APRIL 22, 2021 ISSUE 28.16
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THE BIG BLUE SPACE BALL
EAR TH DAY 2021 : R E S T O R E
14
TRAVEL TROUBLE
Can restricting
travel save Whistler’s summer?
15
FUN AND GAMES
OU R
A B.C.-wide pitch for
the 2030 Olympics is taking shape
WORLD
40
KIND KIDS
Whistler actor co-hosts
episode of online program
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THIS WEEK IN PIQUE
26 36
32 B.C.’s tepid travel restrictions How New Zealand and some Canadian regions blocked a proven factor in virus spread. - By Kristina Jenei, The Tyee
14
A NECESSARY SACRIFICE?
As local
26
CATCH THE WAVE
A development with a new
officials await further details on B.C.’s latest travel advisory, they see the
state-of-the-art surf park planned for the Sea to Sky is up for rezoning at
measures as a necessary step towards saving Whistler’s summer.
the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District.
15
36
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
Stakeholders met
VAN GYN WINS
Backcountry snowboarding
recently to discuss hosting the 2030 Olympic Games in Whistler and other
legend Robin Van Gyn channelled her competitive spirit and cliff drop
locations in part to offset the impacts of the coronavirus.
skills to win the first-ever Natural Selection Tour.
20
40
BREATH-TAKING
The Whistler COVID-19 test
KIND KIDS
Whistler actor co-hosts an episode of the
clinic has been administering a trial that analyzes breath samples to
new online program Stories of Kindness—all from the comfort of his Sea
detect the virus. So far, more than 500 volunteers have taken part.
to Sky home.
COVER We only have one of these big, blue, beautiful space balls—let’s do our best to protect it. - www.gettyimages.ca 4 APRIL 22, 2021
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THIS WEEK IN PIQUE
Opinion & Columns 08 OPENING REMARKS It’s Earth Day today (April 22), and though we are fully focused on the
#202 -1390 ALPHA LAKE RD., FUNCTION JUNCTION, WHISTLER, B.C. V8E 0H9. PH: (604) 938-0202 FAX: (604) 938-0201 www.piquenewsmagazine.com
pandemic, we cannot ignore the damage we continue to wreak on our planet.
Founding Publishers KATHY & BOB BARNETT
10 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR A letter writer calls out a member of the B.C. Legislature for
Publisher SARAH STROTHER - sstrother@wplpmedia.com
denying climate change while another uses science to urge people to get vaccinated.
Editor CLARE OGILVIE - edit@piquenewsmagazine.com
13 PIQUE’N YER INTEREST Writer Andrew Mitchell tells us that COVID-19 has interrupted
Assistant Editor ALYSSA NOEL - arts@piquenewsmagazine.com Sales Manager SUSAN HUTCHINSON - shutchinson@wplpmedia.com
supply chains and boosted demand for bikes to the point they are almost impossible to buy.
Production Manager AMIR SHAHRESTANI - ashahrestani@wplpmedia.com
54 MAXED OUT Max takes a look at the contradictory travel guidelines just put in place to stop the
Art Director JON PARRIS - jparris@wplpmedia.com Advertising Representatives
spread of the coronavirus, and calls out the feds for their “election” budget as well.
AMY ALLEN - aallen@wplpmedia.com TESSA SWEENEY - tsweeney@wplpmedia.com
Environment & Adventure
Digital/Sales Coordinator AMELA DIZDARIC - traffic@wplpmedia.com Production production@piquenewsmagazine.com LOU O’BRIEN - lstevens@wplpmedia.com Arts & Entertainment Editor ALYSSA NOEL arts@piquenewsmagazine.com
31 RANGE ROVER Writer Leslie Anthony has a sudden realization during a spring bootpack day—that
Features Editor BRANDON BARRETT - bbarrett@piquenewsmagazine.com
he misses travel (don’t we all?).
Reporters BRADEN DUPUIS - bdupuis@piquenewsmagazine.com BRANDON BARRETT - bbarrett@piquenewsmagazine.com MEGAN LALONDE - mlalonde@wplpmedia.com
Lifestyle & Arts
38 EPICURIOUS Maggie Wallace, currently at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, is a Red Seal chef
Classifieds and Reception mail@piquenewsmagazine.com Office and Accounts Manager HEIDI RODE - hrode@wplpmedia.com
in training who hopes to expand diners’ horizons when it comes to First Nations cuisine.
Contributors G.D. MAXWELL, GLENDA BARTOSH, FEET BANKS, LESLIE ANTHONY, ANDREW MITCHELL, ALISON TAYLOR, VINCE SHULEY, LISA RICHARDSON
42 MUSEUM MUSINGS In 1987 and 1990, house fires in a duplex—controversial due to its multi-
President, Whistler Publishing LP
resident status—put a lot of people out on the street.
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 2021 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.
38
42
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. This organization replaces the BC Press council (and any mention of it).
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Earth Day means business as usual no longer an option “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day, and then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house was on fire. Because it is.” — Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum in 2019
IT’S BEEN 51 YEARS since the first Earth Day. In 1970 our global population was 3.7 billion; today it is 7.9 billion. We have entered a new age of the world’s development—the Anthropocene Age (2.6 million years ago to the present), where we recognize that pretty
BY CLARE OGILVIE edit@piquenewsmagazine.com
well every change going on has the fingerprint of mankind upon it. For better, or worse. We might think that having the world go into lockdown would have helped undo some of the worst of our carbon emissions— and in the short term it did. But according to data shared with Nature magazine the news is not as good as we might expect. In 2020 carbon dioxide emissions fell
There is no escaping the fact that each and every one of us has to help slow climate change in whatever way we can. by 6.4 per cent (2.3 billion tonnes) due to the pandemic shutting parts of the global economy down. Most strongly impacted, and it’s no surprise, was the aviation sector, where emissions fell 48 per cent compared to 2019. “Every ton of carbon that we don’t burn makes our future better. And that’s an important way of viewing this.” — Author Michael Mann The New Climate War
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8 APRIL 22, 2021
“The [6.4 per cent] decline is significant— roughly double Japan’s yearly emissions—but smaller than many climate researchers expected given the scale of the pandemic, and is not expected to last once the virus is brought under control,” writes Nature’s reporter Jeff Tollefson. According to a report by the International Energy Agency the world is now rebounding with energy-related emission two-per-cent higher in December 2020 than in 2019 driven by economic recovery. (China—which accounts for more than a quarter of global CO2 output—was the only major economy to grow in 2020.) Closer to home many are calling for provincial and federal governments to do more—to use the pandemic as a reset button as we rev our economic engine again post coronavirus. In this week’s federal budget there were long-term, environment-focused funding initiatives announced, adding up to a $17.6-billion “green recovery” plan the governing Liberal Party hopes will create jobs, lower emissions and support Canada’s clean-tech businesses. It did not contain any commitments to cancel fossil-fuel subsidies, however. Tuesday’s provincial budget, despite earlier announced funding for BC parks (see page 27) was disappointing. Said David Suzuki Foundation’s director general for Western Canada Jay Ritchlin: “The province is missing the opportunity to address the climate and biodiversity crises in its focus on pandemic recovery. As emissions continue to rise, spending lacks the ambition needed to address the true scope of the climate emergency “Overall, the balanced budget hinges on massive amounts of liquid fracked gas coming online in 2025—another huge climate miss. This inadequate plan fails to seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest boldly and strategically toward a green and just recovery from COVID-19 by spending on things like rapid transit, renewable energy, natural infrastructure and transitioning
workers away from fossil fuel industries.” We know from the 2018 United Nations Report that humans must dramatically cut carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 to have any hope of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and keep the world from warming much past 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. So today, on Earth Day 2021 across the globe, and here at home as well, the event is being marked in various ways including a virtual summit hosted by the Biden Administration to keep this battle in front of us top of mind. “The biggest schism is that man is not a part of nature. That’s created all of our worst problems.” — Grizzly bear advocate and wildlife writer Doug Peacock This year’s theme is “Restore Our Earth.” It’s a fitting theme as we work to come out the other side of this pandemic where we also need to restore ourselves. It has been a long journey, parts of which have been very dark, especially when you consider our parallel pandemics in mental health and the toxic overdose drug emergency. It is easy to feel a sense of hopelessness in facing these issues and our global climate change crisis. But we need to find hope at an individual level, a community level, a national level and for our planet. Here in Whistler our natural environment is the fabric of our tapestry for success. Yet it is clear that our global natural environment is at a tipping point. More than 1 million species are threatened by extinction, 75 per cent of the world’s land and 66 per cent of the marine environment is significantly altered by humans. According to the World Economic Forum, “US$44 trillion of economic value generation is moderately or highly exposed to nature loss and addressing the nature crisis could generate 395 million jobs by 2030.” There is no escaping the fact that each and every one of us has to help slow climate change in whatever way we can. This Earth Day, and every day, remember there is only one planet Earth. n
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Calling out climate change deniers
Municipal government gives thanks
How frustrating and disappointing to see BC Liberal MLA for Nechako Lakes, John Rustad, proclaim in the Legislature that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. And how short-sighted to say that if we declare something a pollutant, “that the only thing we should be doing with pollution is getting rid of it completely, thereby killing life on this planet”—life that requires a minimum amount of carbon dioxide far less than the current or historical atmospheric concentration. Does Rustad understand about acceptable levels and concentrations of substances? We each need a trace amount of copper in our diet, but if our drinking water supply had copper concentrations greater than two milligrams per litre, we would be at high risk for liver damage and death—that’s when it becomes a pollutant. This kind of logical fallacy is dog-whistle language for climate change deniers, and reveals another troubling example of regressive and head-in-the-sand thinking within the BC Liberal party. When asked directly by CBC if he believes climate change is real and caused by humans, MLA Rustad refused to answer. Interim leader Shirley Bond put out a tangential statement saying the party is “fully committed to actions that are necessary to battle climate change,” without commenting on Rustad.
This silence, and implicit unwillingness to call out caucus members who mince words on climate change (or homophobic/transphobic gay conversion therapy, as another example), raises the question: How many other BC Liberal caucus members subscribe to this kind of junk narrative to justify industrial over-extraction and poor stewardship of our precious natural assets? We can do better than this, and we need to do better for our youth, children and grandchildren. Given that every community in this riding from Mount Currie to Bowen Island
cast more votes for the BC Greens than any other party in last October’s election (with West Vancouver being the sole exception), constituents have a right to know if they are being faithfully represented by our BC Liberal MLA Jordan Sturdy. Will Mr. Sturdy reject John Rustad’s irresponsible comments, and acknowledge that reducing carbon dioxide concentrations is an existential challenge, and the only way to protect our habitat for the next generations? Jeremy Valeriote // Whistler
We want to express our deep gratitude to all the people who made last week’s community vaccination happen. The list of thank yous is longer than can be included here, so if you were involved in any way please know our deep gratitude extends to you. Whether you answered a phone, cleaned the space after close, gave a vaccine, or welcomed residents at the door—we are deeply grateful to you. Thank you to the Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Health and the Provincial Health Office. Dr. Penny Ballem, Dr. Bonnie Henry and Minister Adrian Dix saw the reality of our situation and responded quickly. We are grateful for your continued leadership. Thank you to Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH). The leadership of Dr. Patty Daly, Sean Parr and Dr. John Harding was effective and empowering. Thank you to the VCH on-theground team of Colleen Moberg, Caprii Doucet, Kristine Good, Randi Greer, Lee-Anne Chipapen, Liz Lee and Kate O’Connor; you acted quickly and safely ran a clinic that saw many of you working extremely long hours. Thank you to the medical community of the Sea to Sky corridor. Nurses, doctors and pharmacists, whether retired or still practising, stepped up to serve, often without being asked. Many of you vaccinated us on your days off from providing COVID-19 tests, delivering primary care, running pharmacies or working emergency shifts. You were kind, professional and thorough. Thank you to the team at Tourism Whistler
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10 APRIL 22, 2021
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR JU
(TW) and the outside workforce who joined TW for the clinic. You ran an incredibly tight ship. Your years of experience providing warm, hospitable experiences were obvious in service of this clinic. Thank you to our own Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) team, which stepped up on short notice and coordinated an incredible community effort. It was a truly proud and inspiring moment for us seeing all you delivered. Thank you to Whistler Fire Rescue, Bylaw and Whistler RCMP for your on-theground line management. Thank you to Whistler Blackcomb for contributing your physical-distancing, linemanagement expertise. Thank you to our local artists and Arts Whistler for filling the space with such wonderful art. It was nice to get vaccinated and sit with (or in) beautiful art. Spirits were LIFTed. Thank you to the Whistler Chamber of Commerce for getting the word out to the business community. Thank you to Pique Newsmagazine for making sure we all had all the information we needed about this clinic. Finally a big thank you to all community members who participated in this clinic and got your jab. The word from those who were working the clinic is you were kind, grateful and even enthusiastic. Your decision to get vaccinated doesn’t just protect you but it protects our community. Please remember to keep your contacts to very few over the next three weeks while you gain the benefit of the immune response provided by your first shot. RMOW Mayor Jack Crompton and council // Whistler
Get vaccinated! My background: [I am a] registered physiotherapist in Whistler (41 years working in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand in various fields of medicine including ICU) [and] I have read many of the letters sent to Pique re: COVID-19. My thoughts on this and the science and information of other scientists/doctors, and my own observations of others that have had the COVID-19 vaccine, are considered in [this] letter. The Whistler Blackcomb ski season ended abruptly, due to rising variant cases in Whistler, [caused by] increasing post-ski socializing and visitors from out of province, who spread the virus to others and our own residents. I watched the world news, [including] from my home country [of the] U.K., as the variants of concern increased in numbers [there] and other European countries, India, Korea etc. and then the USA. I knew that it wouldn’t be too long before Whistler would start to see the spread of the variants here, because of open country travel from Ontario, Quebec and other places. Your frontline doctors at Whistler Health Care Centre are saying everyone should get vaccinated. It is vitally important to do so. I recently heard of a young lady [who] contracted a COVID-19 variant and this has
affected her heart, and she now has to have a heart transplant. Other young people have become quite sick. There are many people who have had COVID-19 and still suffer from the effects one year later: “COVID-19 long haulers.” If you don’t believe what your doctors say in Whistler, watch Dr. John Campbell on YouTube for up-to-date information on COVID19. He has a PhD in virology sequencing. Also, MedCram’s Dr. Roger Seheult, PhD [California pulmonologist]. These are excellent resources of information to help everyone in understanding COVID-19 and vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccine has been developed more quickly due to the fact that virologists have worked with the coronavirus for years— since, and before, the SARS- [coronavirus] CoV-1 [in] 2003. (This should help to dispel the concerns of length of time that the vaccine has been available.) Secondly, the variants of concern, particularly P1/P2 (known as 20J/501Y.V3 (Brazilian variant) and B1.17 British variant and 501Y.V2 South African variants (variant of SARS-CoV-2) are serious spreaders and mostly the P1 is in Whistler now, and the cases have risen quickly. I have had my vaccine. (Pfizer, with no side effects.) All my family in the U.K., sisters and husbands, around 60 years old and others have had vaccines [AstraZeneca, Pfizer], and have not had the concerns of blood clots, which is evidently due to very low platelet counts and the disease of heparin induced thrombocytopenia. [This] is a very rare condition. If you have any concerns about the vaccine or don’t believe the doctors, you should look at the YouTube information from MedCram’s Dr. Campbell, or Instagram’s Dr. Noc (immunologist). My concern, and that of others, [is about when we] hear of people who aren’t prepared to get the vaccine. I have met a few of you in my clinic. Those of you that are concerned, please read up, look at these sites and make an informed decision. We can’t stop this virus in its tracks without the vaccine. We need herd immunity ASAP, to prevent this virus further mutating. (Herd immunity is the number of the population that needs to be vaccinated in order to stop the virus mutating. According to research, we don’t know that percentage yet.) Virologists can at present control the virus with the current vaccine, but with the increase in mutation, this may not continue. Please don’t make it any harder by not getting the vaccine. We have a social responsibility to protect humanity. Sally John BSc(PT) // Whistler
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Keeping us safe I commend Dr. Cathy Zeglinski for having the strength, compassion and care for our community to give even more of her time to send such a well thought out letter to our locals [Pique, Letters to the Editor, April 15]. She is desperately trying to keep us all safe. Dr. Zeglinski has treated my family in the ER on several occasions—since my children were newborn babies. They are now 15 and 18
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.
Engel & Völkers Whistler
APRIL 22, 2021
11
1766 P IN E WOOD DR, P EMBE RT ON Enjoy breathtaking views of Mt Currie from your private deck on a 15,000 sq ft lot. This 3 storey, 4 bed property features a master suite with 5-piece ensuite, billiards room, heated driveway, as well as stunning high beams and a floor-to-ceiling rock fireplace. Call us today! Available for $2,198,000 Laura Wetaski • Engel & Völkers Whistler
Phone: 604-938-3798 Email: laura@wetaski.com #36 4314 Main Street, Whistler
Nick Davies, Whistler local and experienced family lawyer practising across BC andYukon.
Call at 604-602-9000 or visit www.macleanlaw.ca Maclean Law is headquartered in Vancouver with offices across British Columbia.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [years old]. Her analogy of [Public Health Officer] Dr. Bonnie Henry basically fighting a forest fire was absolutely perfect! To explain what is currently going on with our devastating pandemic in terms that our community knows about all too well was priceless. Some in our community are not taking this situation seriously. I would like to think most of us are. I just wanted to publicly appreciate not only Dr. Zeglinski, but every single one of our frontline workers for their effort and diligence. And ask those that are not working in those positions to appreciate what they are doing. Respect the seriousness of COVID-19 and recognize that in your day-to-day life, these people are doing their best to protect you. And themselves. We are all having a tough time. But being irresponsible is not the way to make it all go away. And [we should] count ourselves lucky that our local government has taken the steps to protect us as well as [it] can. I have always been proud to be a Whistlerite. I am even more proud in these times. We are extremely lucky to live in a community that so deeply cares for one another. Meghan Deschenes // Whistler
Vail Resorts—you blew it I am Canadian, own a rental unit in Whistler, and live and work in Seattle full-time. It was soul crushing not getting up to Whistler this season. This season I processed five refunds for unit rentals and we took quite a loss. It was the right thing to do and I look forward to providing great value next year. I have been a loyal customer of the Whistler Blackcomb experience for more than 20 years. We look forward to the winter and summer seasons and sincerely enjoy
the product! I always felt like Whistler was dear to me, like a best friend. Years ago I remember reprimanding kids to stop vandalizing the gondola with a lighter, and thinking how proud I was to be an owner/ operator and a loyal partner in the Whistler experience. Three seasons passes and one edge card totalled US$2,030 [this year]. Last fall I clicked the Epic Coverage option “with CONFIDENCE” and I still can’t figure out the terms and conditions. Our passes were not used a single day. I am now seven weeks into a legal “case” with ACM Claims. I called them last week and was on hold for 55 minutes. The next day I finally reached someone and explained the situation. The gentleman was not fluent with English as a first language and everything was lost in translation. He kept asking if I would like to delete my online accounts (!?). Vail Resorts, I can afford the US$2,030. What really bothers me is the disappointment of how you managed this. I feel like my best friend stole from me. I will recoup the loss, starting with no longer purchasing early passes, never settling for the $22 on-mountain sandwich, and no longer buying from Whistler Blackcomb-affiliated stores. And I don’t care if kids vandalize the gondola with a lighter. Vail Resorts, you guys blew this from a leadership, marketing, and communications perspective and you have lost my trust as a consumer. Thank you Delta Airlines for extending my flight status for an extra year, thank you to the guys at Chrome Industries for replacing my backpack, thank you Amazon for processing the returns we have done over the years. Vail Resorts—you have a lot to learn. And to kids vandalizing the gondi, please pass the lighter when you are done. Brad Sevenko // Seattle, WA ■
Backcountry Advisory
Mountain Psychology and Neurofeedback Centre
Stephen L. Milstein, Ph.D., R. Psych. BC #765 -604.938.3511 Dawna Dixx Milstein, OT. COTBC # AA0201 - 604.938.3523 Whistler: #107 - 4368 Main St, Whistler, B.C. V0N 1B4 Squamish: 38077 2nd Ave, Squamish, B.C. // 604.848.9273
Serving sea to sky for 18 years
12 APRIL 22, 2021
AS OF WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21 The past week was HOT! Spring was in full effect with the cherry blossoms flowering, and trails and rocks drying up to generate epic multi-sport opportunities. If you wanted to slide on snow and were willing to climb high enough you would have found some decent turns on northerly aspects, while the southerly aspects baked in the sun. Playing in the alpine required timing your day appropriately to avoid natural avalanche activity. The region saw its fair share of avalanche activity from cornice failures, wet loose avalanches Size 1 to 3, and a large wetslab cycle up to Size 4 last weekend. This weekend will be different. Cooler and unsettled weather will prevail. In fact, it will feel like the polar opposite of last weekend. The region will see strong southwest wind and 10 to 20 millimetres of mixed precipitation falling as mostly rain at lower elevations and snow up high. Travel will differ at each elevation band from an isothermal mushy snowpack down low, to firm crusts and wind-hammered slopes in the alpine.
Weak cornices exist and fresh wind slabs may be found at upper elevations that receive snow rather than rain. Lower elevations may see continued wet, loose avalanche activity in places where the rain saturates into an already isothermal snowpack unless, of course, we get that freeze. Conditions continue to be ever-changing so during these times, it’s important to watch for clues of instability like natural avalanche activity, wet snow surfaces, an increase in new snow and strong wind, and cracking or whumphing below your feet. Be aware of what’s above you at all times and practice safe group management techniques while travelling. We will issue our final public avalanche forecasts for the season on Friday, and we’ll transition to spring messaging next week. Feel free to check out avalanche.ca/springconditions to better understand some potential scenarios that could play out in your local region. On behalf of Avalanche Canada, thank you for your dedication to the Mountain Information Network and best wishes for a fantastic summer. See you next winter! ■
CONDITIONS MAY VARY AND CAN CHANGE RAPIDLY Check for the most current conditions before heading out into the backcountry. Daily updates for the areas adjacent to Whistler Blackcomb are available at 604-938-7676, or surf to www.whistlerblackcomb.com/mountaininfo/snow-report#backcountry or go to www.avalanche.ca.
PIQUE N’ YER INTEREST
Whither bikes, and other things? IMAGINE DOING hundreds of extra hours of work on evenings and weekends just so you can buy a couple of new mountain bikes for yourself and your family, only to discover that there’s a global shortage of frames and parts that makes them impossible to buy. It’s an unprecedented situation. The money is literally burning a
BY ANDREW MITCHELL hole in my pocket (which, when you think about it, is a pretty good metaphor for cash that’s steadily losing value in the bank at 0.5 per cent interest.) So what’s going on? Why can’t I turn my hard-earned cash into an off-road lumbar spine and quad killer? The skin on my knees and elbows isn’t going to flay itself. It’s a tragic story about how the global supply chain we’ve become dependent on isn’t perfect, and how small details can result in Giant inconveniences when it comes to Specialized goods. One issue is demand, which has been Intense. Bike sales are way up with COVID19. People rushed out in record numbers to buy all kinds of bicycles for virus-free transportation and recreation. One report
on mountain-bike sales numbers suggests purchases are up 130 per cent over the past year—which is more than double if you’re not a Devinci when it comes to math. It really is the perfect sport for social distancing, providing you stay out of the emergency room. It’s not easy to ramp up production to meet that kind of demand. Most bike companies are still filling orders that were made a long time ago—2021 bikes had to be ordered in early 2020 to give companies time to make frames and the 250 parts that go into the average mountain bike. Companies have added shifts and doubled their operations to try and meet the demand, but there isn’t one factory that provides everything and components are being delivered at different times. Donald Trump also played a role, as he has in every crappy thing since 2016. Tariffs against China have resulted in production being relocated to a dozen other countries. Some parts are being made in Vietnam, others in Indonesia. Assembling a complete bike has become quite the global Trek. On top of that is competition, which also had to Raleigh. Mountain biking is a big industry, but the Yeti’s share of bikes sold in the world—around 75 per cent— are not built for riding up and down a Rocky Mountain. While mountain bike manufacturers are looking to capitalize on
demand, so are all of the companies that peddle road bikes, commuter bikes, BMX bikes, and all kinds of other two-wheeled fun machines. Bikes also compete with other industries for raw materials, like carbon and various metals, which also happen to be in high demand and short supply right now. The result is that goods like bikes have had to increase in price by 10 to 15 per cent to cover these rising commodity prices. Global shipping is also having a bad day. Shipping containers, or sea cans, are extremely hard to find at the moment. One reason is that the level of global trade increased and with it the competition for a finite number of containers—and the number of cans available for shipping isn’t increasing fast enough to keep up. Plus, a huge number of shipping containers are being lost over the side of overloaded ships—2,675 of them this past December and January alone, almost double the annual average in two months. It’s possible that some bikes or bike parts were in those lost containers as well—or are stuck in the Suez Canal on the now impounded Ever Given, which wasn’t allowed to go Scott-free after tying up more than 200 freighters for six entertaining, meme-filled days. Apparently bikes also don’t ship very well compared to other goods. Maybe 250 frames can fit in one container, which
means manufacturers need a lot of sea cans, which aren’t available, to fill their tens of thousands of back orders. So here we find ourselves waiting for enough bikes to be assembled to buy, and lucky to still have whatever used bikes we thankfully didn’t sell off at the end of last year—unless you did in which case I’m well and truly sorry, Bro(die). If there’s a larger lesson to be learned, it’s the same lesson we learned at the start of the pandemic—global supply chains are sometimes unreliable and come with costs as well as savings. At this time last year it was a shortage of masks, respirators, hospital beds, Vitamin C and D, and, inexplicably, toilet paper. Now it’s bikes, bike parts and bike gear. A few Canadian companies still make their own frames, like Whistler’s Chromag, as well as some parts here and there, but we don’t currently manufacture everything you need to build a complete, good-quality mountain bike. Maybe that will change in the future if shipping continues to be unreliable and expensive, and manufacturing costs go up over time—one day our bikes may be 100-per-cent Canadian made. A situation where people have money to spend and nowhere to spend it just may be the catalyst that makes that happen, which in my opinion would be a good thing. Norco. ■
APRIL 22, 2021
13
NEWS WHISTLER
Whistler hopes restricting travel will save summer AS BUSINESSES DEAL WITH ANOTHER HIT TO THE BOTTOM LINE, TOURISM LEADERS HOPEFUL MOVE WILL SHIFT TRAVELLER BEHAVIOUR
BY BRANDON BARRETT AS LOCAL TOURISM leaders await further details on an upcoming provincial order that would formally restrict nonessential travel in B.C., they say the move is a tough but necessary one that will hopefully preserve Whistler’s summer. “To be honest, we support the move,” said Tourism Whistler (TW) president and CEO Barrett Fisher. “We need to get the virus under control and if it means that we basically cancel our remaining reservations in the April and May period, which in turn will allow us to save our summer … that certainly is our focus.” In what was arguably B.C.’s biggest step towards curbing non-essential travel since the COVID-19 pandemic began, on Monday, April 19, Premier John Horgan announced new restrictions through the May long weekend to ensure British Columbians stay within their home health region. An official order under the Emergency Program Act is expected Friday, which will allow police to enforce the measures through roadside checkpoints. Tourism operators and campsites have
BY THE BOOKING Whistler hotels have begun cancelling non-essential bookings through the May long weekend, a move tourism leaders say is tough but necessary to save Whistler’s summer. PHOTO BY ROB MELNYCHUK/GETTY IMAGES
14 APRIL 22, 2021
also been cancelling existing bookings through the May long weekend. For Tourism Whistler, local hotels, and vacation rental sites, that means following up with guests individually—something they were already doing throughout the pandemic to advise of COVID-19 health measures—to determine if they have a valid reason for travelling. “The recent travel advisory will have impacts for all the accommodation in Whistler, but it will be interesting to see who prepared and took the previous travel precautions as the writing on the wall for what was coming,” said Matt Hick, CEO of vacation rental booking site, alluraDirect, in an email. “Companies that committed to the position that safety is more important than occupancy percentages, assumed travel was off the table until at least mid-to-late summer—for these companies that planned for this scenario, including alluraDirect, [they] are prepared for this latest travel advisory and will take it in stride.” TW is still awaiting word from the province on who exactly is permitted to travel to Whistler, after Horgan specifically noted Monday that Vancouverites, for instance, should not be coming to Whistler, despite being in the same health authority. Pique emailed the public safety ministry for clarity and was told more details would be coming later this week. For a hotel sector that had already seen room-night bookings in April dwindle to single digits, the cancellations don’t represent a significant number of bookings,
said Saad Hasan, president of the Hotel Association of Whistler. “The essence of yesterday’s announcement that we, all of us, should not be travelling outside of our immediate communities, I think it was as much for the travellers as it was for the hotels,” he said. “Yes, the hotels have been communicating this message since the beginning, but reinforcing that by saying there may be random police audits, I think will probably put more emphasis on these restrictions.” Although in no way comparable to Whistler’s pandemic year, Hasan said the spring shoulder season has historically been a slower period when local hotels complete necessary upgrades and maintenance work, which lessens the sting of Monday’s announcement somewhat. But for Whistler’s small businesses, particularly those in front-facing industries, the latest measures, including last week’s extension of the indoor dining ban, come as another blow in an already devastating year. “All closures have a significant impact on the community; there’s no doubt about that. What that significant impact might be, we’re not sure,” said Melissa Pace, CEO of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce. The chamber got an early gauge of the impact at its weekly advocacy meeting on Tuesday. Pace said she heard from a handful of restauranteurs without patio space who have had to temporarily close and lay off staff. Other businesses reported staff accommodations sitting empty.
“We hope we can get back to a normal business flow soon so we can get that labour back and we can fill those beds,” she added. It speaks to a wider long-term problem facing Whistler’s business sector: the mass exodus of workers looking for greener pastures. “A lot of the labour is leaving because of the affordability issue we have here in the community, so if they are not going to work and are relying on very little income, they will move to a community that is more affordable,” Pace said, adding that recruitment is something the chamber and its advocacy committee has been working on. It’s the delicate balance between physical and economic health that vacation hotspots the world over have had to strike, and one that TW had been promoting even before the pandemic hit as Whistler strove to curb the effects of overtourism. “Tourism Whistler, prior to the pandemic, had been talking about balanced visitation, so even when visitation comes back, our goal will be to encourage longer length stays; to encourage people to come up in the midweek so it’s not just a bottleneck on weekends; to be working on moving people around the resort so there is dispersion,” she said. “Will there be pent-up demand for tourism? I’m sure that there will be. And will the businesses be wanting to welcome tourism back? Yes, they definitely will be, but it all has to be balanced.” n
NEWS WHISTLER
“The power of a shared goal, and as unsexy as it sounds, a shared workback plan is hard to overestimate.”
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WHISTLER’S MAYOR JOINED a host of B.C. leaders who laid out their vision for a 2030 Winter Olympic bid that could help the province’s struggling tourism economy recover post-pandemic. Mayor Jack Crompton was part of a virtual panel on Friday, April 16 hosted by the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade that explored the possibility of a regionally focused Winter Games that would rely on existing facilities to create what 2010 Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) president John Furlong said could be the most cost-efficient Games in history. “I think I’d prefer if it was the Whistler 2030 Games, but I think B.C. 2030 makes a lot of sense,” Crompton said during the panel. “One of the most important things for me is the conversation that would need to happen with our community, and when I talk to people around town, there’s a lot of excitement.” At the root of a B.C. bid is the idea that no taxpayer money would be used for venue construction, instead utilizing 2010 Olympic legacy facilities in Vancouver and Whistler, as well as existing venues in communities across B.C. Furlong envisioned “as many as eight or nine” host communities taking part. “We have what we need, indeed more than what we need,” he said. “So the vision for 2030 is a radical shift away from what was used in terms of cost structure and the scope is very different.” A B.C.-wide Games could also serve as a much-needed boon for a tourism sector that is likely to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for years to come. “But how do you invest to get back to a different future going forward?” asked Tourism Vancouver president Royce Chwin. “Something like the Games, the dollars involved, provide a catalyst for that and provides a media platform that we would never be able to afford that would have Vancouver, the rest of British Columbia, and Canada in the conversation, where the world would be looking in as we work towards those Games. I like what that does for the opportunity to rebuild and restart the sector.” There’s also ample opportunity to build on the momentum of 2010 for Indigenous tourism, which had been enjoying significant growth until the pandemic hit, said Brenda Baptiste, chair of Indigenous Tourism BC. “[The 2010 Games] really brought out the importance of Indigenous tourism, and the importance of us making a decision about what we’re going to share
within our culture, what we’re going to highlight and share with our visitors and what we’re going to protect as sacred to our nations. It brought that forward but it also showcased to our visitors that there’s a deeper meaningful connection that we can have with our visitors,” she said. “[Indigenous tourism] has actually grown 20 per cent per year since the 2010 Olympics, and certainly we’ve had major opportunities in terms of economic development that hasn’t had an impact on the economic growth of this province, and I believe that the 2030 Olympics will continue to build on that success.” Relying so heavily on private funding doesn’t exclude the potential for
THINKING OF BUYING OR SELLING?
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BY BRANDON BARRETT
CONTACT JAMES FOR AVAILABILITY
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WHISTLER MAYOR VOICES SUPPORT FOR B.C.-WIDE BID
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B.C. leaders make case for hosting regenerative 2030 Olympics
government investment into social and infrastructural projects in the lead-up to the Games, noted Jane Bird of Bennett Jones LLP, pointing to legacy housing and the construction of Vancouver’s Canada Line as an important consequence of the 2010 Olympics. “There’s nothing like an event to bring it crystal clear and to get the broader community focused on what matters to them and what is less important. It’s kind of like having a work-back plan,” she said. “I think the power of a shared goal, and as unsexy as it sounds, a shared work-back plan is hard to overestimate. It just makes real the initiatives that sometimes have a tendency to drift.” Crompton pointed to the affordable housing initially built for the Athlete’s Village in Cheakamus Crossing as one of the 2010 Games’ “biggest legacies” for Whistler, and wants any future bid including Whistler to have a similar spinoff effect. “I don’t see any massive chasm that can’t be crossed aside from community buy-in and I think that’s the most critical piece to this, and we will learn a lot in that conversation,” he said. “For me, Indigenous communities and the host nations need to be on board, and we need to be tackling the issues that we have today: climate, housing, and affordability for our whole region.” n
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APRIL 22, 2021
15
NEWS WHISTLER
Whistler to consider lowering speed limits in neighbourhoods COUNCIL BRIEFS: SHOULD WHISTLER DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY?; TAX BYLAWS GET FIRST READING
BY BRADEN DUPUIS WHISLERITES WITH a need for speed might soon be applying the brakes in residential neighbourhoods. A resolution introduced at the April 20 meeting of Whistler’s mayor and council will begin the process of lowering local speed limits from 50 to 30 kilometres an hour. The resolution—which directs municipal staff “to prepare a report outlining the implementation process and timing to reduce the speed limit for appropriate municipal neighbourhood roadways to 30 km/hr”—comes on the heels of an April 6 presentation at Whistler’s Committee of the Whole. It’s been an ongoing discussion throughout mayor and council’s term, urged on by residents in Nicklaus North,
Rainbow and Cheakamus (where a sevenyear-old was hit by a car in 2019). At least two other Whistlerites were hit by cars in residential neighbourhoods this winter, one a holder of the Freedom of the Municipality, noted Councillor Cathy Jewett at the April 20 meeting. “I just want to be sure that we knew that this is going to really, hopefully, affect people if people can actually slow down,” she said. Coun. Jen Ford was the first to bring the issue to council after she attended the Vision Zero Summit in Surrey in February 2018. One of her takeaways from the event, she said at the time, was that a 30 km/h speed limit makes sense, as research shows the probability of pedestrian survival is about 90 per cent if struck by a vehicle at that speed, but reduced to 20 per cent if struck by a vehicle travelling at 50 km/h. Coun. John Grills challenged his fellow council members to actually drive the local
SLOW IT DOWN Residents in Whistler’s Nicklaus North will be glad to hear council is working to lower speed limits in residential neighbourhoods after they mounted a campaign to do just that in 2019. FILE PHOTO BY BRADEN DUPUIS
neighbourhoods at 30 km/hr prior to voting on any resolutions, to “get a feel for it, so when we’re voting on this we experience what we’re voting on in advance,” he said. “We don’t often get to do that.” Council first adopted a traffic calming policy in 2001, later amending it in 2004. The current policy serves as a guide for
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NEWS WHISTLER << FROM PAGE 16 municipal hall or online. The latest report and any potential resolutions will be presented at an upcoming meeting.
SHOULD WHISTLER DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY? While more than 500 communities across Canada have passed resolutions declaring a climate emergency—including more than 30 in B.C.—the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) has yet to follow suit. It’s an interesting anomaly for a community that prides itself on being a leader, and a question raised by Councillor Cathy Jewett after a presentation at the April 20 council meeting. The short answer from municipal staff’s perspective is that Whistler has already recognized the importance of climate action by signing on to things like the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program (and was the first community to reach the national program’s final milestone, all the way back in 2007) and the B.C. Climate Action Charter. “The climate emergency is a similar thing; in and of itself making the declaration of the emergency is very similar, in my mind, to making the commitments towards the Climate Action Charter and PCP before,” said general manager of corporate and
community services Ted Battiston, adding that staff felt its energies “were better spent on actual policy changes, actual projects, rather than restating what we felt we had already stated twice before over the last 15 or 25 years.” That said, it is “certainly council’s purview to reconsider that and make a statement, if that was important to it,” Battiston said. The argument made sense to Jewett, “but I can also see that lending our voices to the other municipalities would be a very important show of support,” she said. “Perhaps we could look upon it as renewing our vows.” Coun. Arthur De Jong also supported making the declaration. “If the community gets an uplift from it, let’s do it, but to Mr. Battiston’s points, we went through a [Community Energy and Climate Action Plan], we developed our Big Moves [Strategy], I mean, we declared war on climate,” De Jong said. “We’ve been in the trenches a long time, and emotionally, if that can give us more energy on climate, and moving forward the Big Moves, great. Let’s do it.”
TAX BYLAWS, BUDGET AMENDMENT GET FIRST READINGS Whistler council gave first three readings to a bylaw that will enable a 1.08-per-cent tax increase in 2021 at its April 20 meeting.
There is no increase to sewer and water parcel fees this year. The modest increase was settled on after council reconsidered an initial 4.89-per-cent increase in light of COVID-19 last year—but it will have implications for higher tax increases in the years to come. The change was made possible by higher-than-expected revenues, cuts to expenditures and more than $3 million in COVID-related restart funds from the provincial and federal governments, but it will require a draw on municipal reserves—a move overwhelmingly supported by the community during budget consultations this year—to make it happen. The 1.08-per-cent increase will equate to an increase of about $16.81 on a property assessed at $1 million. Council also gave first three readings to a budget amendment bylaw on April 20 that shifts spending for five different projects—one of them being the 2021 Summer Experience Plan. With visitor volumes expected to meet or exceed levels seen in 2020, the summer ops plan aims to address issues of capacity while maintaining safe COVID-19 protocols and supporting local businesses. The total value of the 2021 Summer Experience Plan—first outlined in a presentation on March 16—is just over $1.7 million, with about two thirds already covered under the current budget. A further $464,315 will be covered using the Festivals, Events & Animation budget,
THANK YOU FOR A GREAT WINTER SEASON! On behalf of everyone at Whistler Olympic Park, we would like to thank our community for their tremendous support in this unique and challenging season! Thanks to your collective patience and diligence in following Covid-19 safety protocols, we were able to navigate through this winter, providing outdoor activities and growing sport. Thank you for choosing us as a way to find joy in nature! A sincere Thank You to our committed staff, our many dedicated volunteers who supported our operations this season, and to our clubs and community partners. Take care of yourselves, and see you back on the trails next season!
Thank you to our valued guests for submitting these photos! All images were taken while following COVID-19 protocols.
18 APRIL 22, 2021
leaving $234,678 in new spending. The RMOW expects much of that to be recovered via the introduction of pay parking at four parks: Rainbow, Lakeside, Alpha and Wayside (rates will be in line with the Day Lots). Grant funding from the Canada Healthy Communities Initiative could further offset between $200,000 and $250,000, though the RMOW isn’t budgeting for that just yet. With all of that in mind, the net new spending anticipated in the April 20 budget amendment is just under $5,000. Other proposals in the 2021 summer plan include regular shuttles to Rainbow Park (with stops at Meadow Park and the Rainbow Lake Trailhead) operating out of the Day Lots; privately-operated bike rentals; expanded bike valet services; enhanced animation to help disperse crowds throughout the valley; and an increase to washroom facilities, garbage and compost bins, food service and park hosts. The amendment shifts spending for other projects, too: $1 million to upgrade a section of Valley Trail and add lighting in Alta Vista; $165,859 for snowmaking infrastructure in Lost Lake Park (bolstering a $750,000 grant); $20,000 to accommodate staff changes in the planning department; and $100,000 to pay for work tied to two Union of BC Municipalities grant applications (the work will only go ahead if the applications are successful). Both bylaws will be up for adoption at an upcoming council meeting. n
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NEWS WHISTLER
Whistler has been home to COVID breath test trial that could help open up society MORE THAN 500 PEOPLE IN WHISTLER AND NORTH VAN HAVE VOLUNTEERED TO BE PART OF COVID-19 DETECTION STUDY
BY BRANDON BARRETT WHISTLER HAS BEEN one of the hubs for a Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) trial that analyzes breath samples to detect COVID-19, which officials say could be used to help open up society more quickly as the pandemic wears on. Launched last May, the breath analysis test research was initially meant to detect lung cancer, but with distancing protocols limiting the flow of test patients into hospitals, the trial eventually shifted to see if the test could detect COVID-19. Armed with state-of-the-art breathnomics equipment, thanks to a grant from the VCH Research Institute as well as donations from the Leung family and Beedie Foundation, researchers initially tested patients in Vancouver General Hospital and determined they were able to detect COVID-19. The detection works by collecting a breath sample and then analyzing it for “volatile organic compounds.” The sample is then run through a highly sensitive machine called a
gas chromatography mass spectrometer at the lab, which takes about an hour to produce a result. While researchers are confident in the test’s ability to detect the virus, the goal is to eventually narrow down which specific compounds constitute a COVID-19-positive result. Once that is achieved, the idea is to program smaller, point-of-care machines that would be used at large-scale events and airports to screen for the virus—yielding a result in less than a minute. “The importance of this is to create a very accurate and rapid test that can be used,” said researcher Dr. Renelle Myers. “Our vision is that this is a breath test that could help open society again. “You envision going to a hockey game, a concert, or at school, and as you walk in the door you do a quick breath test and you’re cleared. It would be that rapid.” Some airports around the globe have implemented breath-test devices to screen for COVID-19, but Myers said the most common equipment used, called the E-Nose, doesn’t delve into the same diagnostic detail as the locally run test. “The difference with ours is we’re not just looking for a yes-no signal. I’m looking
for what makes that a yes signal and can I identify what makes it a positive COVID signal and it will have a very high accuracy,” she said. So far, more than 500 people in Whistler and on the North Shore have volunteered to take part in the trial while obtaining their standard PCR COVID test. Given Whistler’s high prevalence of the virus and its relatively young, healthy population, the resort was an ideal location to set up the trial, said Myers. “That’s really what we’re looking for: To narrow down the signal, we want young, healthy people that don’t have any other lung disease that can muddy the signal,” she explained. “Because we call this a discovery study, going to places like Whistler that had at times an elevated positivity rate and very young, healthy people, it was the perfect place to do something.” Meanwhile, Whistler’s mass vaccinatoin campaign was slated to conclude April 18. (A future vaccination day is likely to be added in Whistler for those who were unable to get immunized in recent days.) The resort continues to be a hotspot for transmission, recording 179 new lab-
confirmed cases of the virus between April 6 and 11, with the majority of those cases among young adults who live and work in the community, VCH said. The health authority noted household settings and social gatherings continue to be the most common transmission locations. Between Jan. 1 and April 11 of this year, Whistler saw 1,685 COVID cases. Of those, 1,457 individuals have recovered and 14 were hospitalized. The Old Spaghetti Factory was also shut down on April 5, part of a new Expedited Workplace Closure order that was put in place this month to allow WorkSafeBC inspectors to shutter a business temporarily as a means to prevent further spread of the virus. When a closure is ordered, WorkSafe BC or VCH’s environmental health officer will work with the business to review and enhance safety plans, as needed, before reopening. The Scandinave Spa reopened on Friday, April 16 after being closed temporarily after transmission occurred among staff members. A spokesperson for the spa said staff reorganized some administrative office space to ensure better physical distancing before reopening. n
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21
NEWS WHISTLER
Crime in Whistler was on a downward swing in 2020 NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS INCLUDE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, HARASSMENT AND SERIOUS COLLISIONS
BY BRANDON BARRETT I N A Y E A R when the COVID19 pandemic has changed so many elements of life, crime was no exception. Presenting at the Tuesday, April 20 Committee of the Whole meeting, Whistler RCMP gave elected officials a glimpse into the numerous ways the pandemic has shifted criminal patterns in the resort. Unsurprisingly, with tourism slowed to a trickle for much of the year, Whistler’s criminal statistics were down across the board—with some notable exceptions. Overall, violent crime dropped seven per cent, from 190 to 177 incidents. Assaults were also down, by nine per cent, from 107 to 97 reports, although within that category, assaults with a weapon or assaults causing bodily harm rose from nine incidents in 2019 to 12 last year. Sex offences overall were down 38 per cent, including sexual assault, which decreased from 29 incidents in 2019 to 17. Domestic violence, however, bucked that trend, increasing by 31 per cent, from 32 incidents in 2019 to 42
last year. This reflects a wider national and international trend during the pandemic, as the stress of lockdown has put victims at greater risk of intimate partner violence. “Some of this can be related to COVID. There has been an increase in some domestic situations where people are housed in the same houses,” said Staff Sgt. Sascha Banks during the presentation. Last year, the Sea to Sky RCMP created a specialized position to address domestic and sexual violence, launched with support from several local socialservice organizations, which could have also contributed to the increase. “When we actually brought the domestic violence, sexual assault position into Squamish, we saw an increase in sexual assaults. And part of that would be because we have the tools and the relationships built with places like the Howe Sound Women’s Centre, and we’re able to do a bit more of the victim contact and make it a more positive environment because there’s a lot of underreporting in those types of categories,” Banks noted. Harassment (23 per cent) and uttering threats (32 per cent) were also up, another possible effect of the pandemic, explained Banks.
“Some of these can be related to some of that COVID-type behaviour that we’re seeing where people are just getting upset and frustrated,” she said. In a similar vein, mental healthrelated calls were unsurprisingly also up, rising five per cent from 2019, a trend that has continued in the early months of 2021, Banks said. “It’s not rocket science that a lot of this has to do with COVID and what that’s doing to people with the loss of jobs, finances, and the overall isolation that certain people are feeling,” she added. Property crime, meanwhile, saw a major decrease of 29 per cent, from 656 incidents in 2019 to 467, and was down in every related category save one: theft over $5,000, which increased from four to five incidents. That includes bike theft, an issue that has stuck in the craw of local police for years, which dropped 27 per cent, from 51 to 37 incidents. Drug offences contributed to the overall downward slide, with possession charges declining a whopping 67 per cent, from 76 to 25 incidents, and well below the recent high of 2016, which saw 251 incidents. Trafficking charges were also down, falling from 23 to 12 incidents. In terms of traffic safety, another major
enforcement priority for local Mounties, the pandemic likely contributed to a 23-per-cent drop in overall motor vehicle incidents, while the severity of the accidents that did occur signalled a less promising trend. Collisions causing less than $10,000 in damage rose from 75 to 95 incidents, while collisions resulting in more than $10,000 in damage jumped 64 per cent, from 22 to 36 incidents. “You had some quite serious collisions within our area and to the north of us,” Banks said, adding that police noted an increase in motorcycles in the area last summer, which likely contributed to the rise. “You have fewer people coming up here but you have more serious collisions.” Without its regular influx of revellers, Whistler also saw a 39-per-cent decrease in impaired driving, down from 544 incidents in 2019 to 330 last year. In total, Whistler RCMP received 4,314 calls for service last year, a 15-percent drop from 2019. Local officers, who were vaccinated earlier this month, also issued $69,940 in COVID-related fines between October 2020 and March 2021. “Our guys know how to do these tickets and they have a zero-tolerance policy,” Banks said. n
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The Whistler Valley Housing Society is seeking applications for nominations to the Board of Directors and interested Residents, Non-profits and Businesses for Members at Large.
Resort Municipality of Whistler
Call for Working Group Members Age-Friendly Assessment and Action Plan
The Resort Municipality of Whistler is currently developing an Age-Friendly Assessment and Action Plan. To inform this process, a working group will be created to identify priorities and potential actions to be incorporated into the Age-Friendly Action Plan. The Working Group has openings for two community members aged 55+ to be part of the working group for this project.
For more information and to learn how to submit your expression of interest, call 604-935-8170 or visit whistler.ca/AgeFriendly. Expressions of interest must be received by noon on May 3, 2021.
Resort Municipality of Whistler whistler.ca/AgeFriendly
Board of Directors Term until 2022 AGM Interested in people with either lived experience or formals skills in the following areas: • • • • • •
Finance Policy, planning, advocacy Legal/Risk management Community Development Lived Experience Familiarity with affordable housing programs/construction industry
The Whistler Valley Housing Society is a not-for-profit established in 1983 and is the owner of Whistler Creek Court a 20 unit affordable rental housing project for Whistler employees. The society’s purpose is to supply, operate, manage and maintain low and moderate income housing on a nonprofit basis for Whistler employees.
If interested, please contact: cjewett@whistler.ca Application Deadline is May 14th, 2021. APRIL 22, 2021
23
NEWS WHISTLER
BCWS expects ‘normal’ wildfire season WHISTLER FIREFIGHTERS ‘OVER THE HUMP’ OF COVID
BY BRADEN DUPUIS WHILE WHISTLER and the Sea to Sky are enjoying sunshine and hot weather this week, the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) is anticipating a “normal” fire season for the rest of the summer—depending on when or if “Juneuary” arrives. “We’re going into the spring with enough rain [having] occurred over the winter for the forests to rehydrate themselves well, so we don’t have drought on the Coast at this point … which is great news,” said Donna MacPherson, fire information officer with the BCWS’ Coastal Fire Centre. But the long-range wildfire forecast depends on what happens in June, MacPherson added. “June we call ‘Juneuary’ on the Coast because sometimes, like last year, it’s cool and it’s wet,” she said, adding that the prolonged periods of rain and cool temperatures often seen in June serve to rehydrate Coastal forests “really, really well.” When that happens, as it’s expected to this year, forests are in good shape during the typically dry months of July and August. “If we don’t get Juneuary, and we have dry April, May and June and then we go into
IN THE WILD A BC Wildfire Service firefighter cleans up after a fire in the Squamish Valley last spring. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BC WILDFIRE SERVICE
July and August, that’s usually when it’s a higher-than-average fire season for us,” MacPherson said. For Whistler, a week of hot weather and blue-sky sunshine is pushing the local fire danger rating to high heading into the weekend. “Hopefully the weather is cooling down a little bit, and the weekend looks like it’s going to rain, so we’ll get a bit of a reprieve,” said Chris Nelson, deputy fire chief with the Whistler Fire Rescue Service (WFRS). At this point, the message for the public
is just to be very cautious, Nelson said. “Just as we’re protecting ourselves from COVID, we have to protect ourselves from wildland [urban interface] fires,” he said. “It’s early detection, early response, and actually prevention in the first place … So we’re lucky we have enough people out in the forest that do have eyes and ears and are very conscious, and we’re on it.” Report suspected wildfires immediately by calling 1-800-663-5555 or *5555 on a cell phone. In Whistler, call 911. Though COVID has impacted the WFRS
team in recent weeks—and a number of members are still unable to return to work— the department is now “over the hump,” and there is no impact on its ability to respond to fires, Nelson said. “We’re fine … throughout the whole [pandemic] we have always maintained a four-person on-duty response; the firstout truck,” Nelson said, adding that only one paid-on-call staff member reported contracting the virus. “So we are very fortunate that the paidon-call staff were minimally affected. It was more so the career staff that was more affected, through a number of different circumstances.” The surge in COVID cases in Whistler in recent weeks has also hampered the WFRS’ ability to do its weekly training scenarios, though the department has been able to offer online training courses for its members in the meantime. Depending on how COVID case numbers trend, Nelson said he hopes to resume in-person training on May 10. “It’s like anything else … the more training you get, the better you become,” he said. “So it’s that balancing act where we’re still an essential service and we have to respond, but we also have to be respectful. We don’t want to spread [the virus].” n
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NEWS WHISTLER
Cleaning up Canada’s highways one bottle at a time—on foot ANDY SWARD IS BRINGING HIS MILLION BOTTLE PLEDGE UP THE SEA TO SKY HIGHWAY FOR EARTH DAY—AND HE’S ASKING LOCALS TO PITCH IN
You aren’t invincible after one dose
BY ALYSSA NOEL ANDY SWARD doesn’t want to burst our Whistler bubble, but he comes bearing some bad news. “I hate to say it, but … on my first trip up there this time last year—for Earth Day—I posted on my Million Bottle Pledge Instagram and Facebook page, ‘This might be the dirtiest highway in Canada,’” he said. If anyone knows the state of trash along the country’s highways, it’s Sward. The Coquitlam man has run across Canada— coast to coast—three times picking up trash along the way since 2013. In total, that’s added up to 28,909 kilometres and 128,113 bottles, cans and single-use cups. His goal is to reach one million. At his current rate, however, that won’t happen until he’s 104 years old. So, he’s asking for help. While COVID-19 foiled his plans for a cross-Canada run last year, Sward is hoping to use “Earth Week” as a chance to warm up for the journey this summer. When he spoke to Pique on Friday, April 16, his plan was to leave his home in Coquitlam on the weekend, run 40 km a day and make his way up to Whistler by Thursday night to mark Earth Day before carrying on to Pemberton and Mount Currie. His hope: Communities along the way will help him pick up litter to add to his total count and chip away at his goal of 1 million pieces of trash collected. “The more people who do get up and clean, or share it, or talk about it, eventually it will reach [the people littering] and hopefully they’ll stop,” Sward said. His Whistler friends Yohann Barelli and Amanda Steel planned to do a sweep of that section of the highway to collect trash ahead of time, meaning whatever is on the road by the time Sward comes through will be freshly tossed—either intentionally or by accident—by recent travellers. Sward is entirely self-sufficient, using a running stroller to push his camping and personal gear with bags attached to the sides to collect the trash. He also uses a clicker, like the kind you’d see the doorman at a bar use to count patrons, to count trash collected. People pull over all the time to ask him what he’s doing. “Anybody who pulls over and chats will want to hear the story and want to know what’s going on, especially if they see me clean up trash in their community,” he said. To that end, he’s made friends across the country over his three trips. In nonCOVID-19 times, he would stay with them for a bit of reprieve from the road. “Before the pandemic came along, I would never have to go a week to 10 days before staying at a friend’s house,” he says.
BOTTLED UP Andy Sward is running up the Sea to Sky Highway to celebrate Earth Day and pick up trash as part of his Million Bottle Pledge. PHOTO SUBMITTED
“I’d rest up, take a day off, they’d feed me and send me off.” It sounds like an impossible feat, but Sward said he’s driven by a love of his country, a desire to draw attention to the amount of litter we create and how many single-use items we consume, and the pull of the journey. In 2019, his last trip, which started in Tofino and ended in Cape Spear, Nfld., took seven months. The rest of the year he worked as much as he could in the restaurant business to support his efforts. “I’ve had so many people tell me, ‘I wish I had the time to run across Canada or do what you do,’” he said. “I have two nieces and many friends with young children— some with new babies this year—I figure since I don’t have to be responsible for my own children … I’ll try to make this country, this planet better for [those kids].” To follow Sward on his journey—and to log your own cleanup efforts to help him reach his goal—visit millionbottle. com, facebook.com/millionbottlepledge, or Instagram.com/millionbottlepledge.
EARTH DAY PANEL DISCUSSION The Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment (AWARE) is hosting a panel discussion on Earth Day, April 22, to consider lessons learned during the pandemic and look ahead to how we can do better moving forward. The free event will include Mike Douglas, from Protect Our Winters (POW) Canada, Danielle Kristmanson of Origin, and Johnny Mikes from Coast to Cascade Grizzly Bear Alliance. It’s set to take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Zoom. Register at awarewhistler.org. n
You can still catch and spread COVID-19 Public Health Orders and guidelines still apply: Take it outside Avoid indoor get-togethers Wear a mask and keep your distance in public Stay local, don’t travel to other parts of B.C.
www.vch.ca/whistler www.whistler.ca/covid19 APRIL 22, 2021
25
NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLEY
South Britannia surf park eyes 2024 opening DEVELOPMENT SOUTH OF SQUAMISH PLANS FOR MORE THAN 1,000 UNITS OF HOUSING
BY BRADEN DUPUIS A REZONING for a major development south of Squamish is still awaiting first reading at the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD). South Britannia, as it’s called by proponent Tigerbay Development Corp., includes plans for a new state-of-the-art surf park and more than 1,000 homes, along with commercial facilities, community amenities, camping and more. The proposal was back in front of the SLRD board on March 24, and the developer hopes the board will consider first reading at an upcoming meeting. “It’s a big project, and it’s going to take time to make everyone comfortable with the whole proposal, and we feel like we’re pretty much there,” said Tony Petricevic, head of development with Tigerbay (formerly Taicheng Development Corp.). “The staff have been really good to work with … I hope that we’re one meeting away from getting to first reading.” The project’s master plan envisions four development phases, starting with
SURF’S UP An overhead conceptual rendering of the planned development at South Britannia. IMAGE COURTESY OF TIGERBAY DEVELOPMENT CORP.
26 APRIL 22, 2021
the surf park—powered by a company called Wavegarden—and some commercial opportunities in Phase 1. Surf park technology has finally reached a point where it’s financially feasible to build from a business perspective, Petricevic said, adding that the proposal has already garnered interest from CSA Surf Canada and other surfing enthusiasts.
Bosa Properties’ Sea and Sky development in downtown Squamish. “That’s a good comparison of a community which would be similar in style, whereby there will be a focus on modern architecture, and for lack of better words, well-priced housing, which young families can afford,” he said. The entire four-phase master plan
“[I]t’s going to change the landscape of the lower region, and I’m excited about it. I think that there’s a lot of really good ideas, and we’re just kinda nailing down some of the commitments at this time. So it’s a big process.” - JEN FORD
“The actual surfing industry has accepted these artificial waves as well, and so it’s taken off internationally, these surf parks,” he said. “What it’s really done is allowed for athletes to train and get better, but also to grow the sport.” Phase 2 will include about 250 to 300 homes—a mix of duplexes, townhouses and apartments—at market prices, Petricevic said, comparing the community aesthetic to
allows for up 1,050 homes: 900 market houses and 150 apartments, 50 of which will be affordable housing units. If the majority of the rezoning is finished this year, the surf park could open by 2024. But the proposal is a massive development with a lot of moving parts, said SLRD chair Jen Ford. “It’s not as simple as, ‘We’re going to build 100 houses.’ It’s, ‘We’re going to build all these houses, and a campground, and
a surf park … not only that, but making accessible the oceanfront, which currently it’s not easy to get to the oceanfront in that area,” Ford said. “So it’s going to change the landscape of the lower region, and I’m excited about it. I think that there’s a lot of really good ideas, and we’re just kinda nailing down some of the commitments at this time. So it’s a big process.” Some of the main concerns from the SLRD board to date have been about water usage—where it comes from, how it’s treated, and where it ends up, Ford said. “We recognize that the Howe Sound, over the last 30 years, has come back to a really healthy ecosystem, and so you don’t want to upset that after so many years of restoration, and real commitment from the whole area,” she said. “So those are big questions that need to be answered before we move forward.” Other lingering questions include things like labour, energy use, the impact on Squamish’s employment base, and services for the new proposed community, Ford added. The proponents are planning another open house as they work through the rezoning, and comments can be submitted to info@southbritannia.com. A public hearing will also be part of the process. Read more at southbritannia.com. n
NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLEY
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BC PARKS will add two new summer employment opportunities in the Sea to Sky this year. A planning intern and an administrative intern will be based at Alice Lake Provincial Park in Squamish for 14 weeks, but “they are supporting parks in the region,” a spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Environment & Climate Change Strategy said in an email. In total, $4 million has been set aside for the youth employment program with BC Parks and the BC Conservation Officer Service to fund 83 positions. That includes 37 youth positions with BC Parks and 46 with the Conservation Officer Service. The jobs will be spread throughout the province with job posts set to go up in the coming days. The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), BC Chapter, applauded the additional summer positions. “I think it’s great,” said Tori Ball, senior campaigner with CPAWS BC. “I did an intern program with Parks Canada when I was in university and that was a great experience for me. I’m excited that’s an opportunity that more people will have.” But that’s not all the organization was happy about last week. On Friday, April 16, the province announced $83 million in funding for BC Parks over three years for both operating and capital budgets. That will result “in new campsites, expanded trails and strengthened management of the park system, making visits to provincial parks more enjoyable than ever,” according to a release from the ministry. The funding includes up to $36 million planned for operations and $47 million for capital investment. From 2014 to 2019, BC Parks saw a 23-per-cent increase in visitors and, in 2020, experienced a record-breaking
270,000 camping reservations. As a result, some of the funding will go to new campgrounds, more campsites and amenities at existing campgrounds. This season, 185 sites are being added to BC Parks. While that includes 90 sites in Manning Park, scheduled to open in July 2021, there’s no word yet on where the other 95 might be. “The pandemic has brought more people than ever to visit BC Parks so they can safely spend time with family and friends while connecting in nature,” said George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy during a press conference. “Investing in our parks helps secure our magnificent natural legacy so more British Columbians can appreciate its beauty. We are also supporting local businesses and the economy by creating employment opportunities through new investments in park infrastructure.” As Ball pointed out, the investment is the biggest the province has seen in parks in three decades—and it’s something CPAWS has long been advocating for. “Last year pointed out a lot of the shortfalls and cracks in the system as demand increased throughout the pandemic,” she added. “But it’s really part of a larger trend for outdoor recreation. Demand has been increasing over the last decade or more. The parks hit a breaking point through COVID. It’s great to see the government taking action to improve campsites and trails and get more staff into parks.” For her part, Ball, who is based in Squamish, said she would love to see more infrastructure in Garibaldi Provincial Park—and the Sea to Sky’s other busy locations. “Alice Lake is somewhere I can’t go in the middle of the summer—even though it’s 10 minutes from me,” she said. “I can’t get a parking spot. It will be great to be able to have more places for people to access, here in the Sea to Sky or spreading out demand [near] the Lower Mainland.” n
$1,948,000
PEMBERTON BENCHLANDS
This 4 bedroom quality-built timber frame home is at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac and includes a 1 bedroom revenue suite, oversized garage and huge rec room. A beautiful family home on The Pemberton Benchlands.
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BY ALYSSA NOEL
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PHOTO BY ALYSSA NOEL
Province announces infusion of funding for BC Parks
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Gorgeous custom built home with spacious outdoor space, this 3 bed 2.5 bath family home offers a huge bonus room with wood burning stove. The 2 bedroom suite can be incorporated into the home or from an exterior entrance! Bedrooms:
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$340,000 Walk to the pristine Gates Lake from this 1.34acreBirkenbuildinglot.Withincredible views, a current Geotech report, active electrical service and authorized driveway access; this property is ready for you to create your dream home! Lot Size:
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604 894 5166 WHISTLERREALESTATE.CA APRIL 22, 2021
27
WHISTLER FIRE RESCUE SERVICE Paid On Call Firefighters Wanted
NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLEY
Enjoy a physical challenge? Enjoy a team environment? Enjoy serving your community?
This could be the opportunity for you. The Whistler Fire Rescue Service is now accepting applications for Paid On Call Firefighters. Interested applicants are also invited to attend a question and answer session being held via Zoom on April 29 at 7 p.m. For information and applications please go to: www.whistler.ca/fire
Closing Date: May 4, 2021 at 4:30 p.m.
Resort Municipality of Whistler whistler.ca/fire
SHARE YOUR VIEWS The Special Committee to Review Provisions of the Election Act wants to hear from you about:
ANNUAL ALLOWANCES FOR BC POLITICAL PARTIES Share your thoughts by May 28. For full details visit our website, email us at electionactcommittee@leg.bc.ca, or call us toll-free at 1-877-428-8337
www.leg.bc.ca/cmt/rpea
28 APRIL 22, 2021
TRANSIT TRACKING The Village of Pemberton, Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Area C, and Lil’wat Nation are conducting a transit study for the region, including a survey that’s open now. PHOTO BY HAILEY RITCHIE
Pemberton Valley residents asked to weigh in on transit SLRD, LIL’WAT NATION AND VILLAGE OF PEMBERTON TAKING PART IN TRANSIT STUDY WITH SURVEY FOR PUBLIC FEEDBACK UNTIL APRIL 28
BY ALYSSA NOEL THE SQUAMISH-LILLOOET Regional District (SLRD), along with the Village of Pemberton (VOP) and Lil’wat Nation, have launched a study to learn more about the area’s transit needs—and plan for the future. The goal is to figure out the best way to effectively and fairly use shared resources to maximize transit options available in the valley, particularly as the vision for regional service linking Pemberton to Whistler moves forward, according to an SLRD release. “Our communities are growing, and transit is a service that enhances quality of life for residents, by improving access to healthcare, employment opportunities and education, while also reducing our environmental impact and carbon footprint,” said Russell Mack, director of SLRD Area C, in a release. “We hope that residents will share their thoughts on the transit service in the Pemberton Valley, and, in particular, ways that the service could be improved to meet the needs of our growing communities.” To that end, the first step in the study is public engagement through an online survey. “[The survey] will offer key information for us and help us develop a comprehensive program,” said Pemberton Mayor Mike Richman. “The way we look at it now trying to develop regional transit is that the spine is from Vancouver to Mount Currie. We will get that spine done—we’re committed to it and we’re going to make it happen. But how do we make that spine connect rural remote areas of our valley?” Dean Nelson, political chief of the
Lil’wat Nation, also encouraged the nation to take part in the survey. “The Lil’wat Nation is pleased to see this work move forward to better understand our transit system, and ultimately [improve] the experience for all of our community members,” he said in the release. “We encourage all Lil’wat citizens to be engaged in the process.” The study will be conducted by WATT Consultant Group, a company with transit planning expertise, along with representatives from the SLRD, VOP, and Lil’wat Nation. Currently, the VOP oversees the Pemberton Valley Transit System with funding shared by BC Transit, both local governments, and the Lil’wat Nation. “There’s been a budget for a couple years now to explore what transit should and could look like for Area C and more remote areas of our valley,” Richman said. “Director Mack and I felt it was time to get it going and put those funds out.” While some rural residents might not currently consider riding transit into Pemberton and beyond, Richman encourages them to think of the long-term big picture. “We’re hoping people will look with a broad-minded approach to the future. When we have that transit, what would people really like to see? Whether they live in D’arcy or Pemberton Meadows, what would help them? Is it a matter of getting to town or getting to town and providing park and ride access to regional transit to Vancouver and Whistler?” Richman said. “We’re really hopeful people will look at that big, long-term picture.” Residents can fill out the survey until April 28 at s.alchemer-ca.com/s3/ Pemberton-Local-Transit-FeasibilityStudy-Online-Survey. n
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29
SCIENCE MATTERS
Are we too hard on newly arrived plants and animals? AS HUMAN ACTIVITY continues to heat the planet and destroy wildlife habitat, plants and animals are responding based on their genetic makeup and ability to adapt to altered environments. Some are losing ground, landing on ever-growing species-at-risk lists or winking out altogether. Others are making gains, eking out their existence alongside us or even benefitting from habitat alteration we’ve caused—raccoons, for instance. Science writer Fred Pearce notes that “most of the losers are rare, endangered, and endemic species, while most of the winners are common, generalist, and
BY DAVID SUZUKI
Public No�ce
New Office Hours As of Monday, May 3rd, 2021 the Village of Pemberton’s office hours for access to Recep�on will be changing from 8:30am- 4:30p pm to
9am- 4pm (closed from noon- 1pm).
Arrangements can be made in advancee to visit the Village Office before opening and a�er closing if required. For contact informa�on, please visit ourr website at pemberton.ca
30 APRIL 22, 2021
invasive species—rats, mosquitoes, water hyacinth and the like.” “Assisted evolution” initiatives aim to help imperilled wildlife adapt more quickly to their changing environments than typically slow evolutionary processes would normally permit. In Australia, one program is aimed at helping the greater bilby, a threatened marsupial, learn to avoid predation by interlopers in their ecoregion—feral cats and foxes introduced by British colonizers. The cats have adapted successfully to their new environment and aren’t going anywhere. A team of researchers altered the standard conservation measure of building fences to keep the cats out, instead bringing cats into the fenced bilby refuges. This helps the bilbies learn avoidance, a skill they need for survival in the wild. Invasive species have long been recognized as key threats to native plants and animals. WWF’s “Living Planet Report Canada 2020” identifies them as a major cause of wildlife decline here. But as plant and animal species worldwide have started to shift ranges in response to warming climates and habitat destruction, narratives about invasives have also started to shift. In the past, conservationists viewed them negatively. Various eradication initiatives were established depending on government landscape management capacity, the threat invasives posed to at-risk species or economic ventures, proliferation levels and ease of eradication. (Think zebra mussels and purple loosestrife.) Now there’s a strong chance that species entering new areas are moving from warming and degraded habitats, and would benefit from human stewardship. How should we respond? Should we differentiate between those “invading” ecosystems as climate or habitat exiles and those that human travellers have carried to new places? Some scientists argue for such differentiation. University of Vienna conservation biologist Franz Essl and colleagues propose that species moving or expanding their ranges in response to human-caused environmental change
be classified as “neo-native” species, rather than “invasive species,” and that management directives reflect this distinction. To some extent, science supports a distinction, as species that move of their own accord are more likely to move in step with their natural counterparts than a species that, say, arrives in a ship’s hull. Some scientists have proposed the most logical way to determine how to manage an invasive species is to assess whether its presence has an overall positive or negative impact on the ecosystem. As Macalester College professor Mark Davis writes, “Whether because of climate or because people move them, species need to be evaluated on their own effects and not on whether they are natives or new natives or non-natives or non-natives moved by humans.” Effects of species on ecosystems are not singular, however, and consensus on ecological impacts doesn’t always exist. This can lead to ideological divergences in which some conservationists advance species eradication while others champion stewardship. As author Sonia Shah writes, “In California, wildlife officials attempted to exterminate Spartina cordgrass, introduced to the West from the salt marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, despite the fact that it provided foraging and nesting sites for endangered California clapper rails.” Ultimately, human hubris has driven many plants and animals toward extinction. It’s also hubris to attempt to “manage” species that have moved into new areas based on our somewhat subjective analyses of whether they’re doing more harm or good.
Ultimately, human hubris has driven many plants and animals toward extinction.
It’s clear that science alone can’t dictate a path forward. We must incorporate other inputs, such as foresight, precaution and Indigenous knowledge when overseeing programs to limit or support wildlife populations on land and in water. If we don’t take sufficient care to think these complex issues through, wildlife management will be driven only by the economic value that humans ascribe to some plant and animal species over others. The species most in need of better management is our own. David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Boreal Project Manager Rachel Plotkin. ■
RANGE ROVER
The travel bug AN AMUSING MOMENT occurred the other day. I was high in our local mountains, stripping off the skins after a long, leisurely climb in gloriously warm, bluebird conditions, two sips of beer, a shot of Fireball, and a handful of chocolate-covered espresso
BY LESLIE ANTHONY beans into the downhill transition when my eyes fixated on a startling anomaly: dirt under my fingernails. This was as an oddity because skitouring for me mostly occurs in wintery conditions, or during spring voyages to stillwintery Arctic redoubts to report a story. In such instances, where skiing is my work, I’m disposed of all usual hygiene amenities and tend to keep clean, glove-shrouded, vårvinter paws. Hell, I could meet Queen Silvia of Sweden out on the skin track and not think twice about yanking my glove off to shake her royal hand (unlike the starchy British monarchy, I’m imagining you can do this with the Swedish Queen). And yet, though I now stood atop a settled
ON THE ROAD A long-forgotten postcard— penned by Leslie Anthony while sitting on the side of a Chilean volcano in 1982. PHOTO BY LESLIE ANTHONY
three metres of snow amidst a positively Pleistocene vista, packed under protective keratin was incontrovertible evidence of dirty, highly advanced spring—or at least one I was engaged in on fronts other than skiing. This hadn’t happened in a while, if ever, so I blinked hard to see if it was true. Of course, it was. An unusually lengthy sunny spell had advanced spring-thinking, spring-cleaning, and spring-springing for many Whistlerites, myself included. But just how had I managed to pack so much dirt under my nails? Mucking around the swamps and hillsides of Pemberton surveying for critters probably started it, and stints of burdock patrol and early gardening rituals finished the job. It all brought into stark relief that I was juxtaposing something I usually undertook travel for with things I usually do at home in spring—an unusual combination. Which led to an unexpected observation: I miss travel. Just like that I allowed myself to feel something I hadn’t entertained in well over a year—the urge to go somewhere. Anywhere. It was a fleeting thought, and quickly tucked away. But now I knew it was there, under my skin, where many of you have it lodged as well—the travel bug. I suppose I could congratulate myself for being an adventure travel writer who has managed to not lose his shit during a year of enforced homefires, but doing what needs to be done shouldn’t come with any back-patting. Still, a significant
dimension of my life—and job—has been shut down completely pending some yetto-even-be-imagined resolution. Living in an amazing place like Whistler, at least, keeps one mentally sound, the hardships of not being able to travel for work being only financial. After all, when you live in a place where everyone wants to go, you can only be grateful. Still, the brief episode had me thinking of how much I’ve travelled in four decades and how it was never a plan but wove itself into my life a few threads at a time, until it was a fully formed textile that defined who I was and how I saw the world. But what hatched the bug? Summer vacations, stuffed into a hot station wagon with my three sparring brothers certainly hadn’t. Nor visiting my parents in their Florida winter retreat, ski trips with friends, or any other jaunts. What really kicked it off was my first big solo trip, skiing and travelling through Chile in 1982. The trip was defining in that it was something I cooked up and executed myself, at a time when few were doing such things, throwing caution to the wind in a post-coup country wracked with lawlessness and danger I was blissfully unaware of. If you asked me to recall anything from that trip at the moment, it would take a while to assemble the memories. Fortunately, in those days of mail being the only contact with the outside world, I sent many missives along the way, and a
postcard depicting Portillo that was recently shared by a friend—which I penned while being bitten by fleas in a mountain refugia on the side of a volcano—helps me see the ineffable roots of travel intoxication (as well as the still-juvenile machinations of my 25-year-old mind). Hey John, you turd! What’s happening? I hope you’re back on the Grad School track and not still working for some tire company—or worse, married. The trip so far has been really wild—but skiing hasn’t started yet so I have that to look forward to. You and Dave would freak down here as the fishing is spectacular, so many trout and salmon—especially in Tierra del Fuego where I was for two weeks. I had to get the f— out of there though because of the [Falkland Islands] war—which was also interesting. The Strait of Magellan was crammed with submarines and other naval vessels and there were lots of planes in the skies. Could not get into Argentina because of the situation—they would kill us, apparently, therefore I won’t see Argentina on this trip. Right now I’m halfway up a volcano called Osorno, tomorrow I’ll finish the climb if the weather is good. Take care. Xo Les The poet William Blake saw a world in a grain of sand, and I saw it in some dirty fingernails. Leslie Anthony is a Whistler-based author, editor, biologist and bon vivant who has never met a mountain he didn’t like. ■
APRIL 22, 2021
31
FEATURE STORY
Why didn’t B.C. ge on stopping trav How New Zealand and some Canadian regions blocked a By Kristina Jenei / The Tyee Editor’s Note: In what was probably B.C.’s biggest step to curb non-essential travel since the pandemic began, on Monday, April 19, Premier John Horgan announced measures that would limit British Columbians from booking accommodation from outside their health authority as well as a roadside checkpoint program to ensure the public stays within their home region. The following article was originally published in The Tyee on April 12 , prior to the new measures.
AT THE APRIL 6 COVID-19 PRESS BRIEFING , Dr. Bonnie Henry indicated that “unnecessary travel and social gatherings are fuelling the fire.” The fire being the third wave of COVID-19, which seems to be propelled by highly transmissible variants of concern. Despite promises to impose stronger measures to curb non-essential movement, Premier John Horgan recently said British Columbia would not implement any new travel restrictions at this time. He continued, “I appreciate we want to be like New Zealand, but we can’t be.” But we can learn lessons from New Zealand’s elimination approach. Or if New Zealand is too far, how about Manitoba or Atlantic Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland) and the three northern territories who also opted for stronger travel measures and were successful? The B.C. government approach of encouraging changes in individual behaviour with non-enforceable “recommendations” is clearly not working. Earlier this month, B.C. recorded its highest number of daily cases since the beginning of the pandemic, almost matching the United States. This comes despite a “circuit breaker” period, announced March 29, which was meant to curb cases down but seems to have done the opposite. Over the Easter long weekend, small communities on Vancouver Island, such as Tofino and Ucluelet, experienced a surge of visitors
32 APRIL 22, 2021
FEATURE STORY
et tougher vel? proven factor in virus spread
WWW.GETTYIMAGES.CA
APRIL 22, 2021
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FEATURE STORY from the mainland. Travellers across the country flocked to Whistler, which eventually became a COVID hotspot and had to close its ski resort for the winter season. What would it have taken to make sure people—and the coronavirus—stayed put? “What we can do is create disincentives so that nonessential travel decreases,” said Kelley Lee, an expert on globalization and public health at Simon Fraser University. Her current research focuses on the impact of cross-border measures to manage COVID-19. She and colleagues found
cases, police set up eight roadblocks on the outskirts of the city and questioned drivers about their intentions to leave or enter the region. Only truckers and emergency workers were allowed to pass through—everyone else needed documentation or were turned away. A somewhat newer development has been “community checkpoints” organized by local iwi (Maori communities) in areas with existing or historical health risk. Similar to what some First Nations in B.C. have done, Maori groups operate these checkpoints, pointing to the devastating history of
“I think people associate these kinds of measures with ‘police states’ or ‘communist states,’ But actually, looking at New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan—all democracies—people are complying [with public health orders] and it’s working and that is what is really important.” - Kelley Lee that implementation of early international and domestic infectious diseases on Indigenous populations. Waves of travel measures was effective at reducing virus transmission. epidemics introduced by unsanitary colonial settlements To discourage travel into B.C. from elsewhere in Canada, decimated Maori from late 1700s to mid-1800s—the same offered Lee, “We could create surcharges” for such travel or way they did to Indigenous populations in B.C. outright “limit areas to B.C. residents only.” Because travel Premier Horgan said that a review of legal options within the province can also pose a threat, “we can require made it clear that B.C. could not enact similar measures, people to not book out of town,” she said. stating that much of the travel between provinces is Currently, by federal fiat, international arrivals to B.C. “work related.” However, the New Zealand experience are tested and must stay in a hotel at their own expense for might demonstrate otherwise. When police set up the three days until the results are known—then if negative checkpoints outside of Auckland, hundreds of people they are allowed to finish their two weeks of self-isolation were turned away. One sergeant estimated that about in an accommodation of their choice. That’s not required one in four drivers were entering or leaving the region for for those crossing into B.C. from other provinces, though. unnecessary reasons. “We could get people to quarantine when they get here” from When fighting the battle against COVID-19, governments other parts of Canada, noted Lee, “which is something other make a choice where to establish the safety perimeter provinces are doing.” against the virus. “Is it going to be at your international Lee also believes we can learn lessons from abroad. borders, provincial level or in the community?” said Lee. In the advent of any rare community cases, the New “The [B.C.] government has decided that it’s going to be at Zealand government will lock down regions. This is similar the community and at the individual level.” Lee believes to B.C. where all non-essential travel is discouraged. that B.C. has chosen our homes as the primary frontier, However, the major difference is enforcement. When which leads to an uncoordinated and variable response and Auckland locked down in February for three community months of extended lockdowns with questionable success.
We’ve got you covered. Pick up the latest issue of your favourite read in Whistler.
34 APRIL 22, 2021
FEATURE STORY “Everyone is responsible for their own risk which means we need to keep locking down.” In contrast, the New Zealand government decided a key battlefront was at the international border and implemented one of the strictest national lockdowns in the world. The country closed its borders to non-citizens and established a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine. And because the lockdown was successful, citizens experience normal life. Although rare community cases occur that necessitate regional lockdowns in Auckland, they are short—lasting one to three days. A combination of government transparency, reliance on public health officials, rapid response and enforcement means that kiwis generally comply. Citizens trust the government that their efforts will pay off because it has before. Similarly, in Canada, the Atlantic provinces, Northern Territories and most recently Manitoba, decided that the fight against COVID-19 would occur at their provincial border and established a travel ban. There are only few circumstances that allow an individual to travel into the province (compassionate or work-related reasons). And the ban is enforced. Essential visitors must apply for an exemption, which involves submitting documentation and verifying the intention to travel. And similar to New Zealand, these early and strict measures worked—life is generally normal, and economies maintained. However, it is a different story in B.C. where the focus is on limiting individual and community interaction, which has been detrimental to health, well-being and the economy. Why doesn’t B.C.’s government impose stricter measures despite rising cases linked to travel? One opinion is that B.C. (along with the rest of Canada) is unwilling to restrict individual movement—seeking an impossible middle ground while trying to keep everyone happy. Any hint of restrictions is often met with backlash and protests about individual freedom. Lee says that she is surprised at the public outrage when suggesting stronger travel measures. “I think people associate these kinds of measures with ‘police states’ or ‘communist states,’” she explained. “But actually, looking at New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan—all democracies—people are complying [with public health orders] and it’s working and that is what is really important.” Governments have a difficult role managing the pandemic. They must balance public health goals with social and economic impacts. But without health, we cannot accomplish the latter. The lessons from around Canada and the world are valuable. And from New Zealand, the advice to Premier Horgan is this: “Go hard, go early.”
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This article originally appeared in The Tyee on April 12 and is reprinted with the author’s permission. Kristina Jenei is a freelance science writer and public health researcher at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. She is currently based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Follow her @kjmeetswrld. ■
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35
SPORTS THE SCORE
‘It’s a pinnacle moment for me’: Van Gyn crowned inaugural Natural Selection Tour champ AFTER BEING ELIMINATED IN THE FIRST STOP, THE PEMBERTON SNOWBOARDER CHARGED BACK TO TAKE THE OVERALL TITLE IN ALASKA LAST MONTH
BY MEGAN LALONDE PEMBERTON-BASED snowboarder and newly minted Natural Selection champ Robin Van Gyn always knew the first stop of the inaugural Natural Selection Tour in Jackson Hole, Wyo. would be her “kryptonite.” The powder-covered, feature-packed course was “so conducive for the contest girls,” Van Gyn explained. “I’ve been in the backcountry for a really long time, but in the past few years, as I age in backcountry snowboarding I’ve done less and less hitting jumps and doing tricks. My focus has changed to more line riding, so I knew [the course] was going to be really hard to get through.” Conceptualized by big mountain snowboarding legend Travis Rice, the three-stop Natural Selection Tour set out to redefine what a snowboard contest entails while crowning the world’s best male and female all-mountain freestyle backcountry riders. After years of planning, the series kicked off in Wyoming in February with 24 of the biggest names in the sport, from a variety of disciplines, coming together to compete in head-to-head matchups. It was there that backcountry veteran Van
VAN GYN WINS Pemberton, B.C. backcountry snowboarding legend Robin Van Gyn battled her way through all three Natural Selection Tour stops to take the overall win in Alaska’s Tordrillo Mountain range last month. PHOTO BY DEAN BLOTTO GRAY, COURTESY OF RED BULL CONTENT POOL
36 APRIL 22, 2021
Gyn was initially eliminated at the hands of 20-year-old New Zealand contest phenom and reigning slopestyle world champ Zoi Sadowski-Synnott. Fortunately, a combination of COVID-19 border restrictions and a revamped format gave Van Gyn another shot in the form of Natural Selection’s second event. Held in B.C. at Baldface Valhalla in February, an allCanadian all-star crew of 10 riders were given one week to film a line and a video part. She made the most of that second chance with a few high-flying straight airs, surfy pow turns and a frontside 360 off a cliff. It was enough for Van Gyn to secure the win in B.C.—alongside Whistler rider Chris Rasman in the men’s contest—and punch herself a ticket to Alaska, where she earned redemption against Sadowski-Synnott in the final to take the title of first-ever Natural Selection women’s champion last month. The two-day event at Alaska’s Tordrillo Mountain Lodge saw four men—Rasman, Mikkel Bang, Mark McMorris and Ben Ferguson—and three women—Van Gyn, Sadowski-Synnott and Hana Beaman— compete in head-to-heads. Each athlete had three laps, with the highest-scoring run earning that rider the win. On the men’s side, Norway’s Bang bested McMorris in the semi-finals before outscoring Ferguson in the final heat. McMorris and Rasman battled it out for the third spot on the podium, with Rasman falling short to Saskatchewan’s best-known snowboarder. The rest of the world found out about the biggest highlight of Van Gyn’s career when the Tordrillo event aired on Red Bull TV last Friday, April 16.
But what was Van Gyn’s reaction when she first heard the results in real-time after her last run? “Honestly, I needed them to repeat it before I could really believe it,” she said, over the phone from the Pemberton property where she’s riding out her mandatory twoweek quarantine, after returning home from the U.S. Van Gyn “felt really overwhelmed,” she continued. “I was obviously so excited, I didn’t really know what to do with myself. I just kind of sat there for a second, and got a little teary-eyed. It’s like a pinnacle moment for me in snowboarding, so yeah, it was really emotional.” Along with bragging rights, Van Gyn is also riding away from the tour with a brand-new Polaris snowmobile, courtesy of her win at Baldface, and a Ford Bronco for winning the overall title. In the year leading up to the competition, Van Gyn added in a few new strategies to help hone her competitive spirit after a career focused on filming—entering a freeride competition and working with a sports psychologist, for instance. That said, “The only training for snowboarding is snowboarding, so you’ve just got to get out as much as you can,” she added. “At the end of the day, you’re just going to do the run that feels good to you, and the outcome is out of your hands. It could be your day, and you could land everything, and it may not be your day, you may not land anything. And it’s the same for every single other person. “My strategy was just to do what feels good and do what I know how to do, and focus
on making it to the bottom without falling.” Van Gyn credits that mindset with her ability to shake off the pressure, focus on being grateful for the experience and compete without any expectations in terms of results. “Anything would have been fine with me; I was just psyched to be at the last stop,” she said. “To take the win was like an extra cherry on top.” That’s not to say she dropped into the iconic Alaskan spines without any tactics at all. At each of the previous stops, she’d study the judges’ criteria and analyze which decisions reaped rewards for other riders. For instance, picking one line, working to improve it each run, dialling back tricks in favour of staying on her feet—all strategies that worked just as well for Van Gyn in Baldface as they did in the finals. Ultimately, she chalks up her winning score to good flow and a mind-blowingly massive cliff drop she first hit in her second of three runs—what she’d intended to be her “safety run,” Van Gyn admits. After the feature caught her eye, “I had planned on hitting [the cliff] in my final run, but not my second run. And as I went down, it just looked so good that I was like, ‘I’m just going to go,’” she said. “It worked out.” With the first Natural Selection Tour done and dusted, Van Gyn said she hopes to see the series continue gaining momentum in the winters ahead and continue inspiring people to get outside. “It’s just kind of changing the game and bringing snowboarding back to its roots,” she said. n
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DONE FOR 2021 For a second year in a row, there won’t be thousands of cyclists riding up the Sea to Sky Highway in September. Organizers of the RBC GranFondo Whistler announced this week that they will not hold an event in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. PHOTO COURTESY OF RBC GRANFONDO WHISTLER
RBC GranFondo Whistler cancelled for second consecutive year ORGANIZERS ARE HOPEFUL TO SEE MORE CYCLISTS THAN EVER ON COURSE IN 2022
BY MEGAN LALONDE NEARLY ONE YEAR after making the call to cancel the 2020 RBC GranFondo Whistler amidst the onslaught of the COVID19 pandemic, organizers have had to make the same decision once again. Event directors announced Thursday, April 15 that the ride would not take place in 2021. “It’s devastating news, as you can imagine, for cyclists that love to have that date on their calendar; that inspiration and that goal to train for,” said race founder and GranFondo Canada president Neil McKinnon, adding, “It’s another year of disappointment from my team’s perspective, although we’re still trying to be very busy and be thoughtful on what we can bring to the table next year. “We provide opportunities and excitement, and to deliver bad news is not what we’re accustomed to.” While roughly 5,000 riders made the trek up the Sea to Sky from Vancouver as part of the last GranFondo Whistler, held in 2019, McKinnon said 2020 was on track for “a tremendous growth-spurt,” with registration up 37 per cent year over year. Taking that into account, coupled with the boom in bike sales that British Columbia has experienced since the pandemic began, organizers are hopeful that there will be even more enthusiasm for the event heading into 2022, McKinnon said. But for now, even a scaled-down version of the mass event wouldn’t be possible logistically he added. “It’s a very expensive proposition to create a designated cycling lane from Vancouver to Whistler—122 kilometres, 10,000 pylons, literally hundreds of traffic control people, police, medical services also—it’s not a cheap proposition,”
McKinnon said. “Even if we were able to do it for say, 50 to 500 people, which probably would have been the best case scenario under the current circumstances, it’s just not feasible from a financial perspective.” Instead, those who were registered to ride in the 2020 GranFondo will see their registration roll over to their choice of the 2022 or 2023 event. For those who were not registered for the 2020 ride, the next “physical” RBC GranFondo Whistler is scheduled to take place on Sept. 10, 2022. Organizers expect to open registration for that event “when appropriate later this year.” But of greater importance than protecting the event financially is working alongside communities to get the pandemic under control, McKinnon said. “We need to get through this pandemic, we need to get people healthy, we need to get people in a safe environment where they are able to gather again and ride together again,” he said. “All the indicators are going the wrong way. We have vaccines, which is very positive, but … we’re into our second year of COVID, and the numbers are going up as opposed to going down.” In attempt to fill the void left by the 2020 event’s cancellation, GranFondo organizers last year opted to offer its Fondo Clinics by Trek free of charge online, waiving its usual $275 fee. With racing similarly not on the table this year, McKinnon said cyclists should keep an eye out for exciting announcements coming down the pipe in the coming weeks. “We’re working on things to engage the community, stay relevant and keep people focused on the goal of 2022 riding the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler, and we have some surprises up our sleeves,” he said. “We’re working on some fun stuff.” For more information, visit rbcgranfondo.com/whistler. n
Land Act: Notice of Intention to Apply for a Disposition of Crown Land Take notice that Twin River Gravel Company, from Burnaby, BC has applied to the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD), Surrey, for a Licence of Occupation for Quarry and Roadway situated on Provincial Crown Land located in the vicinity of 100 Gravel Pit Road, Whistler, BC. FLNRORD invites comments on this application; the Lands Files are 2412444, 2412445 and 2412446. 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 and Natural Resource Operations until May 31, 2021. 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. Access to these records requires the submission of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. Visit www.gov.bc.ca/freedomofinformation to learn more about FOI submissions.
APRIL 22, 2021
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EPICURIOUS
Meet the Lil’wat chef who has been baking bannock for nearly 20 years MAGGIE WALLACE WORKING TOWARDS RED SEAL CERTIFICATION, WITH DREAMS OF OPENING HER OWN CAFÉ
BY BRANDON BARRETT MAGGIE WALLACE has baked a lot of bannock in her day. The 28-year-old Lil’wat chef has been making her version of the Indigenous fry bread since she was a child, and now working in the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre’s (SLCC) Thunderbird Café, she has had ample opportunity to perfect the recipe. (Wallace also works as an ambassador at the museum.) “Bannock is something my mom would make for us growing up all the time. It was one of the first things that I did learn how to make. I’ve been making bannock probably since I was about 10 years old,” she said. “You make something for so long, you perfect it and it just becomes like breathing.” For Wallace, bannock is an almost daily part of her life, but for scores of guests, it’s often their first introduction to First Nations cuisine. In fact, bannock is something of a Trojan horse for First Nations cooks, often combined with foods that are more familiar to non-Indigenous palates, like tacos and burgers.
BREAD-WINNER Lil’wat chef and Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre ambassador Maggie Wallace recently completed Level 2 of her Red Seal certification, and has visions of one day opening her own café alongside her older sister. PHOTO SUBMITTED
38 APRIL 22, 2021
“The element of bannock is what draws people in, but sometimes the cuisine can be a little bit out there for the common diner,” Wallace said. It’s a story that has persisted for generations: marginalized communities having to cater to the tastes of the dominant monoculture to make ends meet. New Chinese immigrants to North America in the late 19th century, for instance, often included standard Western dishes on their menus, while chop suey, a dish you’d be hard-pressed to find in mainland China, has
on that front, but Wallace is hopeful that diners will take the onus themselves to delve deeper into Indigenous cuisine. “Just being more open-minded towards some of the … ways we would approach food,” said Wallace. At the core of Lil’wat cuisine is an appreciation for the ingredient itself, Wallace said, showcasing a product’s inherent natural flavour. “I feel like when it comes to First Nations cuisine, you’re more focusing on the raw item,” she added. “It’s not getting
“I feel like when it comes to First Nations cuisine, you’re more focusing on the raw item. It’s not getting blended in with so many different herbs and spices. It’s not being covered up.” - MAGGIE WALLACE
its roots in the Chinese-American diaspora, originally created to make use of whatever leftovers a cook had lying around. Now Canada’s original inhabitants are fighting to reclaim the identity of a cuisine that was, like so many other elements of First Nations culture, systematically ripped from them. People like Squamish Nation’s Paul Natrall and his Mr. Bannock food truck and Inez Cook, owner of Vancouver’s Salmon n’ Bannock eatery, have been making headwind
blended in with so many different herbs and spices. It’s not being covered up.” When it comes down to it, most British Columbians should already be primed to appreciate Indigenous food culture, given the province’s penchant for ingredientforward cuisine and abundance of quality game, produce and seafood that other parts of the world can only hope for (or import). In fact, Ottawa has seemed to recognize the immense potential for Indigenous
cuisine with the launch, in 2019, of the Indigenous Culinary of Association Nations, a joint effort between the federal government and the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada that is focused on developing and marketing the country’s diverse Indigenous culinary experiences to the world. Wallace also sees the potential for culinary tourism, but said that First Nations chefs like her need better access to education and training in order to expand the sector to its fullest potential. “The challenge is finding a school or even making it to the school because there isn’t a local program that’s actually being run through a local school,” she said. Just this week, Wallace passed Level 2 of the Red Seal chef certification program that is being offered through Camosun College on Vancouver Island. Thankfully, the program moved mostly online earlier in the pandemic, which meant Wallace didn’t have to make the long commute to the island for her Level 1 exam last year. Once her Red Seal training is done, expected for next spring, Wallace has visions of opening up her own restaurant— with some help from her big sister. “She’s gone to school for accounting so she would be able to help me balance the books. It’s been a dream of mine and my sister’s for a long time,” she said. The Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre is set to reopen on April 28 after being closed for building upgrades. Visit slcc.ca for more. n
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ARTS SCENE
Whistler teen co-hosts episode of Stories of Kindness YOUNG ACTOR NATHANIEL FLYNN WILSON PART OF CANADA-WIDE PROJECT TO SPREAD KINDNESS, CONNECTION, AND STORYTELLING
BY ALYSSA NOEL NOT EVERYONE CAN say they picked up new skills during the pandemic. But one Whistler teen managed to parlay his acting skills into a gig hosting an episode of a new online series aimed at connecting kids, combatting bullying, and promoting kindness. Nathaniel Flynn Wilson, a 13-year-old Grade 7 student, is featured in the Stories of Kindness episode interviewing (via Zoom) Chelsea Cook, an American actress and video game streamer. “Chelsea was super nice,” Wilson says. “It was really amazing. It was also a lot about anti-bullying and cyber bullying. It felt really good to maybe be that person that somebody saw in a video and thought, ‘Hey! Maybe I could use that.’” The idea for the series first started in September when Andy Telfer of the WITS Programs Foundation—an anti-bullying and peer victimization program with the acronym standing for “walk away, ignore, talk it out, seek help”—approached
KIND KIDS Whistler actor Nathaniel Flynn Wilson interviewed Chelsea Cook as part Stories of Kindness. PHOTO SUBMITTED
40 APRIL 22, 2021
producer/director Harrison Houde. “[He] was like, ‘Hey, I have this idea for a show. It’s about connecting kids through the pandemic and giving them the chance to do some story telling and connect them with celebraity guests,” Houde says. An actor himself, he also had plenty of connections to recruit other talent, ranging from Sarah Levy (Schitt’s Creek), Andrea
in a way where all of Travis’ shots were in one weekend. I was piecing it together with an editor from there, but it looks like one cohesive show.” The young co-hosts, meanwhile, were chosen after the team put out a call for kind stories, initially thinking they would just feature those tales each episode. “We didn’t have co-hosts in the beginning, but all of our
“[He] was like, ‘Hey, I have this idea for a show. It’s about connecting kids through the pandemic and giving them the chance to do some story telling and connect them with celebrity guests.” - HARRISON HOUDE
Bang (Kim’s Convenience), and Dylan Playfair (Letterkenny, Haters Back Off). They also tapped Travis Price, founder of Pink Shirt Day, to host, alongside talented young actors, like Wilson, from across Canada. “The format looks simple,” Houde says. “But the scheduling was kind of difficult between lining up a co-host and a celebrity with a date when they’re available and when Travis and the film crew are available. That was our challenge with it. We shot it
submissions were from actors—Nathaniel included in that,” Houde says. “I was like, ‘Why don’t we get a bunch of kids to co-host and they can talk to these guests?’” After paring down the selection, they asked the potential co-hosts to send in 20 second audition tapes. “My mom is pretty awesome; she just finds these things doing her magical mom things,” Wilson says. “Then she tells me about them and I was like, ‘Oh that sounds
really cool. That’s awesome.’ I sent an audition and then I got it.” Houde says it was partly Wilson’s mix of interests that caught his attention on the video. “He said, ‘I live in Whistler and I love videogames, but I also love going outside and skiing and biking,’” he recalls. “I was like, ‘That’s awesome. It sounds like me when I was his age. Let’s put him with a gamer because he’s probably doing a lot of indoor stuff right now.’” “His episode is with Chelsea and I thought that was cool. I imagined he watched her on her YouTube show or had seen some of her gaming stuff. That was a cool connection.” For his part, Wilson—who has acted in three commercials over the years—says he picked up some new skills and had a good time. “[Hosting] felt odd in a sense, but after 10 minutes it felt really good,” he says. “Once I was able to just start talking, it was smoother … Asking someone about themselves, it was really cool—just an interesting feeling going off of me asking the questions versus me always receiving them and having a script to go off. It was a great experience.” Catch Wilson’s episode on YouTube by searching Stories of Kindness: Cyberbullying with Nathaniel Flynn Wilson & Chelsea Cook (WhoIsChelsea). More on the project is at storiesofkindness.ca. n
ARTS SCENE
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THE SHORTLIST is in for two of the Whistler Film Festival’s (WFF) biggest talent programs: the WFF Screenwriters Lab and Producers Lab. This year, 22 projects have been shortlisted, along with 31 Canadian filmmakers, 21 writers, and 10 producers. “We saw a record number of applications for both the Screenwriters and Producers Labs this year,” says Angela Heck, WFF managing director, in a release. “The sheer number of strong, original narrative projects that were submitted, and the diversity of perspectives and experience of the talented individuals who applied is particularly encouraging for the Canadian industry. We’re thrilled to see that inspiration and creativity are thriving in our filmmaking community.” The 12 shortlisted screenwriters—of which six will be chosen—are spread across the country including: Aisha Evlyna (Ont.), Seahorse; Andrea Feltrin (B.C.), Chum; Shauna Johannessen (B.C.), Common Grace; Sam Luk (B.C.), Torrents; Martina Munro (B.C.), Nice Jewish Girl; Nadine Pequeneza (Ont.), 1047 Days; Carla Robinson (Ont.), Bully; Bryce Sage (Ont.), Blood & Water; Tamara Segura Gonzalez (Nfld.), Migratory Birds; Ganesh Thava (Ont.), Man Abroad; Jennifer Walden (NWT), Mother; and Christopher Yip (Ont.), Fish Boy. The finalists will spend seven months in the online mentorship-based script development program, starting May 31. The 10 shortlisted Producers Lab teams— of which six producer/ writer teams will be chosen—include: Catherine Carnovale (Ont.), Blood & Water by writer Bryce Sage (Ont.); Alexandra Caulfield (B.C.), Betwixt by writer Meeshelle Neal (B.C.); Rebeka Herron (Ont.), Bone Curator by writer Trish Rainone (Ont.); Andrea Hoffman (Sask.), Dark Match by writer Lowell Dean (Sask.); Mike Johnston (B.C.), Gorilla Hunting by writer Steve Moody (B.C.); Heidi Lasi (Ont.), Sweet Release by writer Meeshelle Neal (Ont.); Lauren Mackinlay (Ont.), Rearranging by writer Julia Rowland (Ont.); Colin Mercer (Ont.), The Cru by writer Stephane GarneauMonten (Ont.); Adam Park (Ont.), Haunted by writer Matt Ralston (Ont.); and Tane Uribarren (Ont.), Without A Script by writer Shaina Follis (Ont.). The finalists and mentors for each program will be announced in May.
WHISTLER ARTS ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVE GRANTS The Whistler Community Foundation recently announced its spring grants, with several local arts institutions chosen to
r pics u o y e r a Sh with us
e u q i p y m #
TALENT PROGRAMS The Whistler Film Festival has revealed its shortlist for its Screenwriters Lab and Producers Lab.
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S @M Y O L LO W U
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PHOTO BY ALEXANDER SPATARI /GETTY IMAGES
receive funding. Under the Caring Community Grants for 2021, The Point Artist-Run Centre received $3,000 for its Sunday Artist Sessions, The Whistler Writing Society was granted $350 for a scholarship for an emerging writer who is black, Indigenous, or a person of colour, and the Whistler Arts Council received $2,000 for its selfguided cultural scavenger hunt through the Whistler Children’s Festival. In addition, the Whistler Writing Society also received another $1,000 for its Authors in Schools program. Under environmental grants, the Whistler Museum was granted $6,800 for its Discover Nature Station.
CELEBRATE EARTH DAY WITH FILM SCREENING Local filmmaker Brian Hockenstein is releasing his 2018 documentary (co-directed by Tamo Campos) The Radicals for free streaming in time to celebrate Earth Day. Blending action-sports and environmental activism, the film follows four snow and surf athletes who are also social and environmental activists. In turn, they tell the stories of four First Nations facing environmental struggles, from invasive fish farms to unauthorized mining on their land. The film has travelled to 20 film festivals and been screened at over 100 events. Now it will stream online for free at theradicalsfilm.com. “The stories told in the film are more relevant than ever and to see the film now go out into the world for free streaming is very exciting,” Hockenstein said in a release. n
THANK YOU VILLAGE HOST AND BIKE HOST VOLUNTEERS
THANKS TO YOU WE ARE CELEBRATING 15 YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE WHISTLER COMMUNITY
During National Volunteer Week we want to thank and celebrate you – our wonderful Village Host and Bike Host volunteers. This last year has been different, and we have not seen you every day, but we wanted to thank you not only for your dedication, your caring, your time, and your knowledge, but also for staying strong and keeping our community safe. YOU ARE SUCH AN INTEGRAL PART OF WHISTLER’S PASSIONATE AND ENGAGED COMMUNITY! YOU ARE INVALUABLE AND WE ARE SO GRATEFUL!
APRIL 22, 2021
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MUSEUM MUSINGS
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TOO HOT TO HANDLE In 1987 and 1990, house fires in a Brio duplex—controversial due to its multi-resident status—put a lot of people out on the street. WHISTLER QUESTION
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the 1991 fire in Function Junction that damaged many of the Whistler Question photographs (and more) last week, we came across another fire that took place at the very end of 1990, destroying a property known as Brio House. This fire was not the first to mark the Hawthorne Place property. The house had already experienced a major fire in April 1987. It was believed that the fire had started with a smouldering couch cushion that spread to a cedar wall and up to the wood ceiling and cedar roof, leaving half of the duplex a “blackened shell.” The other half was saved by the building’s fire wall. Firefighters were on the scene only four minutes after they received the call and within an hour had the fire under control. The flames, which at one point rose up to 20 metres into the air, could reportedly be seen by those leaving the late show at the Rainbow Theatre, including some residents of the house. Four years later, the Question reported on another fire at the same property that began on Dec. 30, 1990. Unlike the fire of 1987, however, this fire left the Brio House gutted. On that Sunday afternoon, the Whistler Fire Rescue Service responded to a call after residents noticed black smoke pouring through the air vent above the fireplace. The residents tried to put out the fire but then noticed flames in the wall. By the time they realized they would not be able to contain the fire, it was too late for the residents to attempt
to save their belongings. Though firefighters were able to control the fire, it was decided that it was too dangerous to send firefighters inside and the main concern was to protect the neighbouring houses. One reason both fires were considered so newsworthy was because of the number of people they affected. In 1987, the property was described in the Question as “Whistler’s most controversial and popular multi-resident home,” due to the number of people living in the large duplex and its use as temporary housing for visitors and recent arrivals to Whistler. The owner, Dave Whiffen (who in 1987 lived in a suite in the basement), was trying to have his property rezoned as an eight-bedroom pension; the municipality had previously fined Whiffen for using the building’s basement and loft when the main floor already used up the permitted 360 sq. m. The municipality stated Whiffen had overbuilt and was running a “hotel” on his property, while Whiffen maintained that the duplex was “a necessary source of low-cost accommodation for Whistler service-industry personnel.” By the evening of Dec. 30, 1990, 20 residents were left homeless. Some were temporarily put up by neighbours while others were lodged in Blackcomb Mountain staff housing. According to then-Question editor Bob Barnett, “Offers by Whistlerites and businesses to house and feed the Brio residents and to hold a benefit for them were made before the fire was completely extinguished.” Whiffen, who by that time had moved out of Whistler, told the paper that he planned to rebuild “a regular duplex” and sell the property, putting an end to Brio House. n
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1 SKY SCENES The aurora borealis came out to play in Whistler and the Sea to Sky this weekend, measuring in as a Kp 6 or "Moderate Storm" This photo was snapped early on Saturday, April 17, from Round Mountain in Squamish, with Atwell Peak visible in the distance. PHOTO BY MILES RUDKA/@THAT_MILES_GUY. 2 LAKE LIFE Technically we should all still be skiing on Blackcomb right now, but summer camping season is in full swing at Lillooet Lake. PHOTO BY MEGAN LALONDE. 3 NORTHERN LIGHTS Fact: There is no such thing as too many aurora borealis photos. When it’s on, it’s on! This shot was snapped near Alta Lake at 12:50 a.m., using a 25-second exposure time. PHOTO BY FILIP HRKEL. 4 SKI YOU LATER Whistler Olympic Park wrapped up the cross-country ski season on a sunny note. The park closed for the season following its second bonus weekend on April 17 and 18. PHOTO BY SILKE JELTSCH. 5 HIKING BUDDY Summer hiking season is similarly in full swing on the south end of the Sea to Sky corridor. Pictured is one of Pique’s favourite office dogs Chilko taking in the view from the top of the Tunnel Bluffs trail. PHOTO BY ALYSSA NOEL. 6 LOST AND FOUND Whistler’s favourite rescue dog Kali is giving back to the community after becoming the subject of a hoodie fundraising campaign. Pictured from left to right, in from of the Whislife Store in Whistler Village is Whislife owner Matt Hall, Kali and her human Mary Forseth, WAG executive director Lindsay Suckling and Whistler Blackcomb Foundation executive director Mei Madden. Suckling and Madden are holding cheques totalling $1,600 that was donated from Whislife, raised through the sale of 83 Kali hoodies. "It was a wonderful community effort to celebrate Kali’s return home after 14 days of running loose in Whistler,” Kali’s humans write. PHOTO SUBMITTED.
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ASTROLOGY NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ELECTORAL AREAS A, C & D Public Notice is hereby given in accordance with Section 466 of the Local Government Act that a virtual Public Hearing will be held regarding the following bylaws: Short-Term Rentals and Bed & Breakfast Zoning Amendment Bylaws 1. Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Electoral Area A Zoning Bylaw No. 670, 1999, Amendment Bylaw No. 1607-2018. 2. Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Electoral Area C Zoning Bylaw No. 765, 2002, Amendment Bylaw No. 1609-2018. Affordable Housing Zoning Amendments 3. Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Electoral Area A Zoning Bylaw No. 670, 1999, Amendment Bylaw No. 1676-2020. 4. Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Electoral Area C Zoning Bylaw No. 765, 2002, Amendment Bylaw No. 1679-2020. 5. Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Electoral Area D Zoning Bylaw No. 13502016, Amendment Bylaw No. 1678-2020 PURPOSE OF BYLAW 1607-2018 & BYLAW 1609-2018 The SLRD initiated these zoning amendments to add clarity and consistency around short-term rentals and bed and breakfasts in Electoral Area A and Area C, as there has been an increasing number of complaints associated with illegal short-term nightly rentals. Bylaw 1607-2018: clarifies that short-term rentals are prohibited unless proper zoning is in place. Bylaw 1609-2018: clarifies that short-term rentals are prohibited unless authorized through a temporary use permit. Both bylaws differentiate traditional bed and breakfast operations from short-term rental operations; update bed and breakfast regulations, and include updated tourist accommodation and principal residence definitions. The entire Electoral Area A is covered by Bylaw 1607-2018, and the Electoral Area C is covered by Bylaw 1609-2018. PURPOSE OF BYLAWS 1676-2020, 1679-2020 & 1678-2020 The zoning bylaw amendments seek to address the need for affordable housing in Electoral Area A, Area C and Electoral Area D. Bylaw 1676-2020 proposes: adding triplex and fourplex as a permitted use in the R1 Residential Zone, adding employee housing as a permitted use in the C4 Resort Commercial zone, reducing the minimum parcel size in RR2 Rural Resource Zone to 4 ha, and adding a covenant defining levels of affordability and prohibiting short-term vacation rentals in a triplex or fourplex. Bylaw 1679-2020 propose amending the CD-1 zone (WedgeWoods Estates to include provisions for up to two auxiliary dwelling units (one within a single-family dwelling and one within a carriage house). Bylaw 1678-2020 proposes adding carriage house as a permitted use to RR2 (Rural Resource 2 Zone), RR3 (Rural Resource 3 Zone), and RR4 (Rural Resource 4 Zone). WHEN & WHERE? • The virtual Public Hearing will be held electronically at 7 pm on April 27, 2021 •
Log-in details will be posted to this notice page: www.slrd.bc.ca/PH_STR_B&B AH three days prior to the virtual Public Hearing. You may also call the Planning Department three days prior to the Public Hearing at 604.894.6371 to get the log-in information.
The virtual public hearing is to be chaired by Electoral Area A Director Sal DeMare as a delegate of the SLRD Regional Board. INFORMATION & SUBMISSIONS? The proposed bylaws 1607-2018 & 1609-2018 and relevant background documents may be inspected online at www.slrd.bc.ca/strbb The proposed bylaws 1676-2020, 1679-2020 & 1678-2020 and relevant background documents may be inspected online at www.slrd.bc.ca/hnds All persons who believe that their interests are affected by the proposed Bylaws will be afforded a reasonable opportunity to be heard at the virtual Public Hearing. All persons can 1) submit written comments; and/or make oral representations LIVE via online video or phone conferencing (your image will not be broadcast to Board members or the public). Written comments must be addressed to “SLRD Board of Directors,” and include your name and mailing address. Until 5:00pm on April 27, 2021, written submissions will be received at the following: Email: planning@slrd.bc.ca Fax: 604-894-6526 Hard Copy: Squamish-Lillooet Regional District PO Box 219 Pemberton, BC V0N 2L0 Written submissions will also be accepted on April 27, 2021 between 5:00pm and the time when the motion to close the Public Hearing is made. During this timeframe, written comments must be submitted by email to: dkyobe@slrd.bc.ca
44 APRIL 22, 2021
Free Will Astrology WEEK OF APRIL 22 BY ROB BREZSNY
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Blogger Emma Elsworthy wrote her “Self-Care List.” I’ll tell you a few of her 57 action items, in hopes of inspiring you to create your own list. The coming weeks will be a perfect phase to upgrade your focus on doing what makes you feel healthy and holy. Here are Elsworthy’s ideas: Get in the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful breakfast. Organize your room. Clean your mirror and laptop. Lie in the sunshine. Become the person you would ideally fall in love with. Walk with a straight posture. Stretch your body. Challenge yourself to not judge or ridicule anyone for a whole day. Have a luxurious shower with your favourite music playing. Remember your dreams. Fantasize about the life you would lead if failure didn’t exist. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Some traditional Buddhist monks sit on city streets in Asia with a “begging bowl” in front of them. It’s a clay or iron container they use to solicit money and food from passersby who want to support them. Contemporary American poet Mariannne Boruch regards the begging bowl as a metaphor that helps her generate new poems. She adopts the attitude of the empty vessel, awaiting life’s instructions and inspiration to guide her creative inquiry. This enables her to “avoid too much self-obsession and navel-gazing” and be receptive—”with no agenda besides the usual wonder and puzzlement.” I recommend the begging bowl approach to you as you launch the next phase of your journey, Taurus. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini-born Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) is today regarded as an innovative and influential painter. But his early years provided few hints that he would ultimately become renowned. As a teenager, he attended naval preparatory school, and later he joined the French navy. At age 23, he became a stockbroker. Although he also began dabbling as a painter at that time, it wasn’t until the stock market crashed 11 years later that he made the decision to be a full-time painter. Is there a Gauguin-like turning point in your future, Gemini? If so, its early signs might show itself soon. It won’t be as dramatic or stressful as Gauguin’s, but I bet it will be quite galvanizing. CANCER (June 21-July 22): A research team found that some people pray for things they are reasonably sure God wouldn’t approve of. In a sense, they’re trying to trick the Creator into giving them goodies they’re not supposed to get. Do you ever do that? Try to bamboozle life into offering you blessings you’re not sure you deserve? The coming weeks will be a favourable time for you to dare such ploys. I’m not guaranteeing you’ll succeed, but the chances are much better than usual that you will. The universe is pretty relaxed and generous toward you right now. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In 2013, the New Zealand government decided to rectify the fact that its two main islands had never been assigned formal names. At that time, it gave both an English and Māori-language moniker for each: North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island, or Te Waipounamu. In the spirit of correcting for oversights and neglect, and in accordance with current astrological omens, is there any action you’d like to take to make yourself more official or professional or established? The coming weeks will be a favourable time to do so. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Author Grant Morrison observes that our heads are “big enough to contain every god and devil there ever was. Big enough to hold the weight of oceans and the turning stars. Whole universes fit in there!” That’s why it’s so unfortunate, he says, if we fill up our “magical cabinet” with “little broken things, sad trinkets that we play with over and over.” In accordance with astrological potentials, Virgo, I exhort you to dispose of as many of those sad trinkets and little broken things as you can. Make lots of room to hold expansive visions and marvellous dreams and wondrous possibilities. It’s time to think bigger and feel wilder.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author bell hooks (who doesn’t capitalize her name) has a nuanced perspective on the nature of our pain. She writes, "Contrary to what we may have been taught, unnecessary and unchosen suffering wounds us, but need not scar us for life.” She acknowledges that unnecessary and unchosen suffering does indeed “mark us.” But we have the power to reshape and transform how it marks us. I think her wisdom will be useful for you to wield in the coming weeks. You now have extra power to reshape and transform the marks of your old pain. You probably won’t make it disappear entirely, but you can find new ways to make it serve you, teach you, and ennoble you. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I love people who inspire me to surprise myself. I’m appreciative when an ally provides me with a friendly shock that moves me to question my habitual ways of thinking or doing things. I feel lucky when a person I like offers a compassionate critique that nudges me out of a rut I’ve been in. Here’s a secret: I don’t always wait around passively hoping events like these will happen. Now and then I actively seek them out. I encourage them. I ask for them. In the coming weeks, Scorpio, I invite you to be like me in this regard. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Where did last year’s lessons go?” asks Gillian Welch in her song “I Dream a Highway.” Now I’m posing the same question to you—just in time for the Remember Last Year’s Lessons Phase of your cycle. In my astrological opinion, it’s crucial for you to recollect and ruminate deeply on the breakdowns and breakthroughs you experienced in 2020; on every spiritual emergency and spiritual emergence you weathered; on all the scary trials you endured and all the sacred trails you trod. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn painter Henri Matisse had a revolutionary influence on 20th-century art, in part because of his raucous use of colour. Early in his career he belonged to the movement known as Fauvism, derived from the French term for “wild beasts.” During his final years, he invented a new genre very different from his previous work: Large collages of brightly coloured cut-out paper. The subject matter, according to critic Jed Perl, included “jungles, goddesses, oceans, and the heavens,” and “ravishing signs and symbols” extracted from the depths of “Matisse’s luminosity.” I offer him as a role model for you, Capricorn, because I think it’s a perfect time to be, as Perl describes Matisse, both “a hard-nosed problemsolver and a feverish dreamer.” AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, ‘Seek simplicity, but distrust it.’” Aquarian philosopher Alfred North Whitehead wrote that, and now I’m proposing that you use it as your motto in the coming weeks, even if you’re not a natural philosopher. Why? Because I suspect you’ll thrive by uncomplicating your life. You’ll enhance your well-being if you put greater trust in your instinctual nature and avoid getting lost in convoluted thoughts. On the other hand, it’s important not to plunge so deeply into minimalism that you become shallow, careless, or unimaginative. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In Ancient Greek comic theatre, there was a stock character known as the eiron. He was a crafty underdog who outwitted and triumphed over boastful egotists by pretending to be naive. Might I interest you in borrowing from that technique in the coming weeks? I think you’re most likely to be successful if you approach victory indirectly or sideways—and don’t get bogged down trying to forcefully coax skeptics and resisters. Be cagey, understated, and strategic, Pisces. Let everyone think they’re smart and strong if it helps ensure that your vision of how things should be will win out in the end. Homework. I’m in the mood for you to give me predictions and past life readings. Send your psychic insights about my destiny. Truthrooster@gmail.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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8 6 EDUCATOR PRESCHOOL CHILDHOOD INFANT TODDLER EDUCATOR 8 2 4 The N’Quatqua First Nation is seeking 2 qualified Early Childhood Educators. One is a full-time permanent position, the other is a full time maternity leave position at N’Quatqua Child and Family Development Centre. The successful candidates will join our NCFDC team. The Early Childhood Educators work as team members with other 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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9 7
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4
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• Physically ability to carry out the duties of the position. • Planning and implementing developmentally appropriate curriculum that supports community, inclusion and is culturally significant for young Aboriginal children
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Please forward resume to liz@solesofwhistler.com
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6WE ARE LOOKING FOR A 6 FAMILY CAREGIVER 6 of Child4Care Licensing 7 Helping5our 3 kids with school5work and 9 1 2 • Understanding and working knowledge activities such as golf, biking and skiing, regulations 2 4 3cleaning and cooking simple meals for 7 9 house • Interpersonal, written, oral communication skills and family. This position includes driving our 5 maintaining positive communication with parents 5 8the 2 3 1 7 cars so a drivers license and clean drivers • Collaborating with community service providers, Self-directed abstract required. 7 3 2 3 2 6 and able to initiate and complete projects Live out position 5 days a week except In addition, the Early Childhood Educators will have: 7 in a child 2 care setting9 1 4 5 when travelling with the family to9the • A minimum of 2 years work experience USA and abroad so a current passport is • Valid Early Childhood Educator Certificate, ECE Licence to 6 9 7 8 mandatory.7 Practice or going to school to take Early Childhood Educator courses. 3 7 4 Please1email your resume 8 and salary 3 6 1 • Clear Criminal Records Check & Current First Aid requirement to: gm@jmdms.ca 1 4 8 9 • Food Safe or willingness to obtain
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• Some knowledge of curriculum and philosophies in First MEDIUM Nations Early Childhood settings.
# 51
MEDIUM
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# 50
4 9 7 8 3 6 5 2 1
Deadline: until position is filled 6 1 3 2 9 5 8 7 4
7 5candidates 9 1 6selected 8 4 for3interview 2 We thank all those who apply. Only those will be 1 4 6 5 2 3 9 8 7 contacted. 3 2 8 9 7 4 1 5 6
48 APRIL 22, 2021 www.sudoku.com
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Local luxury home builder looking for motivated people with great attitudes to join our team! Room for growth! # 51 5 4 8 9 7 2 6 1 9 7 3 5 8 1 2 6 4 Sponsorship and apprenticeships available! 2 1 3 4 6 9 5 7 6 8 4 9 2 3 7 1 5 • Foreman or Lead Carpenters 6 9 5 2 1 8 4 3 5 2 1 4 7 6 9 3 8 9 6 7 1 5• 3 Carpenters 2 8 1 3 9 6 5 7 8 4 2 1 8 4 3 2• 6 Apprentices/Helpers 7 9 8 5 6 3 4 2 1 9 7 3 7 9 6 8• 5 Labourers 1 4 7 4 2 1 9 8 3 5 6 4 2 1 5 3 7 8 6 4 6 8 2 1 9 5 7 3 To apply, please send your resume to 8 5 6 7 9 4 3 2 3 9 7 8 6 5 4 2 1 7 3 office@modernconceptcontracting.com 2 8 4 1 9 5 2 1 5 7 3 4 6 8 9 Page 13 of 25
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N’Quatqua Child and Family Development Centre PO BOX 88/64 CASPER CHARLIE PLACE, DARCY BC V0N 1L0
JOB POSTING
Delta Hotels by Marriott Whistler Village Suites is recruiting for the following:
- HR Manager (18 month maternity leave coverage) - Guest Experience Expert (Front Desk) Start your journey today with: competitive wages, growth opportunities, a positive team environment, medical benefits, play money (ski pass, etc), travel benefits to over 7,000 hotels world wide! To Apply: either submit an application online at Marriott.com/careers or send your resume to barbara.fraser@deltahotels.com
ABORIGINAL SUPPORTED CHILD DEVELOPMENT EDUCATOR The N’Quatqua First Nation is seeking a qualified Aboriginal Supported Child Development Educator 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 Aboriginal Supported Child Development Educator 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 Educator works as a team member with child care setting staff and with all the children and families providing general support to the whole program to ensure effective inclusion of the children. The successful candidate will have demonstrated ability in:
Employment Opportunities: Guest Service Agents Maintenance Apply to: jobs@pembertonvalleylodge.com
Competitive wages, health benefits, casual environment
• Ability to develop and maintain a warm, caring, responsive relationship with the child. • Ability to establish and maintain supportive, collaborative relationships with families and staff. • Ability to maintain confidentiality, positive, professional, non-judgemental attitude. • Physically ability to carry out the duties of the position. • Planning and implementing developmentally appropriate curriculum that supports community, inclusion and is culturally significant for young Aboriginal children • Understanding and working knowledge of Child Care Licensing regulations • Interpersonal, written, oral communication skills and maintaining positive communication with parents • Collaborating with community service providers, Self-directed and able to initiate and complete projects In addition, the Educator will have: • A minimum of 2 years work experience in a child care setting • Valid Early Childhood Educator Certificate, SNE Licence to Practice. • Clear Criminal Records Check & Current First Aid
Now hiring for the following positions:
MAINTENANCE ASSOCIATE MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN • • • • • • •
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Competitive Wages Associate Housing Wellness Allowance/Ski Pass Flexible Schedule Discounted Food Extended Medical Benefits Spa Discounts
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
• Food Safe or willingness to obtain • Some knowledge of curriculum and philosophies in First Nations Early Childhood settings. Terms of Employment: • Full-time, Monday to Thursday 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.
APRIL 22, 2021
49
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We are a National Health Care Advocacy firm, looking to hire a Claim Adjudicator to join our team in our Whistler, B.C. office. This is a year-round, Monday – Thursday office position. We are seeking an individual who excels at critical thinking, reading, reviewing and summarizing large word documents, excellent verbal and written communication, and who has a strong attention to detail. Duties and Skills • Completing forms and updating spreadsheets • Computer work, using Microsoft Excel and word and Cloud- based systems • Ability to prioritize, plan, organize and work efficiently • Read, interpret and apply policies and laws • Establish work priorities, and ensure procedures are followed and deadlines are met • Read, summarize and review large claim file, detailed letters and medical information in a quick and efficient manner and then use that information, apply different policies and write letters • Analyze and evaluate complicated information from multiple perspectives and then summarize that information and apply policy, and medical information and facts to write letters independently • Manage a varied and complex caseload with input from your team members • Accurately record, explain, and defend detailed and complex information orally and in writing Qualification and Skills • An undergraduate degree • A minimum of three years of experience where you independently made complex decisions by analyzing facts and evidence • A minimum of three years reviewing and reading large paper documents or files • Attention to detail and accuracy • Must be extremely organized, reliable, and take initiative • Excellent written and verbal communication skills and time management skills • Ability to work independently, in a fast-paced environment • Demonstrated ability to maintain confidentiality and to exercise discretion • Strong work ethic, and able to work independently and collaboratively with a team, and meet deadlines • Proficiency in Microsoft Office Software and Google G-Suite
Join Our Team Reception & Administrative Assistant Casual/On-Call The Receptionist/Administrative Assistant role is designed to provide relief to front office reception coverage at the Village Office. Activities will include but are not limited to meeting and greeting Village residents and customers, receipting cash transactions, reception, filing, and processing of customer service requests. If you're able to communicate effectively with members of the public, possess strong administrative skills and have a flexible schedule, let's talk. Please send your resume and a cover letter detailing your availability to recruiting@pemberton.ca by Monday, May 3rd, 2021.
Starting date is flexible. Salary is dependent on experience. Position is 25-35 hours per week. We offer competitive salaries, opportunities for advancement, and ski pass program, golf and lots of fun.
For a full job description and to learn more about the Village of Pemberton, please visit pemberton.ca.
To apply for the position of Claim Adjudicator, please email: • Resume and Cover Letter • Salary expectations Email – GM@jmdms.ca
50 APRIL 22, 2021
VillageofPemberton
www.pemberton.ca
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WINDOW COVERINGS Whistler’s Source for Blinds since 1989
Custom Blinds • Shades • Draperies
• BLINDS • SHADES
• SHUTTERS • DRAPERY
Connie Griffiths Tel: 604-935-2101 Email: windowcov@shaw.ca www.whistlerwindowcoverings.ca
Custom Window Treatments Contact us today for a free quote or consultation info@suncrestwindowcoverings.com
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• TILES • CAR INTERIORS
Coast Mountain Cleaning • Full service cleaning • Residential & Commercial • Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning • Property Maintenance • Established 2011 Insured & Bondable • Criminal background checks on all staff
www.blackbearcarpetcleaning.ca • 604 698 6610
604-966-1437
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FURNITURE
S
• • • •
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www.summersnow.ca
ummer
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We follow all VCH, Min of Health and WHO Covid 19 protocols
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David Weldon david@summersnow.ca 604-938-3521
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Specialized in cleaning Chimneys, Furnace & Airducts, Dryer vents.
Wood Energy Technology Transfer Inc.
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• Carpentry • Tiling • Drywall Repairs • Texture Finishing • Renovations • Installation • Painting • Plumbing • Snow Removal • Appliance Repairs Ask Us About • Mine Sweeping Your Home ROB PIDGEON • 604-932-7707 • Bonded & Insured
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Our paint team has over 25 years combined paint sales experience, and we can help you get things right the first time. Now offering In Home Paint Consultations! Pemberton Valley Rona. Let us help you love where you live.
Residential/Commercial Heat Pumps Boilers-Furnaces-Chillers Design Build Call us today! 778-994-3159 www.westerntechnical.net
604-962-0050 info@50north.ca Book your in-home leen Consultation with Col today!
604-894-6240 7426 Prospect St, Pemberton
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52 APRIL 22, 2021
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DOUG BUSH SURVEY SERVICES LTD DOUGLAS J BUSH AScT, RSIS p: 604-932-3314 c: 604-935-9515 Engineering & construction layout Topographic & site improvement surveys Municipal, volumetric & hydrographic surveys GPS - global positioning systems www.dbss.ca // dougb@dbss.ca
PUZZLES ACROSS 1 5 10 16 20 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 34 36 38 39 40 42 43 45 48 50 51 55 56 58 60 61 63 65 66 67 68
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Glass container In between “Bolero” composer Jacques, in song Weight unit for gems “I don’t mind -- --” Unprincipled one Glide along Livy’s parent Concur Gets closer Secret rendezvous Golf club item Loses brightness Always Loft filler
LAST WEEKS’ ANSWERS
9
MEDIUM
# 50
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: MEDIUM
5
9
6 7
1
3 1 5 7 7 3 2 6 9 1 4 5 7 8 8 3 6 1 9
2 9
MEDIUM Solution, tips and computer program at www.sudoku.com# 52
ANSWERS ON PAGE 48
APRIL 22, 2021
53
MAXED OUT
New COVID-19 restrictions … clear as mud WELL,
IT’S
CERTAINLY
BEEN
a week of Government in Action. Damn, autocorrect. That should read Government Inaction, also known as Business as Usual. In keeping with my upbeat, everycloud-has-a-silver-lining outlook, let us first consider the week’s highlight. Seriously. There was one. That was the five-day vaccination clinic that wound up Sunday at the Conference Centre. Estimates by those in the know point to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 9,000-plus townies and town workers having been shot full of hope. Naturally some of them went out and
BY G.D. MAXWELL partied afterward but most paid attention to the talk about the vaccine requiring a couple of weeks to bring recipients up to speed. With so many receiving so much, the town—now thought of as Canada’s Brazil in the world press—is well on its way toward herd immunity. Accomplished with nary an anti-vaxxer protester in sight, just a lot of people lined up, giddy with anticipation. But Monday was a new day and, well, it was all downhill from there. First up, long on doom and short on facts, Ol’ Dithers Horgan slammed the door on B.C. Sort of. Not really. After approximately 13 months of lukewarm, ineffective actions and no sign of political will, B.C. residents are officially in Left Coast Lockdown until after the May long weekend. We’re not really locked down, but travel is going to be restricted to whatever health region one lives in. There are, of course, exceptions. The most glaring exception is the porous border between B.C. and the rest of the world. People can and are flying in from just about anywhere in the world. Some come bearing gifts of new mutations of everyone’s favourite virus. And once here, having gone through the tepid and largely uncontrolled quarantine-lite, they’re free to spread their unique brand of cheer... but perhaps only within the health region they’re in? Know how far the Vancouver Coastal Health region stretches? You don’t want to know. And should they drive across the border from our neighbour to the east, they’ll be greeted with signs. Yes, signs. Not the ones that say, “Welcome to Supernatural British Columbia.” Not ones that say, “Albertans Not Welcome.” But signs that “remind” them they should not be crossing the border for anything other than essential business. Anyone with half a brain and a porous memory will likely remember how elastic the definition of “essential” has been for the past year. Viewed through a local lens, it is likely to have about the same effect as those
54 APRIL 22, 2021
GETTYIMAGES.CA
signs around town asking dog owners to bag their dog’s poop. And while Ol’ Dithers says, “It is not our objective to go into some sort of state where we’re watching and monitoring everybody’s activity,” he invoked the Emergency Program Act to allow police to conduct random roadside checks. Drivers will have to ‘splain where they’re coming from, where they’re going. Whether the police have powers beyond annoying drivers is unclear. Details to follow. Campgrounds and hotels won’t take reservations from people outside their health authority regions, BC Ferries won’t book RVs and inside dining at restaurants will be further banned during the period. What isn’t clear is this: How is this hodgepodge of restrictions actually going to help? How will Ol’ Dithers channelling his inner Doug Ford really wrestle this
the long-delayed Liberal budget. In keeping with the longest period ever without a new budget, the Liberals wheelbarrowed in the largest—739 pages—budget in the country’s history. But it’s not an election budget. (Insert eye-roll here.) No one who has been even remotely aware of the impact of school closures and moves to remote learning, work-at-home requirements, daycare limitations and the insane balancing act those in essential jobs who have to go to work face dealing with most of the above, could consider a $10-aday childcare “promise” to be an election issue. On the other hand, no one who has even remotely looked at the details could consider $10-a-day childcare as something they’ll see before their children leave home as adults. As outlined in the budget—which is not an election budget—the feds will “set
Viewed through a local lens, it is likely to have about the same effect as those signs around town asking dog owners to bag their dog’s poop.
beast to the ground? Oops, two rhetorical questions in a row, both of which have the same answer—they won’t. But they give the illusion of doing something and it can be argued that in itself is a bold step for Ol’ Dithers. And bears more than a little resemblance to the other front of Government Inaction—
aside” $30 billion over five years. What’s the difference between set aside and spend? An order of magnitude. They’ll spend $3 billion a year to start with, rising to $8.4 billion by 2026 and $8.3 billion per year thereafter. They estimate the funds will make childcare 50-per-cent less expensive next year. Median monthly fees in B.C. currently
run from $900/month for infants to $780/ month for preschoolers. Half that is a far cry from $10-a-day. To get to that magic, and highly emotional number, the provinces have to match the federal spending. No word from the provinces yet on how excited they are about the plan. The budget offers billions of dollars and scant few details to fuel the effort of achieving net-zero carbon emissions. So far, it’s the usual stew of tax breaks, funding for green businesses to get started or scale up, money to help defray the cost of carbon capture. Probably the best indicator of just how green this budget is comes from the reaction of the Business Council of Alberta, which bemoaned its failing to make continued natural resource extraction part of the country’s solution to environmental challenges. Clearly this will not be an election budget in Alberta, where seldom is heard an encouraging word and Liberals are vilified all day. The budget is a feel-kinda-good budget. It avoided much of the doom and gloom predictions of how far Ottawa would thrust its hands into our pockets. One of the only revenue generators is a proposed one-percent vacant home tax levied against foreign owners. The rest of the very large deficit canyon dug in the past year and continuing into the future—beyond the next election after the one this budget isn’t about—will be taken care of through growth in the country’s GDP, the hope of continued low interest rates and a handful of magic beans that will enhance Canada’s productivity. Oh well. We’re likely to forget all about this week’s Government Inaction when the election or the fourth wave rolls around, whichever comes first. ■
FOLLOW YOUR DREAM, HOME G L O B A L R E AC H , L O C A L K N O W L E D G E WATERFRONT
WHISTLER CREEKSIDE DP3–1400 Alta Lake Rd Two bedroom penthouse, located on Alpha Lake! Private lake access, private dock, with kayak/canoe storage, biking/hiking trails directly off the property, bike storage, brand new common/rec area. Unit has great renovation potential. $949,000
WHISTLER CREEK 321–2050 Lake Placid Rd Bright 2 bed/1.5 bath unit in Lake Placid Lodge at the base of Creekside gondola and view of Whistler mountain. Open plan, 2 storey living, in suite laundry. Nightly rentals allowed. $1,275,000
604-902-9505 Janet Brown
Katie Marsh
WHISTLER VILLAGE 303–4111 Golfers Approach Make yourself at home in this spacious, fully furnished 1 bedroom and den condo in the heart of Whistler Village. Unlimited owner use or enjoy nightly rental income when you‘re not in town. All that’s missing is you. $998,000
Nick Swinburne *PREC
604-935-0700 Kathy White
WHISTLER CREEKSIDE 1351 Alta Lake Road Cedarstone Lodge, 5.7ac estate 2km from Creekside. 4br, 5.5ba, 3-car garage, outdoor spa, wrap around decks, massive fireplaces and landscaping that blends into the surrounding forests. 5,200sq ft of spacious living. $7,799,000
604-932-8899 Sherry Boyd
Kerry Batt *PREC
604-905-8199
SOLD
PEMBERTON 1304 Eagle Drive Tired of living somewhere with no views & no space for your toys? Change that! Build your own toy box with your dream home on top & wake up to Mt. Currie views every day. $599,000
604-902-5422 Ken Achenbach
604-616-6933
EMERALD ESTATES 9508 Emerald Drive Welcome to “Raven-Hut” the epitome of mountain modern design. Interior living spaces flow seamlessly with the outdoor living spaces. 3 bedrooms & 2 bathroom house with a lovely 2 bedroom & 1 bathroom suite $3,995,000
604-902-7220 Maggi Thornhill *PREC
NEW TO MARKET
WEDGEWOODS 9084 Corduroy Run Court One of only lots currently available in the desirable WedgeWoods community. 1 acre + lot allows for 5,920 sq ft home and up to 2,150 sq ft auxiliary building. Located at the end of a cul-de-sac on a quiet well-developed street. $1,500,000
WHISTLER CREEK 212–2111 Whistler Road Enjoy this furnished studio condo (phase 1) for nightly rental use, part-time owner use or long term rental. Close to Creekside ski lifts, shops & parks. GST exempt. $249,900
604-966-7640
BRITANNIA BEACH 735 Upper Cres This freehold property is an excellent opportunity for investors to get into the seaside community of Britannia Beach. Hold or rent while you plan your new build on this ocean viewed 5600 sqft lot. $769,000
Natty Fox
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
Engel & Völkers Whistler *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.
604 905-8285
3D Tour - rem.ax/215elements
#211 - 4557 Blackcomb Way
$988,000
A rare opportunity to have a ski in/ski out location at the base of Blackcomb Mountain and minutes to Whistler Village. The 1 bedroom 2 bathroom floor plan allows for the bedroom and studio to be locked off and rented separately. Le Chamois is a concrete building with a gym, pool and hot tub after a hard day skiing or biking. 2 personal use parking stalls.
Michael d’Artois
1
604.905.9337
#107 - 4910 Spearhead Drive
$1,799,000
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
2
604.907.2717
#215 - 7445 Frontier Street
$499,000
This spacious one bedroom and den in the Elements in Pemberton offers spectacular views of Mount Currie. Relax on the large sundeck, which is accessed from both the living area and the bedroom, and soak up the sun and the views. This is the perfect full time residence or weekend getaway.
Sally Warner*
1.5
604.905.6326
SOLD
3D Tour - rem.ax/112greystone
#112/113 - 4905 Spearhead Pl.
$1,599,900
This recently renovated (2019) lock off unit is steps away from ski in/out access. Upgraded with high end appliances including washer/dryer, walk in shower etc. Ground floor unit is on the same floor as ski in/out access, hot tub, outdoor heated pool and all the desirable aspects that this complex has to offer its owners!
Ursula Morel*
.5
604.932.8629
9099 Corduroy Run Court
$1,495,000
$2,198,000
Executive property on a spectacular 15,000 sq ft lot positioned for privacy and commanding views! With over 4000 sq.ft., the home provides four bedrooms, a large office that could be a fifth bedroom, and a one bedroom guest suite that sits above the garage, separate from the main home.
Ann Chiasson
Chris Wetaski
604.932.7651
3D Tour - rem.ax/9604emerald
9604 Emerald Drive
1766 Pinewood Drive
Located just 12 minutes north of Whistler Village and 5 minutes from the new grocery store and liquor store in the ‘Rainbow’ neighbourhood, the lots at Wedgewoods offer privacy, views and light. Each property has been carefully designed to have the best building site available and the services are at the lot line.
5
604.938.2499
3D Tour - rem.ax/305fourseasons
$1,479,000
#208 - 4865 Painted Cliff Rd.
$59,000
#305/306 - 4591 Blackcomb Way $1,550,000
Charming and bright 2 1/2 bedroom Whistler A-Frame cottage in Emerald Estates! Just steps away from Green Lake and the boat launch, this treed property boasts peek-a-boo mountain views and has the potential for abundant southern sun exposure. The driveway features a beautiful rock wall and ample parking.
This is a great Fractional Ownership on the Blackcomb Benchlands. A 2 bed/2 bath unit with over 1200 ft2 of space with soaring ceilings and 4... yes, 4 Balconies. This end unit has 2 dedicated underground parking spaces that provide direct access to the unit. Enjoy easy access to the ski in/bike in trail that is steps away from your front door.
This luxurious 2 bedroom suite is an end unit featuring two spacious, ensuited master bedrooms. Two private patios to enjoy a main living area with a pull-out sofa. Enjoy the Four Seasons Resort Whistler including 9000 square foot spa, outdoor pool, health club, in-house restaurant and lounge, room service, and ski concierge.
Dave Beattie*
Dave Sharpe
Doug Treleaven
2.5
604.905.8855
3D Tour - rem.ax/222aspens
#222 - 4800 Spearhead Drive
604.902.2779
2
3D Tour - rem.ax/301powderhorn
$1,025,000
2
604.905.8626
3D Tour - rem.ax/4treeline
#301 - 4821 Spearhead Drive $2,675,000
#4 - 4661 Blackcomb Way
SLOPESIDE on Blackcomb - this 1 bed Aspens unit is a true ski-in/ski-out property with views of the slope from the outdoor pool and several hot tubs. Enjoy being slope side in one of Whistler’s most popular complexes - walking distance to the Village or access the bus system free of charge.
This condo on Blackcomb Mountain has just been updated with a stylish and modern renovation throughout. You’ll love the forested setting with quick access to the ski hill, golf course, Valley Trail and Lost Lake. This unique, spacious layout offers tons of options for sleeping areas, giving your family flexibility for both personal use and rentals.
Situated in the prestigious Benchlands area surrounded by nature within close proximity of Lost Lake and the Whistler Valley trail system, this three bedroom, two bathroom town home has it all. Fully renovated and gorgeously furnished-sleeps up to 7 people.
Laura Barkman
Madison Perry
Merideth Schutter
604.905.8777
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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
778.919.7653
3
$1,998,000
604.999.8665
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PEMBERTON OFFICE 1411 Portage Road, Pemberton, BC V0N 2L1 604.894.6616 or Toll Free 1.888.689.0070