kessler expanded on this idea and the power of naming this as grief: “It helps us feel what’s inside of us. When you name it, you feel it and it moves through you. Emotions need motion. Your body is producing the feeling. If we allow the feelings to happen, they’ll happen in an orderly way, and it empowers us. Sometimes we try not to feel what we’re feeling because we have this image of a ‘gang of feelings’ that will overrun me. The truth is a feeling that moves through us. We feel it and it goes and then we go to the next feeling. There’s no gang out to get us. It’s absurd to think we shouldn’t feel grief right now. Let yourself feel the grief and keep going.”

And on the other side, may I suggest chocolate hazelnut spread.

The Velocity Project: how to slow the f*&k down and still achieve optimum productivity and life happiness. ■

EPICURIOUS

With the rent due, some Whistler eateries have no choice but to reopen for takeout and delivery ‘WE’RE NOT ASKING FOR A FREE RIDE,’ SAYS PEAKED PIES CO-OWNER

BY BRANDON BARRETT NEWS OF SEVERAL Whistler cafés and restaurants reopening in the past week could be viewed as the beginning of a return to normalcy. But with the rent due on May 1 and the bills piling up, some owners struggling to stay afloat during the COVID-19 crisis have little choice but to reopen their doors.

Chris Ankeny made the decision to shutter his two coffee shops—Mount Currie Coffee Co., which has locations in Whistler and Pemberton—soon after Whistler Blackcomb announced its closure in midMarch. Initially, Ankeny wanted to take the time to understand the new COVID-19 reality and ensure the safety of his staff and customers. But as the realization set in that stay-at-home orders and physicaldistancing measures would be in place for weeks, if not months, he knew he couldn’t hold out much longer.

“I gave it a couple weeks to assess and basically came to the conclusion that this will be going on all summer. The reality is we can’t survive being closed for that long,” Ankeny said. “Given I’m a pretty small business, I can run a tight crew with shorter hours and limited offerings. My hope is we will get enough local traffic that we can tread water for the foreseeable future.”

A handful of eateries have recently announced their reopening for takeout, including Ankeny’s Main Street neighbour Peaked Pies, Creekbread, Southside Diner and Samurai Bowl, while others, like fine dining staples Bearfoot Bistro and Araxi, have completely reconfigured their operations to focus exclusively on takeout and delivery for the first time. Then there are those that have weathered the storm by staying open—albeit with limited hours and staffing—all throughout the downturn.

According to Tourism Whistler’s tracking, of 135 listed restaurants, bars, clubs and breweries that serve food, at press time, 57 were operating in some limited

PIECE OF THE PIE Peaked Pies on Main Street is one of several Whistler eateries that recently reopened for delivery and takeout—mostly out of economic necessity, according to co-owner Kerri Jones.

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form. (The full list of business closures can be found at cdn.whistler.com/s3/pdf/ covid-19-business-impact-whistler.pdf. The Restaurant Association of Whistler [RAW] and Barber Media have also launched the Taste Whistler smartphone app to keep the community updated on available takeout, delivery and grocery options.)

RAW, meanwhile, is calling on members to contact Whistler’s federal and provincial representatives to “help ensure the F&B/ hospitality sector is fairly considered and equitably addressed while national and provincial aid programs and procedures are currently being drafted,” according to the call for action posted to its website.

“We’ve reached out to a lot of our members and everyone is in support because we’re here to keep Whistler together and keep that

vibrant restaurant community that we have,” said RAW president Eric Griffith. “Getting people to write letters from their own business with their own stories, that’s important.”

Restauranteurs in Whistler and beyond had called on Ottawa to loosen the eligibility for its 75-per-cent emergency wage subsidy to better accommodate the specific situations companies now find themselves in—particularly for businesses that experience seasonal fluctuations in revenue. Last week, the feds did relax requirements so that businesses only had to show a 15-per-cent decline in year-overyear revenue to be eligible, down from 30 per cent previously. The government also agreed to remove the need to reapply every month; now, employers found eligible for a specific period automatically quality for the

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next period.

Griffith said local interest in the program varies depending on the restaurant and their current situation.

“It’s a very individual decision whether the business owners can take advantage of it. Some that are, I think it’s working, and then others that aren’t, potentially it’s because their business is in a different situation, or shut down, and they don’t have a product to offer right now,” he explained.

Peaked Pies co-owner Kerri Jones believes any effective government support for small businesses has to address looming rental costs—something Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured in an April 14 press conference would be coming soon.

“Lease rates have been rising and rising as Whistler has gotten busier and busier, so they were at an all-time high and then— boom—this hits. People are shuttered and there’s zero cash flow coming in and we’re still paying these high lease rates,” she said.

“It’s an unfortunate circumstance that is not survivable.”

Jones pointed to a mandatory code of conduct introduced last week in her native Australia that is asking commercial landlords and tenants to work out an arrangement that sees them sharing the burden of costs, based on the tenant’s decline in revenue.

“That’s what we’re asking for. We’re not asking for a free ride,” she said. “We’re still open for takeaway and deliveries, so we want to pay our landlord what we can afford to pay them and work with them in some way.”

Whatever government support is available, the reality is that restaurants need it sooner than later. “If your business is shut down and you have fixed costs, then things are urgent,” said Griffith.

According to a recent Restaurants Canada survey, nearly one out of 10 restaurants in the country have already closed permanently during the COVID-19 crisis, while another 18 per cent say they’ll be forced to close permanently within a month if current conditions persist. n

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Jesse Thom and his puppets send love NEW MUSIC VIDEO SPREADING POSITIVE MESSAGE FOR KIDS DURING PANDEMIC GOES VIRAL

BY ALYSSA NOEL BE WARNED: if you’re feeling vulnerable, Jesse Thom’s new music video “Sending Love” might bring you to tears.

But, argues the children’s performer, musician, author and puppeteer, there’s nothing wrong with that.

“To me, crying is one of the greatest gifts,” Thom says from his home on Salt Spring Island. “It’s how I move feeling in my body … That’s kind of what the song is orbiting around.”

You might remember Thom—who has lived and worked in Whistler and is the brother of local musician and photographer Rachel Lewis—from his children’s book Some Bunny Loves You. He was prepared to embark on a puppet show tour that included stops in the Sea to Sky corridor when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“One morning, I turned to my wife and said, ‘The puppets have something to say to the world,’” Thom says. “I didn’t know what the song would be like, but the melody came to me during my morning meditation practice. I sat at the piano and worked out this song. The ideas started

VIRAL VIDEO Jesse Thom and his bunnies are featured in the new video “Sending Love.”

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32 APRIL 16, 2020

to accumulate and feed each other. I heard different parts and voices of the characters. My wife helped me shoot the video and put it all together.”

The video starts with Thom sitting at his desk with his feather pen in his hand, trying to work out how to “give his love to the world” with all his shows cancelled. Enter Chester, a bunny puppet with a moustache and monocle who strolls in playing “Hot

hat on a woodpile and a wild-eared bunny in the bathtub.

It’s at once whimsical, heartening, funny, and poignant—and it’s garnered more than 75,000 views in just two weeks.

One of its fans has even been the legendary Canadian children’s performer Raffi.

“I slept on it for a few days—I didn’t check on the post—and when I popped back on, I got a friend request from Raffi,” Thom

“It’s spinning out now beyond my control.”

- JESSE THOM

Cross Buns” on his recorder. He has a request: he wants to go to the store to buy some actual hot cross buns.

Thom gently reminds him that’s not currently allowed.

Chester is the one who comes up with the idea for a song before launching into the plaintive, piano-driven track.

If you don’t tear up at the opening lines, “Sending love in this time of isolation / sending love to your distant, safe location,” chances are you’re having a good day.

From there, the verses jump from puppet to puppet, including a man in a top

says. “I was like, ‘What’s that about?’ He said, ‘Hey Jesse, I’d like to share this.’ Raffi was asking me permission to share it! That’s when I clued in and checked the stats.”

It seemed the video had made a mark.

“Most of the comments I’m getting are, ‘This is exactly what I needed to hear right now,’” he says. “It’s spinning out now beyond my control. I’m getting messages from parents and students and teachers. It’s hard because I like to reply to everyone. It’s been tough to keep up with all the notes.”

One other unexpected response came from a U.K.-based company called Brave

Bison, which works with brands and content creators to help them produce and distribute their videos.

While they’re still in talks, Thom says he’s looking at a two-year contract for the video. That will mean the company can shop it around for licensing opportunities.

“It’s funny because I just finished a sixmonth sync music program where I was learning how to write and submit music for television and film licensing and I felt so overwhelmed after that course that I put it away,” he says. “I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to make a song with my puppets about COVID-19’ and now it turns out that this song and video are hitting that licensing world. It’s kind of weird how that worked out because I didn’t apply any of what I learned in the course to this particular piece of music.

It’s been the one that’s carried forward in that way.”

In the end, Thom says, he’s just happy to see the project touch so many people.

“To make something and say, ‘This is really important,’ it feels weird and selfindulgent,” he says. “I’ve had to get over that because I am getting that message for people. I need to own that and shepherd this piece of media into the world as far as I can because it’s helping people.”

To see the video visit youtu.be/QxR9_ RRI9a0. To contribute to Thom’s Patreon go to patreon.com/jessethom. n

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Profile On: Kassandra Turmel MEET THE WHISTLER ARTIST WHO USES THE LANDSCAPE FOR ABSTRACT INSPIRATION

BY ALYSSA NOEL KASSANDRA TURMEL’S art might be abstract, but if you take a step back from the rich layers, colourful swirls, and whimsical edges, you just might recognize her muse.

Gleaning inspiration from her home in Whistler—and other B.C. locales—Turmel proves not all mountain art needs peaks.

Pique caught up with the local artist to find out more.

Tell us about your art.

KASSANDRA TURMEL: It’s definitely abstract art.

I primarily use alcohol ink. It’s just very bright, fluid, and fast drying. And it activates again once it’s dry. You’re able to create all these beautiful layers and it becomes pretty three-dimensional, which I love.

When I first started using it, I thought it’d be easy, but it has a mind of its own. I’ve developed all these different techniques as well to get the results I’m looking for.

ABSTRACT ART Whistler’s Kassandra Turmel uses alcohol ink to create her dreamy landscapes.

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Judging by the names of some of your pieces, it seems you’re inspired by landscapes around you even though it’s abstract?

KT: All the pieces are inspired by different landscapes I’m inspired by. We live in a beautiful place; we’re really lucky. A lot of the time when I’m using the ink I have a landscape in my mind.

I’ll use colours that, to me, portray the place and [use] movement of the ink. It’s very emotional for me as well. Say I’m making a piece portraying Vancouver Island. I’ll think back to being a kid going to the island—it might be blues, a shade of purple, and I’ll name it Coming Home because whenever I think about Vancouver Island, I think about home. It has that nostalgic emotion with it.

How did you get into alcohol ink?

KT: I was into art at a super young age. My mom was a painter and my dad was a musician; I’ve been super lucky to dabble in a lot of art forms. But I started to get really curious about abstract art in 2015. I was teaching art at an art studio in Vancouver. I was like, ‘Wow I can actually really express myself through this art form more than any other art form I’ve done.’

In 2017, I was first introduced to inks— just through researching online, looking online and seeing videos of this really cool alcohol ink. I was using watercolours a lot and getting a bit frustrated with how it wasn’t as vibrant as I wanted it to be or flowing the way I wanted it to.

The inks were everything I was looking for.

How has the pandemic impacted your art?

KT: I had a couple markets in March that were cancelled. Then it’s going to be at least four months before I’ll be seeing another market.

It’s also just a weird time as well.

Creatively, I’m not feeling extremely inspired to be making a bunch of art. As cliché as it sounds, I need to be in this mindset or flow and I’m focusing my efforts and baking bread and doing puzzles and spending time with my boyfriend and going on walks and focusing on my physical and mental health.

I have a bit of a shift in my priorities at the moment.

But it’s also brought a little bit of an opportunity for me to think outside the box and maybe shift some of the ways I sell or promote myself. And it’s sparked some ideas. I want to develop some online courses and tutorials; I also love to teach.

It’s something I’ve put on the backburner for a while. Now I have some time.

Where can people find you online?

KT: I’m on Instagram at instagram.com/ kassandraturmelart/ and Facebook at facebook.com/kassandraturmelart/. I also have a website smudgegoods.com/.

Profile On is a new series to highlight and support Sea to Sky artists and artisans during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you would like to be considered, email arts@ piquenewsmagazine.com. n

APRIL 16, 2020

33

NOTES FROM THE BACK ROW

Hail Hollywood Satan! (and Quarantino 4) LET THE RECORD show that humans, most of us anyhow, are social animals. Which means when you lock us up in isolation for a month, shit starts to get squirrely. And the cause and effect are the same: the internet.

It appears the collective unconscious is at the “conspiracy” stage of social isolation and the webs were ablaze this week with

BY FEET BANKS tell-all videos breaking down everything from the “real” origin of the coronavirus to the problem with Bill Gates, 5G Death Guilds, Trudeau’s Easter commute, or, the big one of the week, that CIA-approved Satanic pedophile cult with deep ties to Hollywood, the mass media, and the leaders of the free world.

I don’t usually review internet “documentaries” here, but let’s be honest— what else is there to do these days? And Out of Shadows, available on YouTube (and in your more woke friends’ social feeds) is

MOVIE OF THE WEEK Indulge in a not-so-out-tolunch conspiracy documentary with Out of Shadows.

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strings. (See also: Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew, Pizzagate, and a ton of Corey Feldman rants over the years.)

Here’s the thing, there are plenty of super out-there claims (if Katy Perry is an agent of the devil, I want my money back for all those Slayer records), and the flick uses the same techniques of editing and soundtrack manipulation it accuses Hollywood “propaganda” of, but regardless of where you lie after a viewing, I think these sorts of videos are worth watching once in a while, if only to reiterate that we should never believe anything unquestionably.

Can we thank the CIA for LSD? Yes, we can. Was Top Gun an army recruitment video? It sure looked like it. Did Epstein really kill himself? Ha! Did the 24-hour news cycle wash that story out with some other “controversy” before we even had time to process it? Yeah, probably. Is the mainstream media unbiased? Certainly not.

And, as savvy citizens of the planet, it’s our duty to question everything because power corrupts, politics is the strongest drug going, it’s impossible to “earn” a billion dollars (you have to take it from others), and the system is rigged for the rich to get richer and the rest of us to limp and scramble from one mini-crisis to the next, so that we never have the time or energy to change anything.

Also, the Russians basically control

worth spending some column space on, if only because it’s not totally out to lunch.

Created by two ex-Hollywood stuntman, the hour-and-17-minute exposé starts as a cautionary tale about the centralization of power in the North American mass media (that’s true), then gets historical with Project Paperclip (CIA grabs all the top Nazi scientists at the end of the Second World War and gives them jobs in Iowa: true) and MK Ultra (CIA uses LSD, torture and brainwashing techniques to try to create a super soldier: true). After that, it claims the existence of CIA-run “honeypot brothels,” where prominent politicians/business leaders/anyone, would be photographed having sex with underage girls for future blackmail opportunity. The film infers (via editing) that the Playboy Mansion was such a venue (and the movie Bad Times at the El Royale is essentially based on the same concept). This is unproven, but also makes a lot of sense if you wanted to control a bunch of lecherous, old, white men (a.k.a.: the leaders of the world circa forever).

Underage-sex blackmail is probably the best way to ensure buy-in.

Eventually, around the 45-minute mark, Out of Shadows hits its thesis statement, that Hollywood (and the American power elite) is run by a satanic, pedophile cult that dictates celebrity and pulls the puppet

2019

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social media. Of course, the solution to all the internet overload, the disinformation, and the online culture of hating and snitching on our neighbours, is simple: turn off the screen and pick up a book. Armchair Books is delivering, so start by asking for George Orwell, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Peter Pomerantsev, Angela Davis, or Ziya Tong. Unplug, stay home, and read.

OK, enough of that. Quarantino week 4 is Pulp Fiction, Quentin’s first smash hit featuring more snappy pop culture dialogue and an out-of-sequence structure that changed the way people make films.

Yes, it launched Sam Jackson into the A-list and kickstarted John Travolta’s career comeback (which, aside from the Tarantino-esque Get Shorty and John Woo’s Face/Off, wasn’t that shit-hot, was it?).

What Pulp Fiction really was, though, was the first major victory in a revolution where movie dorks, comic nerds, and other introverted, downtrodden souls of Generation X began to seize the power. These days, comic book movies are keeping the mass media empire alive, everyone knows the words to “Son of a Preacher Man,” and full-grown adults are playing Dungeons & Dragons and still getting laid. The geeks rule the Earth and they owe it, much of it, to Quentin Tarantino and Pulp Fiction.

Excelsior! ■

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PARTIAL RECALL

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Hey, remember that time we did a pet-themed Partial Recall page last week? And remember how we didn’t have enough room to fit all the good boys and girls whose humans sent us their photo? Well…surprise! Here’s Partial Recall: Pet Edition 2.0.

1 SPRINGTIME SWIM Charlie is grateful for fresh water to play in—even if it’s on the chilly side. PHOTO SUBMITTED. 2 SLEEPY SOFI Sofi’s been taking advantage of the extra downtime with lots of naps. PHOTO SUBMITTED. 3 JAKE’S TAKE Jake the weiner dog relaxes on his favourite love seat. PHOTO SUBMITTED. 4 KIT CAT With her humans spending more time at home, Kit Kat is enjoying the extra snuggles. PHOTO SUBMITTED. 5 RUSTY’S RULES Rusty makes sure everyone is properly obeying physical distancing directives on his daily walks. PHOTO SUBMITTED. 6 BORED IN THE HOUSE River is missing his pals while self-isolating at home. PHOTO SUBMITTED.

SEND US YOUR PHOTOS! Send your recent snaps to arts@piquenewsmagazine.com

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ASTROLOGY

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NNER I W 0 2 0 2 , PRIL 16TH

Free Will Astrology WEEK OF APRIL 16 BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries artist Vincent van Gogh

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got started on his life’s work relatively late. At ages 25 and 26, he made failed attempts to train as a pastor and serve as a missionary. He didn’t launch his art career in earnest until he was 27. During the next 10 years, he created 860 paintings—an average of 1.7 every week—as well as over 1,200 additional works of art. For comparison, the prolific painter Salvador Dali made 1,500 paintings in 61 years.

During the coming 12 months, Aries, you could achieve a van Gogh-like level of productiveness in your own chosen field—especially if you lay the foundations now, during our stay-at-home phase.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Most authors do their writing while sitting on chairs in front of desks. But long before there were standing desks, poet Rainer Maria Rilke and children’s author Lewis Carroll wrote their books while standing up. Novelist Henry James had eight desks, but typically paced between them as he dictated his thoughts to a secretary. And then there have been weirdoes like poet Robert Lowell and novelist Truman Capote. They attended to their craft as they lay in their bed. I suggest you draw inspiration from those two in the coming weeks.

It’ll be a favourable time to accomplish masterpieces of work and play while in the prone position.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): While sleeping, most of us have over a thousand dreams every year. Many are hard to remember and not worth remembering. But a beloved few can be life-changers. They have the potential to trigger epiphanies that transform our destinies for the better. In my astrological opinion, you are now in a phase when such dreams are more likely than usual. That’s why I invite you to keep a pen and notebook by your bed so as to capture them. For inspiration, read this testimony from Jasper Johns, whom some call America’s “foremost living artist”: “One night I dreamed that I painted a large American flag, and the next morning I got up and I went out and bought the materials to begin it.” (Painting flags ultimately became one of Johns’ specialties.)

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Ford Madox Ford (1873– 1939) was a renowned author who wrote The Good Soldier, a novel that has been called “one of the 100 greatest novels of all time.” Yet another very famous author, Henry James (1843–1916), was so eager to escape hanging out with Ford that he once concealed himself behind a tree so as to not be seen. You have astrological permission to engage in comparable strategies during the coming weeks. It won’t be a time when you should force yourself to endure boring, meaningless, and unproductive tasks.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I hope that during the coronavirus crisis, you have been entertaining wild truths and pondering the liberations you will initiate when the emergency has passed. I trust you have been pushing your imagination beyond its borders and wandering into the nooks and crannies of your psyche that you were previously hesitant to explore. Am I correct in my assumptions, Leo? Have you been wandering outside your comfort zone and discovering clues about how, when things return to normal, you can add spice and flair to your rhythm?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I like this quote by the author Jake Remington: “Fate whispers to the warrior, ‘You cannot withstand the storm.’ The warrior whispers back, ‘I am the storm.’” Although this passage is more melodramatic than necessary for your needs in the coming weeks, I think it might be good medicine that will help you prevail over the turbulence of the coronavirus crisis. Getting yourself into a storm-like mood could provide you with the personal power necessary to be unflappable and authoritative. You should also remember that a storm is not inherently bad. It may be akin to a catharsis or orgasm that relieves the tension and clears the air.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran rapper and activist Talib Kweli says, “You have to know when to be arrogant.

You have to know when to be humble. You have to know

when to be hard and you have to know when to be soft.”

You Librans tend to be skilled in this artful approach to life: activating and applying the appropriate attitude as is necessary for each new situation. And I’m happy to report that your capacity for having just the right touch at the right time will be a crucial asset in the coming weeks. Trust your intuition to guide you through every subtle shift of emphasis.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio artist Marie Laurencin (1883–1956) enjoyed a colourful fate. One of the few female Cubist painters, she was a prominent figure in the Parisian avant-garde. She was also the muse and romantic partner of renowned poet Guillaume Apollinaire. But there came a turning point when she abandoned her relationship with Apollinaire. “I was 25 and he was sleeping with all the women,” she said, “and at 25, you don’t stand for that, even from a poet.” Is there a comparable situation in your life, Scorpio? A role you relish but that also takes a toll? Now is a favourable time to re-evaluate it. I’m not telling you what you should decide, only that you should think hard about it.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1596–1680) was a prodigious, inventive creator. One scholar wrote, “What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture.”

He designed and built public squares, fountains, and buildings, many in Rome, which embodied his great skills as both sculptor and architect. Unlike many brilliant artists alive today, Bernini was deeply religious.

Every night for 40 years, he walked from his home to pay a devotional visit to the Church of the Gesù. According to my reading of the astrological factors, now would be an excellent time for you to engage in reverential rituals like those—but without leaving your home, of course. Use this social-distancing time to draw reinvigoration from holy places within you or in your memory.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): As I understand the current chapter of your life story, you have been doing the unspectacular but yeoman work of recharging your spiritual batteries. Although you may have outwardly appeared to be quiet and still, you have in fact been generating and storing up concentrated reserves of inner power. Because of the coronavirus crisis, it’s not yet time to tap into those impressive reserves and start channelling them into a series of dynamic practical actions. But it is time to formulate the practical actions you will take when the emergency has passed.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Aquarian poet Jacques Prévert offered a variation on the famous Christian supplication known as the Lord’s Prayer. The original version begins, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” But Prévert’s variation says, “Our father, who art in heaven: Stay there.” Being an atheist, he had no need for the help and support of a paternal deity.

I understand his feeling. I tend to favour the Goddess myself. But for you Aquarians right now, even if you’re allergic to talk of a divine presence, I’ll recommend that you seek out generous and inspiring masculine influences. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you will benefit from influences that resemble good fathering.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): How skillful are you in expressing what you want? Wait. Let me back up and reformulate that. How skillful are you in knowing what you want and expressing the truth about what you want to the people who might ultimately be able to give it to you or help you get it? This is the most important question for you to meditate on in the coming weeks. If you find that you’re fuzzy about what you want or hazy about asking for what you want, correct the problems.

Homework: For three days, uphold your highest ideal in every little way you can imagine. Report results at FreeWillAstrology.com.

In addition to this column, Rob Brezsny creates

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Advertising Options 

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Packages start with 4 lines of text.

Additional text .....$1/line Add one image in print and up to three online as per package level.

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Enquire for further information, availability and rates text/call: (604)262-5183

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ADULT SERVICES

Classifi eds CALL OR PLACE YOUR CLASSIFIED WITH OUR ONLINE SERVICE FOR EITHER PRINT OR ONLINE...OR BOTH!

RENT

As a social enterprise, these centres are the main source of funding for WCSS to operate the Food Bank, Outreach Services and many other services.

Please keep donations for a later date, as both centres will happily accept gently used items once business resumes.

Call 604-902-MOVE www.alltimemoving.ca

NORTHLANDS

STORAGE STORAGE SPACE AVAILABLE

BEST PRICES IN WHISTLER FURNITURE, CARS, BOATS & MOTORCYCLES ETC STORAGE AVAILABLE

Learn about Outreach and Food Bank operations during COVID-19 at mywcss.org

WHISTLER

BEST

PRICES

IN WHISTLER

Like us on Facebook @ Whistler Community Service Society

A C C O M M O D AT I O N LISTINGS, DEFINED: Long Term Rentals

Monthly rental accommodation that is available to local renters for a minimum of 12 months.

Short Term Rentals

Monthly or seasonal rental accommodation that is available to local renters for less than 12 months, or where the rental price varies throughout the year.

Vacation Rentals

Nightly and/or weekly rental accommodation, available to visitors over a short period of time.

CREEKSIDE PRIVATE ONE BEDROOM SUITE Fully furnished, private entrance, very quiet and peaceful location. Ski in, ski out. No need for a car as bus stops are very close. The bedroom has wood floor and tiles in the rest of the suite.

Parking is available. Includes internet, cable and half of the utilities charges.

Available June 1st or sooner. Washer, dryer and dishwasher in unit. Long term lease possible. acanino@shaw.ca

SPECIALIZING IN REAL ESTATE SALES LONG TERM RENTAL MANAGEMENT SERVICES Investors seeking to purchase a rental property & owners seeking Long-Term Rental Management Services please phone 604-932-7849 or email info@whistlerproperty.com to discuss service & fees

WALSH

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REAL ESTATE HOME SERVICES REAL ESTATE SERVICES For a weekly sales report of new and sold listings in Whistler & Pemberton, please go to whistlerrealestatemarket.com or contact josh@joshcrane.ca

MOVING AND STORAGE WHISTLER’S

NORDIC Executive Townhome Taluswood, Ski-in/Ski-out, Spacious Furnished 2-Bedroom, 2.5 Bathroom, Two Story, High Ceilings, Wood FP, Single Garage, Additional Parking Spot, Hot-tub, Pool, Private Patio, Professional Couple or Family only, Absolutely No Room-mates or Pets, Utilities Extra Ghorbab@gmail.com

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APRIL 16, 2020

37

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Book your classified ad online by 4pm Tuesday

Community

HOME SERVICES

NOTICES

FLOORING

GENERAL NOTICES

SHAW CARPET & FLOOR CENTRE

Family owned & operated

Open Monday through Friday 8:30 - 4:30 Saturday 10:00 -4:00 Sundays and Evenings by appointment only.

3-1365 Alpha Lake Road Whistler, B.C, V0N1B1 Phone 604-938-1126 email shawcarpet@shaw.ca BUILDING AND RENOVATIONS

Wiebe Construction Services Serving Whistler for over 25 years

• Kitchen and Bath • Renovations & Repairs • Drywall • Painting • Finishing • Minor Electrical & Plumbing

Ray Wiebe 604.935.2432 Pat Wiebe 604.902.9300 raymondo99.69@gmail.com

ROTARY CLUBS OF WHISTLER The Rotary Clubs of Whistler are now meeting virtually.

The Whistler Club Tuesdays at 3.

The Millennium Club Thursdays at 12:15.

Contact us at info@Whistler-rotary.org for log in info. All welcome.

U.S.

Exchange Rate

37% Walk For Alzheimer's Remember and honour people affected by dementia in your community SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2020 Registration 10 a.m Walk 11 a.m - noon Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church 6229 Lorimer Road, Whistler Honouree: Erika Durlacher Register and fundraise at walkforalzheimers.ca

MEETING PLACE Welcome Centre at Whistler Public Library - Information, support, community connections and ESL practice groups for newcomers and immigrants. Meet people, make connections, volunteer, build your communication skills in English.

Multicultural Meet Up every Friday 9.3012pm.604-698-5960 info@welcomewhistler.com FB: WhistlerWelcomeCentre

Big Brothers, Big Sisters Sea to Sky Volunteer to Mentor- just 1hr/week - and make a difference in a child's life. Call 604-892-3125.

HEALTH & WELLBEING SPORTS & ACTIVITIES

COMMUNITY LISTINGS ARTS & CULTURE Arts Whistler - Full arts & culture listings. Comprehensive artist directory & programs, events & performances year-round. For info 604-935-8410 or visit www.artswhistler.com

MEADOW PARK SPORTS CENTRE IS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. All active passes will be extended in relation to the length of closure. www.whistler.ca/recreation 604-935-PLAY (7529)

38 APRIL 16, 2020

CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

SOCIAL SERVICES

Donate Used Clothing & Household Goods- To be distributed to local charities

by Sharon 604-894-6656 for pick up.

Re-Use-It - Daily 11:00am to 6:00pm, Donate all household goods in good shape. Accepting bottles & cans, old electronics, anything with a cord, and light fixtures for recycling. All proceeds to WCSS. Call 604.932.1121, www.mywcss. org, reuseit@mywcss.org.

Healthy Pregnancy Outreach ProgramLearn how to prepare healthy affordable meals at this outreach program. Sea to Sky Community Services 604-894-6101

Playground Builders: Creating Play Building Hope - Playground Builders is a registered charity that builds playgrounds for children in war-torn areas. Learn more, volunteer or donate at www. playgroundbuilders.org Sea to Sky Community Services running dozens of programs in Whistler to help people through times of crisis and with everyday challenges. www.sscs.ca 1-877-892-2022 admin@sscs.ca Stewardship Pemberton Society and the One Mile Lake Nature CentreConnecting community, nature and people through education, cooperation, and community involvement. www. stewardshippemberton.com Whistler Health Care Foundation raises funds for improving health care resources and services. New board members welcomed. Contact us at info@ whistlerhealthcarefoundation.org or call Karen at 604-906-1435.

COMMUNITY CENTRES as recommended by:

VOLUNTEERS

Services

COMMUNITY LISTINGS COMMUNITY LISTINGS COMMUNITY LISTINGS

Pemberton Arts Council - Connect with other artists, writers, artisans, musicians & help make Pemberton a vibrant arts community. Call 604-452- 0123 or visit www.pembertonartscouncil.com Pemberton Writers - Meet with other writers to review and critique monthly.

Opportunities for writing in a comfortable and creative setting. Email crowley7@ telus.net Sea to Sky Singers - Invites new & former members to join us for an exciting new term, the spring & fall terms culminate with a concert. Choir meets Tues, 7-9pm at Squamish Academy of Music, 2nd Ave. Veronica seatoskysingers@gmail.com or 604- 892-7819 www.seatoskysingers.net

Maury Young Arts Centre - Whistler's community centre for arts, culture & inspiration. Performance theatre, art gallery, daycare, youth centre, meditation room, meeting facilities. www.artswhistler. com or 604-935-8410 Pemberton & District Community Centre - Located at 7390 Cottonwood St. Fitness Centre, facility rentals, spray park, playground, children, youth, adult & seniors programs. For more info 604-8942340 or pemrecinfo@slrd.bc.ca

The Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment (AWARE) - Whistler's Natural Voice since 1989. Regular events, project and volunteer opportunities. www.awarewhistler.org info@awarewhistler.org Regional Recycling - Recycle beverage containers (full deposit paid) electronics, appliances, batteries, Lightbulbs, drop-off times are 9am-5pm on Nesters Rd. Pick up service 604- 932-3733

FAMILY RESOURCES Baby/Child Health Clinics - Free routine immunizations & newly licensed vaccines for purchase, growth & development assessments & plenty of age appropriate resources avail. By appointment 604-9323202 Camp Fund - Provides financial assistance to enable children of financially restricted families to attend camp. Call WCSS at 604.932.0113 to speak with an outreach worker. www.mywcss.org KidsArt - Provides financial assistance to enable children of financially restricted families to participate in arts and culture education. Contact WCSS at 604.932.0113 to speak with an outreach worker. www.mywcss.org.

FAMILY RESOURCES PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING Whistler Breakfast Club Meets monthly at 6:45-8:30am at Whistler Chamber office. Offering a chance for business owners to meet and "speed network" with other business owners to build their circle of contacts and collaborators in the Sea 2 Sky Corridor. Learn more at facebook.com/ whistlerbreakfastclub Whistler Chamber of Commerce - Is the leading business association in Whistler that works to create a vibrant & successful economy. Learn more about the programs & services at www.whistlerchamber.com Women of Whistler - Group that provides opportunities for Whistler businesswomen to network, gain knowledge & share ideas in a friendly, relaxed environment. Learn more at www.womenofwhistler.com

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY Earthsave Whistler - Providing info & support to people who are interested in making healthier, greener, more peaceful food choices. earthsavewhistler.com Healthy Home, Healthy Planet - Expert in green cleaning offers tricks, info & advice on the best way to green clean your home or work space! Call France 604-698-7479. Free private presentation on request. www.healthylivingwhistler. com Re-Build-It Centre - Daily 10:00am to 5:00pm. Accepting donations of furniture, quality used building supplies & new items. Deliveries and pickups available for $35. Call 604.932.1125, www.mywcss. org, rebuildit@mywss.org The Mountain Village Social Gathering - Join us at one of our regular social gatherings on the last Wednesday of every month. There is a group of us at The Mountain Village who are forming a sustainable, multi generational neighbourhood based on the co housing model. WHAT IF... Housing wasn't just a place to live, but rather, a way of life? To find out more, visit our Facebook page @ themountainvillage or go to our website www.themountainvillage.ca

Families Fighting Cancer In The Sea To Sky - We are a non profit partner with Sea to Sky Community Services. We provide financial and practical support to children and parents with dependants diagnosed with cancer. Please contact us on our confidential email: ffcseatosky@gmail. com, visit our Facebook Page or website www.familiesfightingcancer.ca Kids on the Move - Provides financial assistance to enable children of financially restricted families to participate in sport programs. Contact WCSS at 604.932.0113 to speak with an outreach worker. www.mywcss.org.

Outreach Services - Free confidential support for adults and families experiencing challenges with mental health, food insecurity, housing insecurity, substance use, misuse or addiction, employment, eating disorders, violence in relationships, roommate conflict or homesickness. Contact our office at 604.932.0113 to speak with an outreach worker or visit www.mywcss.org.

SOCIAL SERVICES Access to Justice - Need legal advice but are financially restricted? Contact WCSS at 604.932.0113 to find out more or visit www.mywcss.org.

Counselling Assistance - WCSS subsidizes access to a private counsellor depending on financial need. Contact an outreach worker at 604.932.0113 or visit www.mywcss.org.

ESL Volunteer Tutor Program - Volunteer one-to-one tutoring for new immigrants & Canadian citizens. For more information or to register, contact the Whistler Welcome Centre info@welcomewhistler. com or call 604.698.5960 Food Bank, Pemberton - Run by Sea to Sky Community Service. Open every second Monday. 604 894 6101 Food Bank Whistler - Located at 8000 Nesters Road, every Wednesday from 10am to noon. For emergency food bags, please call 604.935.7717. www.mywcss. org/food-bank

Support Counselling - For women regarding abuse & relationship issues. No charge. Call 604-894-6101 Meadow Park Rec Credit - If you are financially restricted, you may be eligible for a $131.20 municipal recreation credit.

Contact WCSS at 604.932.0113 and speak with an outreach worker. www. mywcss.org.

North Shore Schizophrenia Society Services for family, friends & community.

Mental illness info, support & advocacy.

Call Chris Dickenson at 604-966-7334 Pearl's Safe Home - Temporary shelter for women & children experiencing abuse in relationships. Locations in Whistler & Pemberton avail 24/7. All services are free. 1-877- 890-5711 or 604-892-5711 RMOW Rec Credit - If you are financially restricted, you may be eligible for a $127.60 municipal recreation credit.

Contact WCSS at 604.932.0113 www. mywcss.org Sea to Sky WorkBC Centre - Provides free one-stop employment services to job seekers and employers. Services available in Whistler, Squamish, Pemberton & Mt. Currie. For more information, call us: 1-800- 763-1681 or email: centre- squamish@workbc.ca Victim Services - Assists victims, witnesses, family members or friends directly affected by any criminal act or traumatic event. Call 604-905-1969 Whistler Community Services Society - Outreach Services Now Available Monday to Saturday at our new location - 8000 Nesters Road (next to WAG) 604.932.0113 www.mywcss.org Whistler for the Disabled - Provides info for people with disabilities on what to do & where to go. Visit www. whistlerforthedisabled.com Whistler Housing Authority - Long term rental & ownership housing for qualified Whistler employees . Visit www. whistlerhousing.ca Whistler Mental Health & Addiction Services - If you or someone you know needs help with a mental health issue or substance misuse or addiction problem, we can assist. Mon-Fri 830am-430pm.

604-698-6455 Whistler Multicultural Network Settlement information, social support and programs for newcomers and immigrants living/working in Whistler. 604-388-5511 www.whistlermulticulturalnetwork.com Whistler Opt Healthy Sexuality Clinic - Professional sexual health services at a reduced cost. Free HIV testing. Clinics at Whistler Health Care Ctr, 2nd floor on Tues 4:30-7:30pm. Winter hours Thurs.

5:00pm-7:00pm. Confidentiality assured.

Whistler Women's Centre - Provides confidential support, resources, referrals and advocacy for women living in the Sea to Sky corridor. All services are free of charge and include access to emergency safe housing, child/youth counselling, play space and computer access. Drop-In Centre open Mon 12-230, Tue-Thu 12-5.

1519 Spring Creek Drive. You can also access our services at the Whistler Public Library on Mondays from 3-6 p.m. www.hswc.ca or call (604)962- 8711.

24 HR Crisis Line: 1-877-890- 5711

SUPPORT GROUPS Are you troubled by someone's drinking?

Al-Anon can help.

Al-Anon meeting, multi-purpose room, 2nd floor, Whistler Health Care Centre, Wednesdays, 5:30 pm. 604.688.1716

classifieds.piquenewsmagazine.com

BUY

SUPPORT GROUPS

PIQUENEWSMAGAZINE.COM/JOBS

"Are you troubled by someone's drinking? Al-Anon can help."

Please reach out by email for information about our online meetings. s2safg@gmail.com

6

Birth, Baby and Beyond - Join a registered counsellor and meet other moms with the opportunity to ask questions and share experiences in a safe, welcoming and non-judgmental setting. Call 604.932.0113 for more information or visit www.mywcss.org.

N’Quatqua Child and Family Development Centre

PO BOX 88/64 CASPER CHARLIE PLACE, DARCY BC V0N 1L0

PO BOX 88/64 CASPER CHARLIE PLACE, DARCY BC V0N 1L0

Epilepsy Support Group- For individuals & families seeking guidance or support.

Contact eswhistler@gmail.com Immigrant Peer Educators - Immigrants providing support and information for those who may be experiencing challenges adjusting to a new culture. 604-388-5511 info@whistlermulticulturalnetwork.com

Pregnancy and Infant Loss - Facilitated by a registered counsellor, this program is designed for couples and individuals who have experienced loss of a child, either EASY before or after birth. Please call WCSS at 604.932.0113 and speak to an outreach worker for more information or visit www. mywcss.org.

curriculum that supports # 38 community inclusion and is culturally significant for young Aboriginal children.

• Understanding and working knowledge of Child Care Licensing Regulations.

• Interpersonal, written and oral communication skills.

RELIGION Jesus Rock Of Ages Ministry- A bible based church that holds services at Millennium Place's main floor theatre at 4:30pm. www.jesusrockofages.com

• Maintaining positive communication with parents.

• Collaborate with community service providers.

• Self-directed and able to initiate and complete projects

Whistler Church- Join us for worship and fellowship around Jesus. Sunday 10 am at Myrtle Philip Community School, 6195 Lorimer Rd. Nursery, Sunday School to gr.

6, Youth gr. 7 and up. Call Pastor Jon 604798-3861 / Kelvin 204-249-0700 or www.whistlerchurch.ca

8 3 5 • Ability to work independently and as a member of a team 2 9 1 4 REQUIREMENTS: • Standard First Aid with CPR-C & Clear Criminal Record Check 4FUR & FEATHERS 1 8 3 • Food Safe certificate, or willingness to obtain • Evidence that4 the candidate has complied with the Province’s 3 5 immunization and tuberculosis control programs.

4 2 depending on experience Wage: Negotiable Hours of work: 32 hours per week 6 5 7 Location: D’Arcy, BC 9 5 3 Date: Until position 6 is filled Closing Submit cover letter &resume to: 1 E-mail: 7 lisa.sambo@nquatqua.ca 8 3 2 9 1

Get Bear Smart Society - Learn more about coexisting with bears. To report a conflict, garbage or attractant issue call 604-905-BEAR (2327) www.bearsmart. com

Pemberton Wildlife Association Advocates for the conservation of fish, wildlife & wilderness recreation. Also offering target shooting & archery facilities. www.pembertonwildlifeassociation.com WAG - Whistler Animals Galore - A shelter for lost, unwanted, and homeless cats and dogs. Let us help you find your purrfect match...adopt a shelter animal!

For more info 604-935- 8364 www. whistlerwag.com

# 40

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SELL

JOB POSTING

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATOR AND/ OR ABORIGINAL SUPPORTED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT WORKER The N’Quatqua First Nation is seeking a qualified Early Childhood Educator and/or Aboriginal Supported Child Development Support Worker to fill a full-time position at N’Quatqua Child and Family Development Centre. The successful candidate will join our NCFDC team, the function of the Early Childhood Educator and/or Aboriginal Supported Child Development Support Worker is to provide the extra staffing support to a child care center in order for children with extra support needs to fully participate in the child care settings chosen by their families. The Early Childhood and/or Support Worker works as a team member with child care setting staff and with all the children and families providing general support to the whole program to ensure effective inclusion of the children.

The successful candidate will have demonstrated ability in: • Ability to develop and maintain a warm, caring, responsive relationship with the child.

• Ability to establish and maintain supportive, collaborative relationships with families and staff.

• Ability to maintain confidentiality, positive, professional, nonjudgmental attitude.

• Physically ability to carry out the duties of the position.

• Planning and implementing developmentally appropriate curriculum that supports community, inclusion and is culturally significant for young Aboriginal children • Understanding and working knowledge of Child Care Licensing regulations • Interpersonal, written, oral communication skills and maintaining positive communication with parents • Collaborating with community service providers, Self-directed and able to initiate and complete projects In addition, the Early Childhood Educator and/or Aboriginal Supported Child Development Support Worker will have: • A minimum of 2 years work experience in a child care setting • Valid Early Childhood Education Certificate, Special Needs License to Practice or going to school to take Early Childhood Educator and/or special needs.

• Special Needs certificate or relevant experience preferred • Clear Criminal Records Check & Current First Aid • Food Safe, or willingness to obtain • Some knowledge of curriculum and philosophies in First Nations Early Childhood settings Terms of Employment: • Full-time Permanent, Monday to Friday hours to be determined • Start Date: As soon as possible • Wage: (negotiable depending on experience)

THINGS TO DO THINGS TO DO

www.whistlerwag.com

# 39

DRIVE

N’Quatqua Child and Family Development Centre

Concussion Support Group - WCSS is offering a recurring 8 week program to support people living with persistent postconcussion symptoms. Contact WCSS at 604.932.0113 and speak with an outreach worker about upcoming sessions or visit www.mywcss.org.

Looking to adopt?

FIX

THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS

7 5 6 JOB POSTING 5 3 1 INFANT TODDLER EDUCATOR POSITION: 7 6 Nature 4 of position: Regular, Full-Time Term: Ongoing Start Date: 9 8 Immediately 9 3 QUALIFICATIONS:7 • Valid Early Childhood Educator Certificate and License to 8 3 7as an Infant6Toddler Educator (or in the process of Practice obtaining your License to Practice) 1 2 7 9 JOB SKILLS AND ABILITIES: 4 2 • Planning & implementing developmentally appropriate

EASY

WORK

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

COMMUNITY LISTINGS

8 9 6

RENT

# 40

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1 9 4 8 6 5 3 7 2 6 4 8 2 3 9 5 1 7 4 2 6 the insiders’ 7 8 3 guide to whistler 9 5 1

Cover Letter & Resume to: Title: Lisa Sambo, Manager Agency: N’Quatqua Child and Family Development Centre Email: lisa.sambo@nquatqua.ca Fax: 604-452-3295/3280

THINGS TO DO 4/11/2005

Deadline: until position is filled We thank all those who apply. Only those candidates selected for interview will be contacted.

APRIL 16, 2020

39

CALL THE EXPERTS

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David Weldon david@summersnow.ca 604-938-3521

Custom Window Treatments Contact us today for a free quote or consultation info@suncrestwindowcoverings.com

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• • • •

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THE COMPLETE GLASS CENTRE

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40 APRIL 16, 2020

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PUZZLES ACROSS 1 6 11 15 20 21 22 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 35 39 41 42 44 45 48 51 52 55 59 60 62 64 65 67 68 70 72 73

Of the Arctic Pulls Put in the cooler -- a dull moment Fridge maker Cowboy competition “Blowin’ in the Wind” singer Banish Anglo- -Alpine refrain Subside Engine sound Mideast ruler Two fives for -- -Singles Gray-brown Tax base Snazzy Coffee cake topping Walked heavily Captive’s plea (2 wds.)

Psyche components Cave dwellers Of that kind Imitate Tide type Head, to Yves Above, poetically Injured soldier Move like a bobsled Disparity Prop up Musical ensemble Drew up Senseless Nile city Refinery waste

3 6

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75 76 77 78 79 81 82 83 84 85 86 90 92 93 94 95 98 99 101 102 103 105 107 108 109 111 114 115 117 118 119 120 121 123 125 127 132 135

139 140 142 144 145 146 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157

Cravings Hard feelings Map book Help letters Change a bill Grey or McCrea Harper of “Her Alibi” Spoil Sea swallows Big snake Stem’s end Cowboy’s charge Child or Roberts Might Beatles drummer Remembrances --, vidi, vici Hurried Later than Easy to reach Choose “Hawkeye” Pierce Securing a package Blast-furnace input Is of benefit Phrasings Hwy. Consumer Small land mass “What -- you say?”

Apply caulking Frontier, once Bradley and Sneed Waltz or polka Country cousin Most amusingly exaggerated Rubicon crosser Basements

4 7 6 1 5 3

EASY

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DOWN 1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 23

6 5

8 1 5 4 9 6 2 7

# 37

Out of style Warren Buffett’s hometown More permissive Consecrates Smellier Boring (3 wds.)

What fans do Tacked on -- Davis of films Sun, in Acapulco Boise’s st.

Bionic being Panache Goes with Caught in a seine Deplete Flu bug Flee to marry Refuse to go along Cozy dwelling

8 9 6

EASY

34 36 37 38 40 43 45 46 47 49 50 53 54 56 57 58 60 61 62 63 66 69 71 74 76 78 80 81 83 84 85 87 88 89 91 92 93 94 95

Diva -- Ponselle Urban map Prolific diarist Hot time in Paris Comes apart In inventory (2 wds.)

Wild feline Tend the aquarium Lags behind Screen blinker Grabs a cab Long, long time Hunky-dory (hyph.)

Old-time oath Tartness Fencing weapon Execs Hawaii’s Mauna -Brown songbirds Employ Came uninvited Carrion feeders Make void Celt’s language -- -- few rounds Unhappy Hosp. scan Happy feeling Half a couple Melodies Villain Complete House sellers Overlook “Orinoco Flow” singer Congealed Blends Scoundrels A grand

96 97 98 100 103 104 106 110 112 113 116 118 120 122 124 126

Thole fillers Cypress feature Hat attachment Standard Stockholm carrier A couple of times Person opposed to all rules and laws Carpenter’s clamp Works by Keats Bookbinder’s need Well-stocked Forensic science tool Prosperity Pump choice Find not guilty Leaves of grass

127 128 129 130 131 133 134 136 137 138 141 143 147 148

Open boat Greek marketplace “Golden touch” king Jumbo or petite Get the better of Zodiac sign Mysterious inscriptions Skirt cut (hyph.)

Update a watch Authority (hyph.)

Jai -Wine served warm Underhandedly clever Nautilus locale

LAST WEEKS’ ANSWERS

6

7 5 6 5 3 1 7 6 4 9 8 9 3 7 8 3 7 6 1 2 7 9 4 2 # 38

Enter a digit from 1 through 9 in each cell, in such a way that: • Each horizontal row contains each digit exactly once • Each vertical column contains each digit exactly once • Each 3x3 box contains each digit exactly once Solving a sudoku puzzle does not require any mathematics; simple logic suffices.

LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: EASY

2 6

9

3 5 6 7 8 1 4 9 2 8 7 3 4

7 9 5 1 6 7 6 4 2 8 3 4 7 9 2 3 EASY Solution, tips and computer program at www.sudoku.com# 39

8 3 5 2 9 1 4 4 1 8 3 3 5 4 4 2 6 5 7 9 5 3 6 1 7 8 3 2 9 1 EASY

# 40

ANSWERS ON PAGE 39

APRIL 16, 2020

41

MAXED OUT

Our little bit of heaven…

I DON’T ENJOY writing about “serious” topics. That’s why I’m a columnist, not a journalist. Serious topics make my head hurt. They require facts and getting to the bottom of facts just slows down the process.

And these days, I really don’t enjoy reading anything about The End of the World As We Know It. So I won’t write about it.

Instead, I’ll revisit a story dear to my heart. Right now, in any year but this one, we’d be enjoying spring skiing. There is a certain part of any sunny day when outstanding spring skiing is to be found

BY G.D. MAXWELL on the south-facing slope of Blackcomb Mountain.

If you have a soft spot in your heart for the rock-strewn slopes and steep couloirs of 7th Heaven, thank the late Peter Xhignesse.

Thank Hugh Smythe. Peter convinced Hugh to take a chance on the terrain. Hugh was open-minded enough to be convinced. He also purloined—stole is too harsh a word—a lift to get it opened.

This is a shortened version of how that played out. It’s part of both our history and our mythology. It’s purely for entertainment.

We need entertainment now.

In the early ‘80s, Blackcomb had diddly for alpine skiing. “Boring,” is how Hugh described it. But Aspen, which owned the mountain, wasn’t interested in hearing about it.

Peter, a patroller, trainer, weatherperson and avalanche forecaster, understood the mountain’s terrain better than probably anyone. He was fascinated with the expansive, south-facing slope that fell away towards Fitzsimmons Creek. He was convinced it was not only good, skiable terrain but an entree into the real alpine the mountain had to offer: Horstman Glacier and beyond. If it only had a lift.

In 1984-85, he convinced Rich Morton, vice president of operations, to hike out and look at it with him. Shortly thereafter, he brought the idea of developing it to Hugh. “Why would we build a lift on the south-facing slope, the windward side no less, of the mountain?” Hugh asked, having never thought of it himself. In all the early exploring and cat skiing, he’d never skied that aspect of the mountain. Intuitively, it didn’t make sense.

In the best managers, there exists a vein of native empathy, an ability to understand and feel, at a gut level, what other people know but you don’t. It allows them to cut subordinates loose to follow a wild-assed idea and succeed—or fail—fantastically.

Hugh earned his empathy the hard way, convincing, again Aspen, to let him

PLAYING FOR MONEY However dim, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

42 APRIL 16, 2020

build the first triple chairlift in Canada at Fortress Mountain when they owned it and he managed it. The powers that be weren’t convinced triples would work. They had one at Snowmass and it was a disaster. But Hugh prevailed and he improvised and made it work. What he saw, and Aspen didn’t, was the advent of the singles’ line, the maze system and lots of fine-tuning. Voila! A triple chair operating at capacity without any empty chairs.

Perhaps remembering the success of that risk, Hugh bought into Peter’s plan.

But identifying new terrain was one thing.

Building the infrastructure to open it, another.

Hugh remembered a T-bar he’d installed on Fortress, which by this point was barely operating. Believing he had

should have taken a month took almost three because Whistler had its coldest, toughest fall ever. Like -20°C cold.

And if that wasn’t enough to overcome, Aspen’s approval existed only in Hugh’s head. They refused to fund the undertaking.

When faced with a weak hand, punters fold. Gamblers bluff. Hugh bluffed. He told Aspen he’d sell enough incremental season passes to pay for the lift. The bluff worked.

With an advertising campaign promising the highest vertical drop in North America—the Mile High Mountain—enough new passes were sold.

When the lift was finally in, it was a game changer. From the top, you not only had all the now-familiar terrain known as 7th Heaven, you had the terrain off the other

In the best managers, there exists a vein of native empathy, an ability to understand and feel, at a gut level, what other people know but you don’t.

approval from Aspen, he sent Rich over with a team to take it down and bring it back. “We didn’t want anyone to know we were moving stuff off crown land in Alberta, so we got the lift down and out in a day and a half. It just disappeared. Sort of like one of those undercover stories,” he explained, long after any statute of limitations had passed.

But putting it in wasn’t so easy. What

side: Horstman Glacier, and everything on either side of it, more even if you didn’t mind a bit of a hike.

Following protocol, the T-Bar was Lift #7. But 7th Heaven was actually a run that ran through Horstman Glacier, skirting the bottom of Secret Bowl, around Cougar Chutes and into the top of Blowdown. The whole of the area—Horstman, Blackcomb Bowl and South Side—was collectively

referred to as 7th Heaven.

Why 7th Heaven? Hugh explained. “In 1965, I’m 16 years old, riding up a double chair in a wet, wet snowstorm. Heavy big flakes are coming down like crazy at Stevens Pass in Washington. It’s just puking. I’m bundled up, slouched down and miserable.

I get to the top and the window opens to the operator’s hut. A fellow, I can still see his face, full beard, twinkling eyes, sticks his head out and said, in a deep voice, ‘Welcome to 7th Heaven.’ I hadn’t thought of it since then, but this was our seventh lift and out of my head pops 7th Heaven.”

The rest, as they say, is ... well, you know.

Thank Hugh and, especially, thank Peter, for whom Xhiggy’s Meadow is named. The efforts of all involved are in the best spirit of what got Whistler built and what makes it special. It’s a spirit that still pervades the valley and it’s the spirit that will see it rebound after this historic episode is behind us.

In the meantime, heartfelt thanks to everyone who is keeping this place going, the grocers, the medics, the pharmacists, muni workers, WCSS, everybody. Thanks to everyone who is taking care and coping with the two-metre tango. This too shall pass.

Thanks to everyone who has rallied to keep the food bank funded, to spend some money with local merchants who haven’t been shuttered and special thanks to those who value Pique enough to have contributed to keep it afloat. It makes a difference. I don’t know what the town would be like without Pique but I don’t want to find out.

It’s unlikely anyone would be crazy enough in this digital age to ever start up another dead-tree publication.

However dim, there is light and this tunnel has an end. See you on the other side. n

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A heartfelt thank you to our health care professionals!

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5

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