Pique Newsmagazine 2735

AUGUST 27, 2020 ISSUE 27.35

WWW.PIQUENEWSMAGAZINE.COM

FREE THE PARENTS

16

ZONING WORRIES

Concerns raised

about plan to tie zoning to F&B businesses

22

COVID CASES

Positive cases are up in

the region as more testing is planned

47

WHISTLER ROCK CITY Local musicians welcomed a legendary rock star to the stage

BREATHING ROOM LOOKING FOR YOUR WHISTLER OR PEMBERTON DREAM HOME? WE CAN HELP.

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THIS WEEK IN PIQUE

42

46

34 Navigating educational uncertainty What does the new normal for Sea to Sky schools, tutors, and childcare look like? - By Steven Chua and Dan Falloon

16

SPOT OF TROUBLE?

Proposed spot zoning

42

RETURN TO ACTION

Local sports

could have negative consequences if municipality continues with plan to

organizations discuss how summer programming went with new protocols

tie zoning to key F&B establishments.

in place and look ahead to fall offerings.

22

TESTING TRAILER

Whistler to get dedicated

46

INDIGENOUS LENS

Squamish Nation

COVID-19 testing space as medical director advises community to remain

archeologist Rudy Reimer works with Indigenous communities around B.C.

vigilant with resort seeing more positive cases of coronavirus.

to share their histories through a First Nations’ lens.

24

47

STATUS UPGRADE

After four years, the

WHISTLER ROCK CITY

A group of local

Pemberton Meadows Fire Department has achieved semi-protected status

musicians welcomed a legendary rock star to the stage at the Alpine Cafe

for the local fire protection area.

last weekend for an impromptu jam.

COVER I couldn’t imagine what COVID-19 must look like through the eyes of a child or a parent sending them off to school. After five months of this new normal, it’s probably a good time to check up on your friends and neighbours to see how they’re really doing.- By Jon Parris 4 AUGUST 27, 2020

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THIS WEEK IN PIQUE

Opinion & Columns 08 OPENING REMARKS It’s only days until students return to the classroom, but school districts

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

PH: (604) 938-0202 FAX: (604) 938-0201 www.piquenewsmagazine.com

are still working out the details of what it will even look like.

Founding Publishers KATHY & BOB BARNETT

10 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letter writers this week rise up in support of keeping the trails of

Publisher SARAH STROTHER - sstrother@wplpmedia.com Editor CLARE OGILVIE - edit@piquenewsmagazine.com Assistant Editor ALYSSA NOEL - arts@piquenewsmagazine.com Sales Manager SUSAN HUTCHINSON - shutchinson@wplpmedia.com Production Manager KARL PARTINGTON - kpartington@wplpmedia.com Art Director JON PARRIS - jparris@wplpmedia.com Advertising Representatives AMY ALLEN - aallen@wplpmedia.com TESSA SWEENEY - tsweeney@wplpmedia.com Digital/Sales Coordinator AMELA DIZDARIC - traffic@wplpmedia.com Production production@piquenewsmagazine.com LOU O’BRIEN - lstevens@wplpmedia.com

Lost Lake Park for skinny skiers in winter.

13 PIQUE’N YER INTEREST Writer Andrew Mitchell ponders why Canadian teams outside Vancouver (including his beloved Maple Leafs) are once again struggling in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year.

62 MAXED OUT Lost Lake Park is a haven for skinny skiers in the winter and an important amenity for both locals and visitors that should be maintained as is, argues Max.

Environment & Adventure

Arts & Entertainment Editor ALYSSA NOEL arts@piquenewsmagazine.com

33 RANGE ROVER Leslie Anthony offers up Part 3 of his Armenian viper caper, as the intrepid team of

Sports Editor DAN FALLOON - sports@piquenewsmagazine.com

snake hunters search a forest reserve on Armenia’s Iranian frontier.

Features Editor BRANDON BARRETT - bbarrett@piquenewsmagazine.com Reporters BRADEN DUPUIS - bdupuis@piquenewsmagazine.com BRANDON BARRETT - bbarrett@piquenewsmagazine.com MEGAN LALONDE - mlalonde@wplpmedia.com Classifieds and Reception mail@piquenewsmagazine.com Office and Accounts Manager HEIDI RODE - hrode@wplpmedia.com I.T. and Webmaster KARL PARTINGTON Contributors G.D. MAXWELL, GLENDA BARTOSH, MICHAEL ALLEN, FEET BANKS, LESLIE ANTHONY, ALLEN BEST, ALISON TAYLOR, VINCE SHULEY, LISA RICHARDSON President, Whistler Publishing LP

Lifestyle & Arts

44 FORK IN THE ROAD Glenda Bartosh reminds us that in times of struggle, everyone has to make do with what they have—a lesson Whistler’s own history is keen to teach us.

48 MUSEUM MUSINGS We all enjoy the Whistler Golf Club today, but its design and construction hit a few sand traps before opening in 1983.

SARAH STROTHER - sstrother@wplpmedia.com Pique Newsmagazine (a publication of Whistler Publishing Limited Partnership, a division of Glacier Media) distributed to over 130 locations in Whistler and to over 200 locations from Vancouver to D’arcy.

The entire contents of Pique Newsmagazine are copyright 2019 by Pique Newsmagazine (a publication of WPLP, a division of Glacier Media). No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the Publisher.

In no event shall unsolicited material subject this publication to any claim or fees. Copyright in letters and other (unsolicited) materials submitted and accepted for publication remains with the author but the publisher and its licensees may freely reproduce them in print, electronic or other forms.

Letters to the Editor must contain the author’s name, address and daytime telephone number. Maximum length is 250 words. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject any contribution. Letters reflect the opinion of the writer and not that of Pique Newsmagazine.

Pique Newsmagazine is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please contact (edit@ piquenewsmagazine.com). If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the web site at mediacouncil. ca or call toll-free 1-844-877-1163 for additional information.

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OPENING REMARKS

The countdown to the start of school in Whistler is on IN LESS THAN two weeks, teachers, school administrators and staff members will be back in school as they get ready to fully implement the province’s back-to-school plan in these COVID-19 times. Students will return a few days later.

On Aug. 26, families and students got a better look at what school will look like in Whistler. Like several other school districts, ours will implement a quarter system in our high school where students will take two courses a day (read two teachers), for a period of about 10 weeks, remaining at school for the whole day. (This will not change the school year and its breaks in any significant way.) Students will be mostly

BY CLARE OGILVIE edit@piquenewsmagazine.com

with the same group of learners all day.

According to the province, people in a learning group don’t need to stay two metres apart at all times but they must limit physical contact and touching. Again, masks are mandatory for communal areas or where physical distancing can’t be

high-performance sports teams and it’s unclear right now how they will be impacted.

Classes will be the same size as last year.

While the education ministry and provincial health have said student cohorts can be up to 120 students, this is more for tracking purposes in the event of COVID-19 cases.

The Sea to Sky District has also now launched a full online/distance learning school from Kindergarten to Grade 12. The district has run certain classes online in the past for Grades 10 to 12 but this ambitious program prompted by the pandemic is new for Sea to Sky. One can only imagine that education leaders were looking at what everyone else provincially, nationally and internationally were doing to get ready for school.

B.C.’s ministry of health has treated the back-to-school issue much like it treated the reopening of restaurants and so on. It laid out the general parameters of best practices and then told school districts to come up with their own plans to implement the protocols and get back to the ministry. It is expected that school districts, including Sea to Sky, will have their plans to the ministry by the end of this week.

School district officials are aiming to normalize the school experience as much as possible, so elementary school will feel familiar except for things like staggered drop

Will there be bumps along the way this year? Absolutely. achieved outside the cohort.

However, there will be times when classes, likely electives, will put students from different cohorts together and in that instance, the two cohorts must physically distance in the classroom and masks may be necessary.

Whistler’s Grades 8 and 9 will continue to follow a middle school pattern as before with literacy and numeracy being taught the entire school year through the quarter system.

There’s little doubt this quarter system will challenge Whistler students who are part of

off-pick times, a lot more hygiene in school (how are all those kids going to wash their hands all the time with a limited number of sinks in the schools and minutes in the day?), and mask wearing in communal areas.

Playgrounds are open, libraries will be open and classes can have P.E. in the gym.

In reality, the plan means that every family’s bubble is going from a maximum of 30 people—provincial health’s cutoff for Phase 2 of the B.C. reopening plan for COVID19— to hundreds when you consider that each student and teacher has their own bubble!

I don’t have a solution, so it’s difficult to criticize the plan. Nor can we escape the reality that COVID in all its mutations is here to stay and it looks like we can get it multiple times. We simply can’t stop the world and education for the virus.

But every single family and teacher needs to choose the path that works for them. A family or teacher with no health conditions in those they love and who are fit and healthy may embrace the start of school and be ready to get to it while a teacher or family with live-in grandparents, or who are immunocompromised or have other health issues might be forced to choose to stay home from school.

And that staying home can come with significant challenges. Online/distance learning programs are a weak stand-in for the experience of school. And homeschooling means that one parent has to be the teacher and that keeps them out of the workforce— the trickle-down economics of these decisions will impact the whole country.

The province has given money to school districts to increase the capacity to clean and to look at improving ventilation in the schools— works underway in Sea to Sky with cleaning now taking place during the day as well.

Every parent and anyone associated with the school will have to do a health check every day before going into the schools. A child or teacher displaying any symptoms must stay home. Do we have enough substitute teachers for those who get sick and do we want teachers moving from school to school filling in, even if they must wear masks? If a COVID test comes back positive, then everyone the infected person has been in touch with has to selfisolate. That could mean an entire cohort has to pivot to full online learning.

Will there be bumps along the way this year? Absolutely. Parents need support and transparency to navigate what is best for their kids. Check your school website often, ask questions, check the district website (sd48seatosky.org) and for goodness sake, if you haven’t registered for school yet… do it now. n

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Taking the fun out of getting a ski pass Getting a season pass for the ski season has always been a bit of a ritual for my husband and I for the past 31 years. It’s sort of a joyful thing where you put your money down and celebrate a little bit that you’re set for the season to have some fun in the snow. This was not the case this year.

To Vail Resorts’ credit, they sent me a letter telling me about the $244.20 credit for my Epic Pass of last year, towards an “eligible pass product” for the 2020-21 season. This was due to the pandemic and nobody was at fault, but we did lose more than 30 per cent of our season.

I was very disappointed when I was told that I was only eligible for $181.80 credit towards my Whistler Blackcomb senior pass.

The reason was that it was 20 per cent off the new pass regardless of the credit letter. I can’t go to the U.S. to ski this year in all likelihood, so why buy an Epic Pass? I just got old enough to qualify for a senior pass.

The credit has nothing to do with this coming season; it was a credit for last year’s season, which ended months ahead of schedule. Why is my new pass affected by last year’s dollar credit?

It’s only $60 but on principle, it feels wrong to me. It also hasn’t served anyone because I

wasted 45 minutes of some nice girl’s day on a task that should have taken five minutes.

She did mention they’re having a hard time getting and keeping staff. Line-ups on the phone have been lengthy. I waited five hours to get a callback to spend some money with them.

For the sake of $60, Vail Resorts has managed to turn what used to be a joyous event of getting your pass into a frustrating argument and although I bought my pass, I’m not feeling joyful.

It turns out it’s not a credit at all but a discount on next year’s pass. Perhaps they should have said that from the beginning.

I sure hope we have a good season and I wish Vail Resorts all the success of the coming season. I’m sorry to start the season with a bad feeling about my pass purchase.

Karen Gardner // Whistler

Keep Lost Lake for Nordic skiing and snowshoes Yes, I am one of the “handfuls of people” who has the privilege of skiing in “the centre of town while the majority of locals and visitors are shut out of the park for the entire winter” (Pique, “Letters to the Editor,” Aug. 20).

In summer and winter, Lost Lake Park is truly a jewel in our community, and should be shared by all user groups. Many locals take advantage of the fact that it is in the centre of town, which allows them to get a quick blast of fresh air and exercise before or after work. Callaghan is not an option for many of those people.

I have owned dogs for the majority of the 46 years that I have called Whistler home. I often walked at Lost Lake and, yes, I admit to enjoying the times when the snow in the valley arrived late and we had a few extra weeks to use the trails in the park.

The skiing at Lost Lake is typically open sometime in December and never remains operational past the end of March. That is really not an unbearable stretch of time to perhaps explore some of the other trails around town. Your dog would probably enjoy a bit of variety and you could familiarize yourself with some of the other spots that offer exercise and tranquility.

They might not be walking distance from your home, but neither is Callaghan. Here are some of your options: Whistler Golf Club course, Cheakamus Lake trail, Riverside trails in Function, the microwave tower access road in Function, Callaghan snowshoe and dog trails.

There are more if you really want to escape the madness, but they are secrets known only by a few of the intrepid locals.

I am happy to have my tax dollars go towards the Nordic skiing at Lost Lake.

Plowing the trail all winter would also be a major expense and would make a mess.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR They wouldn’t be able to clear every little bit of snow from the trails without damaging the surface. People who have lived here for any length of time know that our winters bring an endless stream of melt-freeze cycles.

Climate change has made for even more melt cycles. Anyone who walks a plowed Valley

“Plowing the trail all winter would also be a major expense and would make a mess.”

- JAN TINDLE

Trail during the winter knows that a rain and subsequent cooling can make for unpleasant conditions. If the trails in the park were also plowed, the same icy conditions would occur, salt would need to be applied, and we all know where the salt ends up.

I have also spent time working as a volunteer on the Nordic trails. Policing the

trails is a tiny part of the job. There are volunteers manning the ticket booths who work for Cross-Country Connection.

Ski patrol members who work for the Resort Municipality of Whistler are also a presence on the trails and deal with first aid, offering suggestions and assistance to visitors, maintaining signs and fences, and reporting on the condition of the trails.

I would also like to mention that the paid grooming staff does an unbelievable job of readying the trails for the skiers. Anyone familiar with the properties of snow knows that grooming a run/trail to perfection is a delicate balance between timing, experience and the fickle weather.

My suggestion to anyone upset with the existence of our Nordic trails is that you invest in some snowshoes, walk on some of the trails that are packed down by other walkers, drive down to Callaghan to take advantage of what they have to offer (their dog loop is a multi-use trail that allows dogs to be off leash—it is a great social experience for one’s dog) or take up crosscountry skiing. If you are looking for fresh air and exercise and have limited time, it is a much better investment of your time than downhill skiing/boarding.

Many of the fun activities in our town run

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Write to us! Letters to the editor must contain the writer’s name, address and a daytime telephone number. Maximum length is 450 words. Pique Newsmagazine reserves the right to edit, condense or refrain from publishing any contribution. Letters reflect the opinion of the writer and not that of Pique Newsmagazine.

604•902•1891 www.heikedesigns.com

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AUGUST 27, 2020

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at a deficit and will continue to do so. Instead of worrying about losing Lost Lake for a few months, I would suggest that people think about how we can bolster the businesses that are continuing to run at a deficit and try to come up with suggestions that will keep our economy going.

Jan Tindle // Whistler

Winter at Lost Lake works fine the way it is

LAURA WETASKI

In response to Kathleen Smith’s Letter to the Editor on Aug. 20, “Open Lost Lake Park to everyone this winter”—how selfish. Shame on you!

Lee Goldsmid // Whistler

Whistler pickleball thank you!

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The Whistler Pickleball Association (WPA) is grateful to the Resort Municipality of Whistler for supporting a very successful Whistler Pickleball Week (Aug. 8 to 16) and to the facilities staff for arranging the reserved use of all municipal courts throughout the week.

Fifty-four adults and 15 children/teens took advantage of the introductory sessions and increased the membership of the WPA. Our sincere thanks to the WPA Board, which devoted countless hours to the planning and preparation for Pickleball Week, and to Kirk Paterson for his continued guidance and support.

Thank you also to the dedicated ambassadors who assisted the coaches and welcomed newcomers to the game.

Many people contributed to the success of the first annual Whistler Pickleball Week: Reporter Dan Falloon (Pique coverage), Justin Belanger (photographer), 101.5 Whistler FM for airing the radio advertising during Pickleball Week and to David Lewis for voicing the advertisement.

Thank you also to Whislife for its generous contribution of lanyards for the ambassadors and coaches.

The Whistler Racket Club hosted several events throughout the week and the WPA appreciated the support.

Finally, thank you to Walter Knecht of Pickleball BC for his advice and support during the planning of Whistler Pickleball Week; it was a great success!

Garth White and Norm Binion // interim co-presidents

Let us enjoy Lost Lake on skinny skis In response to the letter last week suggesting that the municipality make the trails at Lost Lake open to the public and not exclusively for cross-country skiing: There are many trails in and around Whistler available year-round for walking (Pique, “Letters to the Editor,” Aug. 20).

I believe the Lost Lake trails should remain groomed and maintained for Nordic Skiing.

Not everyone is able to, or wants to, drive to the Callaghan to cross-country ski. Locals and tourists alike cherish the opportunity to use the Lost Lake trails for Nordic skiing for a few short winter months and climate change may well make the time we do have even shorter.

Please let us enjoy this gem on our skinny skis before the snow disappears at this elevation.

Dawna Westman // Whistler

Lost Lake trails are part of enjoying Whistler winter In response to the letter “Open Lost Lake to everyone this winter” (Pique, Aug. 20): While there may be a point to be made for limited pedestrian access to Lost Lake in winter, there are many visitors who enjoy their initial attempts at cross-country skiing at Lost Lake, safely, on dedicated trails with no dogs or walkers to make anyone more nervous than they already are.

For winter walkers, there are several kilometres of multi-use trails at Green Lake and from the Meadow Park Sports Centre to Rainbow Park. There are the trails on the valley golf course, and many, many kilometres of Valley Trail for those who prefer hard surfaces.

[Letter writer] Kathleen Smith said she would like the current cross-country trails, including those on the golf courses, to be plowed. Why does she live in Whistler? There are lots of us (taxpayers!) who like to ski at Lost Lake, without having to drive to the Callaghan—not everyone has a vehicle, and not everyone has the time for an hour of driving (return) to enjoy an hour or two of skiing.

Having the Lost Lake cross-country trails in town and readily accessible to all shows that Whistler is not just about downhill and that all types of skiers are welcome here.

If you want to access the Upper Fairways or the nice flat routes on the Nicklaus North in the winter, strap on some cross-country skis and come enjoy the season!

Carol Piercy // Whistler n

PIQUE’N YER INTEREST

There’s always next year AND THEN IT WAS OVER. A million Leafs fans responded by ripping off their jerseys, throwing them to the ground, grinding them into the carpet and walking away disgusted… only to creep back a moment later to pick up their crumpled, tear-stained blue and whites, and carefully fold them before sliding them back into the drawer.

BY ANDREW MITCHELL “Next year,” they said, because that’s what they’ve always said, year after year after year. Deep down, they no longer believe it. Not really. But nobody wants to be the faithless guy who turned their back after a lifetime of supporting the team the year before it finally won the Stanley Cup. The last time the Leafs lifted the Cup was 1967, the year The Beatles released Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Babies born nine months after that celebration are turning 53 years old.

Being a Leafs fan is nothing short of a burden. It’s the stone we start pushing up the hill every October only to watch it roll down the other side in early May, crushing our hopes, dreams and a probably few innocent puppies as it goes. It’s a love-hate

relationship we’re powerless to break off.

But while Toronto fans may be hopeless, you could say the same about other Canadian teams as well. No Canadian has hoisted the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. That should be statistically impossible. There are seven Canadian teams out of 31 in the NHL, which means—all things being equal—a Canadian team should win a Cup every four or five years. There have been some great attempts but we’ve always fallen short.

The question is why.

Some believe it has to do with taxes, and the fact that players are quietly moving to states where they get to keep more of their income.

Some blame the exchange rate, which plummeted in the ‘90s and had a major impact on Canadian teams that had to pay their players with American dollars, thereby robbing Canada of a decade of Cup-winning opportunities.

Some believe it has to do with the Canadian hockey standard, and the fact we’re still playing a crowd-pleasing physical style of rock’em, sock’em hockey in an era where speed and skill matter more at the end of the day—although I’d argue that it’s been a long time since a Canadian team could claim to be the league’s toughest.

There are also those who believe there’s a plot against Canada by the NHL, and commissioner Gary Bettman and the refs are somehow in cahoots. The fact that

Nashville, Vegas and now Seattle got a franchise before Quebec City is held up as proof of the league’s American bias.

And then there are those who blame Canadian media and hockey fans for their overinflated expectations and impatience.

Teams, under pressure from their fans, focus all their energy on making the playoffs every year instead of taking the time to build the depth that it takes to get past the first round.

There are people who believe disgruntled fans should turn their backs on their teams and stop buying tickets and jerseys, because, the theory goes, depriving teams of revenue will teach them a valuable lesson about sucking less.

While a lot of these theories have merit—I’m watching you, Bettman—I personally think the problem is the league’s salary cap, which punishes success and renders fan support—something Canadian teams have—irrelevant.

While the cap helped expansion teams catch up by building fan support and winning an American network contract, it also makes it hard to build and keep together a winning team. The draft, injuries, free agency, and other factors play as much of a role as experienced leadership. It creates a situation where a new team like the Vegas Golden Knights can go to the Stanley Cup Final in its very first season.

The 2020 cap was $81.5 million, which is nothing for teams that are earning more

than a billion dollars in annual revenues.

For high earners like Montreal, Toronto and New York, player salaries account for a miniscule 1/18th of earnings.

Every team can afford that—especially with the league still skimming six per cent of total revenues away from the top earning teams and giving it to the lower earning clubs.

That $81.5 million has to cover an entire active roster of 23 to 25 players, plus the contracts of players that have moved on to other teams while still under contract.

For example, goalie Roberto Luongo hasn’t played a game for the Canucks since 2014 but still accounted for $5.3 million of their cap space this year.

I would argue that the cap has accomplished its goal of bringing parity to the league and needs to be replaced by a luxury tax, similar to the NBA. In basketball, teams can go over the cap if they need to, but for every million they go over, they pay $500,000 back to lower revenue teams.

With a luxury tax, high-earning teams will get to keep their stars and build enough depth to contend for championships.

Players will get also bigger share of revenues and, most importantly, fan support plays a direct role in the success of their team.

Fan support should matter at the end of the day. The stubborn, senseless loyalty of Leafs fans should matter. Until then, it’s always going to be “next year.” n

AUGUST 27, 2020

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NEWS WHISTLER

Proposed spot zoning could have negative consequences, critics say RMOW INITIATIVE SEEKS TO TIE ZONING TO KEY F&B ESTABLISHMENTS

BY BRADEN DUPUIS A

RESORT MUNICIPALITY of Whistler (RMOW) initiative to lock key food and beverage establishments into their current zoning is an attempt to address a problem that doesn’t exist, according to three letter writers to council—and one that could have negative consequences in an uncertain time.

The proposal was tacked onto a June 9 report looking at allowing business owners to temporarily extend their patios in light of COVID-19 restrictions (see Pique, June 11: “Whistler council passes temporary patio bylaws”).

Its recommendations stem from a report by Thomas Consultants, completed in 2010, which suggested using spot zoning to protect 40 restaurant locations deemed to be important to vibrancy in the village.

Since then, five of the identified locations have been fully or partially converted while two others sit vacant.

On June 9, council authorized staff to begin preparing new zoning and land-use contract bylaws that would prohibit the remaining key food and beverage locations from changing uses.

“I think they’re making quite a big

ON THE SPOT A Resort Municipality of

Whistler proposal to lock key F&B locations down through spot zoning is meeting with stiff opposition from critics.

COASTPHOTOIMAGES.COM

16 AUGUST 27, 2020

mistake that would have repercussions for Whistler,” said longtime local developer Steve Bayly, one of the letter writers.

“I think the main danger is, at a time when we’re going to need investment and financial backing and everything, you’re going to turn those people off … if another restaurant is the only use, I think it would be very hard to attract investment.”

landlords or tenants.

“On both sides, they’re professional, they’re smart people, they’re going to do what’s right for the customer and what’s right for them,” Dale-Johnson said.

“So to tie their hands is just a mistake.”

Placing those kinds of restraints on uses would impact the valuation of the asset, “and it would also impact the

“You’re going in a direction that’s ridiculous. It’s social engineering at the highest level, and that’s not how free markets work.”

- PAT KELLY

Two of the restaurants rated highly in the 2010 report—Zen Sushi and Player’s Chophouse—“were total losers as restaurants,” Bayly added.

“The point is that it’s crazy … if they’d followed their own report 10 years ago, and what they’re going to do today, those would be entrenched as restaurants, and they’d be sitting empty forever.”

For David Dale-Johnson, a real-estate economist and University of Alberta professor who also serves as member-atlarge on the RMOW’s Strategic Planning Committee, the proposal doesn’t make sense from the point of view of either

willingness of lenders to make loans on those properties, because you’re really imposing constraints that potentially could create problems for both landlords and tenants,” Dale-Johnson added.

In the view of Pat Kelly, president of the Whistler Real Estate Company, the proposal represents something of a philosophical conundrum.

“You’re going in a direction that’s ridiculous. It’s social engineering at the highest level, and that’s not how free markets work,” he said.

“Free markets adapt to market demand … we’ll find the solution to what our

consumer wants and our client wants; we’re not going to tell our client what they want or what they’re going to get.

“So for me it’s more philosophical. I do understand what they’re saying, but man, there’s got to be a different way that isn’t so restrictive and has so much lack of future flexibility.”

It’s “policy motivated by fear,” Kelly added, and one that may have unintended consequences by removing the flexibility of entrepreneurs.

“I just don’t think the idea of expropriating value by cutting back on the flexibility of use is the way to do it,” he said.

“And is this really a problem?”

If anything, the RMOW should be working to make things easier for businesses by allowing a smoother transition from F&B to retail and so on, Bayly said.

“I think a lot of restaurants and businesses are probably teetering, and probably looking for support from banks, and investment,” he said.

“And we want to encourage that, I would think. If let’s say the Royal Bank or somebody was going to lend a restaurant some additional money to help them through, they’re going to be less likely to do that if the thing can only ever stay as a restaurant.”

Asked for an update on the initiative, and if the letters to council give the RMOW pause, a spokesperson said the work is still ongoing with no timeframe for when it will return to council, and that the correspondence is now part of the rezoning file under consideration by staff. n

NEWS WHISTLER

RCMP drug bust nets largest cash seizure in detachment history

■ ■ ■ ■

POLICE BRIEFS: LOCAL RCMP SAYS COVID COMPLIANCE HASN’T BEEN HUGE ISSUE

BY BRANDON BARRETT POLICE SEIZED a large quantity of cocaine and more than a quarter-million dollars from a Pemberton home last week, the largest drug-related cash seizure in the local RCMP detachment’s history, according to a release.

Earlier this year, investigators became aware of a residential location in the 7600 block of Pemberton Meadows Road possibly selling drugs. That led to a search warrant executed at the home on Tuesday, Aug. 18. Police said they entered the residence and took one person into custody without incident.

The search also turned up approximately 351 grams (roughly 12 ounces) of suspected cocaine and $256,000 in both Canadian and U.S. currency.

“I’ve never seen $1,000 bills like that,” Staff Sgt. Paul Hayes noted in a follow-up phone call.

Representing the largest single cash seizure as a result of a drug investigation in the Whistler-Pemberton RCMP detachment’s history, Hayes expects the arrest and seizure to put a major dent in the local drug supply.

B.C. INTRODUCES FINES FOR LARGE GATHERINGS— BUT POLICE SAY IT HASN’T BEEN ISSUE LOCALLY

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Police across the province have a new enforcement tool at their disposal to deal with large gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic—although the head of the Whistler RCMP detachment says compliance hasn’t been much of an issue locally.

B.C.’s public safety minister Mike Farnworth announced Friday, Aug. 21 that law enforcement can now issue $2,000 fines for venue owners and event organizers that break provincial COVID-19 health orders on gatherings.

“Now more than ever, this is a time to be selfless, it is a time to tell friends and family that breaking the rules will hurt us all,” Farnworth said in Friday’s announcement.

“We can’t let the bad decisions made by a few erode the progress we’ve made.”

Enforcement will target anyone hosting events and gatherings larger than 50 people or not keeping a list and contact information of attendees, as well as those who host more than five guests in a vacation accommodation.

“I’ve never seen $1,000 bills like that.”

- PAUL HAYES

“We seized a substantial amount of cocaine for anybody, and the money involved would suggest a larger-scale thing going on,” he explained. “Now that we’ve stopped that for the time being, we suspect that it’s going to have an effect in the community.”

When asked about any possible connection to organized crime, Hayes said that is “nothing I can speak to at this time.”

The suspect, a 61-year-old Pemberton man, was arrested and subsequently released from custody pending approval of charges related to possession and trafficking of a controlled substance.

“The Pemberton RCMP is continuing to aggressively target people who are thinking of selling illicit drugs in the community and is asking that if you have any information on this or any other suspected drug trafficking locations to contact the Pemberton RCMP at 604-894-6634 or Crime Stoppers,” the release concluded.

Whistler RCMP Staff Sgt. Paul Hayes said that, for the most part, large gatherings haven’t been much of an issue for local police during the pandemic.

“Actually, in terms of the Whistler and Pemberton area, all of the folks we’ve had to talk with, we haven’t had to have any return visits, so education and awareness is usually our first and last step,” he said, adding that, generally, when police have been called to private gatherings like house parties this summer, it’s been over bylaw issues such as noise as opposed to a lack of proper physical distancing.

“We haven’t seen that kind of a problem that I’m hearing about in other places.”

A $200 fine has also been introduced that can be issued to anyone actively encouraging large events or gatherings, or refusing to leave or disperse when told to do so, as well as for business owners that don’t follow the proper health protocols. n

AUGUST 27, 2020

17

NEWS WHISTLER

Katz Amsterdam Foundation hands out US$50K for SLCC’s new Indigenous leadership program WHISTLER’S ZERO CEILING ALSO RECEIVES US$15K GRANT FROM FOUNDATION

BY BRANDON BARRETT BEFORE HE BEGAN work as Whistler Blackcomb’s (WB) liaison to the local First Nations, Court Larabee asked a group of Squamish and Lil’wat youth a simple question: Does Whistler feel like home to you?

“And guess what their answer was: No,” Larabee said.

Now, the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre (SLCC) is aiming to create a more inclusive environment for local First Nations through the development of a new Cultural Sensitivity and Indigenous Leadership Program that just got a major boost in the form of a US$50,000 grant from the Katz Amsterdam Charitable Trust, spearheaded by Vail Resorts’ CEO Rob Katz and his wife, bestselling author Elana Amsterdam.

“How do we build the SLCC and other businesses in Whistler and the Sea to Sky with Indigenous leadership? We’re not the hero solution, but how can we be part of it?” asked SLCC executive director Heather

Paul, who said the grant money would help fund Phase 1 of the program, which will involve bringing on Indigenous leaders from the SLCC to develop the initiative.

The SLCC is already adept at training Indigenous staff through its Youth Ambassador program, where the roughly 600 graduates since 2008 have gained valuable experience in tourism, retail, serving and back-of-house operations. The goal of this new program, however, is to set up Indigenous participants for leadership positions throughout the corridor.

The [Youth Ambassador] program is creating staff,” Paul added. “But how are we creating Indigenous leaders? And not just Indigenous leaders that are invited to the table, but are a part of building a new table together.”

The program’s other component will offer cultural sensitivity training to local businesses looking to create a more inclusive, diverse work environment.

“The No. 1 strategy right now in my mind is if you don’t have diversity within the leadership and/or board level of your company, you’re not really making a

decent effort,” said the Lacs Des Milles Lacs First Nation’s Larabee, who offers cultural competency training to a number local business and political leaders. “This is the time when the crucial change can happens by looking at our boards, our governments, and our companies and say, ‘Where is the diversity?’ If you don’t, you kind of run the lines of looking like a company that does a lot more lip service than community service.”

As part of the 60-year master development agreement signed in 2017 with the province and the Squamish and Lil’wat, WB has made it a major priority to have the Nations more involved at the ski resort that sits on their shared traditional territories.

That effort has taken a number of forms, explained WB’s director of government and community relations Sarah McCullough, including an Indigenous human resources strategy aimed at becoming “an employer of choice for our Indigenous partners,” she said.

Along with regular employment tours to show Nation members the kinds of careers available at WB, McCullough said

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the resort has also implemented internal inclusivity training programs and looked at ways to become more accommodating to its Indigenous employees, adding that the company is currently exploring the option of creating a bereavement policy for Nation members.

“That’s one small example, but I think it’s a meaningful one because what we’re saying is we have respect for the cultural work that needs to be done in the community,” she added.

WB already works closely with the SLCC on a number of fronts, and McCullough said the cultural centre’s Indigenous leadership and cultural sensitivity program aligns well with WB’s effort to create a more diverse workforce.

“I don’t see anything that would stop us from learning from this program, from implementing pieces of it that we feel are complementary or aligned,” she noted.

As part of the Katz Amsterdam Foundation’s most recent round of grant funding, Whistler non-profit Zero Ceiling will receive US$15,000 to go towards its operational fund. n

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NEWS WHISTLER

‘In crisis, we galvanize’: Sea to Sky non-profits strengthen bonds in the pandemic ALREADY A CLOSEKNIT SECTOR, NON-PROFITS SEE OPPORTUNITY FOR COLLABORATION IN CHALLENGING TIMES

BY BRANDON BARRETT BEING INHERENTLY mission-driven, non-profits are sometimes blind to the work being done by other organizations in their sector.

“When we’re in that nose-to-thegrindstone survival mode, trying to get through the day-to-day, it’s hard to be aware of people working in parallel with you and sometimes overlapping,” noted Sean Easton, co-executive director of Zero Ceiling, a Whistler-based non-profit aimed at eliminating youth homelessness.

And while the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly produced significant challenges for a sector that relies heavily on donations and in-person fundraisers, it has also come with a distinct opportunity to strengthen the already close ties between Sea to Sky non-profits.

“In crisis, we galvanize. In crisis, we come together,” said Jaye Russell, executive director of the Sea to Sky Community Services Society (SSCSS). “I think the benefit for the corridor is that we had the existing relationships in place and … already having

20 AUGUST 27, 2020

those established working relationships enabled us to pick up the phone, come together and really roll up our sleeves and look at what needed to be done and what needed to be prioritized.”

Local non-profits already met regularly before the pandemic hit, but those meetings have taken on greater frequency and urgency in the intervening months, explained Mei Madden, executive director of the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation (WBF), which has granted more than $15 million to registered local charities since its founding in 1992.

“It was extremely helpful to bounce off ideas with one another and also to learn what different programs were available to help non-profits during these trying times,” she added in an email.

An RMOW-led Social Services Recovery Working Group has also met throughout the pandemic and is currently drafting a guiding principles document that was spearheaded by the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment’s Claire Ruddy, who could not be reached for comment, with input from non-profits across the corridor, Madden relayed.

Specifically for the WBF, Madden said

the meetings have helped her “understand where we can support our local non-profits with grants to help them get through this,” noting that the foundation has handed out grants to help cover non-profits’ operational costs as well as to cover mental health support for the sector’s frontline staff.

“The executive directors have been faced with having to lay off staff, which puts a lot more workload on them and also having to pivot to raise funds,” she added.

“Collaboration is what is going to help us get through this.”

The pandemic has also helped shine a light on the “critical populations and critical issues that are key to maintaining the resiliency” of the corridor, Russell said, namely: affordable housing, mental health, and childcare, longstanding issues in the region that COVID has thrust to the forefront.

“In any major city or rural environment, the non-profit sector is the eyes and ears of the community,” she added. “We’re at the grassroots, we’re on the frontlines, we see the people who are faced with the pandemic every day and we have staff who are working tirelessly to support our community every day, every hour, every

week, and so the ability of the non-profit sector to funnel that information up to local government, to senior leadership at the provincial and federal levels, is actually paramount and necessary.”

Of course, no amount of collaboration will make up for the loss in revenue local non-profits are experiencing with so many British Columbians tightening their purse strings and no concrete timeline for when in-person fundraising events might go ahead.

The sector has been forced to get creative with its fundraising initiatives, with many non-profits holding virtual events.

“We’ve all realized you can do so much virtually, but sometimes it’s not a great replacement,” said Easton, noting how Zero Ceiling is planning a virtual fall fundraiser that will recreate the “family dinners” its Work 2 Live participants host on a weekly basis.

“We’re trying to reimagine a little bit.

How can we pivot? What we’re talking about is moving our fundraising to be more virtual, but in an intimate way with something that’s a bit more program-centric than the gala-themed events.” n

NEWS WHISTLER

Whistler to get dedicated COVID-19 testing space COMMUNITY SHOULD REMAIN VIGILANT AS NUMBERS INCREASE, MEDICAL DIRECTOR SAYS

BY ALYSSA NOEL WHISTLER WILL SOON have a COVID19 assessment trailer to help local doctors accommodate increased testing for the virus.

The new trailer is a result of collaboration between the Sea to Sky Division of Family Practice and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), said Dr. Bruce Mohr, medical director for the Whistler Health Care Centre.

“For Whistler, we’re testing 20 people a day, but it’s going on in the parking lot of the Whistler [Health Care] Centre,” he said. “If there are increased numbers with inclement weather, we need a better place to do that. This trailer has been approved for this purpose. [It is expected to be] up and running in the next two weeks.”

Talks are currently underway with the Resort Municipality of Whistler about where it will be located, he added.

For doctors, it is relief to know the dedicated space is coming. “We’re full.

We’re busy now with the usual summer stuff,” Mohr said.

The number of people in the Sea to Sky testing positive for COVID-19 has increased recently, he added. However,

HEALTH HELP Rather than testing patients with COVID-19 symptoms at indoor health facilities in Whistler, testing has taken place in the parking lot of the Whistler Health Care Centre. That will soon change with a new, dedicated testing trailer.

PHOTO COURTESY OF VANCOUVER COASTAL HEALTH FLICKR

part of that could be due to new testing strategy in the province.

“Back in March, we weren’t testing everyone,” he said. “Now, we’re testing anyone with symptoms. We’re doing a lot of testing every day and the number of positive cases is going up, as it’s going up everywhere.”

Last week, VCH announced it would be opening a new walk-in and drive-

thru testing centre in the parking lot of Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver.

The health authority did not confirm the number of cases in Sea to Sky communities by press time and, throughout the pandemic, have only shared numbers from the broader health regions in order to protect privacy.

Mohr’s biggest concern, though, is

increased hospitalization rates and the number of people in the ICU at the Lions Gate Hospital, where patients with severe cases of the disease from the Sea to Sky are sent.

“With more people having it, more of the vulnerable population could be exposed and they could become sick,” he said. “That’s what we seem to be seeing the start of is people requiring hospitalization and intensive care. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but those aren’t good indicators.”

In the meantime, he urges locals and visitors alike to continue to follow safety protocols like keeping two metres apart, washing your hands frequently, not touching your face, and wearing a mask if you can’t physical distance from others, particularly indoors.

To that latter point, new rules that mandate masks on BC Transit and BC Ferries could help normalize wearing a mask, he added.

“I think it’s pretty simple,” he said. “It’s what we’ve been saying all along: be kind, be safe, be vigilant. COVID didn’t take a summer vacation. It’s here and it’s going to come back in increasing numbers this fall.

We can’t predict how much more severe it will be. We shouldn’t get complacent about this; we should be increasingly vigilant.” n

We’ve got you covered.

Pick up the latest issue of your favourite read in Whistler.

22 AUGUST 27, 2020

HEADING TO WHISTLER’S PARKS THIS WEEKEND? WALK, RIDE YOUR BIKE, OR TAKE TRANSIT. KNOW BEFORE YOU GO • New traffic control measures have been introduced at Rainbow Park to enhance pedestrian safety: • Reduction of Alta Lake Road speed limit to 30 km/h near Rainbow Park • Installation of temporary speed bumps • Restricted street parking and expanded signage • Enhanced enforcement for parking violations including ticketing and towing • Introduction of designated drop off zone spaces.

COVID-19 ISN’T ON VACATION • Enjoy bigger spaces with fewer faces. Consider visiting less crowed spaces in Whistler.

• Maintain two metres of space from others. Avoid large group gatherings.

• Wash your hands. Stay home when sick.

WALK, BIKE OR TAKE TRANSIT • Whistler’s lakes are busy and parking is VERY limited – consider exploring other areas of Whistler or the Sea to Sky • If you decide to visit a lake, please walk, bike or take transit.

• The Rainbow Park shuttle service will not operate this weekend.

Resort Municipality of Whistler whistler.ca/ParkAccess

We Are Back!!

Come and get your BC frozen at sea products at the Whistler Farmers Market This Sunday!

Place your order online at www.howesoundseafood.com before 4pm on Saturday for pick up at the market on Sunday.

OR come down and buy directly from us.

Quality frozen at sea to stock up your freezer: Frozen Spot Prawns ........................... $30/lb Frozen King Shrimp ........................... $20/lb Frozen Albacore loins ........................ $15/lb Frozen Lingcod portions.................... $15/lb Frozen Octopus ................................. $7.50/lb

AUGUST 27, 2020

23

NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLE

Pemberton Meadows Fire Association achieves upgrade SEMI-PROTECTED STATUS WILL SAVE MONEY FOR HOMEOWNERS

BY DAN FALLOON ROUGHLY 150 Pemberton Meadows residents will be able to tap into some home insurance savings.

That’s because the Pemberton Meadows Fire Protection Area has now achieved semiprotected status from the Fire Underwriters Survey (FUS), an upgrade from its previous unprotected status.

It’s been a long process, according to Kim Marshall, who served as a director and handled administration for the Pemberton Meadows Fire Association (PMFA) during the process.

The organization started in 2016 and had to tick several boxes, consulting with the Village of Pemberton (VOP) and Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD).

One major project, according to Marshall, was working with the Pemberton Fire Rescue Service (PFRS) to complete a survey of all available water in the upper part of Pemberton Meadows for FUS. “We had to get water sources and prove that we had available water because there obviously are no hydrants out here,” she said.

On the administrative side, the PMFA had to have 15 working members, as well

TRUCKING AHEAD Pemberton Meadows Fire Association members pose with the new truck, acquired from Bonnyville, Alta.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

24 AUGUST 27, 2020

as a board of directors, and hold an annual general meeting.

“All these [efforts] were from people like myself who had no previous experience in any of this,” said Marshall, a retired air traffic controller. “It was the blind leading the blind.”

The major stumbling block came, however, after the association had acquired three older fire trucks, but were unaware that they could not be older than

will have access to up-to-date information via fireunderwriters.ca.

“The updated information is published on the Fire Insurance Grading Index,” he wrote.

Marshall herself renewed her home insurance on July 1, and saw the benefit.

“They recognized the semi-protected status, and the savings on mine was $400 to $500,” she said. “I don’t think it’s as much as people had hoped … but if that’s

“All these [efforts] were from people like myself who had no previous experience in any of this.”

- KIM MARSHALL

20 years old.

“We failed epically,” she said, before noting the PMFA subsequently raised $50,000 through events and a GoFundMe for a newer truck from Bonnyville, Alta., which arrived in early May. With the status approved, homeowners can now tap into savings. In an email, FUS director Robert McGuinness said homeowners looking to ensure the semiprotected status is being considered when their rates are calculated should contact their insurance companies directly, as they

incorporated into every household, that’s a significant savings.”

Marshall thanked PFRS Chief Robert Grossman as well as VOP chief administrative officer Nikki Gilmore and former SLRD chief administrative officer Lynda Flynn for their assistance throughout the process.

Another resource was SLRD Area C director Russell Mack, who was the Pemberton Fire Rescue Service chief for 18 years.

“He definitely saw the need, basically, because we’ve had, up to this year and last

year, quite severe fires in the area,” Marshall said on Aug. 16, before lightning-caused fires started in the Pemberton area. “He was a huge advocate for us. I don’t know how far we would have gotten without him.”

She also credited Chief John Beks for his heavy lifting.

“He’s salt of the earth and very passionate about it,” she said.

As the volunteer board learns more about how to operate, it has become more efficient.

“As time has progressed, we’ve got a great team of five directors now that really make a big difference,” Marshall said.

As for better service, Marshall said the department primarily supports PFRS efforts in the area, as its members can battle external fires but can’t enter a residence. Living 20 minutes from Pemberton herself, Marshall appreciates knowing the service is in place.

“We are simply there to provide water, pumping service,” she said. “There were a couple incidents that we had where we were able to get there first and because they [were] external, we were able to quash the fire.”

Down the line, Marshall said the PMFA hopes to achieve protected status, but acknowledged that the land acquisition for a station may make it a “pipe dream.”

“Our ultimate goal is to have a fire station, so we are applying for land at Wilson Road,” she said. “If we are able to have a truck there, it’s eight kilometres in either way, and then that would cover us off, we could potentially get protected status.” n

SUGGETTe,s m a J l e a h c i M

THE SUGGETT AND ORMOND families

of Hamilton and dear friends in Whistler B.C. are saddened to announce the sudden passing of their brother, cousin and friend, Mike, on August 3rd, 2020 while Mike was on a fishing trip at 100 Mile House in B.C. Mike left Ontario in the 70’s to make his home in Whistler, making many trips over the years back to Ontario visiting family and friends.

He is survived by his brother Terry of Hamilton and his sister Suzanne DeSylva of Rockwood and many relatives. Ashes will be laid to rest in Hamilton. Respecting the need for social distancing at this time there are no plans presently for a gathering in his honour. Mike loved nature, the outdoors and the simple life. Below are his last words to his family by email on July 30th, 2020.

WE KNOW PEMBERTON INSIDE & OUT 8950 PEMBERTON MEADOWS ROAD PEMBERTON

$1,150,000

Super cute and cozy custom built home! This acreage offers spectacular views, beautiful gardens, an outdoor swimming pool, a barn for all your toys, endless sunshine and easy access to the backcountry!

Bedrooms:

Bathrooms:

3

4

LISA HILTON* lisah@wrec.com 604 902 4589

#6 CREEKSIDE VILLAGE

$629,000

1400 PARK STREET, PEMBERTON

Must see 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom townhome in Pemberton’s Creekside Village. This townhouse has many recent updates with room to add a few of your own finishing touches.

GONE FISHING

One in the cooler rainbow trout that is real hot boat & truck running great sleeping well after a campfire two sleeping bags and two pillows

Bedrooms:

Bathrooms:

3

2.5

DAN SCARRATT*

real comfort.

dan@wrec.com 604 938 4444

#208 PEMBERTON GATEWAY

$448,500

7330 ARBUTUS STREET, PEMBERTON

Extensively updated two bedroom condo in the heart of Pemberton with Mount Currie views off the balcony. A fantastic opportunity for first time buyers, seniors looking to downsize, or the savvy investor.

Bedrooms:

Bathrooms:

2

1

DANIELLE MENZEL* danielle@wrec.com 604 698 5128

8907 OLD PORTAGE ROAD

$1,249,000

PEMBERTON

This sun drenched 5+ acres located just off the main road offers a 3.5 bed home with 3 full bathrooms, central vac, vaulted ceilings in the living area with full length windows that invite the natural light.

Bedrooms:

Bathrooms:

3.5

3

ERIN MCCARDLE STIEL erin@wrec.com 604 902 0520

* Denotes Personal Real Estate Corporation

604 894 5166 | WHISTLERREALESTATE.CA AUGUST 27, 2020

25

NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLEY

Beware online cannabis scams PEMBERTON’S GP CANNABIS STORE TAKES ONLINE ORDERS FOR IN-PERSON PICKUP

BY DAN FALLOON IF YOU’RE LOOKING to buy cannabis online, you should do your research, a customer protection group warns.

Karla Laird, the manager of community and public relations for the Better Business Bureau serving Mainland British Columbia, said it has received reports that a company claiming to operate out of New Westminster, Canadian Hemp Co., has taken payment for cannabis but either has not shipped the product or sent something different than what was ordered. Meanwhile, another Canadian was scammed by Hello Ganja, which claims to be based in Fort Worth, Tex. Laird advises customers to carefully research websites to ensure they’re legit before proceeding.

“One of the challenges when it comes to the cannabis industry is customers not having extensive knowledge about the industry,” she said. “Also, because of the times that we’re living in, consumers are now having to either be more open minded or actively engaged in online activity, so in this case, making purchases online. They haven’t really grasped the importance of doing your due diligence, doing your

research before you go on a website, see something you like and make a purchase.

“Anyone can fabricate a website.

Anyone can impersonate a legitimate website.”

Laird said when this happens, customers lose their money and give away personal financial information to an untrustworthy source. In cases where a customer receives a product they are consuming or smoking, there are safety concerns involved.

“You want to know that whatever it is you’re buying and whomever it is you’re buying from, they can be held accountable for what you receive,” she said.

Laird added that those purchasing cannabis online should follow the same basic set of rules for any orders made over the internet: look for proper spelling and grammar; test for broken links, especially those purportedly linking to a social media page; and on the checkout page, ensure that the currency is Canadian dollars as opposed to foreign or cryptocurrency, that taxes are included, and that if there’s a discount compared to the normal purchase price, it’s an amount that’s not too good to be true.

“How much of a discount is it in comparison to other websites that you know of?” she said.

As well, she said, if there’s an address

listed on the website, especially when it is supposedly a storefront, double check that it’s located in a commercial area, as scammers commonly list residential addresses on their sites.

“Many scammers have been stealing addresses from residential areas, from vacant houses, from vacant lots, and put it on their website to give them some

“Anyone can fabricate a website.”

- KARLA LAIRD

legitimacy,” she said. “You see an address and think, ‘Oh, it’s in the area, or it’s in the province or it’s in the country, so I can trust this website,’ but that’s not something you should use as a telltale sign of trust.”

Laird recommends using a credit card for all online purchases, as consumers have more recourse and protections, and she said a debit card can grant scammers “direct access to the account itself,” she said.

Upon learning of the scams, Kostya De, manager of Pemberton’s GP Cannabis, was disappointed for the consumers.

“It’s unfortunate that this is happening

in Canada, that there are companies that scam people, taking people’s money and not shipping their product,” he said.

In terms of his own business, De said there haven’t been too many challenges since kicking off operations last December.

There’s been the odd stock interruption for specific products from the wholesaler, but supplies have generally been solid. “It’s not like the liquor store where you can get the same product all the time,” he said.

Advertising has been difficult, too, as online hosts and print publications, including Pique, navigate a stringent set of rules.

“Not many people in Whistler know that a legal cannabis store exists in Pemberton,” he said.

The business also got a boost in June when the Village of Pemberton voted to relax its cannabis retail regulations. The initial set of rules required two staff members be onsite at all times, but the business demonstrated that only one was needed.

“One budtender is more than enough,” he said. “You’re saving quite a lot of money by not having two people.”

De said while customers can’t currently order online, they can view a menu and reserve products for in-store pickup. He anticipates being able to sell online and ship directly to customers “in the near future.” n

VILLAGE OF LIONS BAY LAND ACT: NOTICE OF INTENTION TO APPLY FOR A DISPOSITION OF CROWN LAND Take notice that the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District has applied to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNROD), Surrey for a community nature park situated on Provincial Crown land located in the vicinity of District Lot 212, Lillooet District, containing 8.41 hectares more or less (informally known as the Bathtub Trail area between railway line and Lillooet River).

The Lands File Number for this application is 2412298. Comments on this application may be submitted in two ways: 1) Online via the Applications and Reasons for Decision Database website at: https://comment.nrs.gov.bc.ca/applications.

2) By mail to the Senior Land Officer at 200 – 10428 153rd Street, Surrey, BC V3R 1E1. Comments will be received by the Ministry of Forests Lands Natural Resource Operations And Rural Development until September 25, 2020. Comments received after this date may not be considered.

Be advised that any response to this advertisement will be considered part of the public record. For information, contact Information Access Operations at the Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services in Victoria at: www.gov.bc.ca/citz/iao/.

26 AUGUST 27, 2020

NOTICE

CONSIDERATION OF TEMPORARY USE PERMIT NO. 3080-20-05 The Village of Lions Bay (the “Municipality”) is considering issuing Temporary Use Permit No. 3080-20-05 (the Permit) for the property located at 60 Panorama Road and more particularly known and described as: PID: 009-364-901 LOT 6 BLOCK 7 DISTRICT LOT 1575 PLAN 10595 (the “Lands”) The Lands are shown in bold outline on the map attached to this notice.

PURPOSE: In general terms, the purpose of the proposed permit is to authorize Short Term Rentals on the Lands, pursuant to section 4.6 of Part IV of Zoning and Development Bylaw No. 520, 2017.

INSPECTION OF DOCUMENTS: A copy of the proposed permit may be inspected at the Reception Desk of Municipal Hall at 400 Centre Road, Lions Bay, BC, during regular office hours of 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., from Monday to Friday, excluding Wednesdays and statutory holidays.

WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS The Council of the Village of Lions Bay has delegated its authority to issue temporary use permits to the Chief Administrative Officer (“CAO”), who will consider issuing Temporary Use Permit No. 3080-20-05 on September 9, 2020. Before deciding whether or not to issue the Permit the CAO will consider written submissions on matters relevant to the issuance of the Permit, from persons who believe their interests may be affected by the Permit.

Submissions must be addressed to “CAO-TUP”, and submitted by 4:00 p.m. on September 8, 2020.

Email: cao@lionsbay.ca In person or mail: Village Office, PO Box 141, 400 Centre Road, Lions Bay, BC, V0N 2E0

Resort Municipality of Whistler

Nesters Hill trail closure notice Fuel thinning is now underway in the forested area west of Nesters neighbourhood.

Given the interconnected layout of the trails, all trails on Nesters Hill are closed for the duration of the project, including:

• Cut Yer Bars slabs • Cut Yer Bars Trail • Robin Yer Eggs • Roll Yer Bones • Cut Yer Bones

• Cut Yer Bars blue • Hands of Doom • Suicycle • Sh*ts and Giggles • ESP

Work is expected to take five weeks to complete. For safety reasons, please stay off closed trails.

Thank you for your patience while this important wildfire prevention work is completed.

Please visit the project webpage for the latest information.

Resort Municipality of Whistler whistler.ca/FuelThinning AUGUST 27, 2020

27

NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLEY

Employee at Pemberton cannabis facility tests positive for COVID-19 ALL PEMBERTON EMPLOYEES IN SELF-ISOLATION; OPERATIONS RESUME AUG. 25

BY BRANDON BARRETT AN EMPLOYEE AT a Pemberton cannabis production facility tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, leading to a temporary suspension of operations, confirmed a spokesperson with Aurora Cannabis.

On Aug. 13, Aurora learned that an employee had tested positive and immediately entered a mandated two-week period of self-isolation. The employee’s last day at the facility was Aug. 10 and they will not be permitted to return to work until the two-week period ends and they have tested negative for the virus.

Aurora also took the step of temporarily suspending operations at the facility and has mandated all of its Pemberton employees quarantine for 14 days, with pay.

The facility is set to resume operations on Tuesday, Aug. 25.

The confirmed case triggered Aurora’s emergency response plan, which includes “rigorous cleaning and sanitation of

COVID EXPOSURE Whistler Medical Marijuana Company’s Pemberton production facility before the company was acquired last year by Aurora Cannabis

FILE PHOTO

all surfaces, and initiation of business continuity plans to maintain the health of all plants,” a release stated.

HealthLinkBC has been notified, and Aurora continues to work with local health authorities.

It’s been a tough year for one of Canada’s largest cannabis producers, while the wider B.C industry has seen record sales during the pandemic.

The Edmonton-based company has had to significantly restructure in 2020, announcing in June that it was reducing its selling, general and administrative workforce by 25 per cent, before another 30 per cent of its production staff is laid off over the next two quarters.

Aurora also said it would cease operations at five of its facilities over that same period.

By the end of the second fiscal quarter of 2021, the company said it plans to consolidate production and manufacturing at its Aurora Sky, Aurora River, Whistler, Pemberton and Polaris facilities.

Aurora acquired the Whistler Medical Marijuana Company in early 2019 in a deal worth up to $175 million.

In Whistler, the Scandinave Spa was exposed to a guest who tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 8. All visitors to the spa that day have been notified by health authorities. n

We’ve got you covered.

Whistler Transit System

Fall Service Change Effective September 8, 2020 This service change includes:  Improved frequency on route 10 Valley Express from 7am to 7pm  Reduced frequency on routes 20 Cheakamus and 30 Emerald via Alpine during lunch hours  Seasonal discontinuation of routes 8 Lost Lake Shuttle, 32 Emerald via Spruce Grove, and 20X Cheakamus Express

20242

For more information, visit bctransit.com/whistler Transit Info 604·932·4020 bctransit.com/whistler

28 AUGUST 27, 2020 20242_WHI BC Transit Whistler Pique

@WhistlerTransit

Pick up the latest issue of your favourite read in Whistler.

THANK YOU Sea to Sky Community Services would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to those in the community who have supported our agency and the community during the COVID-19 health crisis. Thanks to your generous donations, SSCS has continued providing care, comfort and connection to those in need during this difficult time.

$10,000+

Canadian Women’s Foundation Foodbanks BC Resort Municipality of Whistler Squamish Community Foundation United Way of Lower Mainland Vancouver Foundation Whistler Blackcomb Foundation

$2,000+

Community Foundations of Canada Fortis BC Home Depot Sky High Cannabis TELUS

$200+

Michael Adams Ian Argue Benbow Custom Homes Bob Bissillion George & Barbara Brooks Patricia Carson Reid & Laura Carter

Ann Chiasson Chadwick Chomlack Coastal Culture Sports Ginny Crawford David Cruickshank Bryn Currie Ray Dierolf Hani Durzy David & Tracey Fahey Sarah Frood Lisa Geddes Grant Gillies Bea Gonzalez Martin Gouin David Greenfield Scott Hadley Kristen Hamilton Steve & Sandi Hancock Chris & Julie Hughes Mike & Judy Humphries/Ralston Innovation Building/ Vidorra Development JBJ Investments Ltd Julie Kelly Craig Killian

Todd Laney Nancy Lee Bernard Leroux Karalee Machum Heidi Matter Mike McDonald Cam & Tammy McIvor Keith McIvor Michael Miller Mountainberry Landscaping Ltd Mountainview Storage Ltd Philip Nee Nee New Leaf Contracting Daphne Nielsen Corinne Oberson Cynthia K Patton Rodney Payne Peak Electric Ltd Erol Pekuz Vicki Powell Prior Snowboards and Skis Proventus Asia Real Estate Tony Rainbow Stuart Rempel

Resilience Contracting Rotary Club of Whistler Millennium Rotary Club of Pemberton John See Silverhorn Automotive Ltd Elizabeth Smith Jeff Smyth Summit Hospitality Services Ltd. Leif Sverre Andree-Anne Tardif Tesla Utilities Consulting Inc Mary Jo Tewinkel Donovan Tildesley Jayne Touchet Lorraine Vollmer Kitt Wescott Whistler Immigration Ltd. Wayne Wiltse Rome & Paula Wright WRM Strata Management & Real Estate Services Susan Youngsman

The COVID-19 health crisis continues to affect those most vulnerable in the community.

We still need your help to continue providing our critical social services and programs.

Please give generously www.sscs.ca/ways-to-help/ Join Us Please join us for our Annual General Meeting on Sept. 9 at 6pm. Learn how every year SSCS helps thousands of children, youth, adults, and families find the supports and care that build healthier communities.

To register for the SSCS AGM and receive the Zoom login and password, please contact admin@sscs.ca.

SCIENCE MATTERS

We have so much to talk about.

We are living in a plastic world ALMOST EVERY product and material we refer to as “plastic” is made from fossil fuels. Most of it hasn’t been around for long—a little over 70 years for the most common products. North American grocery stores didn’t start offering plastic bags until the late 1970s.

Over that short time, plastics have become ubiquitous. A Center for International Environmental Law report says global plastic production exploded 200-fold between 1950 and 2015—from two million to 380 million tonnes. Plastic is everywhere, from the ocean depths to mountaintops, from Antarctica to the Arctic—even in our own bodies.

Let’s Connect This September.

Sign up to be a host at onthetableBC.com

BY DAVID SUZUKI

r pics u o y e r a Sh with us

e #mypiqu

F

S @M Y O L LO W U

PIQUE

are seeking Housing Partners

As the report points out, almost every piece of plastic begins as a fossil fuel. This creates greenhouse gas emissions throughout its life cycle, from extraction and transport to refining and manufacturing to managing waste and impacts. The report projects these emissions could reach 1.34 gigatons per year by 2030—“equivalent to the emissions released by more than 295 new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.”

There are good reasons for plastic’s popularity. It’s lightweight, durable, inexpensive, easily shaped and can be used to safely store many materials, from water to chemicals. That it’s long-lasting is part of the problem.

Plastics don’t decompose like organic substances. Instead, they break down into

Centre, found the Atlantic has 10 times more plastic than had been estimated.

Researchers previously calculated the amount entering the Atlantic between 1950 and 2015 to be from 17 million to 47 million tonnes. New measurements show it’s closer to 200 million.

Another report, from the World Economic Forum, Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey and Company, estimated the oceans could hold more plastic by weight than fish by 2050 if trends continue. Because most plastic doesn’t get recycled, researchers also estimated that 95 per cent of plastic packaging value—worth $80 to $120 billion annually—is lost.

It also found that by 2050, the entire plastics industry will consume 20 per cent of total oil production, and 15 per cent of the world’s annual carbon budget.

The study, “The New Plastics Economy,” outlines steps whereby circular economy principles could resolve many issues around plastics in the environment. These require eliminating all problematic and unnecessary plastic items, innovating to ensure the plastics are reusable, recyclable or compostable, and circulating all plastic items to keep them in the economy and out of the environment.

And while individual efforts are helpful, they don’t go far enough. As Carroll Muffett, lead author of the CIEL report, argues, we can’t “recycle our way out of the plastics crisis.” Instead, we must stop producing fossil fuels and unnecessary disposable plastic items. Reducing use is key, but shifting to plant-based plastics and other products is also crucial.

As we’ve written before, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed flaws in our outdated economic systems, but it’s also provided an

“ ... emissions could reach 1.34 gigatons per year by 2030—‘equivalent to the emissions released by more than 295 new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.’”

We'll provide:

30 AUGUST 27, 2020

You'll provide:

smaller and smaller pieces, much of which ends up in oceans, where it is consumed by marine life and birds. These “microplastics” work their way through the food web and eventually to humans.

There’s still much to learn about microplastic’s health effects, but exposure in animals has been linked to liver and cell damage, infertility, inflammation, cancer and starvation. The 50,000 plastic particles that each of us breathes and eats every year and the microplastic pollution falling on some cities undoubtedly have an impact, especially as many of the chemicals in plastics are known to cause a range of health problems.

A recent study also shows the ocean plastics problem is worse than thought— although with tonnes of plastic debris and particles swirling in massive ocean gyres, it’s hard to imagine it could be. The study, from the U.K.’s National Oceanography

opportunity to pause and figure out how to build back better. Our constant rush to exploit resources, burn fossil fuels and create disposable plastic products for the sake of short-term profits is putting all life and health at risk.

We should have started phasing out fossil fuels and their byproducts decades ago when we realized they were creating massive amounts of air, water and land pollution and heating the planet to temperatures that put our health and survival at risk. The longer we delay, the more difficult change becomes. It’s time for new ideas. It’s time for a just, green recovery.

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington. ■

REQUEST FOR FRONT DESK SERVICES PROPOSAL The owners of strata plan LMS 1151 are requesting a proposal for front desk services. The following includes a summary of our property and the essential services we are seeking. Please contact the Strata Council President to deliver a proposal package. All proposals must be received by 5.00 pm Pacific Time on Friday, September 04, 2020.

It is expected that two or three companies may be shortlisted for interview by members of the current council. Once a successful company has been selected, the proposed contract will be requested for the discretion of the Strata Council to seek legal advice on the terms and conditions of the contract. The contract will commence November 1st, 2020 Strata Council President: E. Upenieks Email: theaspensrfp@outlook.com Location of the Strata Property: 4800 Spearhead Drive, Whistler, V8E 1G1 Total number of units: 233 Type of Building: Mixed Use: Phase 1 Current Management Status: Professionally managed The 24 hour/365 days per year front desk services have been a key feature of Strata Corporation LMS 1151. The front desk services are made available by way of a memorandum of agreement between the strata corporation and the current service provider.

The front desk services are financed by the strata corporation through revenues raised by the corporation.

The Strata Corporation now seeks a fiscally sustainable, service excellence model for their front desk operations.

The Strata Corporation seeks front desk services that include but are not limited to the following: • Be the welcoming face for the property • Checking in/checking out guests as required • Provide support for managing owner/guest check in information • Pool towel services • Manage guest enquiries; phone, email and in person • Manage guest questions and complaints and forward to appropriate company/owner • Answering phone enquiries • Assist with storage of guest luggage • Provide contractors/owners/guests with parking passes where required • Liaise with building management, maintenance and cleaning team ensuring day to day maintenance/issues are addressed and escalated to The Strata Manager as needed • Maintain a log of issues for Council and Strata Manager • Assist with common area Kaba lock codes • Liaise with on-site ski/bicycle valet provider • Security walks throughout building • Key service where required Skills, Knowledge and Abilities Required: 1. Clear communication skills: a. Ability to engage in a positive dialogue b. Ability to “read” customers 2. Patience 3. Attentiveness 4. Knowledge of Whistler 5. Problem solving skills and good judgement 6. Ability to liaise with Property Management – including in times of emergency situations e.g. fire or flood 7. Time management skills 8. Ability to handle surprises 9. Ability to close with a customer 10. Ability to multitask and problem solve Organizational Requirements • Staff must be trained to liaise with guests, property management, owners and contractors of the building; • Staff are always expected to wear uniforms and appear well groomed and professional • As an organization you must have flexibility for providing additional staffing for high occupancy periods • The winning bidder will be responsible for providing their own IT systems and front of house furnishings • Providing assistance to, and management of third-party concierge services • Previous experience as an organization providing front desk services in the Whistler hotel/hospitality industry is an asset Terms Qualified organizations are asked to bid on a three-year, fixed-fee renewable contract. Offers may include a provision for an annual rate revision.

Please provide your proposal as a PDF email attachment to: theaspensrfp@outlook.com

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Did you miss us around town?

Get your free facemask at Municipal Hall — Customer Service desk (while supplies last) when you buy your September transit pass or show us your current transit pass.

Courtesy of the Resort Municipality of Whistler and BC Transit.

Resort Municipality of Whistler Whistler.ca/transit

RANGE ROVER

The Armenian viper caper: Part 3 AS OUR MOTLEY CONVOY—Bob, Kolya, Alek, the two Arams, Levon, Jingo, the human-sized bulldog, and myself—aimed south for a forest reserve on Armenia’s Iranian frontier, time unwound down every valley: animals roamed untended, beekeepers slept in meadows with their swarms, and haymakers

BY LESLIE ANTHONY from a Brueghel painting wandered the road with hand-hewn tools.

In a canyon hemmed by crenulated rock towers, we debarked for a reconnaissance hike to a ridge where Alek had seen endangered Armenian vipers in the spring—an almost senseless act given the 42˚C midday heat. Casually dressed to this point, Alek now donned Ramboesque camo accessorized with a headscarf, wristbands, army boots, and a tool belt festooned with snake tongs, knife, and compass. Aping paterfamilias Aram No. 1, Levon’s preparation consisted of lighting another cigarette.

The footing was near-impossible on the steep talus of ankle-battering, dinner-plate slabs we scrambled up; even side-hilling to lessen the angle was like walking diagonally across a sloping roof whose tiles occasionally shot from underfoot. After several hours we

CARNIVEROUS CRICKET The strange and amazing predatory bush cricket, Sago peda, is on its last legs in Central Asia due to overgrazing.

PHOTO BY LESLIE ANTHONY

gained a rocky ridge with dizzying views across the valley to where, like a tilted wedding cake, cliff-layers angled into the icing of afternoon thermals.

Having found nothing to this point, Alek called a halt. Grateful for respite, Levon and I dove behind the largest boulders, him sparking another smoke while I greedily downed water. Sipping contemplatively from his own canteen, Alek mopped his brow, put his back to a rock, and pulled binoculars to his face. Though he looked to be scanning for enemy combatants, he was actually searching for… well, anything alive. Scrutinizing the landscape with Google Earth precision, Alek confirmed that the only animals foolish enough to be out in this heat were humans, eliciting evident disappointment. Resignedly, we’d begun descending through a walnut-shaded gully when Alek suddenly leaned over to pluck something up. He quickly turned to reveal thumb and forefinger pinching the thorax of a gangly, hand-sized arthropod. I fully expected a tarantula, but instead of eight beady little eyes embedded in a hairy head were two multifaceted orbs and the frantic, akimbo antennae of a smooth-faced… what?

Where there should have been nasty, fanglike chelicerae I saw only sharp, chitinous mandibles hanging open like wire cutters.

“Saga pedo,” smiled Rambo triumphantly, presciently answering my next question, “Like grasshopper… but eet lizard.”

The predatory bush cricket—as it was more regularly known—represented a carnivorous branch of grasshopperdom that looked like a large ground spider and hunted like one, too. There was little doubt that if held improperly, it would inflict a

painful bite. Sadly, the serendipity of seeing this unique creature was tempered by news that it was on its last spine-addled legs; unchecked grazing—the same responsible for steep declines in Armenia’s vipers—had also placed Saga pedo on the red-list across its Central Asian range.

Early that evening, we’d finally arrived in Shikahogh State Forest Reserve, debarking into some unused barracks. The fact that the room soon smelled of fresh blood might have come from the pork the Arams were chopping on the concrete floor, but more likely the exsanguinations of a dogfight that Jackson Pollocked crimson arcs across the walls.

The Arams had been prepping a banquet for their friend, the park director, when, for reasons unknown, No. 1 unleashed Jingo from his heavy chain. When the director strolled in with arms outstretched in welcome, the tall, scrappy mutt by his side had immediately seen the back end of Jingo, an obvious intruder, and lunged for him with lips curled. Though I’d yet to see Jingo do anything more aggressive than lick his oddly conspicuous balls, the slugabed bulldog spun, ninja-like, vacuuming the attacking dog’s neck into his jaws and snapping them shut to a gut-wrenching cry.

The room transformed instantly into a red chaos of dog, human, gear, meat and produce.

Jingo held tight, shaking the larger beast like a cheerleader’s pom-pom. Even with teams pulling the bleeding canids apart while beating them with heavy sticks, the mess took five snarling minutes to disentangle. But the tussle was quickly forgotten as we got down to the business of banqueting.

Although this would be the largest yet,

the several feasts we’d already survived unfolded similarly: Bob funnelled money through his bagman, Kolya, to Aram No. 1, who’d disappear on a long, looping mission through the countryside to purchase food and booze; womenfolk gathered to prepare breads, sour cheeses, dried meat, and pickles while the men huffed cigarettes around a fire pit and roasted eggplant, tomatoes, peppers and any available flesh on heavy skewers called khorovatz; the table was then loaded with overlapping plates stacked atop each other, any empty spaces filled with bottles of vodka, beer, and wine; the women withdrew with their food to a safe distance while the men ate more slowly, liberally sprinkling the proceedings with eye-crossing toasts; as things wound down and blindness overcame the lurching, singing males, a bottle of homemade hooch invariably appeared and total annihilation was achieved.

On this occasion, Aram No. 1, smoking and peeling a bag of Sevan crayfish (where did they come from?) between toasts, fired off three salutes in a row, each a mini-opera followed by a shot. The subjects, as far as I could tell, were snakes for being snakes, Bob for being Bob (fair symmetry), and Aram’s 30-year friendship with Kolya.

Then everything went black.

For Parts 1 and 2 of the Armenian viper caper, see piquenewsmagazine.com, Aug. 2 and Aug. 15. Pick up the Sept. 10 edition for the final instalment.

Leslie Anthony is a Whistler-based author, editor, biologist and bon vivant who has never met a mountain he didn’t like. ■

AUGUST 27, 2020

33

FEATURE STORY

Navigating educational uncertainty

34 AUGUST 27, 2020

FEATURE STORY

What’s the new normal for Sea to Sky schools, tutors, and childcare look like?

BY STEVEN CHUA School in the Sea to Sky School district will look very different when students return to class next month.

On Aug. 19, School District 48 (SD48) held a board meeting, during which the new normal for students was discussed.

Many of the plans outlined by Superintendent Lisa McCullough followed the COVID-19 prescriptions made by the province. However, she noted there are still a number of things up in the air.

“The purpose of this evening’s meeting is to bring everyone briefly up to speed with where we are currently at,” said McCullough.

“It is not to have a completed plan yet and it is not to post it publicly yet … There will be many questions I can’t answer yet.”

Some of the biggest changes come from following the province’s plans closely.

For example, the students will be grouped into learning “cohorts” that will be spending the majority of their time together. Students within these groups, which are capped at 60 for elementary and middle schools, and 120 at high schools, won’t have to wear masks, and won’t have to follow stringent physical distancing rules when they’re together.

However, they will have to wear masks and distance when in the company of people outside of their cohort.

“It’s like a really big bubble, and within that bubble, you can interact more closely, but it doesn’t mean we’re piling you all into a classroom together,” McCullough said.

Students will have to adjust to other smaller changes as well. For instance, not being allowed to use their lockers. For the first few weeks, there will be few or no visitors allowed in schools.

By the end of this week, the Sea to Sky School District will have submitted its school plan to the ministry. Like many other districts, it is planning to operate on a quarter system at the high-school level where students will take two courses every 10 weeks, thus keeping the class learning concentrated and with just two teachers at a time across a full day of learning. In class, unless cohort students are mixed, the two-metre rule can be relaxed and mask wearing will not be mandatory.

School facilities will also be considered.

Ian Currie, the Sea to Sky School District’s director of operations for facilities, said that inspectors would be coming to assess ventilation systems.

Currie said that they are aiming to meet a ventilation standard that would filter out small particles such as bacteria.

However, at the moment, it’s unclear if the schools have ventilation systems that

will allow for those types of filters, which are usually thicker, he said.

“We’re working with our mechanical engineer on coming up with a standard that would meet what we need to do with the air exchanges within all our schools,” said Currie.

“We’re wondering if those types of filters will fit within our existing air-handling units.”

High-touch surfaces will be cleaned once a day in the middle of the day.

Not everything is changing for students, though.

For example, playgrounds will be open, though they won’t be disinfected regularly.

Food services will still be available to children

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who rely on them. For those with younger kids, StrongStart learning programs will still happen on school grounds.

The board also voted unanimously in favour of two motions.

The first motion pauses school-bus services for non-eligible students. Those are generally students who are outside the catchment area or who live close enough to the school to walk to classes.

McCullough said that resources for bus services are strained and that the school district does not have enough to serve non-eligible students while still abiding by health protocols.

Generally speaking, health protocols only allow for two children per seat, whereas before, it was possible to fit up to three.

The second motion directs school authorities to add homeschooling to the school district’s online school program for Kindergarten to Grade 9.

The details on the program are still fuzzy, but the idea is to give students who go the homeschooling route an ability to interact with certified school teachers online as part of their learning.

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FEATURE STORY Previously, parents were almost entirely responsible for the learning of homeschooled students.

Online learning used this spring, meanwhile, was teacher-directed—it will expanded from K to Grade 12.

McCullough said adding teacher supports for homeschooled kids would give families more options in light of the pandemic.

“We are going to figure this out,” she said.

“Circumstances under the pandemic have changed, so we are pivoting to try and support our families.”

She also said it was a way for School

District 48 to maintain its student count, as parents who did not get that online option might go to other school districts that offer it. Along with that would come a possible reduction in funding for Sea to Sky schools, she noted.

“If we don’t do this, we could lose hundreds of kids to another school district—now we have a funding problem,” said McCullough.

“So I think the best shot we have at not [losing students] is to try and keep the kids in our care. I want to be very clear: nothing about this suggestion has anything to do with money. It is simply to try to support families in a situation where they’re struggling to figure out how to keep their families safe right now [when] they send their kids to school, and we hope as they build confidence in our system that they will come back into the school setting.”

Indeed, one parent at the meeting said she un-enrolled her child at School District 48 and registered her in Victoria for online courses, one of about 25 other parents making a similar consideration. But in light of the motion, she said she was reconsidering registering her child back into the Sea to Sky.

Several of the 40 people in the online audience had questions about what would happen to children who were immunocompromised.

McCullough encouraged those parents to contact her to develop an individualized learning plan.

As part of her presentation, she also said that immunocompromised children will be given learning programs that will allow them to work from home.

“Students who are immunocompromised— as always, this is not new—will be given a home program… Our schools always take care of that,” McCullough said.

Staff will write individual plans for these students, she added.

International student enrolment is also changing due to the pandemic. Numbers are down.

Faizel Rawji, the district principal in charge of international education, said that currently, there are 36 international students enrolled, with 19 more registered so far for the second semester.

The district hosted 188 such students in 2019-20.

McCullough said local families have been more than willing to accommodate these students.

International students who are just arriving will quarantine before classes resume.

There’s also a question of whether new arrivals will be allowed to cross Canada’s borders when school starts.

In the meantime, to increase enrolment, the school district is looking into offering online learning for international students, so they can participate while staying in their home countries.

McCullough also urged parents to complete an online survey that’s being sent to parents. It will be crucial for helping the schools prepare for class in the midst of the pandemic.

“Every single parent please complete this survey individually for each of your children,” she said.

A version of this story originally appeared in The Squamish Chief on Aug. 21.

With files from Clare Ogilvie

Tutoring, childcare fields strive to remain ‘nimble’ as pandemic continues

BY DAN FALLOON

September is a time for youngsters to get back to class and resume learning, of course.

But back-to-school time also means businesses and organizations in related industries are ramping up as well.

Here’s a quick look at how some of them are preparing themselves to help give students and parents peace of mind in the 2020-21 school year.

Tutors If students need extra support during the year, local tutoring services are ready to step up.

Robyn Akehurst of Alpine Learning has run the service for two years and has taken on significantly more summer work in advance of the school year for both elementary and secondary students.

“Before COVID, I was very booked, very busy, and during COVID, I had even more demand than I could have even expected,” she said. “This year, in particular, families have wanted the academic support.”

“It’s been a big learning curve for both students, parents and myself,” Akehurst added, noting that though she is proficient in the use of technology with her business background and students are used to learning online, there have been unique

circumstances during the pandemic.

For example, when students were sent home in the spring and classes shifted online, many found the large-group sessions to be challenging. Akehurst offers one-on-one or small-group opportunities, freeing students from distractions while also allowing them greater capacity to ask questions.

In addition to covering the materials, Alpine Learning also gives students skills in mindfulness, breath work, organizational strategies, goal setting and reflection to help them be successful.

“I’m working with a lot of students

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36 AUGUST 27, 2020

Whistler Youth Soccer Club

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U12 - U17 GIRLS AND BOYS September 8th - November 26th

Tuesday and Thursday evening practices all at the AVJ Field in Cheakamus.

League Play on the weekend TBC

To Register: U12 - U17 : https://go.teamsnap.com/forms/239417 U17 Boys : https://go.teamsnap.com/forms/239035 All schedules can be viewed : https://www.whistlersoccer.com/homepage/wysc-calendar/ WYSC - Calendar | Whistler Youth Soccer Club Serving up youth soccer in Sea to Sky since 1996.

WHISTLER YOUTH SOCCER ASSOCIATION. PO Box 1203 Whistler, BC V0N1B0. whistlersoccer@hotmail.com

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37

FEATURE STORY “We also want to provide high-quality classes to help students who especially have interests and a need in a certain field.

We want to help them achieve their dream,” she said.

The set-up is four students per class to ensure students have adequate space and that physical-distancing requirements are met, Huang said.

Being a new business, Huang is hopeful to learn from local families about what they’re looking for in order “to provide more classes to cater to their interests and their needs.”

The service also provides English and math tutoring, especially to international students and new immigrants.

Childcare Jaye Russell, executive director of Sea to Sky Community Services (SSCS), which offers both childcare resources and referral from Squamish through to Pemberton, said the organization would be offering its

and families to ensure that they have workspaces at home that they can count on for being organized, and a place where they can turn inwards with their academic goals,” she said. “We’re working with a lot of families to establish some routines in these unprecedented times.”

As a mother of elementary-school-aged children, Akehurst has confidence in the district to run a safe school setting and counts on it to make necessary adjustments should a need arise.

Come September, Akehurst will offer returning students the option of in-person tutoring with safety protocols in place. She added that it’s now more important than ever for families to advocate and receive support for student needs, especially if they are challenged by conditions such as dyslexia or ADHD. Down the Sea to Sky, Rick Smith of Squamish Tutoring observed a significant dropoff in students in the spring after schools started to shut down, with only about half of the 100 students the service welcomes each semester carrying on.

38 AUGUST 27, 2020

The organization generally accepts students in Grades 7 to 12 for help in math and science, but will take older elementary students on a case-by-case basis. Smith posited that the type of work that elementary students do makes it easier for them to work independently, whereas senior classes can find the adaptation difficult.

“Senior teachers had a very challenging time delivering curriculum in the senior math and senior science courses online,” he said, adding that the online format made it difficult for students to learn collaboratively in class.

Calls for service are picking up in advance of the year, he said.

“April, May and June was a disaster for them,” is the prevailing message Smith has received from parents.

While Smith offers traditional tutoring, Carol Huang of the newly opened Dr. Panda Academy is taking a bit of a different approach. While offering services such as French tutoring, it also provides students an opportunity for growth outside of school with courses in robotics and coding.

entire regular programming in September.

After the pandemic hit this spring, the organization limited services to families of essential workers.

SSCS, Russell stressed, has worked to follow all guidelines and protocols to ensure all programs are ready for operation.

“I’m proud that we have followed the guidelines, adjusted our programs, been adaptive and resilient at the same time, and are providing a safe and secure environment for families and children to receive care in the Sea to Sky corridor,” she said.

SCSS has filled all 176 of its out-ofschool spots for school-aged children in Squamish and Pemberton, and 68 preschool spots in Squamish. It is creating waitlists, but also offers referrals to other childcare centres.

As the mother of five-year-old twins, Russell can relate to parents’ concerns heading into September.

“As parents of young children, the No. 1 concern as we return to work is childcare,” she said. “Now, with the added layer of the pandemic and the uncertainty of

Alpine Learning wishes our community a happy and safe return back to school.

As we enter into our new normal we can trust our families are in good care.

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Contact us for education coaching support in the Sea to Sky. Virtual sessions are available. https://www.alpinelearningwhistler.com/ Facebook and Instagram #alpinelearningwhistler

UPDATE: SD48 STUDENT REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN SD48 encourages families to register their child ASAP!

If you register before August 31st, please contact the SD48 School Board Office at 604-892-5228 to register. On or after August 31st, please contact your catchment school.

www.sd48seatosky .org AUGUST 27, 2020

39

FEATURE STORY

Sports, clubs & extracurricular activities

returning children to school, what that longterm projection is going to look like from a pandemic standpoint, where will we be and how long will children remain in school?

Given what the anticipated surge is going to look like in the fall, I know a lot of parents are anxious.”

That’s because, Russell said, the contingency plan relies on childcare being available. “[Parents] are trying to manage a busy work schedule and managing the concerns they have to have their children attend a safe, supportive and healthy environment in childcare,” she said, adding that SCSS worked closely with SD48 in the spring, and it is prepared to adapt once again if necessary.

“What we’ve learned over the past five months is that we have to remain flexible

and nimble,” she said. “This plan that we have can be scaled up or scaled back, depending on the severity of the pandemic.”

With some corridor facilities changing their offerings or remaining closed during the pandemic, Russell stressed that creating more childcare spaces is a ”constant” need.

“All of those programs throughout the corridor have and continue to see a demand,” she added.

As a member of the Mayor’s Task Force on COVID-19 Response and Recovery in Pemberton, Russell is further helping to address the need for childcare in the

community. said. “Everyone was working their The lack of spaces is acute in maximum hours and no one was Whistler, and an issue that council allowed to get sick. We didn’t get to is looking to address (“Childcare that point, but if someone got sick, report provides a roadmap (with we would have a really hard time some gaps),” Pique, Aug. 20, 2020). finding someone to cover.”

Kate McCormick, the director Since re-opening, in addition of Mountain Minis Childcare, said to standard procedures such as staff shortages forced her to shutter screening children and employees the junior program at this time, daily and setting out cones to but they are near capacity for the allow parents to distance during remaining spaces. drop-off and pick-up, Mountain McCormick initially closed the centre Minis has shifted to a format in March, as most children were staying spending about 90 per cent of the home and it wasn’t viable to run with only day outdoors, weather permitting, two participants. After three weeks of while shortening hours of operation preparation, Mountain Minis reopened in to allow for additional sanitation June, starting with six to eight children a time, and removing items that can’t be day and slowly growing. Keeping a ratio of sanitized safely with bleach. eight children to one worker means that The centre, McCormick added, is there are eight fewer spots right now. also seeking to help children navigate McCormick described running on “a the confusing times. skeleton staff” even prior to the pandemic.

“We have a daily discussion as to “I’ve been advertising for over a year what’s happening in our world. ‘What at all the colleges in Vancouver that run do you see happening?’” she said. early childhood education programs, on “They’re getting it, so it’s good to have Facebook, Craigslist, word of mouth, all of that open conversation and say, ‘This is it, and there’s just no one out there that why we’re doing these things, to protect wants to move to the Sea to Sky,” she each other.’”

As for extracurricular opportunities within schools, SD48 superintendent McCullough confirmed that offerings can only occur under a strict set of circumstances.

“Extracurricular activities including sports, arts and special interest clubs can only occur if: Physical distance can be maintained between members of different learning groups [and] reduced physical contact is practiced by those within the same learning group,” she wrote in an email.

Interschool sports are currently off the table, though BC School Sports executive director Jordan Abney is looking to find ways to safely return. “[W]e are making every effort to present a case to the government to allow a modified school sport to return safely and responsibly based on the Return to School Sport work that has been prepared this summer,” Abney wrote in an Aug. 13 memo. “We have also received a lot of questions from parents and AD’s about the discrepancy between school sports and those happening already in the community. We understand the frustration and are communicating those to the government.” ■

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StrongStart BC Families of Preschool Children are Invited to Register for StrongStart Programs

LEARNING CAN BE DIFFERENT

Children attending these free programs must be accompanied by a parent, other adult family member or caregiver. Ages 0-5.

Registration Opens on September 8th at www.seatoskykids.ca StrongStart program begins on September 14th

What do we do?

BIRTH CERTIFICATE REQUIRED FOR REGISTRATION

At Hazel Tutoring we believe in a fun, practical and personalized approach to teaching which gives children a purpose to their learning. Our approach is based on a UK scheme known as the Creative Curriculum. This outdoor and practical approach to teaching allows children to learn through real life and outdoor experiences. This in turn leads to greater engagement and therefore more effective learning. We have personalized this approach to create our own unique style of tuition.

Hazel Tutoring caters for children of any age in all of the subjects covered within the BC Curriculum. Our team are already working with children in the Squamish, Pemberton, Whistler and Vancouver.

We specialize not only in closing gaps and misconceptions, but also in extending learning so that children are challenged as well as engaged.

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LOCAL ARTIST SPOTLIGHT 2020-2021 FR EE

EVENTS THINGS TO DO

THE 2020-2021 PEMBERTON GUIDE

HIT THE ROAD

Explore the moun tains on motorcyc le

AN OFFICIAL

PUBLICATION OF

GO SMALL

Intimate options for Spud Valley vo ws

FROM THE EARTH

Lil’wat artist’s dr

iftwood throne

MAPS BUSINESS DIRECTORY AN OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF

on stands now!

AUGUST 27, 2020

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SPORTS THE SCORE

Sports clubs reflect on summer ORGANIZATIONS LOOK FORWARD TO FEWER RESTRICTIONS

BY DAN FALLOON THE ONGOING COVID-19 pandemic created myriad challenges for Whistler Adaptive, but the local sports organization managed to come through for its athletes.

Executive director Chelsey Walker said the organization has offered in-person classes since June 15, hosting hiking, biking, kayaking, paddleboarding, rowing and physical literacy programs in Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton.

“We had some challenges and we had to reimagine how we deliver our programming,” she said. “We had probably one of our busiest summers ever because we had so many locals look to do programming.”

Because the classes were offered either as a single-person session or within smaller bubbles, Whistler Adaptive held 70 sessions per week, up from 20 a week in a typical summer.

“It was definitely a big increase in volume and logistics, but we were able to successfully get a whole bunch of new individuals into programs from all three communities, so that was really exciting,” she said.

Walker observed that people were happy to get out of isolation and away from the screens, as Whistler Adaptive had quickly shifted to Zoom sessions after suspending in-person programming in the spring.

“What we found was by moving into neutral areas where they weren’t in their typical habits at home was a benefit, to move them into a new place where we could teach them a new routine,” she said.

ON THE WATER Adaptive kayaking was one of six sports Whistler Adaptive offered this summer.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

42 AUGUST 27, 2020

Complicating matters, Walker said, was that the organization was only able to apply for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy as of last week after negotiating through the summer.

As a result, the organization had limited staff throughout the summer, but had enough qualified volunteers to make the programming happen. “[We’ve had] new volunteers who have been absolutely a lifesaver in terms of coming out and assisting our coaches so we have two screened adults in every session,” Walker said.

While the organization had to keep an eye on cash flow, Walker was reassured by

Return to Sport plan as of Aug. 24, Whistler Adaptive was getting set to meet with its partners the evening of Aug. 25 to figure out what that move means for its programming this autumn.

“Most likely, the programming we’ll be offering is going to be very similar to summer. It’s going to be community-based to regional,” Walker said. “It will be focused on our Sea to Sky [members].”

With the broad base of programming Whistler Adaptive offers, it has to consider each sport with its own provincial sport organization, as well as balance differing abilities and the wide age range of those it serves.

“We had probably one of our busiest summers ever because we had so many locals look to do programming.”

- CHELSEY WALKER

conversations with MP Patrick Weiler in which he pledged that changes were coming.

Whistler Adaptive will look for another shot in the arm after losing its annual spring fundraiser, as it will host an online gala on Oct. 15. Walker has been thrilled to see strong support among local merchants.

“It’s been absolutely heartwarming to see our local business community, as hard hit as they have been, respond to our need to raise funds and keep our doors open,” she said.

With a further loosening of restrictions as viaSport moves into Phase 3 of its

Meanwhile Mark Freeman, head coach of the Whistler Youth Soccer Club, said the organization just finished its seven-week summer program for kids in programs from under-six to under-17, run under BC Soccer and viaSport’s guidelines.

Among the adaptations was that every player had to stay within a specially painted box during the sessions on-field at Myrtle Philip Community School.

“It was something I’d not coached with before, so it was very different,” Freeman said. “It’s not what the children were used to, but in terms of individual skill development,

touch on the ball, and those kinds of things, it was actually very productive.”

As a result, drills could include no tackling, no contact, and no use of hands, though players could pass the ball backwards and forward between boxes.

As well, younger players had to have a parent in attendance, though Freeman described this as a benefit, as parents could help quickly interpret and supervise the drill for their child, meaning that skill development was much more efficient.

Freeman enjoyed returning to the field after not having coached for months, and even with the stark changes, observed similar excitement in the players.

“They wanted to get out. They wanted to socialize. They wanted to be with other kids and be out playing again,” he said.

In terms of response, most sessions were fully booked, Freeman said.

“It was better received than I thought it was going to be,” he said, noting many families that would typically be holidaying stayed put and needed programming for the kids.

When programming resumes in Whistler after Labour Day, it will look a bit more like a traditional game as a result of viaSport moving into Phase 3. Freeman is coaching at a camp in Vancouver this week, and noted changes were implemented as soon as they were announced during lunchtime of the Aug. 24 session. Contact between players in a group is now allowed, and games with small teams are now allowed.

Should restrictions lift in the next couple months to allow for full games, Freeman is hopeful that there can be some competition before the calendar flips.

“With the turf field now [at Bayly Park], last year, we were training until Christmas Eve,” he said. n

SPORTS THE SCORE

Youth and Adult Program Registration opens Tuesday, September 1st 2020 at 9:00 am For more information on our programs and to sign up go to www.whistlernordics.com

Don’t delay - our programs fill up fast!

Early Bird Rates last until September 30th.

SUCCESSFUL START Crankworx organizers were pleased with how its inaugural Summer Series went off at three different resorts around the province.

PHOTO BY CHRIS PILLING/CRANKWORX

Crankworx organizers pleased with debut Summer Series THREE-STOP TOUR ANTICIPATED TO RETURN IN THE FUTURE

BY DAN FALLOON IT STARTED AS a way to give fans some high-level racing to enjoy during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Crankworx Summer Series is likely to stick around in some capacity in future years, according to Crankworx World Tour general manager Darren Kinnaird.

The three-resort tour, which featured 25 B.C. athletes and stops in SilverStar, Kicking Horse and Sun Peaks in late July and early August, was a hit among host resorts, athletes and fans, Kinnaird said on Aug. 25.

“The online comments were super, super positive. People were super into it,” he said. “We’re still getting all the numbers together, but viewership was on par with any one of our normal festivals.”

While it’s unclear exactly what the series will look like in future years, Kinnaird said it would be important to bring highlevel athletes to B.C.’s resorts.

“We’d like to explore seeing if it could become part of the World Tour,” he said.

“These are world-class venues that we got to experience.

“They deserve world-class athletes and that is the long-term goal. How do we grow and continue to share Crankworx with more people and more locations, but with some of the best athletes in the world?

“We think there are ways to do that.

We’ve got a bunch of strategizing to do, but in a perfect world, we’d be able to invite some of the world’s best athletes to participate in something like this in the future.”

Organizers previously said that the series opted not to utilize Whistler in order to share Crankworx with other resort

communities in the province. Crankworx has previously trumpeted the knock-on events that its Whistler festival has had on mountain biking communities around the province, such as during the 2019 Mountain Biking Tourism Symposium, but bringing its events around the province helps further strengthen the sector, Kinnaird reasoned.

“We would look to share Crankworx with more locations. All three resorts we went to were amazing and there’s interest in us returning in the future in some way, shape or form but I’d by lying if I said we didn’t have a few phone calls from other resorts going, ‘Hey, how come we weren’t considered?’” he said. “It’s a good thing to have.”

One shift that organizers would look at in the future would be to avoid creating the gauntlet of a dozen events in 18 days like there was this year.

“One of the things we learned is that 12 events in three weeks is a lot on the athletes,” Kinnaird said. “You could tell, kind of, as we got to Sun Peaks that a few people were running on fumes and we had a couple injuries.

“One thing we’d consider changing in the future would be spreading things out a bit more or reducing the number of events per week to allow for some more overall rest time and downtime.”

Next up for Crankworx is the continuation of its World Tour in Innsbruck, Austria starting Sept. 30.

Conveniently, the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships are also taking place in Austria the week after.

“Innsbruck is going to happen. We’re excited about it. We’re expecting to see a big, strong field of downhill racers there, being so close to World Champs, literally in time and space, as it’s an hour and a half away in Leogang,” Kinnaird said. n

Notice of Annual General Meeting The Annual General Meeting of the Whistler Health Care Foundation will be held: Monday, September 14, 2020 @ 5:00 pm, The meeting will be held virtually via Zoom Come and learn about our achievements over the last year & our new directions for the future. All are welcome!

For more information or to register for the meeting email Sharon at info@whistlerhealthcarefoundation.org

Equity Community Wellness Courage Support Resiliency

Sustainability Prevention

Connections Awareness Diversity

AUGUST 27, 2020

43

FORK IN THE ROAD

‘You eat whatever you can’ A GOLDEN RULE FROM BYGONE DAYS NICELY RESONATES TODAY WHEN I WAS working with Shayne le Poer Trench on my column a while back about what people were up to in the kitchen when COVID flipped our world upside down, we started talking about the…

Well, some would dispute it was the good ol’ days of Whistler, so let’s just call it the “old days” of the early ’80s. That’s when she and I first met in the funky Whistler Question office above Dave Kirk’s ski shop

BY GLENDA BARTOSH (now Southside Diner) and across from the Husky gas station. She, one of our wondrous typesetters at that time; me, cub reporter fresh out of journalism school.

‘What did we eat back then?’ Shayne and I prodded each other repeatedly as we tried to zap our faulty hard drives into sparking some useful synapse or another. Definitely not the soothing congee she was describing, a favourite of hers and Hugh Smythe’s (one of Whistler’s “founding fathers”). Definitely not the interesting quick bites you find everywhere around town now—the ahi poke at Sushi Village, the Popeye pasta at Alpine Cafe; even a big-ass pancake at Southside Diner.

Nothing like that.

EATING WHATEVER YOU CAN In 1916, that meant oodles of fresh fish straight out of Alta Lake, like Myrtle and Alex Philip enjoyed with their guests at Rainbow Lodge, including the fellow on the right.

PHOTO COURTESY WHISTLER MUSEUM & ARCHIVES SOCIETY. PHILIP COLLECTION

44 AUGUST 27, 2020

What we pretty much landed on was, we ate whatever was around: A tin of something—pork ‘n’ beans, soup— or a plastic-wrapped sandwich from the Husky grocery store, the only grocery store around. Hamburgers and fries at L’Apres; or maybe, if you went all out, a steak at JB’s restaurant. (What a treat Mexican food was when Dos Senoritas took over the old JB’s!)

All to say it was pretty much a variation on a theme described by Jeff Slack, back when he was Whistler Museum’s programs manager (he’s now a local outdoor guide and snowboard instructor), and he and I were talking about what kind of foods sustained the earliest locals.

“You eat whatever you can,” Jeff noted at the time. Indeed.

Pretty amazing that same phrase has resonated more than ever these past months, what with lockdowns and disrupted food supply chains from here to the Fraser Valley and beyond. Supply chains disrupted still, what with labour shortages, quarantines and, now, wildfires.

Grocery supplies are way better now, but remember the empty store shelves? The empty cupboard shelves at home and the motley leftovers in your fridge that you had to cobble a meal out of? Just like the good ol’… I mean, the old days, including when there was no road to Alta Lake, just a train a couple of times a week, or supplies lugged in by packhorse.

You eat whatever you can—a golden rule from bygone days, especially for the Indigenous people who lived in the valley for eons long before any trains or early settlers meandered through.

So when everything comes from nature, and you have to eat whatever you can,

what do you eat? All kinds of berries from meadows and forests: salmonberries, thimbleberries, blueberries, huckleberries, raspberries, brambleberries, blackberries and salal berries, or maybe cloudberries, or Xusem, which Mixalhitsa7 Alison Pascal, the amazing curator at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, processed during quarantine. (See her Ancient Medicines blog on the centre’s website describing the arduous process.)

You eat Saskatoon berries fresh and dried. Indian plum berries when they’re fully ripe. Red elderberries when they’re cooked (not raw). Rose hips for tea.

You eat edible roots and tubers: Yellow glacier lily, spiny wood fern, wapato, nodding onion, wild sweet potatoes, wild carrot, bear root, sweet vetch and balsamroot, to name a few.

You eat meat from animals and birds, hunted and trapped, large and small. Fish, plenty of fish, from lakes, streams and rivers. Salmon, salmon, and more salmon from Howe Sound. Animals useful for fur also yield food. Greasy as it is, beaver, which I featured last column and could find no confirmation of as a food source, was definitely excellent fuel for the calorieburning lifestyles of First Nations and pioneers, according to Mr. Slack.

There’s deer, lots of it; moose, rare though it is; ground squirrels; even porcupines. And delicious ptarmigan and waterfowl.

John Millar, an early pioneer in Whistler Valley, namesake of Millar Creek and reputedly on the lam after killing a couple of people in Texas, was known for serving muskrat stew and Stellar’s jay pies to people overnighting at his place en route

along the Pemberton Trail, which wound from the Chilcotin Plateau to Vancouver, connecting the gold fields to the coast.

Even though most of us aren’t on the lam these days, we’re still keeping our distance, which means lots of time on our hands.

So if you’re curious about this whole idea of eating whatever you can in the context of Indigenous foods—tasting them with a modern spin or learning about them—visit the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre. Or stop by the museum, where you can pick the brains of their amazing staff and pick up your own copies of books connecting us to earlier times, when making the best of whatever life delivered was the rule, not the exception. Holiday Favourites from Whistler, the second cookbook the museum published, features favourite local recipes getting ready for you-know-what.

It’s a great companion to First Tracks by Florence Petersen, founder of the Whistler Museum & Archives Society. This lovely book features the history of the Whistler Valley from the 1900s until the opening of the ski hill in 1966, when the community of Alta Lake (as the valley was then known) was made up of a handful of fishing lodges, and a scattering of those hardy trappers, prospectors, loggers, railway labourers and their families who knew how to “make do”—including John Millar and the cooks at Rainbow Lodge.

First Tracks is also available at the world’s best little local bookstore, Armchair Books. Bonus: all proceeds go to the museum.

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning journalist who likes to keep things in perspective. n

MEADOW PARK SPORTS CENTRE IS NOW OPEN MEADOW PARK SPORTS CENTRE IS NOW OPEN Hours of Operation 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. | 7 days a week Entryof byOperation reservation only.

No to drop-in permitted.

Hours 6 a.m.

8:30visits p.m. | 7 days a week Entry by reservation only. No drop-in visits permitted.

FITNESS CENTRE ACCESS FITNESS CENTRE ACCESS

SQUASH/BASKETBALL COURT BOOKINGS SQUASH/BASKETBALL COURT BOOKINGS

75-minute timeslots with access to the weight room, room andaccess stretching room 75-minutecardio timeslots with to the weight room, room and stretching room Bookcardio your timeslot up to 72 hours in advance

45-minute court bookings for up to 2 members of the same household 45-minute court bookings for up to 2 members of

– whistler.ca/mpsc Book yourOnline timeslot up to 72 hours in advance

by Phone – (7529) Online –604-935-PLAY whistler.ca/mpsc

the same Book your timeslot up household to 72 hours in advance Phone – 604-935-PLAY (7529) Book by your timeslot up to 72 hours in advance

by Phone – 604-935-PLAY (7529)

by Phone – 604-935-PLAY (7529)

OUTDOOR AND ONLINE FITNESS CLASS SCHEDULE OUTDOOR AND ONLINE FITNESS CLASS SCHEDULE

THURSDAY, AUGUST 27

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28

SATURDAY, AUGUST 29

SUNDAY, AUGUST 30

MONDAY, AUGUST 31

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2

Sweat it Out(side) THURSDAY, AUGUST 27 7-8 a.m. - Louise Sweat it Out(side) 7-8 a.m.

- Louise Low Impact Class

Low Impact Class28 FRIDAY, AUGUST 7-8 a.m. - Beth Low Impact Class 7-8 a.m.Effect - Beth Sweat

Body Pump Boot Camp SATURDAY, AUGUST 29 7-8 a.m. - Jess Body Pump Boot Camp 7-8Impact a.m. - Jess Low Class

SUNDAY, AUGUST 30

Low Impact Class 31 MONDAY, AUGUST 7-8 a.m. - Steve Low Impact Class 7-8 a.m.

- Steve Gentle Fit for Seniors

9-10 a.m. - Louise Low Impact Class 9-10Covid a.m. -Yoga Louise

9-10 a.m. - Beth Sweat Effect 9-10 a.m. - Beth

9-10 a.m. - Jess Low Impact Class 9-10Zumba a.m. - Jess

9-10 a.m. Online Only Gentle Fit for Seniors 9-10 a.m. Ready OnlineFitness Only Mountain

Body Weight Boot Camp1 WEDNESDAY, Low Impact Class 2 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 7-8 a.m. - Beth 7-8 a.m. - Andy Body Weight Boot Camp Low Impact Class 7-8 Impact a.m. - Beth 7-8 a.m.

- Andy Low Class Gentle Fit for Seniors 9-10 a.m. - Beth 9-10 a.m. Online Only Low Impact Class Gentle Fit for Seniors 9-10 Zumba a.m. - Beth 9-10 a.m.

Online Only High Impact Class

10:30-11:30 a.m. - Susie Zumba 10:30-11:30 a.m. - Susie

9-10 a.m. - Steve Mountain Ready Fitness 9-10 Zumba a.m. - Steve

10:30-11:30 a.m. - Laura Covid Yoga 10:30-11:30 a.m. - Laura Zumba 12-1 p.m. - Susie Zumba 12-1 p.m. - Susie

12-1 p.m. - Carmen Zumba 12-1Boot p.m. -Camp Carmen

6-7 p.m. - Carmen 6-7 p.m. - Andy Zumba Boot Camp Classes will meet at the SE corner of MPSC’s parking lot. First come, first serve.

6-7 p.m. - Carmen 6-7 p.m. - Andy During inclement weather, classes will go online via ZOOM. Classes will meet at thewhistler.ca/fi SE corner oftness MPSC’ s parking First come, first serve.

Visit for furtherlot. details.

During inclement weather, classes will go online via ZOOM. Visit whistler.ca/fitness for further details. *August 27 to September 5 classes – entry available with August COVID Class Pass or active MPSC membership

9-10 a.m. - Andy High Impact Class 9-10 a.m. Gold - Andy Zumba 10:30-11:30 a.m. - Carmen Zumba Gold 10:30-11:30 a.m. - Carmen Zumba 6-7 p.m. - Rachel Zumba 6-7 p.m. - Rachel

*August 27 to September 5 classes – entry available with August COVID Class Pass or active MPSC membership

Existing memberships have been extended for the duration of the closure plus three additional weeks as a thank you for your continued All passes were activated of August 17. weeks as a thank you Existing memberships have been extendedpatience. for the duration of the closure plusas three additional Please come dressed for your continued session andpatience. only bring items.activated The poolas area, changing Allessential passes were of August 17. facilities and showers remain closed and limited storage options will be available for personal belongings Please come dressed for your session and only bring essential items. The pool area, changing facilities and showers remain closed and limited storage options will be available for personal belongings

Whistler.ca/mpsc | 604-935-PLAY (7529) Whistler.ca/mpsc @RMWhistler | 604-935-PLAY @rmwhistler(7529) | @rmowhistler

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ARTS SCENE

Squamish Nation archaeologist helps Indigenous communities share their history, their way SFU’S DR. RUDY REIMER LED A VIRTUAL TALK LAST WEEK HOSTED BY THE WHISTLER AND SQUAMISH LIBRARIES

BY BRANDON BARRETT WHEN THE SQUAMISH Nation’s Dr. Rudy Reimer began his study of archaeology and cultural history, he was angry, “just like every other Indigenous person.” Angry at the way academia viewed archaeology through an outsider’s perspective, angry that the deep well of Indigenous knowledge wasn’t being incorporated into the discipline, angry at the rigidity of a field of study with a checkered past in the Western world.

“The history of the discipline of archaeology is actually quite dark,” Reimer said in an online talk last week organized by the Whistler and Squamish public libraries. “I don’t want to sound too political here, but it’s very colonial. It’s about the investigation of other peoples’ histories. When we think about how that is done through the excavation, the analysis and interpretation of those materials, it’s very different from what Indigenous people would say.”

Reimer, whose Indigenous name is Yumks, is a professor at Simon Fraser University who has played a crucial role in bridging the divide between the stodgy halls of academia and the Indigenous communities where archaeologists carry

INDIGENOUS LENS Dr. Rudy Reimer has

relied on the cultural knowledge of Indigenous communities—including his own Squamish Nation—to inform his archaeological work.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHISTLER PUBLIC LIBRARY

46 AUGUST 27, 2020

out their fieldwork.

In short, he’s taken an approach that not only draws on Indigenous knowledge, but actively involves First Nations in the retelling and sharing of their own histories in a way traditional scholarship never could—both through his academic work and a consulting company he formed in the mid-‘90s to help Indigenous communities protect their sacred sites. That firm, First

activity within its territory, Reimer said.)

“Culturally and in terms of heritage and archaeology here, what we were trying to achieve here is not just protecting dots on maps. We’re trying to protect the context of cultural heritage in a broader sense,” he noted.

Reimer cited a lighthearted example of the ways direct community knowledge can inform archaeology. A lava flow on the slopes

“This is an example of cultural knowledge that you can only gain by going out on to the landscape. If you took this for face value on a map or on Google Earth, you wouldn’t really understand it.”

- RUDY REIMER

Heritage Archaeological Consulting, helped train Squamish Nation members—including some of Reimer’s relatives—to carry out archaeological surveys, excavations and other work in their own communities.

He also played a hand in creating the interpretive signs and kiosks that identify important cultural sites along the Sea to Sky corridor leading up to the 2010 Olympics, as well as the 10-year Ut’sam Witness Project, which eventually led to the protection of several sacred sites that are now an important part of the Squamish Nation’s land-use planning. (These days, the Nation controls close to 90 per cent of the forestry

of Brohm Ridge known as Syexwa’y’akalh to the Squamish people fascinated Reimer when he was a PhD student because he knew it literally translated to “pee underwater.”

Whenever he would mention it to elders, they would just chuckle. It wasn’t until Reimer actually visited the site that he noticed a small well bubbling up from the rock formation that drained into Brohm Creek.

He took off his boots and socks, rolled up his pants, and dipped his toes into the soothing, warm water.

“I don’t know if any of you have … ever had little ones that swam up to you in the pool, smiled and then the water got warm.

You can understand the translation here,” he said with a laugh. “This is an example of cultural knowledge that you can only gain by going out on to the landscape. If you took this for face value on a map or on Google Earth, you wouldn’t really understand it.”

Reimer has also helped spread awareness of important Indigenous sites across B.C. through his more high-profile work on TV series like APTN’s Wild Archaeology and 1491, not to mention a series of graphic novels planned for next year that will depict some of the oral history and stories of the Squamish people.

“For me, it’s enjoyable,” he said of his media work. “It’s an academic responsibility to present archaeology and cultural heritage in a meaningful way. But for me as an Indigenous person, it’s also a culturally meaningful way to make sure not just my community’s history but enabling other communities to have their history presented the way they want.”

Ultimately, Reimer’s work reiterates that Indigenous knowledge “isn’t just stories. It’s not legends. It’s real history,” he said.

“What this work enables academic researchers to do is really open up the community interpretation of findings. We as archaeologists, we look at these artifacts and these sites and we say it’s this. But what do people in the community say about them? That’s what I want to find out.”

A recording of Reimer’s Zoom talk, “Bringing History to Life with Indigenous Archaeology,” is available to watch on the Whistler Public Library’s Facebook page. n

ARTS SCENE

GENE JAM (From left) Rock legend Gene Simmons and local musicians August Fox, Monty Biggins, Jono Reichard, Scott Mitchell, and Bob Miller jam at the Alpine Café on Saturday, Aug. 22.

Rock legend Gene Simmons joins impromptu jam at Alpine Café WHISTLER MUSICIANS DISCOVER WHAT IT’S LIKE TO HAVE A ROCK STAR MAKE AN UNEXPECTED CAMEO IN THEIR SET

BY ALYSSA NOEL CELEBRITIES: they’re just like us!

Or at least Kiss bassist and co-lead singer Gene Simmons appeared to be just another member of the Whistler music community last Saturday, Aug. 22, at the Alpine Café.

The rock legend—who is married to Canadian actress and model Shannon Tweed and has long had a home in Whistler—was dining out at the restaurant with his family while a set of local musicians were onstage.

“It was Kostas [a.k.a. Kostaman] who got the ball rolling with calling him out on the microphone,” recalls Monty Biggins, who was on rhythm guitar and vocal duty at the time.

Also onstage: Gary Peterson on vocals, August Fox behind the drums, Jono Reichard with lead guitar, Scott Mitchell on alto sax, and Bob Miller taking tenor sax.

While Kostaman has a regular Saturday slot at the café, he often plucks musicians out of the crowd to come up and jam. So right after a talented young vocalist played a few songs, he extended an invite to Simmons as well.

The crowd (who, it should be noted, all had to remain at their physically-distanced tables) also helped coax him to the stage by chanting “Gene” a few times.

“He took a moment to see what was happening and if it fit with the moment,” Biggins says.

Kostaman and Simmons had a brief chat and then “he got up and gave me $20,” Kostaman recalls. “We saved the $20 and the pick he played with—the punch line here is he plays the bass with a pick. He was gracious and cool.”

When he started to make his way to the stage, Kostaman turned to Biggins and said, “Gene is going to come up and you’re going to lead the jam.”

For Kostaman, it was a joy to sit back, relax, and let his friends shine.

“I was just watching all of my babies, my representatives, my family, just tearing it up,” he says. “It would’ve been great to play, but from where I was sitting, it was beyond great.

I didn’t even think about it; [Monty] is my

little brother.”

For his part, Biggins says, laughing, “My first thought was, ‘Oh no. What am I going to play?”

He handed over his bass guitar (with a new, less sweaty strap) and Simmons asked for a pick.

“I hand him one and he plays this funky bass line,” Biggins says. “The band just joined in. We let that evolve for a minute and I realized, ‘OK, I’m the singer. I gotta figure something out here.’”

Luckily in his arsenal he had a funky mash-up of Black Joe Lewis’ “I’m Broke” and James Brown’s “The Payback.”

“We were in a totally different key, but I thought, ‘I have that in my wheelhouse’ and started doing that. I took a break at some point and Gene starts counting down and pointing at different players, giving them solos. It was so organic. It went on like that for 10 minutes,” Biggins says.

From an audience perspective, Isla Robertson said the experience was thrilling, especially considering months of only experiencing music on a screen.

“I turned my head and all of a sudden Gene is onstage putting on a bass guitar,” she says. “I think my brain exploded. I couldn’t believe it was happening.”

As Reichard’s girlfriend, Robertson quickly thought to lend a hand and capture the moment on video. “I got right up front and started filming. I got the whole jam. As much as I was excited to see Gene Simmons play, I was more excited to see how well the guys did and how cool, calm, collected they were. They were a bunch of musicians jamming together,” she says.

By the time the impromptu jam was over, the group had dipped slightly into the neighbourhood’s “quiet time.”

A cop car was already pulling up.

“But by that time, we were packing down, so it wasn’t an issue,” Biggins says. “And it’s Gene Simmons, so we kept going with it. Who wouldn’t?”

If you missed the surprise jam, you can catch Monty Biggins and Kostaman at the Pemberton Hotel for a ticketed show (with ticket info to come) on Sept. 12. n

James Dow

PHOTO BY ISLA ROBERTSON

NOW OPEN The 56,000 sq. ft. Audain Art Museum designed

by Patkau Architects provides ample space for a physically distant cultural experience.

To explore the art of Britsh Columbia this summer tickets may be purchased online for contactless payment, or at the door.

THURSDAY TO SUNDAY | 11AM – 6PM audainartmuseum.com/visit Bill Reid, Killer Whale, 1984, bronze, Audain Art Museum Collection. Gift of Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa. Courtesy of the Bill Reid Estate, photo by Darby Magill.

AUGUST 27, 2020

47

MUSEUM MUSINGS

WHISTLER’S

CHAIR-ity PROJECT HOLE IN ONE Arnold Palmer takes a swing at the official opening of the Whistler Golf Club.

WHISTLER QUESTION COLLECTION, 1983

Developing Whistler’s swing

BY ALLYN PRINGLE IN AUGUST 1983, Arnold Palmer opened the first golf course in Canada designed by him. Palmer posed with buckets of golf balls and was photographed mid-swing surrounded by a crowd of people. This was the official opening of the Whistler Golf Club as we know it today.

The Whistler Golf Club got its start in 1973, when Bob Bishop and Bernie Brown, the developers of Whistler Cay, began developing an executive-sized nine-hole course near Beaver Lane. When completed just a few years later, Whistler residents and visitors were able to play a round without driving to Squamish (the Squamish Valley course was the first golf course to open in the corridor in 1967). A temporary pro shop at the new course carried a full range of rental clubs, balls,

course to a full-size, 18-hole course. That summer, they began the preliminary clearing, draining, surveying and planning for the course, which was to be designed

by Gordie McKay, the golf professional and superintendent in Squamish. Because of a short construction season, they estimated it would be at least four years before the full course would be finished. In the meantime, the smaller course would be improved and kept open.

The expansion of the golf course became a key part in the plans for the development of a Town Centre and the transformation of Whistler into a year-round destination resort and was taken over by the Whistler Village Land Company (WVLC) by 1979.

Palmer chose to make the golf course the site of his first Canadian design, with Gordie McKay staying on as the Canadian consultant for the course. The clubhouse and shop, along with a hockey rink and

[T]he beavers were “the original course engineers who created this land.” tees, gloves and other accessories, including caps emblazoned with the course crest: a beaver. According to Bishop and Brown, the beavers were “the original course engineers who created this land.”

By 1976, the course had started to host small informal tournaments, both in summer and in winter. For the course’s first official opening, Bishop had planned to host a New Year’s Day tournament. The plan was for golfers to wear either skis or snowshoes and use golf clubs to hit softballs towards garbage can targets. Though we do not know if this particular tournament went ahead, there are reports of similar tournaments being played in 1975 to raise money for Whistler Search and Rescue. Golfers were on skis, and hit red tennis balls into buckets sunk in the snow to make holes.

In 1977, Bishop and Brown announced their plans to expand the small nine-hole

48 AUGUST 27, 2020

swimming pool, were to be incorporated into the planned Resort Centre (today the Whistler Conference Centre). In September 1981, the golf course received its final inspection by Palmer and looked to be on track to open for the summer of 1982.

This opening was delayed when Whistler, along with the rest of North America, was hit by a major recession in late 1981. Real estate sales fell and interest rates climbed above 20 per cent, leaving the WVLC with debts of almost $8 million, liabilities around $30 million, and land assets that nobody wanted to buy. Whistler Land Co. Developments, a Crown corporation, was formed in January 1983 to take over the liabilities and assets of the WVLC, including the golf course.

Under the Whistler Land Co., the full Whistler Golf Club was completed. It was ready for Palmer’s opening round in August 1983. n

PARTIAL RECALL

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DOWNHILL DEEDS Photographer and Pique columnist Vince Shuley spent the day in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park last week and snapped some shots as his crew enjoyed the runs. PHOTO BY VINCE SHULEY. 2 BEAR NECESSITIES Cordula BEERY NICE Sunday was an amazing day to take in cool brews at The Beer Farmers in Pemberton Meadows. PHOTO BY SUSAN HUTCHINSON. 4 TO MARKET, TO MARKET The Whistler Farmers’ Market is in full swing with an abundance of fresh produce and crafts available every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

PHOTO BY BREE EAGLES. 5 UNIVERSITY BOUND Jacob Chartrand picks up his brother Julien and says goodbye as Julien heads back to university in Kelowna on Aug 23. PHOTO SUBMITTED. 6 WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS Nicklaus North Golf Course Baumbach was taking dog Zippy for a swim in the River of Golden Dreams on Aug. 22, but found the water already taken by a black bear cooling off. PHOTO BY CORDULA BAUMBACH. 3

held its club championships on the weekend (Aug. 22 and 23). Young champions Kaitlyn Hill and Stewart Walker won the overall titles while Gregg Martin (men’s), Kirsten Baxter (ladies) and Dix Lawson (seniors) were the net winners. Left to right: Kaitlyn Hill, Andrew Smart (director of golf), Kirsten Baxter. Walker was the youngest ever to win the men’s overall, while Hill set the women’s overall record last year. PHOTO SUBMITTED.

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ASTROLOGY

Free Will Astrology WEEK OF AUGUST 27 BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries author Kareem Abdul-

September 30th, 2020 • 5:30pm-6:30pm Please register for this meeting in advance by visiting www.mywcss.org We look forward to sharing with you what we have been up to, celebrating our impact and recognizing our donors, volunteers and community members.

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P I C K U P Y O U R C O P Y T O D AY !

Jabbar writes, “Some stuff can be fixed, some stuff can’t be. Deciding which is which is part of maturing.” I offer this meditation as your assignment in the coming weeks, Aries. You are in a phase when you’ll be wise to make various corrections and adjustments. But you should keep in mind that you don’t have unlimited time and energy to do so. And that’s OK, because some glitches can’t be repaired and others aren’t fully worthy of your passionate intensity. You really should choose to focus on the few specific acts of mending and healing that will serve you best in the long run.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “There are all kinds of love in the world, but never the same love twice,” wrote author F. Scott Fitzgerald. This is true even between the same two people in an intimate alliance with each other. The love that you and your spouse or friend or close relative or collaborator exchanged a month ago isn’t the same as it is now. It can’t be identical, because then it wouldn’t be vibrant, robust love, which needs to ceaselessly transform in order to be vibrant and robust. This is always true, of course, but will be an especially potent meditation for you during the next four weeks.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): As a professional writer, novelist Thomas Wolfe trained himself to have keen perceptions that enabled him to penetrate below surface appearances. And yet he wrote, “I have to see a thing a thousand times before I see it once.” In other words, it was hard even for him, a highly trained observer, to get a deep and accurate read of what was going on. It required a long time and many attempts—and rarely occurred for him on the first look. Even if you’re not a writer, Gemini, I recommend his approach for you in the coming weeks. You will attune yourself to current cosmic rhythms—and thus be more likely to receive their full help and blessings—if you deepen and refine the way you use your senses.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): It’s sometimes tempting for you to seek stability and safety by remaining just the way you are. When life pushes you to jump in and enjoy its wild ride, you may imagine it’s wise to refrain—to retreat to your sanctuary and cultivate the strength that comes from being staunch and steadfast and solid.

Sometimes that approach does indeed work for you. I’m not implying it’s wrong or bad. But in the coming weeks, I think your strategy should be different. The advice I’ll offer you comes from Cancerian author and aviator Anne Morrow Lindbergh: “Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “To be successful, the first thing to do is fall in love with your work,” says author Sister Mary Lauretta. Have you been making progress in accomplishing that goal, Leo? According to my astrological analysis, fate has been offering and will continue to offer you the chance to either find work that you’ll love better than the work you’re doing, or else discover how to feel more love and excitement for your existing work. Why not intensify your efforts to cooperate with fate?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Self-love is also remembering to let others love you. Come out of hiding.” Poet Irisa Yardenah wrote that advice, and now I’m passing it on to you, just in time for a phase when you will benefit from it most. I mean, it’s always good counsel for you Virgos to heed. But it will be especially crucial in the coming weeks, when you’ll have extra potential to bloom in response to love. And one of the best ways to ensure this extra potential is fulfilled is to make yourself thoroughly available to be appreciated, understood, and cared for.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran poet Wallace Stevens wrote that if you want to be original, you must “have the courage to be an amateur.” I agree! And that’s an important theme for you right now, since you’re entering a phase when your original ideas will be crucial to your growth. So listen up, Libra: If you want to stimulate your

creativity to the max, adopt the fresh-eyed attitude of a rookie or a novice. Forget what you think you know about everything. Make yourself as innocently curious and eager as possible. Your imaginative insights and innovations will flow in abundance to the degree that you free yourself from the obligation to be serious and sober and professional. And keep in mind that Stevens said you need courage to act this way.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “As idiotic as optimism can sometimes seem, it has a weird habit of paying off,” writes author Michael Lewis. According to my analysis, the coming weeks will provide you with ample evidence that proves his hypothesis—on one condition, that is: You will have to cultivate and express a thoughtful kind of optimism. Is that possible? Do you have the audacity to maintain intelligent buoyancy and discerning positivity, even in the face of those who might try to gaslight you into feeling stupid for being buoyant and positive? I think you do.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Author Rebecca Solnit writes, “The things we want are transformative, and we don’t know or only think we know what is on the other side of that transformation.” Her statement is especially apropos for you right now. The experiences you’re yearning for will indeed change you significantly if you get them—even though those changes will be different from what your conscious mind thinks they’ll be. But don’t worry. Your higher self—the eternal part of you that knows just what you need—is fully aware of the beneficial transformations that will come your way when you get what you yearn for.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): At age 22, future pioneer of science Isaac Newton got his college degree just as the Great Plague peaked in 1665. As a safety precaution, he proceeded to quarantine himself for many months. During that time of being sealed away, he made spectacular discoveries about optics, gravity, and calculus—in dramatic contrast to his years as a student, when his work had been relatively undistinguished. I’m not predicting that your experience of the 2020 pandemic will prove to be as fruitful as those of your fellow Capricorn, Newton. But of all the signs in the zodiac, I do think your output could be most Newton-like. And the coming weeks will be a good time for you to redouble your efforts to generate redemption amidst the chaos.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The rapper named Viper has released over 1,000 albums. In 2014 alone, he created 347.

His most popular work is You’ll Cowards Don’t Even Smoke Crack, which has received more than 3 million views on YouTube. According to The Chicago Reader, one of Viper’s most appealing features is his “blatant disregard for grammar.” I should also mention that he regards himself as the second Christ, and uses the nickname “Black Jesus.”

So what does any of this have to do with you? Well, I’m recommending that you be as prolific, in your own field, as he is in his. I’m also inviting you to experiment with having a fun-loving disregard for grammar and other non-critical rules. And I would love to see you temporarily adopt some of his over-the-top braggadocio.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “If you don’t ask the right question, every answer seems wrong,” says singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco. I suspect you may have experienced a version of that predicament in recent weeks, Pisces. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I expect you will finally formulate the right questions very soon. They will most likely be quite different from the wrong and irrelevant questions you’ve been posing. In fact, the best way to find the revelatory questions will be to renounce and dismiss all the questions you have been asking up until now.

Homework: What could you actually change about your life that would give you a great sense of accomplishment?

FreeWillAstrology.com

In addition to this column, Rob Brezsny creates

EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES

In-depth weekly forecasts designed to inspire and uplift you. To buy access, phone 1-888-499-4425. Once you’ve chosen the Block of Time you like, call 1-888-682-8777 to hear Rob’s forecasts. www.freewillastrology.com

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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.

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

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Whistler’s Premier Estate Builder Career Opportunities at the District of Squamish Career Opportunities Career Opportunities at the District at the DistrictofofSquamish Squamish

IT Application Specialist - Regular Full-time

IT Application Coordinator Specialist - Regular Full-timeFull-time Environmental - Temporary IT Application Specialist - Regular Full-time Environmental Coordinator Temporary Full-time Bylaw & AnimalCoordinator Control Enforcement Officer Environmental - Temporary Full-time Casual/On Call Control Enforcement Officer Bylaw & Animal Bylaw & Animal Casual/On Call Control Enforcement Officer Building Inspector - Casual/On Call Casual/On Call Building Inspector - Casual/On Call

www.whistlerwag.com

Looking for a dog to adopt?

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Come Grow Sport with us at our Whistler Olympic Legacy Venues We offer competitive wages, a unique environment, seasonal bonuses, staff discounts and benefits.

Ask about accommodation.

We are currently interviewing for Red Seal Carpenters (or equivalent experience)

Whistler Athletes’ Centre (High Performance Training and Accommodation) Positions for this venue are currently filled Whistler Sliding Centre (Bobsleigh, Luge & Skeleton) Positions for this venue are currently filled Whistler Olympic Park Supervisor, Sport and Recreation Guest Activity Rep

Building Inspector - Casual/On Call To find out more, please visit: squamish.ca/careers To find out more, please visit: squamish.ca/careers

To find out more, please visit: squamish.ca/careers

54 AUGUST 27, 2020

The same team that you trust with your print advertising can assist in creating your digital footprint

Visit our website to view current postings and to apply: www.whistlersportlegacies.com/careers

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THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS

CALLING ALL RMT'S We are looking for Registered Massage Therapists for our new location in the Glacier Lodge.

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» piquenewsmagazine.com/jobs AUGUST 27, 2020

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THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS Discover a workplace as awesome as our location...

… and discover why Nita Lake Lodge is the place for you!

Work alongside our amazing team and enjoy: o Working for a Canadian family owned and operation Boutique Lodge o Peace of mind from enhanced sanitation and operational protocols o Extended Health & Dental o Staff rates at our award-winning spa & restaurants

Housekeeping positions starting from 19 Full -time maintenance position from $20 $

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On site parking • Shared staff accommodation Great team environment! *Company paid benefits hr@blackcombspringssuites.ca • 4899 Painted Cliff Road

We are currently hiring: MAINTENANCE ASSOCIATE SHUTTLE DRIVER SPA RECEPTIONIST SPA THERAPIST RMT email your resume and expression of interest to: careers@nitalakelodge.com

Join Our Team Employment Opportunity VOP-portuni�es!

Are you a natural? Become one of the Village of Pemberton’s most valuable natural resources – our people. If you are ready to join a small team to make a big difference, we are seeking to fill the following roles: Program Leaders – Casual Posi�on: Engage and interact with children aged 36 months to 12, providing a fun and posi�ve environment for children to learn and grow in a healthy and safe recrea�onal se�ng. Hours vary and may include evenings and weekends.

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On-call Recep�on and Administra�ve Assistant – Casual Posi�on: Provide relief customer service to residents, visitors, and staff at the Village Office, performing a variety of recep�on and administra�ve du�es including cash-handling. Hours vary based on opera�onal demands.

Interested? Please submit your cover le�er and resume to recrui�ng@pemberton.ca by Tuesday, September 8th, 2020.

NOW HIRING AT OUR WHISTLER LOCATION Door Person 3 days per week 8-10 hour shifts per day. Looking for a mature interactive person to help control and serve our customers during this era of Covid-19. Wages based on experience and ability.

ALSO HIRING FOR THESE POSITIONS: Meat clerk, produce clerk, deli clerk, produce and grocery clerk.

For full job descrip�ons and to learn more about the Village, please visit www.pemberton.ca.

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VillageOfPemberton

56 AUGUST 27, 2020

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N’Quatqua Band 120 Casper Charlie Place, P.O. Box 88, D’Arcy, B.C. V0N 1L0 Phone (604) 452-3221 • Fax (604) 452-3295

Accountant REPORTS TO:

BAND ADMINISTRATOR SUMMARY OF WORK DESCRIPTION: The Accountant will work in conjunction with the Band Administrator and key Program Staff in maintaining the financial accounting and control system for all programs. He/she will ensure maintenance of all computerized ledgers, journals and produce financial reports. The Bookkeeper will supervise the finance staff and provide support.

RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

Banking: - oversee monthly bank reconciliations.

Accounts Payable: - Reconcile accounts payable sub-ledger.

Accounts Receivable: - Preparation of invoices and statements as required.

- Maintenance of cash receipts journal.

- Preparation of aged accounts receivable listing.

Financial Reporting: - Prepare monthly-computerized financial reports including budget information.

- Alert the Program Managers as to any significant variances in actual budget comparisons.

- Complete special reports for submission to the Managers and Chief and Council.

- Review reports for accuracy for outside agencies including Health Canada, Human Resources Development Canada and AANDC. - Work with Program Managers to ensure all program reports are submitted to funding sources in a timely manner.

Budgeting: - Work with Program Managers of each Department to ensure annual budgets are prepared.

- Provide advice and assist the Program Managers in implementing/ monitoring of budgets throughout the year.

- Provide recommendations to the Program Managers and Chief and Council.

Become part of a creative team and surround yourself with art

Payroll: - Prepare quarterly report & payment for W.C.B.

Currently seeking permanent, full-time

Other related duties: - Attend and participate in Council and community meetings upon request.

- Other related duties as assigned.

Visitor Services & Membership Supervisor

QUALIFICATIONS: Must have: - Training in accounting, auditing, budgeting, financial planning combined with experience; - Proven experience in financial budget analysis, preparation of monthly/ annual financial reports, and accounting principles; - Experience in working in First Nations accounting or financial management environment.

- The incumbent must have a vehicle and hold valid B.C. driver’s license.

Leading the Admissions & Museum Shop team to ensure that the highest level of customer service is provided to visitors.

For job description and to apply visit audainartmuseum.com/employment

Please forward resume, cover letter to Jenn Levine, jennifer.levine@nquatqua.ca at N’Quatqua Band Office. Only those shortlisted will be contacted for an interview.

We would like to have a minimum of 3 applicants prior to setting up interviews.

The closing date for this job posting will be August 20, 2020 at 4pm

Application deadline is September 1, 2020 RAEF.ca

Resort Municipality of Whistler

Employment Opportunities • Journeyman Heavy Duty Mechanic • Planner Resort Municipality of Whistler whistler.ca/careers

Employment Opportunities: DO YOU LIVE IN PEMBERTON? THEN WHY COMMUTE TO WHISTLER?

FT/PT Night Audit Guest Service Agents Room Attendants

Apply to: jobs@pembertonvalleylodge.com

Competitive wages, health benefits, casual environment AUGUST 27, 2020

57

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THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS

Now hiring for the following positions:

Here’s to the Journey

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Discover new opportunities and embark on a career in Hospitality with Pan Pacific Whistler To apply, please submit your cover letter and resume to careers.ppwhi@panpacific.com

Email your resume to work@westinwhistler.com with your Zoom / Skype contact info.

Join our team!

Become part of a creative team and surround yourself with art

Currently seeking full-time or part-time

Guard • Competitive starting wage • Staff discounts • No experience required, training provided

$575 Staff Housing May Be Available + Free Golf + MORE KITCHEN ASSISTANTS/DISHWASHERS HOSTS renovated kitchen + restaurant, great culture, MORE

resume: info_nicklaus@golfbc.com

For complete job description and to apply visit audainartmuseum.com/employment James Hart, The Dance Screen (The Scream Too) (detail), 2010-2013 Audain Art Museum Collection. Gift of Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa.

58 AUGUST 27, 2020

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nicklausnorth.com | tablenineteen.com

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THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS

N’Quatqua Band 120 Casper Charlie Place, P.O. Box 88, D’Arcy, B.C. V0N 1L0 Phone (604) 452-3221 • Fax (604) 452-3295

JOB POSTING

The Sea to Sky corridor’s top civil construction company.

We are currently recruiting professionally minded people to join our team: Equipment Operators Pipe Layers Construction Labourers Email resume to: info@whistlerexcavations.com

WIDE OPEN WELDING IS LOOKING FOR A FULL-TIME PROJECT MANAGER. The candidate will need to possess the following skill set:

This is a multi-faceted position. The ideal candidate will be highly organized and detail oriented. Strong interpersonal skills, the ability to express ideas clearly in both written and oral communication and strong presentation skills. Must have the ability to analyze issues and determine priorities in an environment of tight and conflicting deadlines. Proficiency in planning, scheduling, execution and management of projects. An ability to read drawings and preform take-offs is a must. Solidworks & Bluebeam experience would be considered a huge asset. Experience with structural steel and wood used in construction and working with General Contractors and commercial construction applications. The candidate will be responsible for projects from start to finish, which entails site measurement, quoting, detailing, material ordering, expediting material, and organization of in-house project files. Fluency in English written and oral communication skills, and a working knowledge of Microsoft products is also required. Candidate MUST have a commitment to excellence and the production of high quality end results. Our office is located in the Pemberton Industrial Park. Remuneration is based on experience and credentials.

PLEASE EMAIL YOUR RESUME TO CONTACTUS@WIDEOPENWELDING.COM

BAND ADMINISTRATOR The Band Administrator is responsible for the efficient and effective operations of the Band. The Band Administrator will work closely with

each of the Departments of the N’Quatqua Band and will serve as the Supervisor of the Department Managers. The Band Administrator will administer multiple programs and services, including financial assets of the band, property, natural resources and information and will manage in accordance with policies and priorities set out by Chief & Council. He/she will forecast program needs and plan for future program requirements. He/She will ensure effective financial management of programs and services, including accountability and will seek funding enhancements to improve service opportunities. The Band Administrator will keep abreast of new initiatives and will ensure programs are managed, delivered and evaluated in a coordinated and integrated approach on a fiscal basis and in a culturally appropriate and responsive manner. The Band Administrator will develop a detailed annual budget for Council approval, and will assist Department Heads in preparing annual departmental budgets. He/she will maintain sound working relationships with Staff, representatives of other departments, governments and outside agencies.

RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE: Supervision/Performance Management: Provides a structured process for the supervision of Staff to ensure that required standards and program policy guidelines are met; Provides consultation on a day to day basis to the Department Managers, as appropriate, in the performance of their duties in relation to: a) Policy interpretation d) resource management practice b) Program eligibility e) workload management c) Case management practice f) conflict resolution Works closely with Chief & Council in policy updates and/or developments; Administration & Financial Management: Maintains information, records, monthly calendar, schedules; Ensures that files are secure; Consults with Chief and Council on a regular basis; Provides regular reports and ensures the financial systems of the programs are maintained and accountability is in place; Monitors revenues and expenditures of all departments and works closely with department heads and/or Finance Manager on budgets; Identifies new sources of revenue for programs and services and applies for additional funding; Identifies and informs Council about new economic opportunities and risk assessment; Meets deadlines; EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE: - Degree in Business Management or combined post-secondary education and work experience; - Previous work experience in a First Nations Band Office; - 3 to 5 years working experience with a First Nation;; - Must have experience in planning, conducting and managing programs and projects in a First Nations setting.

- Must have knowledge of First Nations history, traditions, lifestyles, culture, including approaches to community development and programming; - Must have experience and good skills in proposal writing, strategies, policies, operational and financial planning; - Must have excellent communication skills; - Must have ability to prioritize goals and objectives within timeframes; - Must have a sound understanding of financial management and preparing detailed annual budgets with working experience; - Must have good understanding of outside government organizations and funders; - Must have experience in supervising Managers and Staff; - Must have experience in negotiations; - Must have strong leadership skills; OTHER: - Must pass a criminal records check; - Must be able maintain flexible hours.

- Must have transportation and a valid BC driver’s license.

- Must have ability to work as a team member.

- Must have excellent public relations, interpersonal and communication skills.

- Must be able to work independently and serve as a Team Leader.

Please forward resume, cover letter to Jenn Levine, jennifer.levine@nquatqua.ca at N’Quatqua Band Office. Only those shortlisted will be contacted for an interview. We would like to have a minimum of 3 applicants prior to setting up interviews.

The closing date for this job posting will be August 20, 2020 at 4pm

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AUGUST 27, 2020

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PUZZLES ACROSS 1 6 11 16 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 35 36 38 39 41 43 45 48 49 50 54 55 56 59 61 62 63 65 67 69 70

Infield fly (hyph.)

Zoo attraction Temple city of Japan Cite Paid out Body joint Savage Disconnected Follows a trail Bird that soars TV hookup Tag -- (accompany) Strong as -- -Mon. follower Farm building Brink Sheds tears Pa Cartwright Mesa’s cousin Pestered in fun Decided on Milan’s land Singes Meek Dennehy or De Palma Actor -- Danson Knack Says Prepare pies Rear, to Popeye Sixth notes A thousand G’s Makeshift Vestibules They accompany aahs City in New York Reunion crowd Slackened off

3

6

72 74 75 77 78 79 80 82 83 85 88 90 91 95 96 97 99 100 101 102 104 106 107 109 111 112 113 115 117 119 120 122 123 124 127 129 130 134 135

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

5

7

9 3 5 1 8 4

V. EASY

136 138 139 140 142 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152

Stretchy fabric -- -- unto itself Helen, in Spanish Hockey scores D.C. consumer advocate Play part Discussion group Of longer standing “Tosca,” e.g.

Movie with a posse Narrow squeak Painter’s ground To the point Milky Way units

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 34 35

2 6 7

Baloney!

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Actor’s dream Bowls over Col. Sanders’ chain Like rising bread Fly the shuttle Highest Toast topper Tremble Let loose Hounds’ trails Faint trace Made a border Flowery shrub Flower visitor

36 37 38 40 41 42 44 45 46 47 48 51 52 53 55 57 58 60 63 64 66 68 71 73 74 76 78 81 82 84 85 86 87 89 90 92 93 94

Bleat Humerus neighbor Dramatic intro (hyph.)

HBO receivers Vexed Stratum Snaky fish Goalies’ concern Posh hotel lobbies Reeked Aspirin brand Juan’s friend More pleasant Window covering Plant guru Basins in a church Republic in western Africa Where Khartoum is Not a cloud in the sky Chilling cries Trusted supporters Not allowed Fair-haired boy Physicists’ particles Adjust the wheels Matter of contention Lobby call Makes one’s way Turn aside Mane Thin cookie Give an address Juno devotee Leading Four-door model Spyri girl Gourmet mushroom Nighttime noise

97 98 101 103 105 108 110 112 114 116 118 119 121 122 123

Gather leftovers Time of the mammoths (2 wds.)

Jacuzzis Theater award Fuzzy feline (2 wds.)

Wading bird “Slither” actor Dog sound More frequently Slalom necessity (2 wds.)

Region of the clouds Cry of disgust Secondhand Lots and lots Politician pickers

124 125 126 128 129 131 132 133 135 136 137 141 143 144

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LAST WEEKS’ ANSWERS

9 # 42

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: VERY EASY

1 2 5 4

7 8 9 3

8 9 7 6 2

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

V. EASY Solution, tips and computer program at www.sudoku.com# 44

ANSWERS ON PAGE 53

AUGUST 27, 2020

61

MAXED OUT

Let’s keep Lost Lake Park a winter haven for all skinny skiers AS I TOTTER TOWARD my dotage, I am more forgiving of the shortcomings of both myself and others. But some things really get under my skin. Ignorance and selfishness and blinding self-interest rank high on that list. All three were on display last week in Pique’s Letters to the Editor... all in one letter.

The writer stepped up on her soapbox and admonished the municipality for wasting taxpayers’ money, pandering to an elite element of society—as she sees it—and rallied others of a like mind to demand the muni shut down Cross-Country Connection,

BY G.D. MAXWELL the concession that, in partnership with the muni, offer locals and tourists the chance to cross-country ski and snowshoe some of the trails around Lost Lake each winter.

Oh, the humanity.

Apparently the letter writer is upset because she and others can’t, “... walk, hike, bike, take our dogs and kids to Lost Lake Park in the winter...” She is of a firm belief the trails open only to, “... a few Nordic skiers...” is, “... selfish, elitist and out of date.”

While I suspect she is a little more than familiar with selfish behaviour when she’s viewing the world through lens of refined self-interest, the rest of her rant is, well, small-minded nonsense.

In the interest of transparency, I will fess up to being a volunteer for CrossCountry Connection and have been for a number of seasons. I volunteer at the PassivHaus on Sunday afternoons. Why? I can assure you it isn’t for the free pass.

I believe I used my pass last season, let’s see, yes—embarrassment—zero times. I volunteer because I’d rather not be on the mountains skiing on Sunday afternoons and, more importantly, because I enjoy my interactions with the many people who come out on Sundays. It’s a chance to brag a bit about Whistler to people from around the world.

You see, unlike the vitriol oozing from last week’s letter, the Lost Lake/Nick North cross country trails are, in fact, used by a wide range of locals and tourists each season. Some faces I see every Sunday. But most I never see again. They come from everywhere. Many have never skinny skied before. Quite a few I help get into their bindings, get their poles on the right way and pick up when they fall down.

And I can assure you, they are having the time of their life. They’re trying something they’ve never tried before. They’re renewing an interest that’s lain dormant for decades.

They’re enjoying spirited physical exertion.

And they’re gushing about how wonderful it is such a facility lies in the heart of Whistler.

62 AUGUST 27, 2020

GETTYIMAGES.CA

“How lucky you are!”

Indeed.

But let’s consider a few facts. You remember facts, don’t you? Probably not given all the Trumpian alternative facts contained in your letter.

The trails are closed to hikers and open to skiers and snowshoers for 15 to 20 weeks each winter. Except three seasons ago when they were opened barely five weeks.

That’s because opening is dependent on snow in the valley. Contrary to the writer’s statement, staff does not haul in snow at taxpayers’ expense. There is no snowmaking and patchy spots are filled in from nearby snow, shovelled in if you will.

Each season, about 500 passes are sold or issued. Some are coupled with Callaghan passes; most aren’t. Last season was only

Some had never even seen snow until they got to Whistler, let alone tried sliding on it. Many were school kids and many more were Whistler Blackcomb staff enjoying discounted evening skiing as a Club Shred program. Very elite; very selfish, eh?

The letter writer, using COVID as a battering ram, implores the muni to end this unwarranted intrusion on her absolute right to walk the Lost Lake trails year-round for the sake of safe recreation. The Whistler I live in is blessed with an embarrassment of trails, hundreds of kilometres of them fanning out from every residential neighbourhood. All but a small handful are open all year for people and dogs. Heck, there are even track-set cross-country trails open to skiers, walkers and dogs.

Other than answering questions, helping

And they’re gushing about how wonderful it is such a facility lies in the heart of Whistler. “How lucky you are!”

70 pre-pandemic days long. Sorry for the inconvenience. But for the 169 people who used the trails each day—11,830 in total—they appreciated the proximity to the village since many were tourists with no means of getting to the Callaghan other than taking taxis.

While most came from B.C. and Canada, around 20 per cent were from the U.S. and another 20 per cent were international.

people into their bindings, directing them to the trails and boosting my town, the other thing I do most often on Sunday afternoons is stop people from walking on the trails. In all the years I’ve been doing that, the only times I’ve gotten any crap from people have been from—surprise—a few self-righteous locals who believe they’re entitled to go where they want, when they want. Sound familiar?

Everyone else, mostly tourists, simply

want a nice hike. There are at least five I recommend, all of which start from where I politely turn them around. They invariably understand and are happy to walk elsewhere.

The trails are a partnership between the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) and the operator. It has been thus since the 1970s. I am not privy to the financial performance but suspect it wouldn’t have lasted this long if it was a perennial money loser. And if it costs the muni something every year, so what? The list of amenities paid for by property owners is lengthy.

There are many I’m not fond of. But I’m not selfish enough to insist they be closed down in the name of fiscal responsibility.

And the plea to open the trails to walkers and keep it plowed—presumably at taxpayers’ expense—overlooks the fact not even the talented operators at the RMOW can plow gravel paths. Duh. I invite the letter writer to come see for herself. I’m pretty sure I’ll be volunteering there again on Sunday afternoons. Come stand around with me and get your feet cold and mind opened some Sunday. Note the empty racks of rental skis and snowshoes.

Better yet, come out on Monday or Thursday evenings when locals ski cheap. Wow, took a page right out of Whistler 2020 with that one.

But don’t think of trying to volunteer yourself. You see, in stark opposition to your uninformed assertion, it’s hard to find volunteers. There is, and has been for quite some time, a waitlist of people who’d like to volunteer. Sorry for the reality check but you understand. Or maybe not.

The world gets smaller when we consider our interests the only important interests. n

Be Mindful NEW LISTING

SKI IN/SKI OUT!

BLACKCOMB BENCHLANDS 2-4894 Painted Cliff Mountain Star ski in/ski out 3bed/2bath townhouse located in a quiet setting w/mtn views. Well maintained with private hot tub, and nightly rentals allowed. $1,879,000

Suzanne Wilson

WHISTLER CREEKSIDE 3-2110 Whistler Road Best priced 3 bedroom in Whistler.

Roof, siding, walkways railings, windows, doors are new. 3 bed/bath, new hardwood, fireplace & views of Whistler Peak.

You should live here. Full website - http://3.digitalopenhou.se $950,000

604-966-8454 Ken Achenbach

NORDIC 49 2400 Cavendish Way Great value for this 2 bed/1.5 bath townhome in Whiski Jack. Short walk to the slopes and just minutes from Creekside Village, Whistler Village & the extensive Valley Trail & park network. Perfect full time or weekend property. $624,900

Janet Brown

Stay Safe

604-966-7640 Pierre Eady

WHISTLER CREEKSIDE 337C&D-2036 London Lane Enjoy amazing views & ski hill access right from your 2 bed/2 bath suite! Legends, a ski in/ ski out property offers owners 1 week/month with 2 weeks over Christmas/New Years, every 4th year. $199,000 each 1/4

604-935-0700 Allyson Sutton

BRIO 23-3102 Panorama Ridge 2 Bedroom, 1 bath, 904 sqft townhouse offers ideal living for Whistler residents. Located in Suncrest, you are walking distance to the village and the base of the mountain. Covid Aware-Open House Sat, Aug 29th 1-4PM $720,000

604-698-6748

WHISTLER CREEKSIDE 2364 Gondola Way Panoramic mountain views! Ski home to your Bear Creek Estates luxury chalet. Completely renovated & furnished. Grand open concept living, 4 Beds, 4 Baths, A/C, radiant heating, natural gas fireplace, top range appliances & secluded outdoor hot tub. $3,250,000

604-932-7609 Rachel Edwards

604-966-4200

NEW LISTING

ALPINE MEADOWS 8373 Valley Drive 5 bedroom main plus 2 bed suite! Large and extremely private lot, end of a cul-de-sac, hardly any neighbours, amazing views! Check out the video and virtual tour: http://www.8373valleydrive.info” $2,199,000

David Wiebe *PREC

ALPINE MEADOWS 8745 Idylwood Place Take in views of Whistler and Blackcomb from every level of this secluded family home located in a quiet Alpine Meadows cul-de-sac. A 2 Bed income suite, outside patio spaces, hot tub, BBQ area and manicured gardens complete this luxury home. $3,999,500

604-966-8874 Peter Lalor

604-902-3309

EMERALD 9205 Lakeshore Drive Imagine if this was the view from your living room! Rare lakefront on Green Lake! One of the best lake lots: private, large (12,086sf) with sweeping views, an immaculate yard and a charming log home. Call for a private tour! $4,975,000

Gina Daggett

Engel & Völkers Whistler

Whistler Village Shop

Whistler Creekside Shop

Squamish Station Shop

36-4314 Main Street · Whistler BC V8E 1A8 · Phone +1 604-932-1875

325-2063 Lake Placid Road · Whistler BC V8E 0B6 · Phone +1 604-932-1875

150-1200 Hunter Place · Squamish BC V8B 0G8 · Phone +1 778-733-0611

whistler.evrealestate.com

whistler.evrealestate.com

whistler.evrealestate.com

*PERSONAL REAL ESTATE CORPORATION ©2019 Engel & Völkers. All rights reserved. Each brokerage independently owned and operated. Engel & Völkers and its independent License Partners are Equal Opportunity Employers and fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act.

778-998-2357

NEW PRICE

#331D - 2036 London Lane

3D Tour - rem.ax/223greyhawk

$189,900

This spacious poolside 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom 901 sf suite offers views of the Whistler Mountain slopes, pool & hot tubs. 331D enjoys US Thanksgiving in 2020. Legends ¼ ownership provides 13 weeks annually of owner use or rental, a fantastic location and amenities with a fully furnished and equipped suite.

Denise Brown*

2

604.902.2033

#223 - 3309 Ptarmigan Place

Originally priced pre COVID-19 at $2,639,000. Reduced by $739,000 to $1,900,000 for a 4 bedroom 3 bath Whistler home completely renovated from top to bottom. Paint, carpeting, all furnishings, electronics, kitchen and all appliances, every bedroom and all beds, linens curtains, all brand new.

Doug Treleaven

$574,900

If you are a Whistler resident/employee or Whistler employer this unit is for you. Offering 2 bedrooms/1 bath, this unit in Nordic Court has been updated with new windows, laminate flooring, granite counter tops and in-suite laundry (washer/dryer combo). This is a top floor unit with deck facing north/north east.

Laura Barkman

2

604.905.8777

#206 - 8080 Nicklaus North Blvd.

$885,000

3

604.935.0762

$1,799,000

604.907-2717

James Collingridge

.5

604.902.0132

2

#21 C&I - 2300 Nordic Drive

$289,000

Own 2 Chapters in one of Whistler’s most amazing private vacation properties, with 10 weeks of personal use per year. Located next to the Dave Murray Downhill on Whistler mountain, enjoy unparalleled ski in / ski out access as well as the use of the clubhouse, gym and sauna as well as the outdoor pool and hot tubs.

Matt Chiasson

$900,000

Turn key mountainside suite is ready for you. Fully furnished SKI-IN/SKI-OUT 1 bedroom suite on Blackcomb Mountain has an outdoor heated pool, 3 hot tubs, exercise center, bike room, gardens, and is steps to the Upper Village. Live in the property full time or you can also rent it nightly. This is a must-see! Tranquil, updated, and welcoming.

604.935.9171

Meg McLean

1

604.907.2223

4813 Casabella Crescent

3.5

2

#10 - 1450 Vine Road

Michael Nauss

WHISTLER OFFICE 106 - 7015 Nesters Road, Whistler, BC V8E 0X1 604.932.2300 or Toll Free 1.888.689.0070 *PERSONAL REAL ESTATE CORPORATION

If you are a home owner, buyer, tenant, landlord, or small business in need of help during this time, please see our updated list of resources at: remax-whistler.com/resources

604.902.4260

604.932.9586

3.5

3D Tour - rem.ax/7791owlridge

$575,000

This 2 bed 2 bath townhome in the sought after Peaks development is located in the preferable cul-de-sac area of the complex, and backs onto a large amount of green space in a private setting. The covered deck off of the living space offers morning sun and afternoon shade for those hot summer days.

Richard Grenfell

$2,399,000

3 bedroom and den, 3.5 bathroom town home with an absolutely great location. After a hard day on the ski hill, you can enjoy relaxing in your own very private hot tub. It’s just a short walk to all sorts of shopping, restaurants, Village Square, Market Place, and skiing at Whistler & Blackcomb mountains, yet far enough away for peace and tranquility.

3D Tour - rem.ax/10thepeaks

The Woodrun is one of the few concrete buildings in Whistler and #107 is conveniently located on the ground floor facing the green belt. The unit features a boot heater, huge owner locker, Washer, and Dryer in suite and the gym and pool access is just across the hallway.

Richard Christiansen

$1,190,000

778.919.7653

#223 - 4800 Spearhead Drive

3D Tour - rem.ax/107woodrun

#107 - 4910 Spearhead Drive

Best priced phase 1 property available in Whistler, unlimited owner use or rental ! Central location, walking distance to Whistler Creekside. Monthly strata fee is ‘all inclusive’ having just one bill to pay makes ownership so easy! Leasehold property so traditional financing not available.

3D Tour - 21atnaturesdoor

Quality upgrades in this 2 bedroom include fully renovated bathrooms, radiant floor heating & more. When you are not in town you have the option to nightly rent the unit which has the ability to generate fantastic revenues. 5-minute drive to the base of both mountains. Prkg stall in the upper village avail for purchase with unit.

Madison Perry

$295,000

3D Tour - rem.ax/223aspens

A custom 2 bedroom and loft cabin situated on 2.5 private acres surrounded by mountains, lakes and rivers. Nestled away in the Stanley road enclave of Birken, this manicured refuge offers access to the best outdoor recreation British Columbia has to offer yet is only 25 minutes from Pemberton and its amenities.

Matt Kusiak

#102 - 2111 Whistler Road

NEW PRICE

3D Tour - rem.ax/2948stanley

2948 Stanley Road

4

604.905.8626

UNDER OFFER

#217 - 2007 Nordic Drive

$1,900,000

2

7791 Owl Ridge Road

$2,065,000

Speculator home on 6+ acres just 40 minutes north of Whistler. 5.5 bedrooms and a large recreational room, 3.5 bathrooms, andstunning mountain views. The huge sundeck has been expanded for fabulous outdoor entertaining and steps down to a beautiful swimming pool, irrigated lawn and gardens, barn, paddocks and outdoor riding ring.

Sally Warner*

604.905.6326

5.5

PEMBERTON OFFICE 1411 Portage Road, Pemberton, BC V0N 2L1 604.894.6616 or Toll Free 1.888.689.0070