Pique Newsmagazine 2848

DECEMBER 2, 2021 ISSUE 28.48

WWW.PIQUENEWSMAGAZINE.COM

FREE HEROES

Does B.C. need rapid response teams to prevent wildfire-driven floods?

14

SICK PAY

Small businesses frustrated with timing of new expense

28

OUTDOOR FUNDING

Recreation

council eyes increased financial support

44

COMEDY COMETH A new weekly comedy show launches in Whistler on Dec. 9

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THIS WEEK IN PIQUE

40

44

36 Rapid response?

Experts say the link between wildfire scars and flooding is undeniable, and, in light of last month’s devastation, some believe it’s high time for a U.S.-style rapid response team to be adopted in B.C. - By Stefan Labbé

14

SICK DAY FRUSTRATION

Guaranteed

30

POSITIVE PARTNERSHIP

The Lil’wat

paid sick leave is good news for workers, but business leaders are

Nation and Sea to Sky School District have inked a five-year Local Education

expressing frustration at the move.

Agreement, which aims to improve outcomes for Indigenous students.

15

TOURISM FUNDING

Whistler has benefitted

40

OLYMPICS IN SIGHT

Whistler Mountain Ski

immensely from the provincial Resort Municipality Initiative program, but

Club alum Brodie Seger has his sights set on a podium finish at the 2022

what is the future of the funding?

Olympic Games.

18

44

GRANTING HEALTHY FUTURES

LAUGH OUT LIVE

A new weekly comedy show is

The Whistler Health Care Foundation is launching a grant-funding

launching, bringing sketch comedy, stand-up, improv and laughter back

program for Sea to Sky non-profits with healthcare-related initiatives.

to the Maury Young Arts Centre stage.

COVER Starting to think that driving around in a storm has become a really bad idea. - By Jon Parris 4 DECEMBER 2, 2021

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THIS WEEK IN PIQUE

Opinion & Columns 08 OPENING REMARKS With only about 43 per cent of the world vaccinated against COVID-19,

#202 -1390 ALPHA LAKE RD., FUNCTION JUNCTION, WHISTLER, B.C. V8E 0H9.

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

we will never escape the impacts of the virus in Whistler or across Canada. A global vaccine strategy is needed.

Founding Publishers KATHY & BOB BARNETT

10 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letter writers this week encourage Whistler to do more to curb

Publisher SARAH STROTHER - sstrother@wplpmedia.com Editor CLARE OGILVIE - edit@piquenewsmagazine.com Assistant Editor BRADEN DUPUIS - bdupuis@piquenewsmagazine.com Sales Manager SUSAN HUTCHINSON - shutchinson@wplpmedia.com Production Manager AMIR SHAHRESTANI - ashahrestani@wplpmedia.com Art Director JON PARRIS - jparris@wplpmedia.com Advertising Representatives TESSA SWEENEY - tsweeney@wplpmedia.com GEORGIA BUTLER - gbutler@wplpmedia.com Digital/Sales Coordinator AMELA DIZDARIC - traffic@wplpmedia.com Production production@piquenewsmagazine.com

emissions in buildings, and invite B.C. Ministry of Health leaders to come ride Whistler Blackcomb gondolas.

13 PIQUE’N YER INTEREST Canada’s archaic Access to Information laws are a disservice to government transparency and a functioning democracy, writes Brandon Barrett.

66 MAXED OUT Max has some party-game suggestions for you, as we wait for the real winter weather to arrive and we can get back to skiing and riding.

Environment & Adventure

Arts & Entertainment/Features Editor BRANDON BARRETT - bbarrett@piquenewsmagazine.com

35 RANGE ROVER A new ski development proposed for the Kootenays promises to be small-footprint,

Social Media Editor MEGAN LALONDE - mlalonde@piquenewsmagazine.com

forward-thinking, backcountry-oriented, economically sensible, and environmentally sound.

Reporters BRADEN DUPUIS - bdupuis@piquenewsmagazine.com BRANDON BARRETT - bbarrett@piquenewsmagazine.com MEGAN LALONDE - mlalonde@piquenewsmagazine.com ALYSSA NOEL arts@piquenewsmagazine.com HARRISON BROOKS - sports@piquenewsmagazine.com Classifieds and Reception mail@piquenewsmagazine.com Office and Accounts Manager HEIDI RODE - hrode@wplpmedia.com Contributors G.D. MAXWELL, GLENDA BARTOSH, FEET BANKS, LESLIE ANTHONY, ANDREW MITCHELL, ALISON TAYLOR, VINCE SHULEY, LISA RICHARDSON

Lifestyle & Arts

42 FORK IN THE ROAD There are so many amazing gifts to give, and organizations to support through your purchases, you’ll have your Whistler shopping list crossed off in no time at all.

48 MUSEUM MUSINGS Lynn Mathews took on many roles when she worked for Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. in the late ‘60s, including as a ski instructor.

President, Whistler Publishing LP 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.

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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.

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OPENING REMARKS

Global action needed to fight coronavirus variants

BY ALL ACCOUNTS, it was one of the best opening days for years, and while the joy of it may have been dimmed by rain-to-thepeak in the early part of this week, it looks like alpine snow is coming back.

For most of us, this time of year really feels like our new year. It’s the start of the winter season and our economic, social and cultural year begins now, not in January.

We look out from opening day weekend and budget and plan from there.

In times past, it had all the excitement of a new year, but as the pandemic continues

BY CLARE OGILVIE edit@piquenewsmagazine.com

and climate change wreaks havoc on our region and across B.C. it’s getting harder and harder to harbour that Whistler vibe.

Opening day weekend brought with it gas rationing and a plea from government to only travel if essential, this time to reserve fuel for supply-chain needs thanks

globe, including Canada, are slamming borders closed to Omicron patient-zero nations, mostly in the African continent.

Foreign nationals who visited any of several nations in southern Africa within 14 days of their planned arrival in Canada are no longer to be allowed entry, said a release from Canada’s federal public health agency.

Canadians returning from these countries will have to quarantine for 14 days and be subject to enhanced screening and testing measures, the release said.

It’s human nature to want to isolate when threatened, but closing our borders did little to prevent infection from the original coronavirus, or the aggressive Delta variant. Maybe all this does is give our healthcare system breathing room to treat the virus victims.

Officials have warned that many of the Omicron mutations could lead to increased antibody resistance and transmissibility, which could limit the effectiveness of existing COVID-19 vaccines.

Scientists are studying this latest variant to get an idea of how deadly it is. For now it

“Some would say this is cynical but probably by the end of this winter, pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead ... That’s the reality.”

- JENS SPAHN

to the destruction recent atmospheric-river events have wreaked on our main highways.

That kept crowds down on the mountain and in the village.

Now this week we are learning that a new variant of COVID-19, Omicron, has already made it into Canada—in Ontario and B.C. via Nigeria. Nations across the

is hoped that being fully vaccinated will keep those who get it out of hospital.

It is a stark reminder of the importance of getting vaccinated right now—one that was shared in plain language recently by Germany’s health minister. “Some would say this is cynical but probably by the end of this winter, pretty much everyone in

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8 DECEMBER 2, 2021

Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead ... That’s the reality,” Jens Spahn told a press conference in Berlin this week.

It’s easy for us here in Whistler and B.C. and Canada to feel a bit smug about our survival if/when we get COVID-19 with our very high vaccine rates.

But we need to consider that these new variants are going to just keep happening on into the future if the high- and middleincome nations don’t take action to make sure everyone in the world has access to a coronavirus vaccine.

Right now about 43 per cent of the world is vaccinated. The World Health Organization tells us that needs to get to about 70 per cent in order to slow the virus down and help prevent mutations of it.

Canada, for its part, has destroyed more than a million doses of vaccine already (but let’s also understand that South Sudan, for example, let about 59,000 doses of vaccine expire before they could be used because they don’t have the infrastructure to get them into people’s arms).

The New York Times recently reported that the International Monetary Fund calculates that an urgent US$50 billion investment primarily by high-income countries to vaccinate people in low-income countries would yield an astonishing US$9 trillion in additional economic growth by 2025, by controlling the pandemic earlier.

But it is not an economic argument, really (though some can only be motivated by money); it is a moral one.

Said Raywat Deonandan, an epidemiologist and associate professor with the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa: “For this crisis to end, a wartime mindset must be adopted. A worldwide ‘Manhattan Project’ is warranted, one in which a significant share of the world’s industrial capacity is focused on vaccine and respirator production and distribution.

“Anything less threatens to extend the global crisis much longer than it needs to be.” n

PERSONAL REAL ESTATE CORPORATION

WHISTLER, BC

604-907-0770

chill@whistlerbuyer.com ~ whistlerbuyer.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR We are writing to council and staff, especially planners, to builders and designers, and also to homeowners and prospective homebuilders. Let’s do whatever we can do now to make new and existing buildings energy efficient and free of fossil fuel use. It is too long to wait until 2030.

Leslie and Shep Alexander

We can’t wait another decade to address emissions in Whistler We support Edgar Dearden’s letter to the editor in Pique, Nov. 21 [“Whistler needs to move more aggressively to lower its emissions”] and absolutely agree that Whistler needs to act more quickly and strongly on building codes for energy efficient housing.

Indeed it’s surprising to us that this is even a question.

We built a house to passive house standards in 2013-14. And while we are not saying the strict measurements of passive house are essential, the principles involved are needed.

Builders and designers in our region know how to create beautiful homes that are comfortable summer and winter and buildings that are so energy efficient they cost a fraction to operate compared to standard construction.

And they don’t need methane (natural) gas systems so greenhouse gas emissions are reduced too.

What are we waiting for? We see the chaos and costs of this year’s disasters in B.C. If you’re building now why not be [part of] a solution to the climate crisis?

According to the Resort Municipality of Whistler website on Climate Action Big Moves

There are solutions to gondola issue and the COVID-19 vaccine

and AWARE’s Small Steps for Big Moves, in 2019 Whistler used just a bit less “methane” natural gas (27 per cent) than vehicle fuel (31 per cent). And the energy use in our buildings was responsible for 39 per cent of Whistler’s GHG emissions because of the way we are heating our indoor spaces and water.

Isn’t this a motivation to make your existing residence or business a solution to your comfort, energy bills, and GHG emissions by switching to electricity and installing an air source heat pump such as a mini-split? They are fast-acting and highly efficient to operate, so electrical bills are lower and much cheaper

than electric baseboards. By the way, our house rarely needs air conditioning in summer, but this year the mini-split (air source heat pump) worked perfectly in the heat dome.

We know the installation costs, and logistics such as mini-splits in strata units are deterrents. But what about the costs of GHG emissions? Isn’t it going to take a lot of work and money to fix our highways and agricultural system from this past month’s rains?

We keep thinking we can put off paying for what we are doing to our Earth and communities. But even in temperate coastal B.C. it is all too evident that we cannot.

As the ski season begins, and a new COVID-19 variant emerges, the debate in Whistler rages on around vaccines and gondola access.

Many of the letters to Pique have focused on Vail Resorts and its motivations. Vail Resorts is a monolithic company that runs on operational consistency. Vail Resorts wants everything to be the same everywhere—whether it’s the technology to scan a lift pass, the daily email to staff, or the size of a coffee.

Vail Resorts communicated its COVID-19 policy early on—and said that masks would not be required for chairlifts or gondolas— except where required by “federal and local health orders.”

In the five years since Vail Resorts purchased Whistler Blackcomb, Vail Resorts management and its board of directors have not empowered anyone at Whistler, so it’s logical that the Whistler COVID-19 policy would be consistent with other Vail Resorts [properties].

A more surprising question is what and who is the B.C. government optimizing for with its policy? And why are [public health officer] Dr.

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10 DECEMBER 2, 2021

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Bonnie Henry and [Sea to Sky medical health officer] Dr. John Harding defending a different approach than other global governments in trying to prevent a third consecutive shutdown in the mountains?

All international travellers need to be vaccinated and take a PCR test to enter Canada. All domestic travellers need to be vaccinated to fly within Canada. Everyone who works at Whistler Blackcomb needs to be vaccinated. Ninety per cent of the local Whistler community is vaccinated. So, who is the current policy protecting and supporting?

Even more puzzling is that there are several creative solutions that could address the concern on gondolas and still allow access to the mountain:

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allow people who are vaccinated to feel safe, and people who have decided not to get a vaccine to access the mountain. I’m hopeful that a bit of leadership and creativity emerge to find a balance in this complicated moment.

Brad Goldberg // Whistler

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Plenty of maskless riders on opening weekend at WB My first day on the slopes was awesome— great snow and moderate lines. However, what was not awesome was the fact that almost nobody was wearing a mask on lifts.

I rode the Blackcomb gondi both directions with unmasked people. Two of them had no idea that masks are required on lifts.

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“[T]here are several creative solutions that could address the concern on gondolas and still allow access to the mountain.”

- BRAD GOLDBERG

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Require a vaccine to upload any gondola but let people who are unvaccinated upload Fitz and ski Whistler.

Require a vaccine to upload any gondola (Whistler, Blackcomb, Excalibur), but let unvaccinated people ride all the chairlifts and the Peak 2 Peak.

Create rapid-testing stations at the base of both Whistler and Blackcomb, such that anyone who is not vaccinated could take a daily test before uploading the gondola.

A gondola is a “crowded space with poor ventilation,” which all the data says can lead to high rate of transmission. The lift staff cannot enforce mask rules on loading, let alone when someone is mid-ride (or when the gondola stops), and they decide to pull their mask down.

And it’s not fair to ask people who are worried about COVID-19 to bear the responsibility to enforce the policy when they are in a gondola with people who share different views.

The first few days of the ski season confirm that gondolas contain vaccinated and unvaccinated people, who are masked and unmasked, with different qualities of masks.

The community is struggling with the inconsistency of the current policies. On almost every level, the federal and provincial government are taking significant steps to protect the health of locals and visitors.

There is some incremental risk in allowing unvaccinated and unmasked people to ride the gondola. After experiencing two consecutive early closures, the plan to manage and mitigate these risks is not clear, and the explanations to date conflict with everything we have learned over the last 18 months.

There are a wide range of solutions that

One wonders why the liftie at the bottom let them, and probably thousands of others, on the gondola without telling them to mask up?

There were a few signs indicating that masks are required, but I had to look for them to find them. Certainly there was no staff trying to enforce the “rule.”

My takeaway is that Vail Resorts is at best giving lip service to COVID-19 protocols.

Don’t get me started on its refusal to do the right, and smart, thing by requiring proof of vaccination. Apparently COVID-19 is over.

Apparently skiing at Whistler is an excellent activity for the unvaccinated and unmasked set. Apparently it is good business to have the resort shut down early. Again. This is probably not going to end well. Again.

Forgetting for the moment about what the majority of their customers desire or what is in the public interest generally, I would like to think that Vail Resorts is run by smart business people who can at least figure out what is in their best economic interests. Sadly I have little hope that this is the case.

Better get your days in early folks.

Doug Dixon // Whistler

$3,999,000 T 604.935.2287 E marshall@marshallviner.com marshallviner.com

This is an invite to Ministry of Health workers to ride the gondolas A friend sent this on Day 1 of Whistler Blackcomb’s 2021/22 ski season: “People were not very good at masking on the gondola. I think that I was the only one who was properly masked. Others had their masks under their nose, pulled down completely or were wearing a thin balaclava thinking that’s a mask.”

This highlights an issue that has WB

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

DECEMBER 2, 2021

11

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Seasons Greetings and Happy Chanukah gershoncpa.com

Nick Davies, Whistler local and experienced family lawyer practising across BC andYukon.

patrons united in their demands/requests/ pleas to have both Vail Resorts and the B.C. Ministry of Health (MOH) mandate that people be fully vaccinated and wear effective masks to ride the gondolas.

Failure to accede can make Whistler a go-to destination for anti-vaxxers across Western Canada, spread COVID-19, and shut down the resort for the third season in a row, crippling businesses and bankrupting many families who rely on the resort for their livelihood.

[Pre COVID-19], Whistler contributed about

what appeared to me to be a good mask.

At Whistler, there are many who ride with a bandana or a thin, single piece of material and they do not always keep their nose and their mouth covered. Some do eat or drink while riding a gondola.

I suggest that the MOH send a team to Whistler to observe people in the lineup for a gondola. And if they really want to expose them to germs, ride the Whistler Village gondola on a busy day. Go ahead—put them at risk, the same risk you are asking us to endure.

Many ski resorts in B.C. and in Europe have

“I suggest that the [Ministry of Health] send a team to Whistler to observe people in the lineup for a gondola.”

- KEITH FERNANDES

Call at 604-602-9000 or visit www.macleanlaw.ca Maclean Law is headquartered in Vancouver with offices across British Columbia.

$1.3 million a day in taxes—can B.C. really afford to forgo this contribution, sorely needed to defray mounting health care costs, and property restoration and resettlement costs due to the recent floods?

The MOH claims that its research shows that there is little or no danger of COVID-19 transmission among “well masked” transit riders and that this should hold true for those riding in the gondolas.

Well, for a few days, during peak times, I observed riders on 99 University of British Columbia (UBC) B-Line buses near UBC. At no time were people as close to each other or breathing on their fellow passengers the way people do in the gondolas at WB. Furthermore, everyone on transit wore

made full vaccinations mandatory. The MOH has stated that Vail Resorts could do the same.

Vail Resorts did not shut down Whistler the last two seasons, the MOH did!

Surely the MOH appreciates that as a U.S. company WB could face litigation if they now decide to restrict lift access to only fully vaccinated Epic Pass holders, but will not if the B.C. government or the Regional Health Authority mandate it.

I join the voices of the many sane, rational, caring, concerned people aware of the health danger posed by riding in gondolas with those unvaccinated or inadequately masked. It is time to mandate full vaccinations and effective masks.

Keith Fernandes // Whistler ■

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Serving sea to sky for 18 years

12 DECEMBER 2, 2021

AS OF WEDNESDAY, DEC 1 What a wild ride! We’ve just exited the third atmospheric river in as many weeks, and they’ve brought near-historic amounts of precipitation to the Whistler area.

The most recent storm was very warm.

Freezing levels rose to at least 2,200 metres, meaning a substantial amount of the precipitation came as rain.

Temperatures have dropped since the storm and a thick crust exists where the snowpack was rain-soaked. This will generally have a positive effect on avalanche hazard, helping to lock everything tightly together. It also means that in most places riding conditions will be poor, possibly icy, and even downright dangerous.

For the adventurous targeting the highest backcountry peaks, be aware the rain-thenfreeze scenario above may not apply. While you may find some dry snow, you’ll need to remain alert to avalanche conditions. Be wary of steep

slopes that have seen recent accumulations of snow, particularly if you experience signs of wind effect. Wind makes the snow feel dense and stiff. From afar, it appears rounded and pillow-like; up close you will see small ridges and grooves marking the surface.

As the crust gets buried by new snow, travel conditions will improve and there could be a window of opportunity to seek out some bigger lines. Check the avalanche forecast before you go and make sure you have the skills for your objective and the essential avalanche gear (transceiver, probe and shovel).

It’s too early to say if the crust will turn into the next sliding layer. It really depends on what kinds of snow crystals end up on the surface just prior to the next snowfall. If you feel nerdy, look for feathery surface hoar or small sugary grains of facets on the snow surface. If either exist, they become a weak layer and potential avalanche failure plane once buried. ■

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

Canada’s secretive political culture is a disservice to democracy TRANSPARENCY IS ONE of those softball subjects that officials at every level of government usually try to crank over the fence if given the chance. They’ll probably tell you something about how the free flow of information and an engaged and

BY BRANDON BARRETT critical press are crucial to the health of a functioning democracy, but in reality, that philosophy looks much better on paper than it does in practice.

As the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) put it, “As a result of a political culture and structure that favours secrecy over openness, Canada is not and has never been a global leader in freedom of information—a value parties of all political stripes claim to embrace in Opposition but abandon if they form government.”

That comes from CAJ’s submission to the House of Commons calling for a complete overhaul of Canada’s notoriously onerous and cagey Access to Information laws and practices, part of a review that was initiated last summer.

Here’s hoping Ottawa’s final report, expected in January, doesn’t fall on the

slush pile, because the cost of a political culture aimed at protecting those in power versus those they serve is far too high to bear. Just look at the devastating flooding that has wreaked havoc on B.C. and left several dead. Fraser Valley Current reporter Tyler Olsen wrote in a recent Twitter thread about how he sought an interview with B.C’s inspector of dikes Mitchell Hahn nine months ago to discuss the flood risk at the Nooksack and Sumas rivers (the latter is the nexus of Abbotsford’s recent flooding), and specifically what would happen in the event of an eruption at Mount Baker. It took weeks of back and forth and continued denials from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations to get a canned statement back, not the interview he had originally asked for. Meanwhile, an interview he requested to discuss the same issue with Whatcom County in neighbouring Washington State took all of 60 seconds to arrange. He still has yet to interview Hahn.

As someone who has reported in this province for close to a decade, Olsen’s thread hit close to home. Over the past few years, it’s become clear that the provincial government generally follows the same communications playbook no matter the agency: 1) Reporter requests interview with a real, flesh-and-blood spokesperson on a particularly prickly issue. 2) Communications lackey

responds in cheery tone saying they are diligently working on your request. 3) Somehow, some way, nobody is available for an interview. Aw shucks! 4) Get back a prepared statement full of tepid bullet points that are easily findable from a quick Google search and which may or

[I]t’s going to require actual policy change to force government to open up... may not address your actual questions.

It’s part of a culture so deeply entrenched in this country that it’s going to require actual policy change to force government to open up, and Canada’s archaic Access to Information Act is as good a place to start as any.

Writing recently in Policy Options, University of Victoria professor Sean Holman says the act governing Canadians’ access to information was actually “built to be broken” by relying on the notion that confidentiality is necessary for good decision-making and “honest discussion won’t take place if the public can see and hear what’s happening.”

What that translates to is a piece of legislation bogged down by loopholes—75, to

be exact—that public institutions use to censor records before they are released; monthsand even years-long delays in getting back requested records, and a whole schwack of administrative costs bore by a press already facing shrinking revenues and slashed budgets, proving that freedom of information is by no means free. (This was something Pique came up against recently when trying to determine the legal costs of the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s lawsuit against the newspaper for its coverage of this spring’s cyber attack; as it turns out, knowing how much your local government spent on suing the town paper in the middle of a pandemic is not easily accessible information.

Excuse me while both my eyes roll completely out of my skull.)

Removing those exemptions was one of five recommendations the CAJ put forward in its recent submission to Ottawa, along with requiring officials to document their decision-making (because there’s not much use in an access to information law if there’s no information to access); requiring public institutions to regularly release broad categories of records in a machine-readable format; providing Canada’s Information Commissioner with order-marking power; and permitting and encouraging federal employees to freely communicate with the media and public.

Given our government’s track record, I’m not going to hold my breath. ■

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NEWS WHISTLER

Guaranteed sick days good for workers, frustrating for businesses WHISTLER CHAMBER LAUNCHES REVAMPED WHISTLER EXPERIENCE PROGRAM

BY BRADEN DUPUIS A B.C. GOVERNMENT announcement on Nov. 24 that all workers in the province will be eligible for a minimum of five paid sick days starting Jan. 1 is good news for workers—but the announcement has led to frustration for businesses.

The health and well-being of businesses and their employees is critical, said Whistler Chamber CEO Melissa Pace, but the timing of the announcement was not ideal for business owners in Whistler. “[It’s] another expense on the back of small business at a time when they are already dealing with a labour crisis, supply-chain issues, impacts of the floods in our province and when the federal COVID programs have changed. Most will not have budgeted for this additional expense,” Pace said.

“These costs will add to an already increasing financial burden to businesses, which will undoubtedly result in increased costs and upward pressure on prices.”

Pique reached out to five different Whistler businesses after the announcement. Two declined comment, noting more information is still needed,

UNDER THE WEATHER Workers in Whistler and across B.C. will be guaranteed five days of paid sick leave starting Jan. 1—but the timing of the announcement is causing frustration for businesses.

PHOTO BY MIKE CRANE / GETTYIMAGES.CA

14 DECEMBER 2, 2021

and three did not respond before deadline.

An online post seeking feedback on the change from local workers generated a handful of responses, but no one willing to go on record.

In a Nov. 24 statement, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business called the announcement “tone-deaf to the realities small businesses are facing,” and noted that only 38 per cent of B.C. small businesses are back to making

estimates it will take around 21 months to fully recover from the impacts of the pandemic. In fact, just over a third (35 per cent) of B.C. small businesses feel they are losing money every day that they are open.”

In Whistler, businesses are also still dealing with a “critical” labour shortage as the winter season gets underway, Pace said.

“So we’re going to be seeing people working overtime, or some early closures, or again, reduced service in the businesses,

“These costs will add to an already increasing financial burden to businesses ...”

- MELISSA PACE

“normal sales” since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While 63 per cent of small businesses support paid sick leave if the costs were fully funded by the government, “the majority of B.C. small businesses (64 per cent) are not supportive of any permanent employer-paid sick leave program, with 84 per cent citing costs as their main concern,” said CFIB president and CEO Dan Kelly, in a release.

“All of this is coming at a time when the average B.C. small business is carrying $129,348 in COVID-19 related debt and

so it’s tough,” she said, adding that the shortage extends beyond tourism and hospitality, and even beyond Whistler.

A lack of housing continues to be a major driver behind the labour shortage.

“We’ve had businesses that have said they’ve had potential candidates for jobs that have not been able to secure housing, so they haven’t stayed, which is really heart wrenching, to hear that,” Pace said.

“So there’s lots of advocacy that we’ll be continuing to work on to try and resolve some of these issues as quickly as possible.”

For those workers who are already in

the resort, the Whistler Chamber recently launched its revamped Whistler Experience customer service-training program.

The program’s ABCs of Customer Service training has been “completely redesigned from a mountain-culture perspective, and features tons of people that everybody will know,” Pace said, including Jackie Dickinson from the Whistler Community Services Society and hosted by Heather Paul.

“We’ve included Whistler’s history, starting with a recognition of the Indigenous culture that lives and exists here in our community, so it’s really different,” Pace said.

“Whether you’ve been here for years or you’ve just arrived in Whistler, our intent was to really ground you in that connection to Whistler, and what your purpose is going to be in Whistler while you’re here, or as long as you live here.”

The Whistler Experience also includes a Gender Diversity Basics course, as well as returning courses for management.

The idea behind the program, which is on track to surpass its registration target of 1,400 workers, is to take the pressure off of small businesses, and provide customer service consistency across the resort, Pace said.

“Having a consistent customer service training program—now modernized, now grounded in and rooted in mountain culture—it’s very exciting for us to be able to roll that out,” she said.

“So we’re pretty proud of that program.”

Find more info at whistlerchamber. com. n

NEWS WHISTLER

What does the future hold for RMI funding?

WHISTLER ANNUAL BUDGET DETAILS TOURISM FUNDING

FULLY FURNISHED 1/4 OWNERSHIP CONDO/HOTELS IN WHISTLER CREEKSIDE

CONTACT JAMES FOR AVAILABILITY

BY BRADEN DUPUIS

THINKING OF BUYING OR SELLING? CALL JAMES FOR MORE INFORMATION.

WITH A THREE-YEAR, $39-million commitment to the Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) funding program expiring this year, it remains to be seen exactly how much the provincial government will commit to B.C.’s resort communities in its 2022 budget.

The government made the RMI program—which supports small, tourismbased municipalities to build and diversify their tourism infrastructure and offerings—part of its base budget in 2019, with a $13-million annual spend attached to the program.

But as with all spending being considered for budget 2022, future supports for tourism won’t be confirmed publicly until March 2022, a spokesperson said.

Since 2006, the RMI program has doled out more than $140 million in funding to 14 resort communities in B.C., and in Whistler played a key role in achieving the record-breaking visitation numbers seen pre-pandemic.

In Whistler’s 2022 draft budget documents, RMI money—which must be spent on tourist-facing projects that don’t directly benefit residents—is attached to 24 different projects (though not all of them have a specific dollar amount tied to them just yet).

“RMI specifically is focused on visitor amenities at this time, including the construction of the village washrooms and extensive work at the parks,” said director of finance Carlee Price at the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s (RMOW) Nov. 18 budget information session.

“The RMI program is up for renewal in 2022, and so the list of projects that you see with this budget version includes only those projects that have already been approved.

Additional works could and likely will be added mid-year when clarity on funding amounts is achieved.”

So far for 2022, the RMOW has budgeted $3,348,521 of RMI spending across 11 projects, $2 million of which will go towards upgrades at Meadow Park and Rainbow Park.

The improvements at Meadow Park include replacing the waterpark, new playground equipment, enhanced picnic areas and recreational space along the river’s edge, as well as a formalized offleash dog area, while Rainbow Park will see improved waterfront access, watercraft launch and storage facilities, expansion of the special events area and more.

A further $562,228 is allocated for construction of new recreation parking facilities adjacent to Bayly Park to help manage overwhelming demand for access to the area, with preliminary work already

JAMES COLLINGRIDGE

CALL JAMES, THE LEGENDS & EVOLUTION SPECIALIST Direct: 604-902-0132 Toll Free: 1-888-689-0070 james@whistlerrealestate.net www.whistlerrealestate.net

FIND THE S PA C E T O B R E AT H E . . .

W H I S T L E R ’ S L E A D I N G R E A LT O R

BUDGET SEASON Director of finance Carlee Price presents at the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s Nov. 18 budget information session.

PHOTO BY BRADEN DUPUIS

underway on the site.

The budget item also includes a Recreation Trail Strategy that the RMOW’s parks planning department is undertaking.

Another $371,079 of RMI money is budgeted for Valley Trail lighting on the 1,200-metre section of trail between Lakeside Park in Alta Vista and Creekside.

Other RMI spends planned for 2022 include the development of visitor awareness guides ($89,768); continued work on the RMOW’s geopark project ($66,961 for trails, viewing decks and interpretation materials); a new Interpretive Panels strategy ($59,685); and $20,000 for landscape and pedestrian circulation improvements in front of the PassivHaus at the entrance to Lost Lake Park.

There’s also $76,226 budgeted for Valley Trail access and safety improvements, including (but not limited to) the gateway out of Whistler Village at the Whistler Golf Club, the Highway 99 crossing at Nesters Road, and the intersection at Nancy Greene Drive and Blackcomb Way. The RMOW’s draft budget includes a proposed 6.72-per-cent tax increase in 2022, as well as three-per-cent increases to sewer, water and solid waste fees.

Whistlerites have until Dec. 21 to weigh in.

Find complete budget documents and more at whistler.ca/budget. n

3828 SUNRIDGE LANE $13,950,000

DECEMBER 2, 2021

15

NEWS WHISTLER

Van teen brings girls’ math program to Whistler ALEXA BAILEY IS EXPANDING HER GIRLS TO THE POWER OF MATH PROGRAM TO THE SEA TO SKY

BY HARRISON BROOKS WHILE WORKING AS a math tutor for a young girl in her neighbourhood, Vancouver’s Alexa Bailey noticed that the girl’s confidence in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math) was already declining, even at an early age. But through the use of games and activities to teach lessons, the girl’s confidence and comprehension improved dramatically.

Seeing the benefits firsthand, Bailey, who was only 14 years old at the time, became curious if other young girls had the same confidence issues when it came to math.

This curiosity led to her conducting a research experiment for her Grade 8 science fair.

Mentored by University of British Columbia’s Dr. Toni Schmader, Bailey created a survey gauging students’ confidence in math and took it to multiple elementary schools in Vancouver.

What she found was while boys’ confidence seemed to stay the same throughout the years, girls’ confidence in STEM subjects dwindled year after year.

“Overall, girls had a statistically

significant decline in confidence as they progressed through elementary school,” said Bailey. “I really didn’t want that to happen so that’s why I created Girls to the Power of Math (G^M), an intervention program that targets Grade 3 girls using skip counting, multiplication and fun activities to help boost their confidence and inspire a love of math.”

Now 16 and already a high-school graduate, Bailey is on a gap year before heading off to university where she hopes to study biological engineering. In the meantime, she is living in her family home in Whistler and spending her days volunteering for the Whistler Adaptive Sport Program and Whistler Mountain Safety while working to expand G^M to the elementary schools in town.

The program just got approved for nonprofit status, which Jaqueline Maartense, one of the locals who is helping Bailey get the program up and running in Whistler, said was an important first step in getting the program going. The next step is to find local teenage girls who want to volunteer their time to be the program’s mentors.

“You don’t have to be a math expert, but you need to enjoy working with children and it probably would help if you knew your times tables up to 10,” said Maartense about

what they are looking for in a mentor.

“But we are really looking for people who are motivated about being leaders in the local community and want to help inspire other human beings to be the best they can be.”

Those that are interested in being a mentor can send their resume and cover letter to Maartense at jmaartense@gmail.com.

Whistler Secondary School’s math club leader, Sarah Hycriw and former Whistler Waldorf Secondary math teacher Hannah Bostrum are also assisting Bailey and Maartense get the program off the ground.

Hycriw will act as the staff supervisor for the program while Bostrum will oversee the training of the mentors to get them up to speed and capable of teaching their own groups of ten students.

The free program, funded by the Actuarial Foundation of Canada, aims to add a math spin to classic childhood games like hopscotch, tag, jackpot and jump rope.

However, according to Bailey, the kids’ favourite game always ends up being a variation of “What time is it Mr. Wolf” that they call “What Times is it Mrs. Wolf” where the wolf gives out a math problem, like 3 x 6, and the students must skip count (three, six, nine…) with each step until they reach the answer.

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While it is open to any girls aged approximately seven to 12 years old, the program is targeted towards Grade 3 girls because that is when Bailey’s research showed that girls’ confidence in math started to drop. It also lines up with when students would normally be learning their times tables.

However, Bailey said the goal of the program isn’t to teach the kids their times tables, although that would be a good takeaway as well. The goal is to give the kids positive experiences with math and show them that math can be fun.

“The goal is for the kids to enjoy themselves and have fun doing math so that they associate math with a fun experience and can remember this in later years when they might be struggling or they think they can’t do it, they can look back on this experience and say, ‘Hey math is fun and I can do this,’” she said.

“I am proud that I’m able to impact all of these girls lives and hopefully change their outlook on math and inspire a love of math for them. I really hope to see the gender gap in STEM related fields decrease within my lifetime and I’m proud I made something meaningful and sustainable and that I can touch as many girls lives as possible.” n

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NEWS WHISTLER

DUTY OF CARE The Whistler Health Care Foundation is awarding grants of up to $10,000 to Sea to Sky nonprofits with healthcare-related intiatives.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHCF

Whistler Health Care Foundation launches grant-funding program GRANTS OF UP TO $10K ARE AVAILABLE TO ANY SEA TO SKY NON-PROFIT WITH HEALTHCARE-RELATED INITIATIVES

BY BRANDON BARRETT SHORTLY AFTER moving to the resort last December, David Goudge had a bit of a run-in with a knife he had just purchased.

“I decided to try and cut my finger off,” he says jokingly. “It was a brand-new knife and insanely sharp, so that was my first encounter with the Whistler emergency clinic, and they were awesome. From the receptionist to the nurses to the doctor, everyone was just remarkably good at what they were doing. I’m just so grateful they’re here.”

It was that relatively routine procedure that planted a seed in Goudge that would eventually lead to his family’s foundation donating to the Whistler Health Care Foundation (WHCF) for its new grant-funding program. With the $50,000 in seed funding from the Goudge Family Foundation, the WHCF is now looking to award grants worth up to $10,000 each for healthcare-related projects and initiatives benefitting the Sea to Sky. “Historically, the foundation was started to really support the [Whistler] Health Care Centre, but a few years ago we widened that mandate to support everything in the corridor,” explained Carol Leacy, board chair of the WHCF. “But we realized that a lot of our funding still goes through Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), to the hospital and whatnot, so we know we are able to support more than that but nobody has really applied. So we thought, ‘Why don’t we create this program and proactively reach out to the community?’”

Grant eligibility goes beyond what most would consider traditional healthcare initiatives, Leacy noted.

“So things like, say, [Whistler] Search and Rescue, which needed a defibrillator.

That’s totally within our funding mandate, but we really haven’t had people like that reach out to us before. With mental health initiatives and counselling programs, for example, they might be looking for funding, but may not think of us.”

All Sea to Sky non-profit groups with healthcare-related initiatives are encouraged

18 DECEMBER 2, 2021

to apply. The application window opens Dec. 1, with the deadline set for Jan. 15, 2022. Application forms and additional information on the program are available at whistlerhealthcarefoundation.org.

Established in 1994, the WHCF is a non-profit that has raised more than $4 million and founded more than 26 different projects in that time, including hitting a $1.5-million fundraising target for the longawaited upgrade to the Whistler Health Care Centre’s trauma room.

More recently, the foundation has set its sights on its most ambitious project to date: a community-led, non-profit primary care centre aimed at improving physician accessibility in the resort and offering a more holistic care model that would include general practitioners, nurse practitioners, counsellors, and a range of other healthcare professionals under one roof.

The vision for the centre would see it either co-located inside the existing Whistler Health Care Centre, a renovated centre, or as a standalone facility close by, making use of existing lab and imaging services and easily accessible from the village.

Currently, the Whistler 360 Collaborative Health Society formed to manage the centre is seeking charitable status to enable it to apply for grant funding. In the meantime, Leacy said discussions are ongoing with VCH and B.C.’s health ministry to bring additional nurse practitioners and social workers to the community.

The WHCF is also overseeing the recently launched Rob Burgess Primary Care Fund, named in honour of the longtime local physician, chief medical officer and Whistler Medical Clinic co-founder who died in September after a short battle with cancer. The fund is dedicated to supporting primary care initiatives in the corridor.

Leacy said the fund has received a tremendous response since Burgess’ passing two-and-a-half months ago.

“I don’t know the exact numbers but we’ve had multiple larger donations, which has been fantastic. We’re looking forward to that being a good seed fund to get some primary care initiatives for the future,” she said. n

NEWS WHISTLER

Sea to Sky family speaks out about school exclusions ACROSS B.C., HUNDREDS OF FAMILIES STRUGGLE WITH EXCLUSION DUE TO DISABILITIES

BY BRADEN DUPUIS SARAH DYSON’S son Alec is not a typical five-year-old.

To the untrained eye, some may say he’s disobedient, at least “for lack of a better way of saying it,” Dyson said.

“I can’t say no to him. We do everything indirectly. He either overhears me say something and then he decides it’s his idea, and he’s onboard with it, or I say something like ‘I think I might go do this, and I might do that,’ and then he’ll go ‘Oh, actually I wanna do that.’”

Alec is autistic, with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—one of thousands of Canadian children diagnosed as such (a 2018 study by the Canadian Government found that one in 66 children aged five to 17 have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder).

“Since we’ve had all his assessments, and now that we understand him a lot better, we have completely flipped our parenting style … and it’s working,” Dyson said.

“We’ve got a much stronger relationship with him. There’s a lot less yelling, but … we walk around on eggshells around him.”

Enrolled for one year in the Whistler

20 DECEMBER 2, 2021

Waldorf School’s (WWS) “Little Cedars” program for early learning, Alec was “thriving” with the help of a support worker, Dyson said—but when it came time to enrol Alec in Kindergarten, the school said it couldn’t meet his needs.

After his parents, who are now moving home to Australia, submitted an official grievance letter, WWS agreed to accept Alec with seven conditions attached. But the parents were left disillusioned.

While Alec’s Waldorf teachers were “amazing,” communicating and collaborating regularly, “we are disappointed with the reluctance of the administration to accommodate for Alec’s disability, and the administration’s poor communication,” they wrote in a May 28 letter declining the conditional enrolment.

“We have found our experience with the Waldorf Administration to be very unprofessional.

“Nothing was ever discussed with us; we have only ever been told what the administration’s process would be and when we should expect a decision.”

Asked to comment, WWS’ director of advancement Jen Dodds said the school can’t discuss specific circumstances surrounding any individual family or student due to privacy laws and WWS policy.

LITTLE CEDAR Sarah Dyson and her son Alec.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

“[WWS]’ thorough admissions process is intended to help ensure a good fit for prospective students and their families,” Dodds said, in an email.

“This includes a fair and inclusive

process, as well as an acknowledgement of WWS’ non-profit, independent school environment and specialized curriculum programming. The end goal of the admissions process is to allow future students and families to make as informed decision as possible, so students have the best possible opportunity to succeed at WWS.” As an independent, non-profit school, Waldorf is free to set its own policies with respect to admissions.

Even so, the school “is committed to meeting its obligations under human rights laws to ensure non-discriminatory access to education and reasonable accommodations in education short of undue hardship,” Dodds said.

“The WWS is also committed to being as inclusive as possible across all measures.”

While WWS was prepared to accept Alec, Dyson felt it was important to share her experience.

“One of the reasons that I want to speak up is so it doesn’t happen to future families,” she said.

“Waldorf is slowly but surely putting up so many hurdles in front of kids that need additional help that they end up being forced out of the school, essentially.”

SEE PAGE 22

>>

• The Webinar ID is: 640 3091 9387 Instructions for Participating via Zoom Online Video or Phone Conferencing • Online video: It is possible NOTICE to access OF thePUBLIC Public Hearing on a computer, tablet or smartphone using HEARING the web link above. Your camera will DECEMBER not be available, butP.M.your microphone will need to be enabled.

TUESDAY, 14, 2021 – 6:30 Public Hearing be held electronically pursuant to s.465 of the Local Government Council Procedure No. 2207, ToThisindicate thatwillyou wish to make an oral representation, clickActonandthe ‘raise hand’Bylaw feature.

The2018.moderator will COMMUNITY PLAN AMENDMENT BYLAW allow each person to (2077 speakGARIBALDI inOFFICIAL turn.WAY) When it is your turn to speak, your microphone will be unmuted and you NO. 2290, 2021 and ZONING AMENDMENT BYLAW will be asked to provide your name(2077 andGARIBALDI address for record. Please be patient as there may be others WAY)the NO. public 2291, 2021 SUBJECT LANDS: Thequeue parcel thatbefore is the subject in the you.of the proposed Bylaw is 2077 Garibaldi Way, Whistler, described as Lot 3 District Lot 5412 Plan16634. The parcel is identified as “subject property” on the map attached to this notice.

• In Phone conferencing: Toproposed accessOfficial the Community Public Hearing by phone, onetheoflandtheusephone numbers above along with PURPOSE: general terms, the purpose of the Plan Amendment Bylaw is use to change designation of the subject lands from RESIDENTIALthe - VERY LOW (DETACHED) to RESIDENTIALTo - LOW TO MEDIUM Webinar ID as prompted. indicate that(DETACHED/MULTIPLE). you wish to make an oral representation, use the ‘raise hand’ In general terms, the purpose the proposed Amendment Bylawturn is to rezone the subject from Residential Estate Onethe (RS-E1) to RM74 feature by ofdialing [*9].Zoning When it is your to speak, thelands moderator willSingle announce lastZone three digits of your (Residential Multiple Seventy-Four) Zone to provide for 20 townhouse dwelling units, provided that the first 14 townhouse dwelling units must be for phone employee housing only. number, and your line will be unmuted. You will be asked to provide your name and address for the INSPECTION OF DOCUMENTS: public record. Please be patient as there may be others in the queue before you.

A copy of the proposed Bylaws and relevant background documentation along with written submissions received may be inspected at the Reception Desk of Municipal Hall at 4325the Blackcomb Way, Whistler, BC, during office hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30receive p.m., Monday to Friday (statutory holidays excluded) fromon December 3, 2021 to andBylaw.

After conclusion of this Publicregular Hearing, Council cannot representations from the public the proposed including December 14, 2021.

General information onandparticipating in the RMOW’along s electronic public hearings isalso available A copy of the proposed Bylaws relevant background documentation with written submissions received may be viewedhere: online on the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) website at: whistler.ca/2077GaribaldiWay https://www.whistler.ca/municipal-gov/council/public-hearings PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: All persons who that their can interest in property affected the proposed will be afforded a reasonable Members ofbelieve the public also view isthe LivebyStream ofBylaws the Public Hearing at: opportunity to be heard by Council at the Public Hearing. All persons can: 1) submit written comments to Council; and/or 2) make oral representations LIVE via online video or phone conferencing. (Your image will not be https://www.whistler.ca/municipal-gov/council/watch-council-meetings broadcast to Council or the public.)

ZONING AMENDMENT BYLAW (8104 MCKEEVERS PLACE) NO. 2292, 2020 Map showing Subject Lands

1. Submit Written Comments to Council Written comments must be addressed to “Mayor and Council”, and include your name and mailing address. Until 3:30 p.m. on December 14, 2021, written submissions will be received at the following: Email: corporate@whistler.ca Fax: 604-935-8109 Hard Copy: Resort Municipality of Whistler Legislative Services Department 4325 Blackcomb Way Whistler BC V8E 0X5

Written submissions will also be accepted on December 14, 2021 between 3:30 p.m. and the time when the motion to close the Public Hearing is made. During this timeframe, written comments must be submitted by email to: corporate@whistler.ca All submissions will form part of the Public Hearing record and will be added to the Public Hearing Package as they are received. The Public Hearing Package will be available on the RMOW website at: whistler.ca/2077GaribaldiWay 2. Participate LIVE via Online Video or Phone Conferencing The live Public Hearing will take place December 14, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. via online video and phone conferencing. The Public Hearing will be conducted using Zoom and can be accessed via either online video or phone conferencing. No registration is required.

If you wish to make oral representations to Council on the proposed Bylaw by online video or by phone, please use the Public Hearing web link or one of the phone numbers (including Webinar ID) provided below.

• The web link for the Public Hearing online video option is: https://whistler.zoom.us/j/64366007157 • The phone numbers to access the Public Hearing phone conferencing option are as follows: +1-778-907-2071 +1-647-374-4685 • The Webinar ID is: 643 6600 7157 Instructions for Participating via Zoom Online Video or Phone Conferencing • Online video: It is possible to access the Public Hearing on a computer, tablet or smartphone using the web link above.

Your camera will not be available, but your microphone will need to be enabled. To indicate that you wish to make an oral representation, click on the ‘raise hand’ feature. The moderator will allow each person to speak in turn. When it is your turn to speak, your microphone will be unmuted and you will be asked to provide your name and address for the public record. Please be patient as there may be others in the queue before you.

• Phone conferencing: To access the Public Hearing by phone, use one of the phone numbers above along with the Webinar ID as prompted. To indicate that you wish to make an oral representation, use the ‘raise hand’ feature by dialing [*9]. When it is your turn to speak, the moderator will announce the last three digits of your phone number, and your line will be unmuted. You will be asked to provide your name and address for the public record. Please be patient as there may be others in the queue before you.

After the conclusion of this Public Hearing, Council cannot receive representations from the public on the proposed Bylaw.

General information on participating in the RMOW’s electronic public hearings is available here: https://www.whistler.ca/municipal-gov/council/public-hearings Members of the public can also view the Live Stream of the Public Hearing at: https://www.whistler.ca/municipal-gov/council/watch-council-meetings Map showing Subject Lands

Resort Municipality of Whistler whistler.ca

NEWS WHISTLER << FROM PAGE 20 STORIES OF EXCLUSION Families of children with disabilities face myriad challenges in navigating education systems, whether the schools be independent or public.

While every family’s story will be unique in its own way, the reality of school exclusions— which can come in many different forms, some more overt than others—is one faced by hundreds of B.C. families.

Teacher and consultant Jenn Scharf, herself a mother of a complex learner, recently published a document titled Stories of Exclusion, which features 60 different stories from families across the province, each one detailing a different experience with school exclusion due to disabilities.

By sharing the stories with school districts and other education stakeholders, Scharf hopes to shine a light on systemwide problems (read the document in full at storiesofexclusion.com).

“It’s not that people don’t have good intentions … I’m a teacher myself, and there are great people in the buildings; this isn’t about people getting their personal backs up,” she said.

“We have to personalize those stories, but we have to not make it about us if we’re in a position of power … Maybe we have some work to do in spite of our best intentions, in spite of our hopes and dreams, in spite of what’s written in the education plan for the district. How is this

actually happening on the ground?”

Through her own research and personal experiences, Scharf connected with the BC Ed Access Society (BCEAS), which itself has been advocating for disabled kids and complex learners in B.C. since the teacher strike in 2014.

BCEAS hosts a Facebook group with more than 4,000 families, Scharf said.

Reading about their experiences was what inspired her to start collecting the stories, “because I realized, ‘Oh my gosh— I’m a teacher, I have a Master’s [degree] in education, I’ve been in the system, and I’m struggling, and our family is traumatized,’” she said with a laugh.

“We are struggling—what about all these families who don’t have the level of privilege and access that I do? Maybe they don’t speak English; maybe they’re in that cycle of poverty?

“It all just kind of started adding up, and I realized, ‘OK, this is the work I need to be doing.’”

Scharf’s Stories of Exclusion has even found its way to Jennifer Whiteside, B.C.’s minister of education.

“Hearing the first-hand experiences of students with diverse abilities and their parents demonstrates the need to continue removing barriers to equity in our public education system,” Whiteside said, in an emailed statement.

“Our government is committed to working with parents, advocates and all our education partners to this end. By

having an equity lens in all of our policies and at the forefront of our discussions and decisions, we can create environments that allow all students to have more opportunities to succeed.”

The province is supporting students with special needs with $664.4 million in supplemental funding in 2021-22 (an increase of $200 million since 2016-17), a ministry spokesperson said, including a 45-per-cent increase in education assistants over the past decade, as well as funding 170 seats in teacher education programs (including 50 focusing on inclusive education), among other initiatives.

“We are also taking action by reviewing our inclusive education policy and ministerial orders to ensure the responsibilities of school districts to provide necessary supports and services to students are clear,” a spokesperson said.

“We are on the right track, but we know there is more work to do to ensure students are getting the support they need to thrive in school.”

BCEAS EYES CHANGES AHEAD OF PROVINCIAL BUDGET For all the progress being made, the work is never done for advocates like Tracy Humphreys, founder and chair of BCEAS, a completely volunteer-run organization.

Humphreys sees the group’s mandate as twofold: helping families on the ground,

and pushing for systemic change.

Ahead of the province’s 2022 budget, BCEAS submitted an 11-item list of things that it sees as being beneficial for students with disabilities.

The list includes both structural and non-structural changes—things like mandatory anti-ableism, accessibility and anti-racism training for school administrators, and an annual audit of each district’s individual education plans, to name just a few.

The ministry, for its part, has been responsive to the group’s advocacy efforts, Humphreys said, and meets every two weeks with BCEAS, Inclusion BC and the Family Support Institute.

“It has been hugely helpful to have those meetings, because we get to talk about issues as they come up,” she said. “Instead of them boiling over and being really awful, we get to sort of talk about it.”

But the “difficult reality” of the way the School Act is structured is that, while the province is responsible for funding education, it’s the school districts and independent school authorities that decide where the money actually goes, Humphreys said.

“So a lot of the things that we do bring to the ministry level are things that maybe they can’t impact a lot, because districts have the autonomy to make their own decisions around how the service is provided,” she said.

“So that is one of the really big challenges.” n

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22 DECEMBER 2, 2021

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2021 – 5:30 P.M.

This Public Hearing will be held electronically pursuant to s.465 of the Local Government Act and Council Procedure Bylaw No. 2207, 2018.

THE

2021-2022 PEMBERTON GUIDE on stands now!

LAND USE CONTRACT TERMINATION BYLAW (4644 BLACKCOMB WAY) NO. 2299, 2021 SUBJECT LANDS: The lands that are the subject of the proposed Bylaw are shown on the map attached to this notice. The civic address is 4644 Blackcomb Way, which is known as Blackcomb Greens.

PURPOSE: In general terms, the purpose of the proposed Bylaw is to: 1) terminate the Blackcomb Land Use Contract where it applies within the subject lands; 2) amend the RTA18 Zone under “Zoning and Parking Bylaw No. 303, 2015” with respect to permitted uses, density, site coverage and parking to reflect the existing development at the subject lands; and 3) apply the amended RTA18 Zone to the subject lands.

If the Bylaw is adopted, it will take effect one year after from the date of adoption.

INSPECTION OF DOCUMENTS: A copy of the proposed Bylaw and relevant background documentation along with written submissions received may be inspected at the Reception Desk of Municipal Hall at 4325 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, BC, during regular office hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday (statutory holidays excluded) from December 2, 2021 to and including December 14, 2021.

A copy of the proposed Bylaw and relevant background documentation along with written submissions received may also be viewed online on the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) website at: whistler.ca/LUC00020 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: All persons who believe that their interest in property is affected by the proposed Bylaw will be afforded a reasonable opportunity to be heard by Council at the Public Hearing. All persons can: 1) submit written comments to Council; and/or 2) make oral representations LIVE via online video or phone conferencing. (Your image will not be broadcast to Council or the public.)

1.Submit Written Comments to Council Written comments must be addressed to “Mayor and Council”, and include your name and mailing address. Until 3:30 p.m. on December 14, 2021, written submissions will be received at the following: Email: Fax: Hard Copy:

corporate@whistler.ca 604-935-8109 Resort Municipality of Whistler Legislative Services Department 4325 Blackcomb Way Whistler BC V8E 0X5

Written submissions will also be accepted on December 14, 2021 between 3:30 p.m. and the time when the motion to close the Public Hearing is made.

During this timeframe, written comments must be submitted by email to: corporate@whistler.ca All submissions will form part of the Public Hearing record and will be added to the Public Hearing Package as they are received. The Public Hearing Package will be available on the RMOW website at: whistler.ca/LUC00020 2.Participate LIVE via Online Video or Phone Conferencing The live Public Hearing will take place December 14, 2021 at 5:30 p.m. via online video and phone conferencing. The Public Hearing will be conducted using Zoom and can be accessed via either online video or phone conferencing. No registration is required.

If you wish to make oral representations to Council on the proposed Bylaw by online video or by phone, please use the Public Hearing web link or one of the phone numbers (including Webinar ID) provided below.

• The web link for the Public Hearing online video option is: https://whistler.zoom.us/j/64366007157 • The phone numbers to access the Public Hearing phone conferencing option are as follows: +1-778-907-2071 +1-647-374-4685 • The Webinar ID is: 643 6600 7157

LOCAL EATERIES SPOTLIGHT EVENTS THINGS TO DO

Instructions for Participating via Zoom Online Video or Phone Conferencing • Online video: It is possible to access the Public Hearing on a computer, tablet or smartphone using the web link above. Your camera will not be available, but your microphone will need to be enabled. To indicate that you wish to make an oral representation, click on the ‘raise hand’ feature. The moderator will allow each person to speak in turn. When it is your turn to speak, your microphone will be unmuted and you will be asked to provide your name and address for the public record. Please be patient as there may be others in the queue before you.

• Phone conferencing: To access the Public Hearing by phone, use one of the phone numbers above along with the Webinar ID as prompted. To indicate that you wish to make an oral representation, use the ‘raise hand’ feature by dialing [*9]. When it is your turn to speak, the moderator will announce the last three digits of your phone number, and your line will be unmuted. You will be asked to provide your name and address for the public record. Please be patient as there may be others in the queue before you.

After the conclusion of this Public Hearing, Council cannot receive representations from the public on the proposed Bylaw.

General information on participating in the RMOW’s electronic public hearings is available here: https://www.whistler.ca/municipal-gov/council/public-hearings Members of the public can also view the Live Stream of the Public Hearing at: https://www.whistler.ca/municipal-gov/council/watch-council-meetings

LAND USE CONTRACT TERMINATION BYLAW (4644 BLACKCOMB WAY) NO. 2299, 2021 Map showing Subject Lands

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NEWS WHISTLER

Roger Molinaro found guilty on all counts in child sexual assault case PEMBERTON RESIDENT LINKED TO ABUSE OF TWO FAMILY FRIENDS OVER A PERIOD OF NEARLY 12 YEARS

BY BRANDON BARRETT LONGTIME WHISTLER and Pemberton resident Roger Molinaro was found guilty last week of sexually assaulting two minors and family friends over a period of years.

Molinaro, 51, was arrested in April 2020 after police launched an investigation upon receiving information regarding historical allegations of child sexual assault. The incidents allegedly took place between 2007 and 2018, according to the RCMP, and involved two minors with close ties to the Molinaro family and who often spent time at their Pemberton home, including for sleepovers. Parents of the complainants described Molinaro as like a second father to their children.

In her decision on Nov. 25 at the Pemberton Provincial Court, Judge Patricia Janzen said she found the testimony of both complainants to be “very credible” and consistent with the memory of children recalling traumatic events.

Complainant 1, for instance, described

multiple incidents of molestation over a period of years, but wasn’t always able to place them in a specific time or location, which the defence used to try to discredit her testimony. Janzen, however, said it aligned with the nature of a child’s memory.

“A childhood memory is often selective,” she said. “A traumatic experience is clearly remembered while the more mundane context around it is not.”

The judge described Complainant 2 as “an exceptionally careful witness. The care she took to be precise about what she remembered bolstered her testimony. On many occasions she carefully distinguished what she thought or surmised what happened from her recollection,” Janzen said.

In comparison, Janzen said Molinaro, “in his zeal to deny everything that could render the allegations of the complainants even possible,” often testified “in absolute terms and was unprepared to admit what was both clearly possible and unlikely to be specifically remembered by him one way or the other many years later.” She

cited the examples of Molinaro claiming he had only ever been alone in his home with either complainant on one occasion, or that he had “never, ever” been the sole babysitter of children other than his own, even for a short period.

“In the context of the amount of time the families spent together, that was implausible. He was not prepared to acknowledge that it was possible that he could simply no longer recollect it. As he put it, ‘I’m going to go with what I know,’” Janzen relayed.

That testimony was also countered

by Molinaro’s now estranged wife, who was called by the defence. Described by the judge as being “guarded” in her testimony, she did report being out of the house in the early mornings six days a week to go jogging or for a workout, including on mornings the complainants had slept over.

Molinaro “categorically” denied any of the incidents described by the complainants ever occurred. The bulk of his remaining testimony was “aimed at discrediting the testimony of the complainants, about minor details,”

Pietila, Hazel May (Showalter), October 10, 1916 - November 21, 2021 Hazel passed away peacefully at the age of 105.

She was the mother of 11 children and 115 grandchildren. Hazel was pre-deceased by husband Urho William Pietila, son William Pietila Jr., daughter Ethel (Bonnie), and son Leonard Pietila.

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Janzen said, such as the colour of a couch one of the instances of abuse took place on, whether a TV set where a complainant remembers watching a movie alongside Molinaro when another incident of abuse took place was in working order, or whether the Molinaros had “ever purchased or knew of the existence of blue whale or shark gummy candies in their home well over 10 years earlier” that were reportedly used in one of the abuses. “[Molinaro] rarely if ever acknowledged anything that could be seen as contrary to his interests,” Janzen said.

Molinaro now faces sentencing on seven counts: sexual interference of a person under 14; invitation to sexual touching under 14; invitation to sexual touching under 16; two counts of sexual interference of a person under 16; and two counts of sexual assault.

A date for sentencing will be affixed on Dec. 7.

A publication ban is in place to protect the identity of the victims.

A condensed version of this story originally appeared online on Nov. 25. n

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2021 Whistler Housing Survey Owners of Whistler properties (except employee-restricted homes) will have received a postcard via Canada Post with a unique PIN code to access the online survey, which is now open until December 19. The survey explores how residential homes in Whistler are being used to inform Whistler’s community planning in two ways: •

To measure the current and potential future availability of housing for the resort’s workforce; and

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To understand the frequency of use by Whistler’s second homeowners to assist in planning future services and infrastructure.

The survey will take less than five minutes to complete and all entries will be eligible to win one of five $100 gift cards. If you are a property owner (excluding employee-restricted property owners) and have not received your postcard, contact economicdevelopment@whistler.ca.

Learn more at whistler.ca/HousingSurvey

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DECEMBER 2, 2021

27

NEWS WHISTLER

Outdoor Recreation Council of BC looks for increased government funding GROUP HOPES TO RECEIVE SIGNIFICANT FUNDING INCREASES TO MAINTAIN B.C.’S OUTDOOR RECREATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE

BY HARRISON BROOKS DURING THE provincial government’s public consultation period in September, the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC (ORCBC) and many of its members, including the BC Snowmobile Federation, Trails BC and International Mountain Bicycling Association of Canada, among others, made submissions highlighting the critical need for increased funding to Recreation Sites and Trails BC (RSTBC).

While the lack of funding towards upkeep and maintenance of trail networks and recreation sites across the province has been an issue for years now, the problem has been exacerbated in the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a 150-percent increase in outdoor recreation in many parts of the province, according to executive director of ORCBC Louise Pedersen.

“There’s just more people out there on the trails and in the parks and there are many different reasons for that. It has helped us sort of spend time with friends and family in a safe way and helped us

maintain a sense of sanity and well-being during COVID-19, and there is really nothing that tells us that the numbers that we are seeing aren’t going to stay elevated,” she said.

“I think British Columbians and others in the Sea to Sky corridor really have realized how much there is to do on our own doorstep. We have definitely seen a lot of wear and tear on the trails and other recreation assets, too, and now with wildfires and flooding that has just added to the immense pressure that B.C.’s outdoor recreational assets have been undergoing.”

Pedersen said the council is asking the government for more operational funds to be allocated to RSTBC, noting that an operational fund of $12 million will enable RSTBC to increase staff numbers and allow the agency, which falls under the umbrella of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, to spend more time managing the recreational infrastructure used by all the partner organizations.

According to Pedersen, the pandemic has shown just how important and needed well-maintained recreation sites and access

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to nature is for the physical and mental health of a community.

“We know that in those communities that have high-quality, accessible trails and parks, there’s just more usage. So you build it and they will come. That also means that when you have trails, you’re more likely to have a more active and healthy population,” said Pedersen.

“We have definitely seen a lot of wear and tear...”

- LOUISE PEDERSEN

“There’s also other benefits; it helps boost tourism. We know that a lot of people who come to B.C., they don’t necessarily come to see museums, they come to enjoy the beautiful outdoors that we have here in the province, so there is just a lot of benefits in having a well-maintained and high-quality recreational infrastructure in your community.”

A good example of the impact well-maintained outdoor recreation infrastructure can have on a community can be found right here in town with the Whistler Off-Road Cycling Association (WORCA).

Pre-pandemic, the organization received $120,000 from the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) to maintain and operate the town’s surrounding network of hiking and biking trails. But when the pandemic hit, funding was cut down to $40,000. That, combined with the increased trail usage by people looking for any excuse to get out of their homes, made it difficult for WORCA to continue upkeep on the trails to its quality standard and forced them to “re-prioritize our trail work program” to make sure there was enough money to “simply ensure rider safety and deal with trail emergencies and urgent care,” according to WORCA president Dale Mikkelsen.

Luckily, the RMOW recognized the importance of WORCA’s work, and increased the organization’s funding to $200,000 in 2021, allowing Mikkelsen and his crew to do significant repair work as well as bolster their staff.

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“Locally, we were able to hire a full trail crew, hire some students, and really provide fair wages and fulltime dependable employment,” he said. “Furthermore, we were able to do intensive spring maintenance and really begin addressing trails that have suffered from high use and bare-bones maintenance over the years.”

On Monday, Nov. 17, the province’s Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services released its 2022 budget consultation report, which showed the recognition of increased investments in outdoor recreation.

And while Pedersen and ORCBC are pleased and encouraged with the report, nothing is set in stone yet. So while the province is taking time to figure out its priorities when it comes to the budget, Pedersen encourages everyone to reach out to their local MLA in support of the increased funding to show the government how important new investments in outdoor recreation are to the province’s population.

Currently, WORCA is funded entirely through its members and the RMOW’s Fee For Service funding, which it specifically allocates to repairs and maintenance. But if some provincial support were to come through, it would allow WORCA to increase the number of new trails being built and the speed at which they are constructed, as the group would no longer be required to rely solely on volunteer efforts when making new trails. n

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29

NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLEY

Lil’wat Nation, Sea to Sky School District ink 5-year Local Education Agreement COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIP AIMS TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES FOR INDIGENOUS STUDENTS

BY MEGAN LALONDE A NEW AGREEMENT between the Sea to Sky School District (SD48) and Lil’wat Nation is working to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students throughout the corridor.

The Local Education Agreement (LEA), signed during a ceremony held at the Ts’zil Learning Centre in Mount Currie on Nov. 18, effectively formalizes the relationship between the public school board and the Nation. As educators continue learning how best to support Indigenous students’ cultural needs in a way that maximizes their opportunities both in and out of the classroom, it also solidifies the Nation’s involvement in educational decisions and serves as an important step on the path toward reconciliation.

“Schools are the example of how oppression was able to occur in history. And this is the most important place to undo that and make sure that people get success and support,” said Karen LaRochelle, SD48’s District Principal of Indigenous Education.

Historically, Indigenous students in B.C. public schools have had lower

POSITIVE PARTNERSHIP

Cynthia Higgins, SD48 vice-chair (Whistler) and Kúkwpi7 Skalúlmecw Chief Dean Nelson of Líĺwat Nation sign the Local Education Agreement a Ts’zil Learning Centre in Mount Currie on Nov. 18.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

30 DECEMBER 2, 2021

graduation rates and been overrepresented in opportunity-limiting courses like workplace math compared with their nonIndigenous counterparts, she explained.

For Kúkwpi7 Skalúlmecw Lil’wat Nation Chief Dean Nelson—a former teacher himself—shedding light on the true history of this country’s First Nations, through curriculum and initiatives like the new National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in particular, is crucial to understanding and addressing the reasons why Indigenous students have not generally experienced the same rate of success in public classroom settings.

“The hardship of the students needs to be understood,” said Nelson. “What happens under the Indian Act, and … what is it like to be in the reserve system?

“They’re just titles but when you do live under them, then they have their impacts,” he continued. “The residential school is another one that, you know, it’s long gone, but it’s still here and within us. The impacts are still here, and we still carry them and some students have no idea what it is. So just looking at the curriculum together and understanding that is, I think, the key to the partnerships of schools and students.”

The LEA represents one small but positive step in the right direction, Nelson said.

“Relationships have [become] better, but I think they can be even better by understanding what we’ve been put through,” he explained.

“The major step of this education

agreement was just having a partnership based on the focus of making positive change—that’s basically what it comes down to.”

The agreement falls in line with a provincial push for Local Education Agreements, which received a $3 million funding boost from the B.C. government in 2019.

LaRochelle said SD48 and Lil’wat Nation’s agreement is “an exemplary model” that goes above and beyond existing guidelines for these types of contracts, by clearly defining in-school practises.

The agreement builds off work that has already been underway at the district, LaRochelle continued, by helping local schools meet student needs by personalizing their learning. That can be accomplished through curriculum, instruction and assessment adjustments, as well as accommodating all learning styles and “creating a greater cultural relevance” for Indigenous students, LaRochelle said. The agreement also provides a framework for schools to help prepare students for graduation from an earlier age, meaning “course selection is done very carefully in such a way that students are left leaving school with all the options open to them,” she added.

In practise, this could look like increasing flexibility around schools’ typically strict schedules and tight deadlines, said LaRochelle.

She recalled one dilemma where an Indigenous student needed to take an

academic prerequisite course that was only offered during the same block as the school’s Ucwalmícwts language course. As a solution, the student was able to earn the academic credit through project-based learning, while attending the Ucwalmícwts classes.

“That’s a good specific example of how we can break down a colonized practise to be more flexible and allow for a student to fulfill academic requirements for a solid graduation program, but also fit in their culture and language coursework,” said LaRochelle.

The LEA comes following several years of work by stakeholders, including a Local Education Agreement Steering Committee that spent “the better part of one year” co-writing and editing the agreement during a series of lengthy monthly meetings. The committee was comprised of Líĺwat Nation members Yvonne Wallace, Ts’zil Learning Centre director; Helena Edmonds, manager of advance education at Ts’zil Learning Centre; and Verna Stager, Líĺwat Nation’s education director, as well as former SD48 superintendent Lisa McCullough and LaRochelle.

Though the five-year plan “is a living working document that we can make edits to collectively,” said LaRochelle, having the contract signed and finalized “is a really good feeling, especially because of the teamwork that occurred to create it.

“It feels like a really good team and that feels so positive for the future,” she added.

“But it also feels like there is a lot of work ahead.” n

NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLEY

Q&A with re-elected SLRD Board Chair Jen Ford HIRING A CLIMATE ACTION COORDINATOR IS NEXT ON THE AGENDA FOR THE SQUAMISH-LILLOOET REGIONAL DISTRICT

BY MEGAN LALONDE WHISTLER COUNCILLOR Jen Ford will return as Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) chair for another year.

Ford’s nine SLRD Board of Directors colleagues re-elected her to the position at a meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 24, one year after she was first voted into the role.

Electoral Area B Director, Vivian Birch-Jones, is also returning to the position of vice-chair.

Pique caught up to chat with Ford shortly after her re-election about the current challenges facing the SLRD and at its priorities for the year ahead.

(This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.)

PIQUE: Congratulations re-elected as chair!

on

being

JEN FORD: Yeah, thank you. It’s a fun and rewarding job and I’m looking forward to working the last part of this term with the board.

Obviously it’s been a challenging couple of years for everyone, with COVID-19. Looking back on the last year as chair, are there any particular accomplishments the board made that you’re most proud of?

JF: I think we’ve worked really well together through some very challenging times—72 days of emergency operation center activation, which is a lot. Starting, as you say, with COVID, in 2020 through 2021, and then this past summer, it started with the flood … which turned into wildfire, and smoke …

And now again, here we are, into 13 days of new flooding and roads being closed. I think what we’ve just seen is that our communities really come together to support one another, which is an amazing thing to see.

After seeing what happened in other areas of the province with recent flooding, how are you feeling about SLRD’s current flood mitigation strategies as we brace for this next storm?

JF: So far we’ve missed the worst of it … but it could have just as easily been us. We’ve been lucky as far as the diking district through the Pemberton area. I think we’re all buckled down for what could come next, and we’re very, very well served by the various organizations in our region.

Our emergency preparedness coordinator, Sarah Morgan is doing such a great job with the RCMP and with search and rescue and the provincial agencies that are taking on a lot of the work. They’ve done amazing

work and, and have been very proactive over this last weekend with managing the roads and managing expectations of what those roads could look like.

Do you think the recent flooding across B.C. and in Pemberton have highlighted any needs for the Regional District, in terms of more infrastructure or more funding for mitigation?

JF: Absolutely. When the province decided back in 2003 to transfer the ownership and maintenance of the diking system throughout the province to local governments, but without a different mechanism for funding it, that was extremely challenging.

What we have advocated for a number of times through the province is [to give municipalities] the ability to fund that in a in a different way, rather than just putting that on taxpayers. We need that funding, and we need it more than ever. This recent event has given us that insight as to what that means for our communities.

Aside from the flood risk, what are some of the other big challenges that the Regional District is facing right now as you head into this next term?

JF: Regional Transit is a big piece of our advocacy work, as well as what our municipalities and the Regional District are working on together, is getting that regional transit system up and going.

[Another strategy is] really focusing on how our organization reduces our climate change impacts. A big piece of that is through our regional growth strategy priorities of ensuring that our growth is smart and intentional … Solid waste is our biggest opportunity to really minimize our impacts, so that’s a big piece of our priorities.

And then intentional stewardship of our parks and recreation. So our trail system, how our parks are managed, how we work together with the province on those areas is very important to us.

The province also recently released its CleanBC Roadmap to reach its 2030 climate targets. Within that framework, do you think there are any opportunities to get more help from the province for some of these more climate-minded priorities?

JF: Yeah, definitely. They’ve opened a number of funding streams that we can access, so one of our big priorities is getting a climate action coordinator hired for the Regional District. Then that person would take on understanding where the funding can come from, as well as really aligning the priorities of the whole region, so that we’re all working in the same direction and pulling on the same on the same rope, if you will. n

DECEMBER 2, 2021

31

NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLEY

Man handed $7,500 fine, two-year hunting ban after killing bear near Pemberton LOWER MAINLAND RESIDENT CHARGED WITH TWO COUNTS UNDER THE WILDLIFE ACT

BY HARRISON BROOKS IN MAY of 2020, a Lower Mainland man was caught shooting a black bear on cultivated land near Pemberton without permission.

A witness reported it to the Conservation Officer Service (COS), which conducted a full investigation into the incident.

Normally, an incident like this would result in a $230 fine, but due to the accused person having a prior history of breaking the rules, the COS decided to file a report to Crown counsel.

Nearly a year and a half later, the accused party was handed a $7,500 fine and a twoyear hunting ban—the biggest penalty for this kind of offence that conservation officer Sgt. Simon Gravel has seen.

“In this case, the accused had some previous history. He was charged under the Wildlife Act before, and also the circumstance, the location and public safety consideration, and all those factors kind of helped the officers to decide which way to go,” said Gravel about why such a harsh punishment was handed out. “And in this case, we believe

HEFTY FINE Shooting a black bear on cultivated land could run you anywhere from $230 to $7,500.

FILE PHOTO

it is a pretty significant penalty and we hope that it sends a strong message to the hunting community that it’s, first of all, dangerous and it’s illegal to hunt over cultivated land without permission.”

In total, the guilty party was charged under the Wildlife Act with hunting on uncultivated land without permission as well

as possessing wildlife harvested unlawfully.

Each count came with a $1,000 penalty and a $2,750 penalty, which is paid to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation.

While the severity of the fine is unprecedented, this incident isn’t a new issue in the Pemberton Valley, according to Gravel.

“I think people are eager to hunt and

obviously in Pemberton there [are] a lot of big fields where wildlife is often seen so they become an easy target in those big open fields, compared to the regular hunting terrain that is way more forested and difficult,” he said.

“So I feel people are way more opportunistic and willing to break the law to harvest an animal and by doing so they compromise the safety of others and that’s why we take it seriously and why we are pretty happy with the penalty in this case.”

If the guilty party is caught hunting within the two-year ban that started at the time of sentencing on Sept. 10, he can be charged again under the Wildlife Act. The penalty for such an offence comes with a maximum fine of $100,000 and/or up to one year of prison for a first offence, and a maximum fine of $200,000 and/or two years in prison for each subsequent offence.

Due to the highly regulated nature of hunting in B.C. and the variance in regulations from area to area, Gravel suggests all Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Education certified hunters read the regulation synopsis that is available online to make sure they are fully aware of all the rules applying to their area. n

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NEWS PEMBERTON & THE VALLEY

Dr Abolhassan Sherkat Jan 22 1932 to Nov 17 2021

With heavy hearts, we announce the news of Abolhassan’s passing.

Hassan lived an incredible life, and was well loved by many people.

HOT TOPIC User-built tubs at Múmleqs (Keyhole) hot springs are just one of several issues identified in a visitoruse management strategy developed by the Lil’wat Nation and provincial government.

FILE PHOTO/MEGAN LALONDE

Management strategy aims to curb issues at hot springs MEAGER, KEYHOLE SPRINGS HOLD CULTURAL, SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE TO LIL ’ WAT NATION

BY BRADEN DUPUIS A VISITOR-USE management strategy for the Meager Creek and Keyhole hot springs northwest of Pemberton is now in the implementation stage, with key issues identified and management strategies in place for the future.

The Nqw’elqw’elusten (Meager Creek) and Múmleqs (Keyhole) hot springs are in Lil’wat Nation territory, and are places of cultural and spiritual significance to the Nation, according to a provincial document released in April.

Through a public engagement process conducted in conjunction with the Lil’wat last year, the provincial government identified several key issues with the springs: unauthorized visitation is taking place despite closures, and negatively impacting important cultural places, wildlife and the environment; Lil’wat citizens do not feel comfortable visiting the areas; and many visitors lack awareness of Lil’wat culture, as well as knowledge about backcountry preparedness, respectful use and potential safety risks.

Further, info about the springs on social media is often inaccurate, and doesn’t respect closures currently in place—Nqw’elqw’elusten is currently closed year-round, while Múmleqs is closed seasonally from April 1 to Nov. 15.

The strategy also noted that user-built tubs at Múmleqs are not professionally designed or maintained, and unsanctioned water diversion is negatively impacting at-risk species like the vivid dancer damselfly.

Lil’wat Chief Dean Nelson compared the situation to what has taken place at Joffre Lakes in recent years, where an explosion in popularity driven by social media has led to parking and garbage issues.

“That was where [the hot springs were]

going,” Nelson said, adding that, when natural spaces become commodities, “I think that’s when the abuse comes in, and it wrecks it for everyone.”

In collaboration with the province, the Lil’wat has developed a shared vision for the springs: That the Lil’wat has a presence on the land, and its rights and title are respected; sacred sites, archeology sites, pictographs, traditional trails and other important features are protected; Lil’wat citizens are able to feel comfortable carrying out traditional and cultural practices on the lands; the ecosystem and wildlife of the area are protected; and visitors have an opportunity to learn about Lil’wat culture and history.

The visitor-use strategy includes ideas for achieving that vision, such as increased onsite management, education and monitoring.

But it remains a work in progress, Nelson said.

“I think [the management strategies] are good. They’re slow-going. We don’t want to open it right now, so we’re just kind of looking at different things,” he said.

“We haven’t really had a say in a lot of things happening in our lands, and now that we do we’re taking our time in doing those things.”

Aside from their cultural significance, the hot springs also provide important habitat for the threatened South Chilcotin grizzly bear population, as well as a migration corridor for deer, moose, and mountain goats, according to the province.

The Mount Meager Volcanic Complex is also considered one of the most geologically active areas in North America. In 2010, warm weather triggered the collapse of about 53 million cubic metres of rock and debris from the south flank of Mount Meager—the largest historic landslide in Canada—and the area continues to be prone to large landslides, avalanches and flooding. n

Born in Esfahan Iran, Hassan moved to Tehran in 1950 to pursue his medical studies. It was there that he met Afsar, the love of his life and his future wife of 64 years. Shortly after getting married in 1957, Hassan moved to the USA for his post graduate medical training in Radiology. It would be 5 years before he and Afsar would live together again, as he was working at the Winnipeg General Hospital while Afsar completed her dental degree at the University of Manitoba.

Hassan and Afsar’s two children Sheila and Ramin were born in Regina. While visiting Vancouver for a medical conference, Hassan discovered the joys of BC. With springtime flowers blooming in Vancouver and meters of snow on the ground in the prairies, it wasn’t hard to convince his wife to relocate once again!

They built a house together near Deep Cove in 1965, and lived there ever since. Hassan went on to a very successful career practicing Radiology at St Paul’s Hospital, and afterwards at a private ultrasound and x-ray practice in East Vancouver, where he worked until the age of 80!

Family was a priority for Hassan. He and his wife helped so many members of their extended families move out of Iran in the late 70’s, early 80’s and beyond. Eventually, most of their brothers, sisters, cousins, second cousins and in-laws found lives in North America, due in no small part to the efforts of Hassan and Afsar.

Hassan loved to ski, and spent many years enjoying the slopes of Whistler as the resort developed. He was often the last skier on the mountain, and every day spent skiing was an awesome day for him. He also loved to travel, and was a big fan of warm, sunny places like Hawaii and Mexico.

Hassan leaves behind his wife Afsar, his daughter Sheila (husband Mark, grandchildren Roshan and Cove), his son Ramin (wife Sasha, grandchildren Tosh and Tula), his brothers Mahmood and Mehdi, and many more loved ones.

He will by deeply missed by his near and extended families, his many friends, and all the people he reached during his extended career.

We’d also like to thank the wonderful care workers who assisted Hassan in his later years. We are so grateful that Hassan was so well loved and taken care of.

We will be organizing a celebration of Hassan's life in the summer.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation: www.lghfoundation.com/tribute-donation/ DECEMBER 2, 2021

33

SCIENCE MATTERS

Big, small or in between, wild animals should not be pets

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MOST OF US believe wild animals such as tigers and wolves shouldn’t be kept in basements or backyards as pets—even if we haven’t seen Tiger King! Fortunately, most municipalities have bylaws to prevent this.

Those laws don’t extend to all wildlife, though. People can still own “exotic” wild animals, including all shapes and sizes of reptiles and amphibians—lizards, snakes, turtles, tortoises, frogs, salamanders. Animals deprived of their natural habitat are no longer “wild,” though; they’re artifacts.

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Some Canadian provinces, such as Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan, have exotic animal laws and regulations, but in many, the responsibility for regulation lies primarily with municipalities. More than 200 municipalities in Canada have prohibited-animal lists. Most are mammalcentric and feature relatively few birds, even fewer reptiles and amphibians and, only rarely, any fish or invertebrates. The vast majority of non-mammal species are under- or unregulated.

Life isn’t fun for animals confined or alone in small cages in someone’s home, imprisoned for human enjoyment. But what most pet owners don’t realize is that the exotic pet trade also has significant ecological impacts.

A serious environmental problem is created when exotic pets are released or dumped into natural environments by

havoc in waterways. The pervasiveness of invasive species, including those from the pet trade, is one of the drivers of wildlife decline in Canada.

Collecting animals from the wild for commercial use, including for sale as food or pets, is also a factor in depletion of wildlife populations, most of which are already facing a variety of threats to their numbers and habitats. Legal and illegal collection from the wild for the pet trade is a pressure few species can tolerate. In Ontario, for example, six out of seven native turtle populations are already at risk. Further, many wild creatures die during capture or while being transported for sale as pets.

Exotic wild animals can also be disease vectors. Wildlife in Canada are already stressed by multiple infectious diseases transmitted by invasive species, such as the ranavirus and the fungusborne chytridiomycosis, which is affecting amphibian populations globally. With increased numbers of exotic pet animals, both wild-caught and captive-bred, come increased chances of their being released into the wild and new diseases being transferred to native wildlife species, as well as to humans (particularly if there is physical contact). The risk of new epidemics or pandemics of animal origin is also increased—a Pandora’s box we all surely want to keep the lid on.

Exotic pets have become normalized— as have exotic petting zoos and birthday party appearances — but they don’t make sense. Turtles, snakes, lizards, amphibians and other wild animals are amazing creatures worthy of our admiration and wonder, but they should not be taken from

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people who never realized how big they’d grow, how long they’d live or how expensive they’d be to keep. Some take the time to look up adoption facilities, but there are few for exotic animals. Many naively think that releasing their pet into the wild is a humane option.

Ontario conservation biologist Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux said, of 1,000 turtles he’s trapped for study—often working with the Toronto and Regional Conservation Authority—five to six per cent were nonnative red-eared sliders released by pet owners (or were descendants of discarded pets). Red-eared sliders are more frequently found in urban centres (where people are also more often found).

Released non-native species such as red-eared sliders can compete with native turtle species for prime habitat, like basking sites, and have the potential to modify natural environments. Released goldfish and koi have also wreaked ecological

their homes for our entertainment, to keep us company or as status symbols.

These creatures have evolved physical and behavioural attributes over thousands or millions of years that allow them to survive in specific habitats and conditions that can’t be replicated in a glass or plastic container in someone’s home. And they are essential components to the functioning of natural ecosystems. If they are removed, the environment is diminished.

If you have patience and, ideally, a pair of rubber boots, you can fairly easily spot and appreciate many snakes, turtles and frogs even in our cities and towns—in the local meadows, ponds, rivers, fields, forests, lakes and streams, where they belong.

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

Chasing ghosts FEW IN B.C. ski circles could claim to be unaware of the decades-long drama concerning the cancelled Jumbo Glacier four-seasons, mega-resort. But where the bloated, ill-thought-out, ironically named Jumbo development would have imposed a

BY LESLIE ANTHONY massive environmentally and economically unsound footprint in remote mountains, the opposite appears to be the case with a more recent initiative. The Zincton Project is a small-footprint, forward-thinking, backcountry-oriented, economically sensible, environmentally sound, all-season ski and mountain bike area proposed for the Goat Pass area of the Selkirk Mountains. The closest analogy would be the Silverton Ski Area in Colorado—a one-lift backcountry ski experience.

The old mining corridor between New Denver and Kaslo in which the project is located was busy a century ago, and a string of abandoned towns that include Cody, Zincton, Nashton, Three Forks, Retallack and Sandon (which itself once contained 5,000 miners and their families) have earned it the moniker, Valley of Ghosts. But there’s another ghost here— environmental contamination—that the Zincton Project actually looks to clean up

GHOST TOWN The Zincton Project, if approved, would revitalize an area that has been dead for decades.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ZINCTON

as a way of enhancing wildlife habitat. If that doesn’t square the circle on typical ski developments, it’s hard to imagine what does.

The Zincton Project looks to provide a range of winter ski experiences across six sectors. The first, a 2,500-acre LiftServiced Zone, would see skiers utilize chairlifts to access a modest 20 per cent of the proposed tenure at its western end—public lands adjacent to a privately held parcel that would contain the small, sustainably functioning Zincton Mountain Village. The remaining 80 per cent of the tenure comprises five Backcountry Zones that would offer a range of human-powered ski experiences, from glades to open bowls and high-mountain couloirs. To make such an enormous wilderness area safer, emergency shelters would be installed and a backcountry insurance provider engaged to relieve potential strain on local search and rescue. Summer would see hiking and mountain biking on lower-altitude trails; in collaboration with existing operators and the Goat Pass community, preexisting alpine mountain bike trails would be decommissioned and a 10,000-acre summertime Wildlife Corridor Protection Zone established.

The idea originates with long-time New Denver resident David Harley, who has skied the area since the 1970s and comes with serious cred in the outdoor industry, having launched FarWest apparel in Vernon before starting Valhalla Pure Outfitters. He spoke about his vision in a virtual open house held in October by the government’s Mountain Resorts Branch that also included a significant Whistler component of resortplanning and environmental expertise

in Brent Harley of Brent Harley and Associates and Cascade Environmental’s Dave Williamson. During the forum, David Harley said he hopes Zincton will be a breakout example of an ultra-low-impact ski village that can seamlessly blend traditional lift-serviced recreation with extensive and accessible backcountry.

The project would demand no free land, subsidies, roads, or power lines. It would also be climate-neutral from Day 1, as well as provide a few hundred local jobs to an economically stressed region. Harley went on to explain how Zincton intends to make the environment better than they find it, funding remediation of toxic surface mine wastes by partnering with 1% for the Planet and a new NGO—the Zincton Institute— that would monitor progress in revitalizing habitat in the proposed seasonal wildlife migration corridor.

Naturally—and fairly, given the history of developers in B.C.—there is some concern with regard to potential wildlife impacts. Although this legitimate question is top of mind and well addressed by the Zincton group, the websites of some environmental groups I visited seemed to mischaracterize the project in order to garner opposition in the government comment period that ended Nov. 23. In the open house, Williamson answered questions about the impact on resident wildlife by noting that the idea was to avoid interaction with wildlife and manage the activities that take place on the landscape. “We believe that is still the best tool in the quiver,” he said, pointing to the proponents’ plan for spatial and seasonal closures during periods when wildlife was occupying an area.

With regard to the environmental concern of carbon-neutrality, the resort would be powered by historic Silversmith Power and Light in Sandon (in which Nikola Tesla, no less, had a hand in design), which has operated since 1897 and was officially certified green in 1999. The plan also includes running EV buses between Kaslo and New Denver; this would eliminate most commuter ski traffic and its carbon, and encourage local kids to ski more often. Backcountry skiers could catch an EV bus back to the base and lifts at designated stops.

The services and experiences available in Zincton Mountain Village would be complemented by an affordable and inclusive (open to everyone) remote wilderness backcountry lodge located on London Ridge. Harley noted that while Goat Pass currently serves both heli-ski and catski tenures whose daily cost of $1,000 to $2,000 largely excludes local use, approval of Zincton would preserve at least some of Goat Pass for locals. “In the winter the idea is for the entire tenure area to remain open to human-powered recreational activities at no cost from the Fish Lake parking area and Murray Creek,” he said.

Perhaps best of all, even at full buildout, Zincton would cap visitation at 1,200 skiers per day—900 in the Lift-Serviced Zone and only 300 in the Backcountry Zones— virtually ghost-like slopes in the Valley of Ghosts.

Will the idea fly? Who knows, but at least this one has wings.

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

DECEMBER 2, 2021

35

Does B.C. need rapid response teams to prevent wildfire-driven floods?

36 DECEMBER 2, 2021

FEATURE STORY

After the worst floods in living memory, some say it’s time for B.C. to get a team of its own

By Stefan Labbé On Monday morning, Nov. 15, Henry Robinson looked out the window of his motel room at the Double D Inn in Merritt. About 30 metres away and closing fast, the shores of the Coldwater River were climbing toward him.

“Holy Jesus!” he remembers saying to himself. “That’s a lot of river running down.”

An hour later, he heard a knock at the door. Outside, the manager was frantic. Just after 10 a.m., the city had issued a blanket evacuation order for its roughly 7,000 residents.

Soon, the city would be engulfed in water.

“It was just grab what you can. I grabbed my essentials, my wife’s pills, jumped in the car and drove off,” said Robinson.

Across town, Dylan Bullock and his girlfriend Maria Cihlar had just moved into their new home when they woke up to half a metre of water in their bedroom. Bullock, a wildland firefighter who suffered burns to his chest, neck, arm and face while fighting the massive Sparks Lake wildfire northwest of Kamloops in July, grabbed his wet and frightened cat and fled town.

Both couples are among roughly 50,000 British Columbians displaced by wildfire and flooding this year.

But unlike many, who have faced a single devastating event, Bullock and the Robinsons have faced a series of cascading disasters.

In June, wildfire primed by a record heat wave drove the Robinsons, both 82, from their Lytton home and cherished fruit orchards. Bouncing from motel to motel, they eventually landed in Merritt, only to be evicted again by rising floodwaters.

“We had the fire; we had the flood. What’s coming after Christmas? Tornados? An earthquake?” he told Glacier Media from the Scott’s Inn in Kamloops. “It’s been a terrible year. We don’t know if we have many left.”

As the Robinsons once again find themselves in limbo, waiting to pick up the pieces of their life, there’s emerging evidence that it’s not just the experience of a growing number of climate refugees that link summer fire with winter floods.

Fire scars, say experts, may be responsible for at least some of last month’s flooding and landslides.

“It’s not rare at all, these sort of very quick, fast-moving events that can happen three to five years after a fire,” said François-Nicolas Robinne, wildfire risk scientist with the Canadian Forest Service.

Robinne is one of a handful of scientists who have set out to hunt down that link wherever it leads. But with few resources and limited data, pinning a flash flood or mudslide to an old fire scar is a massive challenge.

“We need more people to better understand what happened, where and why,” he said.

effect is annihilated, said Daniels.

Without a tree canopy and a spongy surface layer of organic debris, the full force of the rain slams into the soil. But it’s a process invisible to the eye that can have the biggest knock-on effects for flooding: the same aromatic oils that give a forest its pungent smell drip into the soil when they are burned out of needles and leaves. Once the fire stops and everything cools, these oils create a coating below the ash and soil, like wax paper, said Daniels.

“Think now about dropping water on wax paper. It doesn’t go into the wax paper. It beads on top,” she said.

With nowhere to go, rainwater pools. First, into puddles.

It eventually tips downhill and turns into flash floods and torrents, toward the lowest point in the landscape, which are often communities at a valley bottom.

It’s not clear how much of the recent floods and landslides can be attributed to this waxy layer, but that hasn’t stopped some scientists from hunting down the answer.

For Jeremy Venditti, that search began with an overwhelming concern for salmon. On Nov. 19, four days after the atmospheric river hit B.C., he jumped on a helicopter and flew up the Fraser Canyon near Lytton on a reconnaissance mission.

An SFU professor of environmental science and Think of an intact forest as a giant sponge, said Lori Daniels, geography, Venditti has spent years tracking the effects of a professor in UBC’s forestry department, researching forest landslides on salmon populations up and down the Fraser. dynamics and adaptation to climate change.

But while the fish appeared to have been spared during the When rain falls on the tree canopy, it gets caught in the storm, the town and surrounding Indigenous communities leaves and needles, slowly dripping to the ground where it’s had been cut off at multiple choke points. soaked up by decomposing leaf litter and dead logs.

Venditti counted 15 serious landslides in the area. At From there, the rainwater percolates into the soil, Tank Hill, where a massive debris flow wiped out the eventually becoming groundwater. That slow drip acts to highway and rail line, he said it was clear the 2021 wildfires flatten peak flooding during extreme rainfall events in the created the perfect conditions for failure. same way social distancing can flatten the curve of COVID“It is one of the worst-hit sites,” he told Glacier Media.

19 cases.

“There’s a clear connection between the fire and the washout But when a wildfire burns through a forest, the sponge of the road.”

How does fire lead to flooding and landslides?

BAER Cultural Resources Specialist Wes BaconSchulte navigates a burned archeological site.

Photo by National Interagency Fire Center/Facebook

Satellite imagery shows fire-flood overlap Often described as mudslides, debris flows form when a slurry of mud, tree trunks and boulders up to the size of a garage tear down a gully at up to 36 kilometres per hour, decimating nearly anything in its path.

Last week in B.C., the phenomenon trapped 275 people overnight on Highway 7 near Agassiz, killed at least four people on Highway 99 north of Pemberton, and reportedly knocked out the Coquihalla Highway, downhill from burn scars left this summer by the July Mountain Fire outside of Merritt.

Robinne, who doesn’t have access to a helicopter, has turned to satellites. Together with UBC Okanagan professor Mathieu Bourbonnais, the researchers have identified at least two watersheds around Lytton where flooding and debris flow appear to overlap with wildfire scars.

Upstream of the devastated City of Merritt, they have also been examining serious fire scars in three watersheds, including the Coldwater River, which flows through town and past the now-evacuated Doubly D Inn. Robinne’s analysis, still in its early stages, indicates that wildfires around 15 kilometres upriver from Merritt may have worsened the floods. But a huge amount of uncertainty remains, he said.

Robinne said their best chance is to plug satellite imagery, watershed maps and burn perimeter data into a computer model to get some conclusive answer. The modelling can then simulate last week’s rainfall with and without wildfire and see if mudslides and flash flooding still appear.

What’s missing, said Robinne, is comprehensive field data, such as soil samples taken after a fire but before rainfall washes away the waxy layer.

“The U.S. is much more advanced in this kind of situation,”

DECEMBER 2, 2021

37

FEATURE STORY “[Shutting the highway] was really inconvenient. It was painful. People really, really, really hated it because some people live and work at either ends of the canyon,” he said.

“But I think we can say that because we shut the road, we were able to save lives.”

“We might say, ‘OK, based on what you’ve given us, a rainfall intensity of 22 millimetres an hour has a 50-percent probability [of triggering disaster],” he said.

What are the limitations of adopting a rapidresponse team?

Soil scientists Sam and Tricia Prentice assess the likelihood of erosion, and the volume of soil lost from a hillside contributing to downstream debris flows in central California’s Tule River Indian Reservation.

Photo by Johnny Holder/Bureau of Indian Affairs

he said. “They send a team over there, and the team is right there after the fire—sometimes it’s still burning.”

“We absolutely don’t have that here.”

Is it time for B.C. to adopt a U.S.-style flood warning system?

As B.C. lurches into recovery, several experts interviewed for this story say it’s time for the province to consider rolling out an early warning system to notify residents of impending flash floods and mudslides.

Last month, Environment Canada scientists revealed to Glacier Media they are accelerating the launch of an atmospheric river rating system similar to the warnings broadcast ahead of a hurricane or tornado.

But forecasts are most effective at a local scale, and understanding how major weather systems can trigger deadly mudslides or flash flooding requires detailed analysis on the ground.

In the American West, where a multi-year drought has driven a cycle of mega-fires and flash flooding, scientific rapid response teams form a linchpin in the U.S. government’s ability to warn residents of impending disaster.

Once a wildfire has been contained on federal land, the Burned Area Emergency Response teams (BAER) are immediately deployed to collect data on increased threats from post-fire flooding, debris flows and rock slides.

The teams are made up of several specialists, including hydrologists, engineers, biologists and even archaeologists. Together, they decide what kind of emergency stabilization should be rolled out to protect life, property and cultural assets.

That could mean reseeding the ground with fastgrowing native species or mulching hill slopes with straw and wood chips. In some cases, they will install a

38 DECEMBER 2, 2021

debris trap, modify a culvert under a road, or construct an emergency spillway to protect bridges and roads from getting washed away.

They pull satellite images to see how much vegetation has burned in a fire and assign a burn severity index to the hillside in question: high, moderate or low. The satellite and field measurements are then sent back to people like Francis Rengers, a research geologist with the US Geological Survey’s flood hazard program. Rengers and his team run the results through an equation developed through thousands of observations.

First piloted in eight Southern California counties in 2005, the risk assessment has been passed on to the U.S. National Weather Service since at least 2016, which uses it to develop local flash flood and debris flow warnings.

Rengers, who is based in Golden, Colo., points to Glenwood Canyon as an example of how the early warning system has saved lives. Part of the Colorado River, the canyon acts as a choke point for I-70, a key highway corridor funnelling goods and people across the state.

In both 2020, the Grizzly Creek fire tore through Glenwood Canyon, burning 130 square kilometres of the hillside, much of it next to the highway. When heavy thunderstorms arrived in late July this year, Rengers and his team passed along warnings at seven points where their model said debris flows would bury the highway.

After authorities closed the roads, all of their predictions came through.

“We had a close call. There was a night where the road was closed, and it looked like the weather had stopped, so they opened it back up. People were driving down, and then it started raining again,” he said.

One woman escaped her car just before it was buried under a pile of mud. In the end, more than 100 people spent the night in a tunnel to escape danger.

Adapting the BAER rapid response teams to B.C. fires could pose some challenges.

Finding enough experts and funding such a program is just the start. Rengers said the U.S. early warning system requires rain gauges within four kilometres of a mudslide to attribute it to wildfire correctly. That would require ramping up the number of temporary rain gauges in a number of watersheds—though that is something already done in many U.S. states.

A bigger challenge is the sheer scope of the task, especially as flooding and debris flows are made worse even outside extreme rainfall. Rengers said 77 per cent of recent debris flows made worse by wildfire in the southwest U.S. were triggered by rainstorms that had a recurrence interval of only two years. In other words, it doesn’t take a massive storm to cause widespread damage to life and infrastructure.

At the same time, wildfire doesn’t come close to accounting for all the flash floods and debris flows in B.C. Bourbonnais said forest harvesting also likely had a substantial effect on the recent flooding and mudslides.

“Monitoring and research in this area have been sorely lacking in B.C.,” he told Glacier Media.

Yet deploying the rapid response teams to wildfires alongside important highways and the most threatened communities could still go a long way to saving lives.

Massive cement deflection berms have been built to protect lives and infrastructure in creeks notorious for such blowouts, such as Charles Creek on the Sea to Sky Highway.

But that’s an expensive solution.

For Vancouver-based geoscientist Matthias Jakob, the scale of flood damage expected to hit B.C. in the coming decades will likely be so big the best we can do is triage the damage.

“They require years of planning and construction, and they cost millions of dollars per structure,” said Jakob. “We have thousands of streams in British Columbia with development on it. If you include the roads, railways, the pipelines, power lines, it’s probably in the tens of thousands of streams. We don’t have the money to build those structures, but what we can do is provide warning systems.”

The problem with climate change, he said, is that we haven’t asked ourselves if we are reaching the limits of what our current infrastructure can bear. The atmospheric river led to about 200 highway closures across the province, said Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Rob Fleming last month.

“We’ve reached a climate, which is not analogous to anything that we’ve seen in the Holocene era, perhaps even in the last three million years,” said Jakob. “We have to wrap our head around what is actually still manageable and what isn’t.”

In central and northeastern B.C., above-average precipitation will lead to such a high risk of landslides that some roads may simply have to close because they’ll be too expensive to maintain, say the geoscientists.

“And then we have to ask ourselves—if a lot of these roads are not to be mitigated, or parts of towns like Quesnel, William Lake and Prince George—human retreat is really the only possibility,” Jakob said.

“It’s all over the place that we have these extreme events creating havoc, so we need to retrain our mind.”

Stefan Labbé is a solutions journalist. That means he covers how people are responding to problems linked to climate change — from housing to energy and everything in between. Have a story idea? Get in touch. Email slabbe@glaciermedia.ca. ■

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SPORTS THE SCORE

Brodie Seger looks to build on Successful 2020/21 season THE WHISTLER MOUNTAIN SKI CLUB ALUM HAS HIS SIGHTS SET ON A PODIUM FINISH AT THE 2022 OLYMPIC GAMES

BY HARRISON BROOKS AT THE 2021 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Cortina d’Apezzo, Italy in February, Whistler Mountain Ski Club (WMSC) alum Brodie Seger put down a run for the ages in Super G. And when he looked up at the scoreboard and a saw a single “4” next to his name in the standings (his best finish ever), the North Vancouver native couldn’t contain his excitement and threw his head back and let out a cheer of jubilation.

“I was ecstatic. It was a really interesting experience because it was by far my best result to date. That was a really difficult course and it definitely was not a very feel-good run because there’s one really tricky section that everybody was having a tough time getting through,” he said.

“So it’s one of those rounds where I wasn’t really sure how it was going until I crossed the finish line and when I looked up at the timing board and I just saw a single digit placement, I was over the moon.”

For Seger, that was a result worth celebrating, which is why it didn’t make sense at first when people were simultaneously congratulating him and offering condolences. But after a few minutes he realized why. Seger had missed out on a podium spot by just four one hundredths (0.04) of a second.

But in a year where he was kept out of race action for an entire month while

HIGH FLYING Whistler Mountain Ski Club’s Brodie Seger gets his season underway in Lake Louise, Alta. last weekend.

PHOTO BY MALCOLM CARMICHAEL

40 DECEMBER 2, 2021

rehabbing a shoulder injury, not even missing the podium by that little could bring him down.

Like most competing at this high of a level, finishing in the top five at the World Championships was the culmination of years of work dating back over 20 years when Seger got his start in skiing on Whistler Blackcomb at just three years old.

It all started with weekend trips up to Whistler for family ski days as a toddler and before long that turned into joining the Whistler Mountain Ski Club (WMSC), where Seger made some lifelong friends and his love for skiing really took hold.

At that time, around 10 years old, Seger didn’t have any inclination to become a ski racer, he just enjoyed ripping around the mountain with his friends and dropping off of every cliff they could find. But his coach at the time, Drew Hetherington, recommended they all at least try racing for a couple years as a way of developing some fundamentals and technical aspects of the sport.

When it came to Seger and ski racing, something just clicked, and he quickly began rising through the ranks. From WMSC to the B.C. provincial team, to the National Development Team and finally the full National Team.

Seger made his World Cup debut in 2017 and spent the next few years getting accustomed to the skill level of his new competition. And at the start of the 2020/21 season, it was looking like it was all starting to come together when, in one of the first races of the season, he caught an edge on the last turn and “went head over heels into the fence” injuring his shoulder.

“I actually had a fourth-place finish in the last training run of that downhill

before the race that I hurt my shoulder. It’s just it’s a training run, which doesn’t mean anything but that was the best I had ever finished in any sort of World Cup run. So I thought, ‘holy smokes this is promising, I’m in a good place,’” he said. “So that’s why right off the bat I just thought ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake like is a shoulder injury going to keep me out? Are you kidding me? I can’t believe I’m going to miss time because of a stupid shoulder.’

“But that also kind of motivated me to just buckle down and get to work on the rehab as soon as possible because I still knew my skiing was still going to be in a good spot, I just had to make sure I took the right steps for my long-term health with fixing my shoulder properly.”

Seger had surgery in late December and about a month later he was back racing just in time for the World Championships in mid-February.

This season, coming off his best-ever finish in Super G, Seger looks to carry that momentum into a berth at the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, which is something he has been dreaming about since he became serious about ski racing more than 10 years ago. “[There is] definitely some butterflies,” said Seger when asked about the possibility of representing his country on the world’s biggest stage come February 4.

“I already feel very proud to just be able to represent our country in every World Cup race on a regular basis, but being part of the Olympic team would absolutely be the cherry on top. I think it would be an amazing experience. And I think watching the way that it worked out for our athletes in Tokyo this past summer and seeing how many positive experiences still came out of

that and how many great performances our athletes had, it was hugely inspiring.”

Looking back on his rollercoaster season last year, Seger came to a realization that, in the moment, a top-five finish at an international event doesn’t feel much different than any other good run he has done in the past and that staying loose and focusing on the mental side of things goes a lot farther towards getting better results than putting the focus on the physical side of things.

That being said, when Seger finally gets his opportunity to step up to that Olympic start gate, he’s going to lay it all on the line and shoot for a podium finish.

“If we’re being realistic about numbers, if I landed in the top 10 At the Olympics, I would be pretty happy about that, no doubt,” he said. “But when I talk about how it’s all about the medals, I think at the end of the day, what it comes down to is in a big moment like that, and in and something that is going to be a once-in-alifetime opportunity, it’s about recognizing that you need to take your shot, you need to lay it all on the line, right?

“That’s what it really comes down to. I don’t want to go to the Olympics and just try to make it down and have a decent result. I want to go there, and I want to absolutely put it all on the table and see what I can come away with. And for sure I would be happy if I made it in the top 10 of a race like that, but I’m definitely going to shoot for the podium.”

This article is part of a series of profile stories highlighting athletes heading to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, or those who hope to make it there. For others go to piquenewsmagazine.com. n

SPORTS THE SCORE

Whistler U13, U18 Winterhawks take gold at Richmond Icebreaker tournament

Catch all the CFL playoff action and NFL games every weekend at Roland’s Pub! Come in for brunch from 11am -2pm every weekend Children are welcome until 10pm GREY CUP PARTY DEC 12th Stay tuned for details...

THE TWO WHISTLER MINOR HOCKEY TEAMS COMBINED FOR A 9-0-1 RECORD THROUGHOUT THE THREE-DAY TOURNAMENT

BY HARRISON BROOKS THE WHISTLER Winterhawks left the competition in the dust at the Richmond Icebreaker tournament earlier in the month.

Both the U18 and U13 teams went undefeated in the tournament with a combined record of 9-0-1.

The U13 Winterhawks swept their fivegame schedule, taking home the gold with their only real test coming in the finals against a team they had already beaten once in the round robin, according to head coach David Metcalf.

“It was interesting—one of their players wasn’t there for the preliminary game and he was probably their best player, so in the final this kid appeared out of nowhere and I think he scored two of their goals and gave us a run for our money, which was great.

But the kids withstood it and came out victorious,” he said.

“I think 5-3 was the final of the last game. So it was a close one and we were behind 3-2 heading into the third period, so for us it was a great experience because we had never really been behind before in the rest of our games in the regular season and it really tested the kids to know that they could work doubly hard to get back in it and win it.”

The MVP of the final game went to Asher Livingston due to the work ethic he displayed throughout the tournament.

Other notable performances included Logan Hoverd who scored a hat trick to help lead his team to victory.

After scoring three goals in the third period to battle back from a one-goal deficit, Metcalf says the celebration by the players on the ice resembled Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

“The kids focused entirely on the game, so we actually tied it up shortly in the third period. We got the go-ahead-goal with about five minutes to go and then the insurance goal was at about 1:30,” he said. “But the kids stuck with it the whole way and as soon as that buzzer went, they all jumped on the goalie and threw all their gloves and sticks in the air. I don’t know how they all collected their own gear after all the medals were handed out.”

Including the tournament games, the U13 Winterhawks have improved to 12-00 on the season, but when asked if they have a strong chance at winning the league championship banner this year, Metcalf said he tries not to focus too much on

winning games but, instead, on winning each shift and playing the right way.

“My style of coaching … we talk about winning the puck and winning the shift. So our focus is not on winning [games] at all, that’s a by-product of all the hard work we do,” he said. “So that’s the key message for the kids is just every time they go out there, give it everything they’ve got and do their best, and when they come off the ice, just rest up for the next shift. And if we win, fantastic, if not, so be it, at least we tried our best and so far that formula has worked for us.”

The U18 Winterhawks also went undefeated in the Icebreaker Tournament in Richmond, albeit with one tie. But unlike their U13 counterparts, the U18 team had a much more difficult road to the championship with multiple close games along the way, including a 1-0 shutout win in the semi-finals against Coquitlam, where the Winterhawks goalie Josh Mackenzie stole the show, according to assistant coach Mike Knapton.

“Our goalie just stood on his head against Coquitlam. They were quite good and had beaten us in a previous tournament. So [that win] took us into the finals against the one team that had also not lost. We ended up doing quite well against Langley and

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we ended up winning 6-1. The kids just all came together and were very determined to win,” he said.

“It was quite amazing, especially for the Grade 12 kids. I’ve coached a lot of the Grade 11 and 12 kids, but I don’t think they’ve had much success in past tournaments, so it was a big win for them. And just over the years teaching them hockey and finally seeing some success here is pretty rewarding as a coach and hopefully it is a building block for the future teams too for the next couple years.”

When asked about what’s next for the team this year after their big tournament win, Knapton kept it short and sweet saying they will be “pumping for number one and to take home a championship.” n

Charging fees are being introduced to all EV stations in the Day Lots this December 15.

Fees will be $1 an hour with a ceiling cost of $5 a day.

Rates at other RMOW-operated EV stations in Whistler will remain at $1 a day.

The new fees mark the second phase of the RMOW’s Whistler EV Charger User Fee Strategy.

Learn more: Whistler.ca/EV

Resort Municipality of Whistler whistler.ca/EV DECEMBER 2, 2021

41

FORK IN THE ROAD

Love and cheer with local gifts that disappear THOUGHTFUL GIFTING THAT SAYS ‘CHRISTMAS’—THEN KEEPS ON GIVING IF THERE’S ONE thing you can do this holly-dazed season that will gladden your heart, and many others, it’s block Amazon from your search results (yes, you can!) and shop local, local, local. I like what fellow Pique-er G.D. Maxwell says: Every dollar spent online hurts. And it does, if you spend it the wrong way.

So grab your newly configured phone—you’ll need it for a few quick local searches—and head on down to your

BY GLENDA BARTOSH favourite local hangout for a favourite local drink to celebrate. Mine? A turmeric latte (made from local Ranger Tea) at Moguls, that longtime Whistler coffeehouse in a classic location with giant windows perfect for people watching in Village Square.

While you’re hanging out, wherever it is in Sea to Sky, consider how many people on your Santa list would appreciate a thoughtful gift, including a gift certificate, from there or any shop you can see through the window. In the case of Moguls, and other local businesses (see below), they’ll even ante up a portion of their sales to the

TEAM MOGULS A huge community supporter for years, Moguls Coffee House is about as local as it gets, including all the good vibes from (L to R) Midori Holland, Diana Chan (owner), Peggie Murphy, Annabel Wallace and Justine Pace.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

42 DECEMBER 2, 2021

Whistler Community Foundation when you shop this Saturday, Dec. 4.

For if there’s one thing that’s going to spread the love these days—to family and friends, our community, and our shared world beyond—it’s giving a gift with the tiniest eco-footprint and the biggest heartfelt impact. The more local, the better.

Bonus: you don’t need to spend much.

A good book that can be passed along.

A nice meal or loaf of bread from your favourite supplier. A donation in the name of loved ones to a community cause that resonates, like the Dr. Rob Burgess Primary Care Fund via the Whistler Health Care Foundation, which does so much good.

Ditto the Whistler Centre for Sustainability.

The gift of time and service to help a neighbour in need—offer to babysit, clear a driveway, chop some wood. Write it up in a homemade card. Slip it under their door. No purchase necessary.

MORE COOL GIFTS THAT KEEP ON GIVING The Whistler Community Foundation has already done a lot of the thinking and connecting for you with their Give Local, Shop Local program. Simply go shopping on Dec. 4 at any of the participating Whistler businesses, including Armchair Books, Coastal Culture, Home Hardware, and more.

In addition to Moguls, Zog’s Whistler and another iconic eatery, Sushi Village, are also taking part.

On Dec. 4, five per cent of all sales at participating businesses will go to the community foundation and the many

initiatives it supports, like Sea to Sky Hospice, the local library and Whistler’s environmental group, AWARE. You can also target a gift donation through something like the Environmental Legacy Fund, or the Chili Thom Memorial Scholarship Fund for the art lovers on your list.

More in the arts and culture department, the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre and the Audain Art Museum both have outstanding gift shops. And check out the Arts Whistler gift shop in the Maury Young Arts Centre for everything from paintings to weavings by local artists. Buy a gift membership online to this great organization that’s supported art and culture at Whistler for ages, or gift a ticket to an upcoming show.

As for more writerly-type giftees, a $30 donation will get them an All-Access Holiday Pass to this year’s Whistler Writers Festival.

It includes access to dozens of readings and workshop events. Who knows? You might even help them produce a bestseller!

Lots of locals give back by supporting the Whistler Community Services Society (WCSS), which runs 20-plus much-needed initiatives, including the local food bank, outreach and counselling services, and my favourites for gift shopping anytime: the Re-Use It and Re-Build It Centres, and the new online Re-Love-It Online Store. (You’ll be cutting edge—giving gifts from thrift stores is all the rage in New York lately.)

You can make a donation to WCCS in general that honours your intended recipient, or donate to the Holiday Hampers program, a special helping hand this time of year and a locals’ favourite, especially for businesses and groups that round up donations from colleagues in lieu of buying

gifts for each other.

If you need to thank a deserving teacher or be a Secret Santa, try the lovely gift of a Zero Ceiling Family Dinner Friday, Dec. 3.

Proceeds support local youth and the Work 2 Live program.

As for our four-legged friends, and those who love them, Moguls and Zog’s Whistler, which serves up hot dogs and more at Sundial Crescent, are also helping with two great fundraisers for WAG—Whistler Animals Galore, the local animal shelter voted Whistler’s favourite non-profit for the past five years.

Moguls and Zog’s are matching all donations to WAG, with the goal of raising $30,000. These two eateries, which have been so generous to the local community over the years, are also helping to sponsor the annual Pet Photos with Santa on Sunday, Dec. 5, noon to 4 p.m. at the Westin Resort and Spa. Details on WAG’s website will help you arrange a gift photo shoot for the right someone this Christmas.

See how easy and thoughtful giving can be? You can have some fun, shop locally, and do a lot of good in your community before your holiday latte’s done. Best thing is there’s virtually nothing to wrap or throw away, so relax and order another round!

Many thanks to all the wonderful Whistlerites who shared their ideas for disappearing gifts: Stella Harvey, Cate Webster, G.D. Maxwell, Pauline Wiebe, Cheeying Ho, Kris Shoup, Annabel Wallace and Claire Mozes.

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning journalist who gladly buys less and less wrapping paper each year. n

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ARTS SCENE

‘Hilarious, loose and lewd’: Laugh out LIVE set to begin 18-week run at Maury Young Arts Centre PART IMPROV, PART STAND-UP, PART SKETCH COMEDY SERIES DEBUTS DEC. 9

BY MEGAN LALONDE THE IDEA OF CREATING a recurring show in Whistler has been on Ira Pettle’s mind since he first rolled into town over a decade ago.

“Being a fly on the wall, not really knowing anybody, checking out the scene, [being] sort of surprised that there was no resort show in town, and coming from a performing arts background, I was like, ‘I’m going to do it,’” he recalls.

Eleven years, an ongoing pandemic and a lot of hard work later, that dream is finally becoming a reality. Laugh out LIVE launches at the Maury Young Arts Centre theatre on Thursday, Dec. 9 for the first of two preview shows, before officially beginning its 16-week run on Jan. 6.

“The seeds have been planted and this feels like the closest we’ve got to making that [resort show] happen,” says Pettle.

With the support of Arts Whistler, Pettle, his teammates Rebecca Mason and Dave Francis and a series of special guests will take to the stage every Thursday night until the end of April for “a comedy variety show of sorts,” he explains.

Laugh out LIVE audiences can expect each show to follow a similar structure, featuring a mix of improv—think Whose Line Is It Anyway?—sketches and stand-up, sprinkled with a dash of musical comedy.

SHOW BUSINESS Laugh Out LIVE is the culmination of a years-long dream to create a weekly resort comedy show in Whistler.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

44 DECEMBER 2, 2021

“But the content within that structure is going to vary week-to-week, so someone could come every week and they will see a totally different show,” says Mason.

One constant? R-rated humour. Pettle may have earned himself a reputation as Whistler’s premier children’s entertainer, but this show (reserved for audiences aged 19 or older) is taking a considerably different tone. Arts Whistler bills the event as “Not your average night out at the theatre,” and its cast as “Whistler degenerates,” “here to

get the audience to shout out suggestions and play along.”

With the added benefit of drinks flowing in the theatre, the show aims to make its audience feel like they’re heading out to a bar rather than a play, adds Pettle. “So it’s a little bit loud, it can get rowdy, people can talk back,” he says. “It’s alive. It’s not like the lights go down, you’re sitting in darkness, and you’re there to watch the show. It’s the opposite of that.”

Francis likens Laugh out LIVE to a dive-

“We’re all a little bit nuts here anyways, so we’re kind of creating a show that mirrors the energy of our town.”

- IRA PETTLE

bring you hilarious, loose and lewd comedy.”

Says Pettle, “We’re really trying to appeal to the younger demographic—the 20-somethings and up—and mix that in with sort of a Whistler mentality. We’re all a little bit nuts here anyways, so we’re kind of creating a show that mirrors the energy of our town.

“We’re just going to lose our shit onstage, pretty much.”

They’re also hoping to rope audience members into a few of their antics.

“We’re going to be talking to the audience; the audience is going to be talking to us,” says Mason. “We’re going to

bar open-mic night with the production value levelled up a few notches. “In the same way that an open-mic night encourages locals to get up and give it a crack, we hope to [do the same] over the course of this run,” he says. “In the future, our goal is to turn the light onto local talent … We really want to bring the community into this experience.”

To that end, the production marks both Francis and Mason’s stage debuts in Whistler. While Pettle and Mason are both trained actors—he’s a graduate of Toronto’s prestigious Second City Conservatory Program; she studied acting internationally before switching gears to work Vancouver’s

film production industry—Francis’ first brush with acting came as a student in Pettle’s improv classes a couple of years ago.

The invitation to now put those newfound skills to the test in front of a 200-person live audience is “terrifying and awesome in equal measure,” says Francis.

“It is not my background at all,” he admits. “I [signed up] on a bit of a whim and had a few classes with him, and then he invited me to join the team for this … It’s a super exciting thing to be to be part of for me, because it’s such a departure from the norm.”

It’s not just Francis and Mason’s talent, wit and open minds that make the partnership function, says Pettle, but their “tremendous dedication” and commitment.

Because while it might be all fun and games onstage, the trio has been grinding behind the scenes for three months, meeting two to three times a week to iron out their vision for the show and chip away at the endless administrative tasks ahead of their Thursday night debut.

“We’ve been working our asses off,” says Pettle.

“The show is really just being born, so I don’t know where it’s going to evolve to and I’m hoping that this is only the beginning.

But with the work we’ve put in so far … I think we’re poised for a good start.”

Tickets are $10 and available for purchase online at artswhistler.com. The Dec. 9 show is sold out, though a small block of tickets will be available at the door. Theatre doors open at 7:30 p.m. with show time set for 8 p.m. Proof of COVID-19 vaccine, government-issued ID and masks are required for entry. n

ARTS SCENE

The unapologetic Canadianness of WFF coming-of-age flick, Drinkwater SHOT IN PENTICTON, B.C., THE UPBEAT COMEDY SCREENS AT THE FESTIVAL ON DEC. 3 AND 5

BY BRANDON BARRETT CANADIAN AUDIENCES aren’t always accustomed to seeing themselves reflected back on the big screen. Sure, there’s no shortage of Canuck stars that have carved out successful careers in Hollywood, and by now, we’re used to seeing urban centres like Vancouver and Toronto stand in for American cities in the latest big-budget superhero flick.

But finding distinctly Canadian stories put to film is a taller task altogether.

That’s what makes Stephen Campanelli’s latest comedy, Drinkwater, such a charming change of pace. Described by the good folks at the Whistler Film Festival (WFF) as what “may be one of the most unapologetically Canadian films we’ve ever seen,” this coming-of-age story set in Penticton, B.C. contains a Zamboni, a scene centred around a Tim Hortons’ drive-thru, and a subplot about a Wayne Gretzky rookie card. Oh, and did I mention the soundtrack is flush with Canadian pop rock anthems by the likes of Doug and the Slugs and Loverboy?

“It’s funny because I think when I’m filming I’m just in it as a character and I don’t really realize all the other moving pieces, but when we had our premiere in Calgary that was one of the first things one of the audience members brought up, the very Canadian hockey scene and Tim Hortons scene, and they loved it,” recalls Louriza Tronco, who plays Wallace in the film. “I was like, ‘Oh, right, I guess we don’t see that often as audience members on the screen.’ We’re not really exposed to that.

The world hasn’t really been exposed to what Canadian living is.”

Drinkwater follows the titular Mike Drinkwater, played by Daniel Doheny, who has trouble fitting in and finds himself bullied by the school jock. Veteran TV actor Eric McCormack, star of the smash NBC sitcom Will & Grace, plays Daniel’s eccentric father, Hank, who is always looking to his next scheme to defraud the government and make an extra buck. Tronco’s Wallace is an American transplant from New York who is forced to move to small-town B.C. with her grandparents after the death of her mom, and who eventually meets and bonds with Mike.

Inspired by the teen flicks of the ‘80s and ‘90s like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Breakfast Club, Drinkwater differs from those classic coming-of-age stories in a few notable ways.

“A lot of the times the story deviates

from your standard coming-of-age Hollywood structure, and there are lots of scenes in there that are more characterbased and pushing it along,” says Doheny.

For Tronco, a Filipina-Canadian actor known for the Netflix horror series, The Order, getting to play a romantic lead was another welcome deviation from the standard teen flick formula.

“For one, I haven’t really seen a lot of people of colour in my position in terms of the friend turning into the love interest. I think that’s what differs from my perspective as a young Filipina woman,” she says. “That’s awesome that we’re breaking those barriers and saying, ‘No, I can be a love interest to someone in a movie.’”

While it’s Tronco and Doheny who serve as the beating heart of the film, it’s McCormack’s easy screen presence and comedic chops that make Drinkwater as funny as it is. Getting to work with the veteran of TV, film and stage was a welcome opportunity for both young actors.

“He’s such a professional. He’s so funny,” Tronco says.

The cast was given ample freedom to improvise—Doheny estimates about half of his lines that made it into the final cut were off the cuff—and Tronco remembers McCormack ad-libbing in one of their first scenes together.

“Daniel and I are having this deep conversation about how I had just lost my mom, and Eric comes out [in character] and just says, ‘Hi, Wendy!’ He doesn’t even get my character’s name right and then goes back inside the house. I think it was the first day I worked with him, so I thought, ‘Great, this is going be fun and I’m just not going to show my face on camera so I don’t break character.’ He’s a comedic genius.”

Shot entirely during the pandemic, Drinkwater is the kind of fun, upbeat comedy that can serve as a balm to the past year and a half of uncertainty and upheaval, Tronco says.

“This was also the first film I filmed during the pandemic and I so needed it, too.

It is a warm comedy at the end of the day,” she says. “Hey, I love a good thriller, I love a good Squid Game or what have you, but just to have this sort of film that the whole family can watch together and enjoy for all ages, I think it’s going to be really good. I always think laughter is the best kind of medicine.”

Drinkwater screens at the 21st annual WFF at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 3 at the Maury Young Arts Centre, and at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 5 at Village 8 Cinemas. Tickets are available at whistlerfilmfestival.com. n

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ARTS SCENE

WHISTLER COVID-19 TRAVEL TESTING

Pique’s Christmas concert roundup BETWEEN CAROLLERS, CHOIRS AND A CHAMBER CONCERT, THERE ARE PLENTY OF WAYS TO RING IN THE HOLIDAY SEASON

BY BRANDON BARRETT

ALL WELCOME

Lo c a t ed n e a r t h e f r o n t d o o r s o f the W h i s t l e r C o n f e r e n ce C en t r e CONTAC T U S W WW.AIRWO LF MED I CAL. CO M

FOR ANY SELF- respecting choir leader, December is usually the time to shine.

Between holiday sing-alongs and Whistler’s long-running Christmas Eve Carol Service, there is no shortage of ways to ring in the festive season. But after the COVID19 pandemic limited opportunities to sing together, Christmas 2020 was an unusual one for local choir leader Jeanette Bruce.

“It was strange not to have multiple performances. The season felt different without that stuff,” says the director of Whistler Children’s Chorus and Barbed Choir. “I can’t separate Christmas from choirs. They’re kind of inextricably linked in my mind.”

Thankfully, there is no shortage of ways to mark the yuletide this year, with a jam-packed schedule of musical events beginning as early as next week. Especially for a town of transplants like Whistler, the chance to come together once more at what can be a lonely time of year for so many is long overdue, according to Whistler Singers director Alison Hunter.

“In a lot of Christmas songs, you hear about hope and joy and peace and goodwill, and I think quite often it triggers those emotions in people. Whistler is a tough one because we have a lot of people a long way from home, which is one reason why the Christmas Eve Carol Service has been so important over the years,” she says.

With that, here is Pique’s roundup of the choral and chamber concerts on tap this month for all ye merry revellers.

ROVING CHRISTMAS CAROLLERS: DEC. 3, 4, 10 AND 11

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No Christmas is complete without carollers, and this year the Whistler Singers will be belting out your favourite holiday tunes on two separate weekends.

Carollers will be roaming around the village from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 3 and Friday, Dec. 10, and from 3 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4. Singing is also planned for Creekside, weather permitting, on Saturday, Dec. 11 from 3 to 5 p.m.

BARBED CHOIR’S HOLIDAY SINGAPALOOZA: DEC. 10 Whistler’s popular rock ‘n’ roll choir returns to rock the socks off that grandma so generously bought you last Christmas.

A laidback, adult choir that requires no prior singing experience (or talent!), at 7 p.m. on Dec. 10, Barbed Choir will be learning Darlene Love’s version of the classic holiday ditty, “Christmas (Baby,

Please Come Home),” the first song the choir ever sang at its inaugural Singapalooza.

“Everybody’s welcome as long as they can provide proof of vaccination, and like all Barbed Choir events, everyone is expected to sing. So there’s no audience, it’s just the Barbed Choir,” Bruce says.

Entry is by donation to the Whistler Food Bank, and proof of vaccination and masks are required.

Find more information at facebook. com/groups/barbedchoir.

WINTER LIGHTS WHISTLER SINGERS CONCERT: DEC. 12 Its first live concert since 2019, the Whistler Singers will be celebrating the season in song, starting at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 12 at Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church.

The Whistler Children’s Chorus will also be featured in the show, which will feature “a good mixture of popular music and traditional Christmas music,” Hunter says.

The event is also by donation to the food bank and proof of vaccine and masks are required for attendees.

A WINTER’S SONG SOLSTICE CONCERT: DEC. 19 Both Bruce and Hunter will take off their choral hats on Dec. 19 for a night of festive chamber music at Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church.

Featuring Hunter on the harp, the Vancouver Opera Orchestra’s Anne Elise-Keefer on flute, and Bruce on vocals, the concert kicks off at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance, and $20 on the day of, available at tinyurl.com/e6d2vsnr or in-person at the Whistler Museum.

“We’re having a lot of fun prepping,” Hunter says.

Proof of vaccine and masks are required for attendees.

CHRISTMAS EVE CAROL SERVICE Like last year, Whistler’s long-running Christmas Eve Carol Service will be held virtually, with a pre-recorded video singalong led by the Whistler Singers released at 4 p.m. Dec. 24 to their YouTube page.

Whistler’s longest-running arts event, this will mark the 38th annual Christmas Eve Carol Service in the resort.

“It will be like it was at the Westin [prepandemic], but you’re in the comfort of your own home. Maybe you can enjoy something warm or a glass of wine while you’re singing with your loved ones,” Hunter says.

The Whistler Children’s Chorus is also accepting new members in the new year.

Anyone interested in joining the choir for kids in Grades 1 to 7 should email Bruce at jbruce@whistlerlibrary.ca. n

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e e POW DAYS What a student in ski instructor Lynn Mathews’ class may have looked like by the time they got to the Roundhouse.

PHOTO COURTESY GEORGE BENJAMIN COLLECTION.

Learning to ski Whistler

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1970s, Lynn Mathews filled various roles for Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. She worked in the office, and in addition to the more typical office work, her responsibilities also included creating ski passes with a polaroid camera and a crank-turned laminator, and putting together editions of Garibaldi’s Whistler News to help spread the word of what was going on at Whistler Mountain. As well, every so often, she would teach a ski lesson.

When Lynn and her husband Dave came to Whistler Mountain for the winter of 1966/67, they intended to be there only parttime to teach skiing on the weekends. Instead, Dave was brought on by the lift company as operations manager and Lynn began working in the office. When the mountain was short ski instructors, however, Lynn would sometimes be asked to teach.

Lynn had previously taught skiing at Grouse Mountain for a season and before that at Gray Rocks Inn in Quebec, where she met Dave. According to Lynn, those mountains did not prepare her for the amount of snow that Whistler Mountain could get.

Lynn would get called out when all the other instructors were busy or hurt, often with dislocated shoulders. In a series of interviews in 2019, she recalled the first time she was asked to teach on a big powder day with fresh snow that got as high as her hip.

After being called in and getting her boots on and gear together, Lynn discovered a problem. Lynn had been raised an eastern skier and, though very comfortable on ice

and hard-packed snow, she didn’t know how to ski in that much powder. Unfortunately, neither did her class of beginners.

After a long trip up the mountain, Lynn took her class into the Roundhouse.

According to Lynn, she found her husband Dave, Garibaldi Lifts president Franz Wilhelmsen, and Dave Brewer there. She went up to them and told them, “OK you guys, help. How do I get off this mountain?

I can’t ski this.” Their response was to laugh at her, apparently finding the situation “hysterical.” Dave Brewer did, however, give her some helpful advice, explaining that she should lean back on her heels, keep her arms forward, and keep her tips up.

Lynn and her class headed out to make their way down the mountain. She began by doing a demonstration of how they were going to ski down, despite never having done it herself. Preparing herself mentally, Lynn said a prayer and pointed her skis down the hill. Keeping Dave Brewer’s tips in mind, her first few turns worked and she began calling her students down one by one. They did, eventually, make it back to the gondola.

Lynn also filled in to teach weekly school programs and, under special circumstances, was called on to coach at the summer ski camp on Whistler Mountain.

One year, Lynn recalled being a private coach for a camp participant who was really a beginner skier. As the young man had come from California, they didn’t want to send him home, but he couldn’t keep up with the other campers. Instead, Lynn taught him, and by the end of the camp he was able to go down the slalom course, even if he was much slower than the others. n

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1 COLD OPEN Plenty of smiles and fist bumps were exchanged as the ski season got off to a snowy start on Thursday, Nov. 25. PHOTO BY CHRISTIE FITZPATRICK COURTESY OF WHISTLER BLACKCOMB. 2 STORM SEASON The Whistler Secondary School Storm’s Grade 9 and 10 girls volleyball teams were the ones to watch this season. “Both teams worked hard, developed quickly and had a lot of fun,” said coaches Cheryl Young and Conor Niwinski. The girls were in good positions up until the

LINEUP LEGENDS Tim Koshul, guest experience and talent manager for Gibbons Whistler and the Blacks Pub team are pictured delivering pizza and hot chocolate to the first group in the lift line. The 14 local teens camped out in the village overnight to snag first chair on opening day. PHOTO SUBMITTED. 4 BRATZ BIZ Whistler’s youngest entrepreneurs braved the rain, snow and cold to sell their creations at the annual Bratz Biz market, held outdoors this year at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre over the weekend, from Nov. 27 to 28. FACEBOOK PHOTO @ BRATZBIZ. 5 BABE RAVE DJ Jaguar Jones (a.k.a. Angie Jones) is pictured behind the decks at the most recent Babe Rave, held at the Whistler Racket Club on Monday, Nov. 20. The “Babes supporting bros for men’s mental health” event raised $1030 for the Whistler Community Services Society. PHOTO SUBMITTED. 6 LOW VIZ The ample precipitation on opening day meant good snow but low visibility. PHOTO BY HARRISON BROOKS.

District Championships last month, where they fell short in the high school tournament against Don Ross, Pemberton and Coast Mountain Academy. PHOTO SUBMITTED. 3

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ASTROLOGY

Free Will Astrology WEEK OF DECEMBER 2 BY ROB BREZSNY

Planning your perfect Whistler wedding?

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

ARIES (March 21-April 19): It’s a favourable time

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “The problem with putting

to get excited about your long-range future—and to entertain possibilities that have previously been on the edges of your awareness. I’d love to see you open your heart to the sweet dark feelings you’ve been sensing, and open your mind to the disruptive but nourishing ideas you need, and open your gut to the rumbling hunches that are available. Be brave, Aries! Strike up conversations with the unexpected, the unknown, and the undiscovered.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A Tumblr blogger named Evan (lotad.tumblr.com) addressed a potential love interest. “Do you like sleeping, because so do I,” he wrote. “We should do it together sometime.” You might want to extend a similar invitation, Taurus. Now is a ripe time for you to interweave your subconscious mind with the subconscious mind of an ally you trust. The two of you could generate extraordinary healing energy for each other as you lie together, dozing in the darkness.

Other recommended activities: meditating together; fantasizing together; singing together; making spiritual love together. (P.S.: If you have no such human ally, sleep and meditate with a beloved animal or imaginary friend.)

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini author Chuck Klosterman writes, “It’s far easier to write why something is terrible than why it’s good.” That seems to be true for many writers. However, my life’s work is in part a rebellion against doing what’s easy. I don’t want to chronically focus on what’s bad and sick and desolate. Instead, I aspire to devote more of my energy to doing what Klosterman implies is hard, which is to write sincerely (but not naively) about the many things that are good and redemptive and uplifting. In light of your current astrological omens, Gemini, I urge you to adopt my perspective for your own use in the next three weeks.

Keep in mind what philosopher Robert Anton Wilson said: “An optimistic mindset finds dozens of possible solutions for every problem that the pessimist regards as incurable.”

CANCER (June 21-July 22): An organization in Turkey decided to construct a new building to house its workers.

The Saruhanbey Knowledge, Culture, and Education Foundation chose a plot in the city of Manisa. But there was a problem. A three-centuries-old pine tree stood on the land. Local authorities would not permit it to be cut down. So architects designed a building with spaces and holes that fully accommodated the tree. I recommend you regard this marvel as a source of personal inspiration in the coming weeks and months. How could you work gracefully with nature as you craft your future masterpiece or labour of love? How might you work around limitations to create useful, unusual beauty?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Author Melissa Broder wrote a preposterous essay in which she ruminated, “Is fake love better than real love? Real love is responsibility, compromise, selflessness, being present, and all that shit. Fake love is magic, excitement, false hope, infatuation, and getting high off the potential that another person is going to save you from yourself.” I will propose, Leo, that you bypass such ridiculous thinking about love in the coming weeks and months. Here’s why: There’s a strong chance that the real love at play in your life will feature magic and excitement, even as it requires responsibility, compromise, selflessness, and being present.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo author Andre Dubus III describes times when “I feel stupid, insensitive, mediocre, talentless and vulnerable— like I’m about to cry any second—and wrong.” That sounds dreadful, right? But it’s not dreadful for him. Just the opposite. “I’ve found that when that happens,” he concludes, “it usually means I’m writing pretty well, pretty deeply, pretty rawly.” I trust you will entertain a comparable state sometime soon, Virgo.

Even if you’re not a writer, the bounty and fertility that emerge from this immersion in vulnerability will invigorate you beyond what you can imagine.

two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get 22.” Author Dashiell Hammett said that, and now I’m passing it on to you—just in time for a phase of your cycle when putting two and two together will probably not bring four, but rather 22 or some other irregularity. I’m hoping that since I’ve given you a heads-up, it won’t be a problem. On the contrary.

You will be prepared and will adjust faster than anyone else—thereby generating a dose of exotic good fortune.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In her poem “Is/Not,” Scorpio poet Margaret Atwood tells a lover, “You are not my doctor, you are not my cure, nobody has that power, you are merely a fellow traveler.” I applaud her for stating an axiom I’m fond of, which is that no one, not even the person who loves you best, can ever be totally responsible for fixing everything wrong in your life. However, I do think Atwood goes too far. On some occasions, certain people can indeed provide us with a measure of healing. And we must be receptive to that possibility. We shouldn’t be so pathologically selfsufficient that we close ourselves off from tender help.

One more thing: Just because that help may be imperfect doesn’t mean it’s useless and should be rejected.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “All my days I have longed equally to travel the right road and to take my own errant path,” wrote Norwegian-Danish novelist Sigrid Undset. I think she succeeded in doing both.

She won a Nobel Prize for Literature. Her trilogy about a 14th-century Norwegian woman was translated into 80 languages. I conclude that for her—as well as for you in the coming weeks and months—travelling the right road and taking your own errant path will be the same thing.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn author Susan Sontag unleashed a bizarre boast, writing, “One of the healthiest things about me—my capacity to survive, to bounce back, to prosper—is intimately connected with my biggest neurotic liability: my facility in disconnecting from my feelings.” Everything about her statement makes me scream NO! I mean, I believe this coping mechanism worked for her; I don’t begrudge her that. But as a student of psychology and spirituality, I know that disconnecting from feelings is, for most of us, the worst possible strategy if we want to be healthy and sane. And I will advise you to do the opposite of Sontag in the coming weeks. December is Stay Intimately Connected with Your Feelings Month.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In some small towns in the Philippines, people can be punished and fined for gossiping. Some locals have become reluctant to exchange tales about the sneaky, sexy, highly entertaining things their neighbours are doing. They complain that their freedom of speech has been curtailed. If you lived in one of those towns, I’d advise you to break the law in the coming weeks. In my astrological opinion, dynamic gossip should be one of your assets. Staying wellinformed about the human comedy will be key for your ability to thrive.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “Originality consists in thinking for yourself, and not in thinking unlike other people,” wrote Piscean author James Fitzjames Stephen (1829–1894). Another way to say it: Being rebellious is not inherently creative. If you primarily define yourself by rejecting and reacting against someone’s ideas, you are being controlled by those ideas. Please keep this in mind, dear Pisces. I want you to take full advantage of your astrological potential during the next 12 months, which is to be absolutely original. Your perceptions and insights will be unusually lucid if you protect yourself from both groupthink and a compulsive repudiation of groupthink.

Homework: I invite you to send me your holiday wish list.

What do you want? What do you need? https://Newsletter.

FreeWillAstrology.com

In addition to this column, Rob Brezsny creates

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

50 DECEMBER 2, 2021

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604-992-4746

roxysinwhistler.com

seeking a private accommodation/ room.

After missing last season I’m returning for my 21st season in the Private/ Corporate divisions of the WB Ski School.

Non-smoker, non-drinker, artist, respectful with WB Management references.

I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks!

MATTRESSES-BUNK BEDSSOFA BEDS-CUSTOM SOFAS

Queen mattresses from $289.99 Bunk Beds from $699.99 Sofa beds from $1099.99

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whistlerfurniture.ca 2-1020 Millar Creek Road

604.938.4285 FOR SALE - MISC

PRE-LOVED RE-LOVED = COMMUNITY LOVE

piquenewsmagazine.com/ local-events/

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

Accommodation

BEDS IN STOCK! SAME DAY DELIVERY!

Steve Firlotte (604) 902-1281 sugarloaftennis@yahoo.ca

We've Got You Covered

VISITORS’ GUIDE 2017-2018 FREE

WHISTLER FURNITURE CO

PEMBERTON

RE-USE-IT CENTRE Donations daily 10 am to 4 pm Accepting pre-loved clothing, gear and household items.

Shopping daily 10 am to 6 pm 8000 Nesters Road 604-932-1121

RE-BUILD-IT CENTRE Donations daily 10 am to 5 pm Accepting pre-loved furniture, tools and building supplies Shopping daily 10 am to 5 pm 1003 Lynham Road 604-932-1125 Visit mywcss.org and our social channels for updates.

Lot For Sale: Ivey Lake Subdivision 5.44 ACRE •

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LONG-TERM RENTALS MULTIPLE LOCATIONS

5.44 ACRE Lot 51, Ivey Lake Subdivision, $590,000, 2-minute walk to Lake. 2.3 Km northeast of Pemberton, a 30-minute drive to Whistler. Fantastic view of Mt Currie. 604-744-8816 owen.hairsine@gmail.com

DECEMBER 2, 2021

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Services

EMPLOYMENT

HOME SERVICES

HEALTH & WELLBEING

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

MOVING AND STORAGE

PHYSICAL THERAPY

***Local Automotive*** Automotive technician for year round position in Whistler. 604-905-9109 steve@localautomotive.com Room Attendent - Great Student Opportunity Signing BONUS - Employees that work full-time positions from Dec 1 to Apr 30 will be eligible for a ski pass bonus or hourly top-up based on the number of hours worked!

This is a full or part-time year-round housekeeping position. Excellent pay, benefit packages for full-time employees, staff housing available. No previous experience is required as we do offer full training. Job description includes cleaning rooms, linen stocking, common area cleaning, and seasonal projects. christina@mvawhistler.com

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES PIQUENEWSMAGAZINE.COM/JOBS

Sally John Physiotherapy COVID-19 PRECAUTIONS TAKEN PRIOR TO APPOINTMENT DOUBLE VACCINATION REQUIRED

REGISTERED PHYSIOTHERAPIST

IN HOME PHYSIOTHERAPY AVAILABLE

big or small we do it all!

Call 604-902-MOVE www.alltimemoving.ca

CUSTOM-MADE ORTHOTICS at competitive prices for ski boots & shoes, including training shoes.

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‘Sally John Physiotherapy’ 2997 Alpine Cresent (Alta Vista)

WHISTLER TRANSIT LTD JOURNEYMAN MECHANIC FULL TIME POSITION WITH BENEFITS 604-938-0388 recruitment@whistlertransit.ca https://www.pwtransit.ca/

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SPORTS & ACTIVITIES

HOME SERVICES BUILDING AND RENOVATIONS

Group Fitness Classes

Wiebe Construction Services

Thursday – Zumba @ 11:15-12:15 pm w Susie Mondays – Spin @ 5:45-6:45 pm w Courtney Tuesdays – Slow Flow Yoga @ 7:30- 8:30 pm w Laura Wednesdays – Gentle Fit @ 1:30-2:30 am @ w Diana Wednesdays – Functional Conditioning @ 5-6 pm @ w Garret

Serving Whistler for over 25 years

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

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

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604.932.1968 SERVICES PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Professional Sewing and Alterations

The Rotary Clubs of Whistler are now meeting virtually.

The Whistler Club Tuesdays at 3.

The Millennium Club Thursdays at 12:15.

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

MEETING PLACE Your fast, friendly and quality sewing services throughout the Sea to Sky. www.alpinestitchit.com

Looking to adopt? www.whistlerwag.com

52 DECEMBER 2, 2021

ROTARY CLUBS OF WHISTLER

Welcome Centre at Whistler Public Library Information, support, community connections and ESL practice groups for newcomers and immigrants.

Meet people, make connections, volunteer, build your communication skills in English.

Multicultural Meet Up every Friday 9.30-12pm.604-698-5960 info@welcomewhistler.com FB: WhistlerWelcomeCentre

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FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS

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We require applicants to obtain an active first aid & criminal record check!

To apply, please email: info@babysittingwhistler.com

is now hiring for

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Thank you for your interest. Only those applicants being considered for an interview will be contacted.

STEP INTO THE SOUL OF WHISTLER Crystal Lodge is recruiting fun and friendly individuals to join our team in the following roles: •

Reservations Coordinator

•

Reservations Agent

•

Manager on Duty

•

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•

Housekeeper

•

Night Janitor

•

Maintenance Technician

IT’S EASY TO APPLY VIA OUR WEBSITE:

We offer competitive wages, a unique environment, seasonal bonuses, staff discounts and benefits.

Ask about accommodation.

Expect Great CASH wages, flexible scheduling & $500 off your Spirit Pass!

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EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Babysitting Whistler is seeking enthusiastic, reliable, motivated and caring staff!

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

Call 604-892-3125.

Babysitter/Nanny: Full Time Have you ever wanted to spend your days exploring Whistler with kids?

WORK

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NOTICES VOLUNTEERS

RENT

Whistler Athletes’ Centre (High- Performance Training & Accommodation) Guest Service Agent

Whistler Olympic Park (Nordic Skiing, Snowshoeing & Outdoor Activities) Nordic Sport Instructor Maintenance & Operations Worker Guest Service Rep Snow Clearing Operator

Whistler Sliding Centre (Bobsleigh, Luge & Skeleton) Track Worker Control & Timing Operator Lead, Sport and Guest Services Track Medical Responder

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

WWW.CRYSTAL-LODGE.COM/CAREERS

Looking to adopt? www.whistlerwag.com

NESTERS STORAGE On Site Facility Caretaker

- Full-time property maintenance at Nesters Storage and other sites in Whistler.

- Basic carpentry, knowledge and use of hand tools, painting, building maintenance required.

- Must be physically fit, hard working and adaptable.

- Competitive wage with accommodation.

Please email expressions of interest and resume to 8080Nesters@telus.net.

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WIDE OPEN WELDING IS CURRENTLY LOOKING TO FILL THE FOLLOWING POSITION:

FABRICATORS & ERECTORS Please forward your resume to contactus@wideopenwelding.com

Whistler Premier Resorts, Whistler’s leading property management firm is currently recruiting!

What We Offer You:

• Full Time Positions • Competitive Wages • • Discounted Ski Pass • Discounted Employee Rates • • Supportive Team Environment • Staff Housing • • Opportunities for growth & more • • Signing Bonus •

The current career opportunities are:

ROOM ATTENDANT GUEST SERVICE AGENT ROOM •ATTENDANT NIGHT AUDIT HOUSEMAN/INSPECTOR GUEST• SERVICE AGENT FULLNIGHT TIME MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN AUDIT • HOUSEMAN APPLY TODAY AT PEOPLE@WHISTLERPREMIER.COM

NORTH ARM FARM FARM FIELD LABOURER

Weeding, irrigating, harvesting and processing fruits & vegetables. At least 2 full seasons of agricultural experience required. Looking for hardworking individuals able to work in all types of outside conditions. Minimum 40hrs/wk over a minimum 5 days/wk. 40 to 65 hours/week. $15.20 - $18/hr.

Job duration: 32 weeks Jan 1st-Aug 31st -or- March 3rd-November 3rd 2022 Applicants can mail, or email resumes to North Arm Farm PO BOX 165, Pemberton, BC V0N 2L0 Email: info@northarmfarm.com

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THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS OCTOBER 14, 2021 ISSUE 28.41 WWW.PIQ UENEWS MAGAZIN

E.COM

FRE E ANALYSIS

JOIN OUR TEAM! Encore

is currently hiring the following positions for Whistler!

We also offer amazing health benefits!

Event Audio Visual Technician Part and Full Time

One Year Ou t

WWW.PIQUE NEWSMAGA ZINE.COM

28.42 OCTOBER 21, 2021 ISSUE

Roland’s Pub & Red Door Bistro are looking for • Dishwashers • Line cooks • Bussers

FREE

THE SQUEEZE

With 12 months to

14

the next municipal

CHEAK

UP A look at the new affordable housing for locals in Cheakamus Crossing

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PANDEMIC PROTECTIO ongoing to protect students

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on council’s progres

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SILVER

SCREEN STOKE Maury Young Arts Centre to screen two new ski films

House Sales Are Booming in Rural B.C.

— and Renters Are Getting Slammed

Full time or part time available Day and night shifts available Wages based on experience, plus tips, staff meal every shift, ski pass financing, staff discounts in pub & bistro. Extended Medical & Dental benefits after 3 months full time employment.

Email resume to info@rolandswhistler.com or apply in person at 2129 Lake Placid Road.

WWW.PIQUENEWSMA GAZINE.COM

OCTOBER 28, 2021 ISSUE 28.43

FREE CANDY CORN

16

Whistler’s pandemic shifting focus recovery working group is

IN SESSION

23

48

a real RECORD SALE An empty lot sets $9 million estate record by selling for

SPOOKTACULAR

Tapley’s neighbourhood

welcomes back trick or treaters

Sales Coordinator NOVEMBER 4, 2021 ISSUE 28.44

For more information, please search our Encore Job Opportunities page at the below link. https://jobs.encoreglobal.com/search-jobs/Whistler

WWW.PIQUENEWSM AGAZINE.COM

FREE

Currently seeking:

14

BOUNCING BACK

Tourism in Whistler shows signs of a bounce back year

15

WATCHDOG REPORTS

38

RCMP did not

use excessive force in fatal incident

JOB APPLICATIONS RIOPELLE RETRO Audain Art Museum’s new special exhibit opens

APPRENTICES AND JOURNEYWOMEN/JOURNEYMEN Come work with us! We value strong communication skills, ability to work independently, and motivation to learn and grow with our company. We offer benefits and a healthy work-life balance; we’re here for a good time and hopefully some powder days. Wages are negotiable, based on experience and knowledge of electrical code.

TEN JOBS FOR GETTIN G TO WORK ON A

ZERO-EMISSIONS FUTU RE A climate-fixing economy will mean new livelihoods like these in B.C. and across Cascadia

Email cover letters and resumes to:

SB@NOBLEELECTRIC.CA • WWW.NOBLEELECTRIC.CA

NOVEMBER 11, 2021 ISSUE 28.45

14

REMOTE RENAISSANCE Shift to remote work has had a profound effect on Whistler

WWW.PIQUENEWSMA GAZINE.COM

28

44

LEST WE FORGET Whistler will host in-person and virtual Remembrance Day

FREE

FILMSTRAVAGANZA The Whistler Film Festival unveils its full lineup TO REFLECT

Vacasa Whistler is currently hiring: • Room attendants and houseperson Wages starting from $21.75 to $23.00 • Housekeeping Assistant Manager $50K and Housekeeping Coordinator $21.00 Flexible schedule, variable shifts available including possible night shift • Travel allowance for Squamish and Pemberton based employees OR activity/ski pass allowance. Signing bonus of $500.

Extended medical and dental coverage.

To apply for this opportunity, please specify the position and email your resume and cover letter to: paul.globisch@vacasa.com We thank all applicants for their interest but only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

Join a fun, locally owned and operated Lodge that puts people first and offers you the opportunity to thrive at work!

28.46 ISSUE health minister 2021 UP? Provincial NOVEMBER 18,GOING

14

addresses vaccines on gondolas

28

LEST WE FORGET

ZINE.COM WWW.PIQUE NEWSMAGA ANTIDOTE Climate

Program aims to give

deceased veterans proper resting place

48

ACTION

FREE

documentary to screen Nov. 19

MALWARE

NOW HIRING:

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To apply email your resume to: careers@nitalakelodge.com

14NOVEMBER 25, 2021 ISSUE 28.47 16 AFTER THE STORM

Record-breaking and death rainfall brings devastation

officer vaccines tries to calm community over

GONDOLA QUANDRY Medical health

36

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54 DECEMBER 2, 2021 OPENING DAY

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THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS

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Please submit your resume & cover letter by email to rrandhawa@vailresorts.com We thank all interested applicants, however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! Go behind the scenes at 'Canada's Coolest Film Festival' December 1-5.

Positions include venue staff, box office, events and more!

Earn perks like film tickets, WFF swag, prizing and the legendary WFF Volunteer Party.

Email volunteer@whistlerfilmfestival.com • Manager, Building Department • Supervisor, Financial Services

WHISTLER’S PREMIER VISITOR MAGAZINE SINCE 1980

Resort Municipality of Whistler whistler.ca/careers

TEPPAN VILLAGE IS HIRING A OPERATIONAL MANAGER Teppan Village is a locally owned Teppanyaki Steakhouse

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SPA EXPERIENCE ATTENDANT WHAT WE OFFER: BATH MEMBERSHIP FOR YOU AND A FRIEND STAFF HOUSING UPON AVAILABILITY FREE MASSAGE AFTER 3 MONTHS DISCOUNTED WB SPIRIT PASS AND MORE!

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apply at hr.whistler@scandinave.com

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THE PERFECT CANDIDATE: • Minimum 4-5 years management experience in a high volume food and beverage environment • Manage reservations systems • Strong problem-solving abilities • Excellent leadership, organization, and time management skills.

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ABOUT THE ROLE, BENEFITS +PERKS • Full-time, year-round career opportunity.

• Competitive wage • Annual mountain pass.

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• Educational allowance & growth opportunities.

• Extended health, dental and vision benefits • Paid vacation time Address: 301-4293 Mountain Square, Whistler, BC, V0N 1B4 Apply by email at teppanvillage@shaw.ca

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7 2

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6 8 1HOUSEKEEPING 4 5 8 6 3 2 ROOM ATTENDANTS 8 6 9 7 5 6 AND SUPERVISOR MAINTENANCE 8 POSITIONS 4 5 7 6 P/H 7 3 1 STARTING RATE $25 Starting rate of $23 p/h 4 1 2 Please reply2by email: 7 3 Please reply by email: parmstrong@pinnaclehotels.ca parmstrong@pinnaclehotels.ca 1 5 9 7 4 1 5 3 6 3 8 Dreamy full or part time jobs 9 4 6 3 5 9 The Pinnacle Hotel Whistler has the following positions available:

The Pinnacle Hotel Whistler has the following positions available:

[SERVER ASSISTANT] [HOST] [BARTENDER - 12 SEATS] MEDIUM

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careers.eddiebauer.com Page 15 of 25

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Domino’s Pizza in Whistler is

NOW HIRING: ALL POSITIONS

HIRING ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT (PT or FT) PROJECT COORDINATOR PROJECT MANAGER Please send resume to info@murphyconstruction.ca

• Delivery Experts (Drivers) • Assistant Managers All positions can earn 25-30$/hour minimum Subsidized accommodations and profit sharing available Apply in store between 11am-4pm Monday thru Sunday at 4368 Main Street, Whistler

604-932-0410

MAEGAN@BCDOMINOS.COM

EXCITING CAREER OPPORTUNITIES, APPLY TODAY! Diamond Resorts Canada Ltd., Whistler, BC

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NOWTHE HIRING: NOW HIRING FOLLOWING ATV & BUGGY GUIDES NOW HIRING THE FOLLOWING ATV & BUGGY GUIDES CANOE GUIDES FULL TIMEGUIDES ROLES: CANOE FULL TIME ROLES: JEEP GUIDES

JEEP GUIDES E-BIKE GUIDES SNOWMOBILE GUIDES E-BIKE GUIDES SNOWMOBILE GUIDES SHUTTLE DRIVERS SHUTTLE DRIVERS RESERVATION AGENTS SNOWSHOE RESERVATION GUIDES AGENTS We offer a fun, outdoor work environment with a great team of

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Full job descriptions at: Full job descriptions at: www.canadianwilderness.com/employment/ GUEST EXPERIENCE REPS www.canadianwilderness.com/employment/

NOW HIRING THE FOLLOWING FULL TIME POSITIONS:

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• Travel Allowance and discounted employee rates at any Diamond Resort International resort.

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Email your resume with the position you wish to apply for to: embarc_hr@diamondresorts.com

GUEST EXPERIENCE REPS GUEST EXPERIENCE REPS If you are interested in joining our team, IN RESORT MARKETING

If you are interested in joining our team, please submit your resume to please submit your resume to employment@canadian01.com DOGSLED MUSHERS/GUIDES employment@canadian01.com

IN IN RESORT RESORT MARKETING MARKETING PERKS INCLUDE: PERKS INCLUDE: TOP INDUSTRY PAY – SPIRIT PASS PROGRAM – TOP INDUSTRY PAY – SPIRIT PASS PROGRAM – FLEXIBLE FREE ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES –– FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE SCHEDULE –– FREE FRIENDS DISCOUNTS FRIENDS & & FAMILY FAMILY DISCOUNTS

Visit Visit canadianwilderness.com/employment canadianwilderness.com/employment for full and how how to to apply. apply. for full job job description description and

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THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS

Become part of a creative team and surround yourself with art

Lil’wat Nation

Employment Opportunities

The Audain Art Museum is currently seeking:

Marketing Coordinator full-time, permanent

Responsible for supporting the Museum’s Chief Marketing Officer with administration of marketing and communications efforts including advertising, digital engagement, content marketing, social media, special events, Museum tours, and public relations.

• Administrative Assistant to Health Director • Cashier - Gas Station • Child and Youth Therapist - Community School • Cultural Research Technician • Custodian - Community School • Daycare Cook - Ullus Building & Upper Site • Early Childhood Educator and/or Assistant - Daycare • Early Childhood Educator Infant Toddler - Daycare • Education Assistant - Community School • Education Jurisdiction Coordinator - Community School • Finance Manager - Ullus Building • Home Care Nurse - RN or LPN • Homemaker - Lil’wat Health and Healing • Indigenous Support Worker - Ts’zil Learning Centre • Kindergarten Teacher - Community School • Land Use Manager - Ullus • Land Use Referral Research Assistant • Program Coordinator - Ts’zil Learning Centre • Receptionist - Ts’zil Learning Centre

Benefits Pension Plan Employee Assistance Program Extended Health Benefits Professional Development Gym facility

Application deadline is January 7, 2022 For complete job description and to apply visit audainartmuseum.com/employment

PLAY HERE

» piquenewsmagazine.com/jobs

DISTRICT OF SQUAMISH

Please visit our career page for more information: lilwat.ca/careers/career-opportunities-2/

WE ARE

HIRING Director of Human Resources Regular Full-Time Financial Services Specialist Temporary Part-Time Utility Operator 2 Regular Full-Time Detachment Clerk, RCMP Casual Victim Services Crisis Worker Casual Chief Operator Waste Water Treatment Plant Regular Full-Time Recreation Facility Clerk Regular Part-Time

squamish.ca/careers 58 DECEMBER 2, 2021

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Become part of a creative team and surround yourself with art

We all crave what is beyond the everyday. The new, the exciting, the unordinary. At The Adventure Group we don’t just pass the time, we forget it even exists. Come and grow with us.

NOW HIRING THE FOLLOWING FULL TIME ROLES:

The Audain Art Museum is currently seeking: ADVENTURE SPECIALISTS

Visitor Services

WILDERNESS GUIDES: SNOWMOBILE

part-time VALLEA LUMINA FULL AND PART-TIME ROLES:

Provide a welcoming experience for visitors at the Admissions Desk and in the Shop.

Paid training is provided.

AV ASSISTANT AV SPECIALIST

Guards

AV SUPERVISOR EXPERIENCE GUIDES

part-time, weekends

OPERATIONS SUPERVISOR

Provide security for the art and educate visitors to ensure safety protocols are upheld.

Prior experience an asset, but not required.

Paid training is provided.

Perks for all roles include: Top industry pay, spirit pass program offered, flexible schedule, free activities, friends and family discounts.

Visit

For complete job descriptions and to apply visit audainartmuseum.com/employment

TAGWHISTLER.COM/EMPLOYMENT for full job descriptions and how to apply.

We've Got You Covered VISITORS’ GUIDE 2017-2018 FREE

NESTERS MARKET & WELLNESS CENTRE

NOW HIRING

Join our dynamic team at Whistler Dental!

Deli, Bakery, Produce, Grocery and Meat Clerks Cashiers Full or Part Time

Dental Assistant Wanted Receptionist Wanted Sterilization Coordinator Wanted

E-mail or drop in your resume to: bruce_stewart@nestersmarket.com please cc ian_fairweather@nestersmarket.com or call us at 604-932-3545

Send your resume and cover letter today: liz@whistlerdental.com

PERKS • Competitive wage – Depending on experience • Access to medical and dental benefits for full time applicants • Percentage discount from store bought goods • Flexible and set schedule • Relative training

Talent Wanted WHISTLER DENTAL

Excellent compensation packages State of the art practice Learn, Lead, and, Grow With Us! DECEMBER 2, 2021

59

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EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES PIQUENEWSMAGAZINE.COM/JOBS

THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS

We are the Spa for you

Be a part of an amazing team as our newest Digital Account Representative!

We have a rare opportunity to work at one of Canada’s best-read online newsmedia companies, Glacier Media.

You will be part of the Pique Newsmagazine team, a division of Glacier Media. In your role you will consult with local businesses to offer cutting edge marketing solutions: programmatic, social media, SEO, sponsored content and community display advertising on our website and yes, we still reach customers through our trusted newspaper as well.

If you are looking for a new place to call home: • We manifest positive energy • We have a long term and loyal team • We treat you fairly and look out for your wellness • You are listened to • We give you proper breaks and time to set up between services • We offer extended medical benefits • You can enjoy $5.00 cafeteria meals • You have the opportunity to work for other Vida locations in slow season We are here for you.

Vida Spa at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler is currently recruiting: REGISTERED MASSAGE THERAPIST (signing bonus applicable) ESTHETICIAN GUEST SERVICE AGENT SPA PRACTITIONER To join our unique Vida family, email Bonnie@vidaspas.com Vida Spas - Vancouver & Whistler Live well. Live long. vidaspas.com Thank You for applying Only those considered will be contacted.

What we are looking for • • • • •

You are comfortable making cold calls and setting up/leading meetings with new and existing clients.

A self-starter with a consultative selling approach working with clients planning both digital and print advertising campaigns.

Building and maintaining client relationships with your exceptional communication skills comes easy to you.

You are a goal orientated individual with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn.

You possess strong organizational skills and have the ability to multitask in a fast-paced environment.

What we offer • • •

Competitive salary + uncapped commission package.

Comprehensive / competitive group health and welfare benefits Extensive onboarding training and ongoing support.

Whistler has a worldwide reputation for outdoor recreation and boasts a vibrant village featuring restaurants, bars, retail and more. While this legendary resort is an international mountain sports mecca, it is also a down-to-earth mountain town, where community and culture have forged a unique environment. This opportunity offers you the chance to call a world-class ski hill you own—and if you are a local, well you know you’re in the right place to forge a career and lucky to call Whistler your home.

To apply, please submit your cover letter and resume in confidence to Susan Hutchinson, shutchinson@wplpmedia.com Closing date: December 17th, 2021

60 DECEMBER 2, 2021

TO VIEW OUR CAREER OPPORTUNITIES, AND TO APPLY, VISIT US ONLINE AT WHISTLER.COM/CAREERS.

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THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS

The Whistler Valley Housing Society is seeking applications for a: Part-time Administrator • Approximately 40 hours per month • Duties will focus on Support for the Board of Directors • Pay commensurate with experience.

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.

Cooks • Shipper Receiver Service Express • Concierge • $1000 Winter Wellness Incentive • Travel Perks and Benefits • Recognition and Rewards • Growth Opportunities

• Complimentary meal at work • Subsidized Staff Accommodation • Flexible Schedules

For more information and to apply please contact: cjewett@whistler.ca

MARKETING SPECIALIST Full Time, Year Round

The Marketing & Creative Services Specialist is responsible for the execution of Tourism Whistler’s advertising programs, as well as the production and management of creative assets, including photography and video assets and collateral materials. The Specialist acts as a key point of contact with TW’s creative agencies to ensure all advertising programs and creative assets are on brand, on strategy, on time and on budget.

What we offer: a flex schedule, excellent benefits package, and a great team environment.

What we’re looking for: an individual with a passion and knowledge of Whistler, experience coordinating multi-channeled marketing programs, exceptional attention to detail, and strong writing and proofreading skills.

We’re also recruiting for: Conference Services Coordinator (Full Time, Year Round).

TO VIEW OUR CAREER OPPORTUNITIES, AND TO APPLY, VISIT US ONLINE AT WHISTLER.COM/CAREERS.

DECEMBER 2, 2021

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EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES PIQUENEWSMAGAZINE.COM/JOBS

THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS

LaTour Group Management Canada, Inc. (LTC), is now hiring for a full-time Houseman/Delivery Driver for our managed locations in Whistler, BC! LTC offers an abundant benefits package after 90 days of full-time employment.

POSITION SUMMARY The Houseman/Delivery Driver is responsible for the preparation and delivery of linen to our managed locations and responsible for delivering requested amenities to guests for our managed locations. This position creates a comfortable and clean guest environment, which contributes to guest satisfaction and the success of the resort. This position is vital to guest satisfaction by maintaining an overall pleasant experience for our guests.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS The Houseman/Delivery Driver: Performs daily assignments and projects set by the department supervisor or Resort Management.

• Coordinates and packs clean linen bags with the appropriate supplies for delivery to the managed properties.

• Delivers prepared linen bags to guest rooms at assigned properties • Collects dirty linen and returns it to the storage area for collection by the laundry company

• Maintains and cleans offices, storage room.

• Maintains common areas.

• Replenishes storerooms and admin areas with amenities, paper products,

Whistler’s award-winning publication is seeking a

Senior News/Political Reporter

• •

Pique Newsmagazine has a rare opportunity for an experienced and committed journalist to cover local news, politics and mountain culture in North America’s premier mountain resort.

• •

You are passionate about news and politics, and have a sense of what makes a compelling local news story. You seek to engage and inform your community in print and online platforms, and use social media effectively. You are selfmotivated, efficient and deadline driven, with a curious, critical mind and an acute attention to detail.

You are able to work well both on your own and with a team.

Ideally, you have experience in covering municipal council, elections, and governments at all levels. Other relevant skills include copy editing, long-form feature writing, Instagram posting and story creation, and newspaper layout using InDesign.

Located in the mountain resort town of Whistler, British Columbia, Pique Newsmagazine is the unequivocal leader in reporting, interpreting and understanding the culture of the Coast Mountains and what it means to those who live, work and play in Whistler. At 27 years young, we’ve established ourselves as the locals’ publication that’s inquisitive and edgy, provoking conversation and building community. With our peers we’re acknowledged perennial winners at the BC & Yukon Community Newsmedia Awards (BCYCNA) and Canadian Community Newsmedia Awards (CCNA) for general excellence and reporting categories, as well as several Webster Awards honours over the years.

We’re known for our unique artsy design, weekly long-form features and comprehensive news coverage, but of course our reach is global, with loyal readers from all over the world who come to piquenewsmagazine.com daily for the best Whistler storytelling and news source.

To apply, send your resume, clippings, or other relevant materials, as well as a cover letter making the case for why we should hire you to Braden Dupuis, bdupuis@piquenewsmagazine.com Application deadline: 4 pm, December 15, 2021

•

supplies, linens, and terry as needed to ensure adequate stock is always available.

Delivers supply to guests upon request.

Inspects common areas for repairs and reports needs to his/her supervisor accordingly.

Communicates often with Supervisor regarding cleaning needs.

Stays in direct contact with the department supervisor and reports any maintenance problems in a timely manner Completes an approved checklist to submit to his/her supervisor at the end of each workday.

OTHER FUNCTIONS The Houseman/Delivery Driver may also: • Perform other duties as needed to ensure smooth property operations, cleanliness and sanitization.

• Work on projects with other departments on property as deemed by the Operations Manager Requirements • English language proficiency test preferred • Valid driver’s license with a clean driving record • Comfortable driving in winter conditions • Must live in Whistler Experience 1-2 years in hospitality customer service preferred.

Salary range • $20-$25 per hour DOE Benefits • Company paid medical, dental, life, and short-term disability after 90 days of full-time employment • Ski and/or leisure package available • Travel perks • RRSP after 1-year WORK ENVIRONMENT The Houseman/Delivery Driver works outside in different weather conditions, which vary across locations. Hours include weekends and holidays. http://www.applicantone.com/latourhotels/index.htm?ATSPopupJob=100652&src=DL Have questions? Please Contact Eva Perry, Operations Manger, Whistler 604-967-1393

WILD WOOD IS HIRING FOR ALL POSITIONS

WHISTLER PUBLISHING Limited Partnership

CONTACT bob@wildwoodrestaurants.ca TO APPLY 62 DECEMBER 2, 2021

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THE FIRST PLACE TO LOOK FOR LOCAL JOB OPENINGS

YOU’RE A KEGGER, YOU JUST DON’T KNOW IT YET!

NOW HIRING:

COOKS + KITCHEN STAFF UP TO $25/HR + GENEROUS TIPS ALSO HIRING HOSTS AND SERVER ASSISTANTS

To apply, email your resume to whistler@kegrestaurants.com or come in-person Sunday – Thursday from 4:00pm-5:30pm for an on-the-spot interview.

CALL THE EXPERTS

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SNOW PLOWING/EXCAVATING

Call Pique at (604) 938-0202, or email sales@piquenewsmagazine.com

TATTOO

BB Snow Plowing and Excavations

Commercial Snow Plowing in Pemberton Heavy Equipment operator - Full Time / Part-Time • Skid Steer • Backhoe • Plow Truck Please contact: birkenbackhoe@gmail.com 604-698-7902 DECEMBER 2, 2021

63

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ALTERATIONS

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BLINDS ETC.

BLINDS ETC.

PROFESSIONAL SEWING SERVICE

SUNCREST WINDOW COVERINGS

• Custom Garments • Curtains • Cushions • Upholstery • Sewing Classes

Custom Blinds • Shades • Draperies

Tel: 604-935-2101 Email: windowcov@shaw.ca www.whistlerwindowcoverings.ca

BLINDS ETC.

CARPET CLEANING

WINDOW COVERINGS

BLACK BEAR CARPET CLEANING LTD.

Whistler’s Source for Blinds since 1989

David Weldon

• SHUTTERS • DRAPERY

Connie Griffiths

604.967.2422 whistlersewing@gmail.com www.whistlersewing.com

david@summersnow.ca 604-938-3521

• BLINDS • SHADES

• • • •

Wood blinds Sunscreens Shades Motorization

• Carpets • Upholstery • Tiles • Car Interiors

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

604.698.8406

CLEANING

• Furnace • Airducts • Dryer vents

Coast Mountain Cleaning • Full service cleaning • Residential & Commercial • Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning • Property Maintenance • Established 2011 We follow all VCH, Min of Health and WHO Covid 19 protocols

Insured & Bondable • Criminal background checks on all staff

www.summersnow.ca

100% ECO FRIENDLY CERTIFIED

Summer Snow Finishings Limited

www.blackbearcarpetcleaning.ca • 604 698 6610

CHIMNEY

FURNITURE

BLACKCOMB CHIMNEY PATROL LTD. Serving Whistler since 1986

604-966-1437

coastmountaincleaning@gmail.com

We use tea tree oil based cleaning products.

GLASS

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AUTO GLASS SPECIALISTS

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· Frameless Shower Enclosures · Complete Window/Door Packages · Custom Railing Glass Systems · Fogged/Failed Window Replacements

Chimneys, Furnace & Airducts, Dryer vents.

mountainglass.ca | info@mountainglass.ca

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604-932-7288

Available for private viewings. Tel: 604-868-0117 7322 Old Mill rd, Pemberton,bc

THE COMPLETE GLASS CENTRE

HEATING AND COOLING

PAINT

HOME SERVICES

Western Technical System Inc

HVAC/R

FOR ALL YOUR HOUSEHOLD & COMMERCIAL NEEDS

GENERAL MAINTENANCE

• 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

find us on

www.birdhouseservices.com BirdhouseServices@gmail.com

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

PROPERTY MAINTENANCE

604-894-6240 7426 Prospect St, Pemberton

SURVEYING

SURVEYING

BUNBURY & ASSOCIA BC LAND SURVEYORS

WHISTLER PROPERTY SERVICES

604-962-0050 info@50north.ca

Pressure Washing Window Cleaning Handyman Services

64 DECEMBER 2, 2021

Serving the Sea to Sky Corridor Since 1963 ▪ ▪ ▪

High Dusting Junk Removal

Phone: 604-932-3770

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Surveys Plans

Book your in-home leen Consultation with Col today!

Surveys

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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 6 11 16 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 36 40 42 44 46 47 50 52 53 56 60 62 64 65 66 68 69 71 73 74 76

Spacious Intelligent Genuflected Goes fast Wanted-poster word Fixed potatoes More than odd “Peer Gynt” dramatist Truckloads Co. honchos -- globulin Socrates’ pupil Tee-hee cousin (hyph.)

Movie theater Makes into leather Hearth tool Sandwich meat On the beach Romantic ballad Play boisterously Deluxe Unit of work Type of dog, for short Move furtively Superman foe -- Luthor Vases with feet Foam Floored Kind of protest Real estate Garden pond fish Harem owners Make -- -- double On the go VCR button Championships Senate attire SOS response

3 6

77 78 79 80 82 83 84 85 86 87 91 93 94 95 96 99 100 102 103 104 106 107 108 109 110 113 114 116 117 118 120 121 123 126 127 132 134 138

Frolics about Novelist -- Glasgow Gentle bear Virginia caverns Tattered Regard as Stockholm carrier -- salts Above, to poets Hockey score Comply with Chandelier pendant Drain cleaner Disney dog Polished Well, in Paris Nonflying birds Teahouse hostess Not real Knights’ weapons Interest amt.

Carried on Sierra Madre gold Hang around as a ghost Carry out Wilder or Tierney Collections Manner Snort of disgust Lost moisture June honoree Old hand Realm Mlle., in Barcelona Featured musicians Panted Published General direction

139 141 143 145 146 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157

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

1

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

“The Mammoth Hunters” writer Warm fabric Kettle handle Proverb Four-star reviews Kiri Te Kanawa, e.g.

Ventricle neighbor Not at any time Apparent Majestic wader Hamburger unit Formal, maybe On edge Untidy Social mores

Devil-may-care Fierce whales Nebraska hub Olympic award Fabric meas.

Tissue sample Ankle-length outfit Stadium Alcove Six-pointers, briefly Barrel Better organized “Cope Book” aunt Sketches Pester Tote bag feature Rectangles Honshu port Doled out Disturb a sleeper Orbit segment

35 37 38 39 41 43 45 47 48 49 51 54 55 57 58 59 61 63 64 67 70 71 72 75 77 79 81 82 84 85 86 88 89 90 92 93 94 95 96

Quagmire Luau entertainment “Phantom of the --” Breed of cat Remains Small sizes Diligently Persisted Stay for -- -Ladybug or scarab Rock climber’s aid Party thrower’s ltrs.

Before marriage Banjo cousins, briefly Pier Perches Predicaments Shake a finger First-stringers (hyph.)

Kesey or Russell Automobile trim Be off base Ringing Downhill skiing On behalf of Winged mammal -- Enterprise Plumbing joint Take in Not on all fours Pearl makers Expelled Goddess of wisdom Put film in Compass pt.

Going steady Transparently clear Round veggie “The X-Files” staples

97 98 99 101 102 104 105 109 111 112 115 117 119 122 124 125

Cooked just slightly Ink smear Modem-speed unit Speed meas.

Welcomes -- -tzu (“Tao” author) Long stories M.D. employers Gambling token Potency Mooches -- Thurman Pub. prosecutors Passengers Gawkers Music category (2 wds.)

127 128 129 130 131 133 135 136 137 140 142 144 147 148 149

Tolerate Peace and quiet Bug out Fortuneteller’s card Debonair Cabinet parts Depth charge target (hyph.)

Peopled planet The same as above Neck and neck Sourdough strikes Puts Fem. saint Dues payer, briefly Chimpanzee

LAST WEEKS’ ANSWERS

# 58

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

3 7 9 4

8 5 1

4 1 4 9 5

9 4

9

4

2 6

1 3 8

5 6 6 7 1

4 5 2 6

MEDIUM Solution, tips and computer program at www.sudoku.com# 60

ANSWERS ON PAGE 56

DECEMBER 2, 2021

65

MAXED OUT

Time to play some games WHILE IT CAN’T be said anyone actually invented this particularly devilish form of torture, I imagine those who take great delight in devising methods of tormenting people would certainly appreciate it. For starters, it is both self-inflicted and created by the very people it drives to the brink of personal breakdown. It requires nothing more than time, place and mindset. The actual mechanism occurs as naturally as morning follows night. And the pièce de résistance is this: the very few times it isn’t inflicted just makes its inevitable return that much harder to bear.

BY G.D. MAXWELL The spirit-crushing torture is, of course, the Opening Week Dance. In many ski towns the torture is waiting for snow that stubbornly refuses to show up. While this is not an unknown occurrence here, more often, in Whistler, it’s waiting for that perfect combination of moisture and temperature. When there’s enough moisture—biblical rain in this case—the temp seems always to spike to rain-to-thetop highs. When the temp drops enough to turn rain into snow, the friggin’ sun comes out. We watch satellite maps as each developing storm sweeps our way hoping maybe this one will slip in under the irony curtain and meet up with enough cold to make the hurt go away. We are anguished in disappointment and fooled not by calling a Pineapple Express an Atmospheric River.

We devise distractions. We wax skis and boards but that distraction grows old by late November. We work ourselves to exhaustion hoping this will be the season we start in tip-top shape. We volunteer, a feeble form of sublimation. We imbibe. We over-imbibe. We read, we dream, we play games.

Some years ago, while I bided my time supporting a dearly departed wife in a room full of people receiving chemotherapy, there was a contingent of people who, rather than be morbid about their condition, told jokes, engaged in idle chatter and sometimes played a game about their pending afterlife.

If that sounds morbid, it didn’t seem so at the time.

Based on a then-popular bestseller, it involved distracting your brain and entertaining others in the room discussing the five people you hope you meet in heaven. The First Derivative of the game is extolling the shortcomings of the five people you most hope you don’t meet in heaven. Not surprisingly, many people find it easier to choose people they never, ever want to see again, in heaven or anywhere else.

You’d think this game is a stretch for a guy who doesn’t believe in heaven—or believes he already lives in heaven—but it’s not about religious mythology and even

66 DECEMBER 2, 2021

PHOTO BY DAVID WATKIS/UNSPLASH

atheists can play. It’s a GAME; lighten up.

I’ll start.

While it may be topical with the buzz about midterm elections south of the border—yes, I know they’re a year away— and the possibility of electing a certain former president with hideous hair and multiple criminal investigations into his activities, I’d have to say high on my list would be him and most of the syndicate he surrounded himself with. I’ll count them all as one since it’s hard to tell them apart without numbers across their chests. I can’t imagine any of them would qualify for heaven but I wouldn’t want to spend a minute of eternity near any of them. It would be a sure sign I was in the wrong

I stood in horror as she accused me of having conned one of my parents into writing a book report I’d actually written.

Her reasoning? Fifth graders couldn’t write that well. I was speechless, a state she interpreted as further proof I couldn’t have written what I did. She inspired me to avoid people like her and I hope to make good on that inspiration even after I die.

I don’t ever want to meet up with the moron who worked at the big sports department store in Toronto who sold me my first pair of ski boots. Being a neophyte skier but knowing the importance of having my own boots, I let him con me into a pair of Salomon rear-entry abominations. May he and whoever designed those slippers rot

Not surprisingly, many people find it easier to choose people they never, ever want to see again, in heaven or anywhere else. place.

One of the last people I ever hope to see again is my fifth grade teacher. So full of insight into how one might motivate young, inquisitive minds was she that she dragged me out of class one day. Uncertain what I’d done, but feeling guilty nonetheless,

in hell.

The fourth person I never want to run into in heaven is the first big-time magazine editor I had the misfortune to work with.

His deft hand at editing was almost as encouraging as my disbelieving fifth grade teacher. What came out of his sausage

grinder bore only remote resemblance to what I’d written. It was tepid, without voice and about as interesting as the white pages of a phone book. If I’d understood I could actually do it, I’d have demanded he replace my name with his.

The final person I really never want to meet in the afterlife is Ullr. I don’t know if the Norse gods are in heaven or Valhalla— or if those are just different names for the same place—but any god I’ve cursed as much as I’ve cursed Ullr is one god I don’t want to meet up with on his home turf.

Probably hang defective wings on me for a joke.

On the other hand, one of the first people I’d really like to meet up with in heaven is the man most responsible for my overwhelming happiness. A former executive at the bank I escaped from, he had a hatred for me I never fully understood but never did much to overcome. When his chance to destroy my career finally presented itself, he took it. Unknown to him, I’d been racking my brain trying to come up with a scheme that would both let me quit and walk away with a severance.

It was his blind hatred that let me realize that dream and I’m certain if he ever fully understood his role in the launch of my most successful ski bum career it would be his own private hell.

While my choices may seem prosaic, I’m reasonably certain heaven is itself a pretty prosaic place. Truth be told, most interesting people will likely end up in hell… but that’s another game. One to be played during the next deluge. ■

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 NEW TO MARKET

NEW TO MARKET

BAYSHORE 2809 Clifftop All day sun with vaulted ceilings and huge windows. This home offers a spacious living room on the main floor and a large family room on the second floor. 4 bedrooms plus an office, pantry room & 1 bedroom suite makes this the perfect Whistler family home. $3,500,000

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Open concept featuring a stone clad fireplace with air tight wood insert, renovated kitchen and pantry. No short term rentals, and no GST. $859,000

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NORDIC 5A-2230 Eva Lake Road Beautifully renovated 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom townhouse. Steps to the bus stop, Creekside Village, shops & lifts, Valley Trail and Lakeside Park. The private wrap around deck is incredible space for a hot tub, BBQ zone and outdoor entertaining. $1,499,000

Caronne Marino

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SQUAMISH 1005 Condor Place Your dream home awaits you in Squamish’s most desirable neighbourhood at Thunderbird Creek! Over 4100 sq ft, fenced yard, views of the Tantalus Range, gourmet kitchen, massive garage. $2,199,000

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SQUAMISH 612-38362 Buckley Ave Gorgeous 6th floor 1 bed + flex room in Jumar! Featuring stunning mountain views, a huge storage locker (about 50 sq ft), high-end/modern finishes, building is only 1 yr old! Easy commute to Whistler & Vancouver! $599,000

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WELCOME

WHISTLER CAY HEIGHTS 6400 St Andrews Way Great neighbourhood in Whistler!

You’ll enjoy this 3 bedroom and large den, plus 2.5 bathroom Duplex spacious home. Just under 2,000 sq.ft. with large sunny patio, 2 car garage with guest parking & stroll to local trails, shops & Whistler Village. $2,580,000

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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.

3D Tour - rem.ax/2038garibaldi

2038 Garibaldi Way

3D Tour - rem.ax/32greens

$3,750,000

Situated midway between Village and Creekside, SE facing overlooking a quiet cul de sac Home has been lovingly built and renovated over the years. Total approximately 3100+ square feet on 3 floors - Main house 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms + 1 bedroom suite with bathroom - 1 double garage off Garibaldi Way, single garage off Helm Place.

Michael d’Artois

5

604.905.9337

#32 - 4644 Blackcomb Way

3D Tour - rem.ax/1489balsam

$3,150,000

Spectacular 3 bedroom townhome located in Blackcomb Greens – alongside the 1st hole of the Chateau Whistler Golf course. Completely renovated throughout - designed by award winning interior designers Beyond Beige from North Vancouver. This 3 bedroom, 2 bath townhome offers amazing fairway and mountain views.

Sally Warner*

3

604.905.6326

1489 Balsam Way

$1,690,000

This custom constructed home on a beautiful street in The Glen neighborhood in Pemberton has many custom features that were well planned out during construction.

This home has a beautifully landscaped yard with mature trees, shrubs & established flower beds plus raspberry bushes and it is fully irrigated and easy to maintain.

Sherry Baker

4

604.932.1315

3D Tour - rem.ax/1565khyber

#14 - 7400 Arbutus Street

$699,000

This Spacious 2.5 bedroom, 2 bathroom floor plan with single car garage is located in the sought after development of Woodbridge in Pemberton. Perfect for a growing family, and steps away from 2 schools, shopping, community center and public transportation. Mt. Currie views from the living areas and patio.

Ursula Morel*

2.5

604.932.8629

9329 Warbler Way

$5,649,998

604.905.8855

4.5

Ann Chiasson

Bruce Watt

604.932.7651

#6 - 4636 Blackcomb Way

Dave Sharpe

$95,000

2

604.902.2779

4

604.905.0737

SOLD OVER LIST!

Adjacent to the Fairmont Chateau golf course, this rarely available, 1/10th interest in an immaculate 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom townhome boasts a spacious open layout , heated slate floors in bathroom. A cozy wood burning fireplace, large master bedroom with sitting area, and plenty of secure parking are among the many amenities.

3D Tour - rem.ax/305fourseasons

638A - 2036 London Lane

$190,000

Enjoy views of skiers on the slopes from 638A Legends at Whistler Creek. A 590 sf, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom condo with vaulted ceilings in the living room. 1/4 share means 13 weeks of personal use or rental a year. Perfect for remote workers with a flexible schedule. 638A is on the top floor, right above the ski lockers where you can walk right onto the Creekside Gondola.

Denise Brown*

604.902.2033

1

SOLD

#305/306 - 4591 Blackcomb Way $1,550,000

#253 - 4340 Lorimer Road

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.

Right in the heart of the village Marketplace Lodge is conveniently located steps away from Fresh St market, the Olympic Plaza, the liquor store, and the village stroll taking you to all the shops, restaurants, and the mountain base. Cozy up and enjoy your gas fireplace from your window nook while taking in the views of Blackcomb and surrounding areas.

Doug Treleaven

Kristi McMillin

604.905.8626

$3,850,000

This One-Of-A-Kind Mountain Home is located in the exclusive Spring Creek residential neighborhood and shows off its quality with soaring vaulted ceilings accented with large heatsaving low e windows. The open floor plan and large deck invite you to enjoy a cozy feeling while entertaining or just relaxing at home.

3D Tour - rem.ax/6gleneagles

Enjoy a short stroll to Whistler Village for dinner and shopping from this desirable Whistler Cay Heights location. Gather around the outdoor fire or relax in your private hot tub. An excellent floor plan with 4 bedrooms, den, a spacious media and entertainment lower level and double garage.

Dave Beattie*

1565 Khyber Lane

Only 5 lots remain in this Estate Property Subdivision. Homes can be 4629 or 5920 SF plus 2150 SF Auxiliary Buildings allowed. 5 Minutes from Grocieries, Gas and Liquor Store. Best Value in town!

3D Tour - rem.ax/6252palmer

6252 Palmer Drive

$1,275,000

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

778.899.8992

$859,000

1

#301 - 4280 Mountain Square $2,500,000 Carleton Lodge – one of Whistler’s most iconic buildings – a small boutique condo. Located at the base of both Whistler/Blackcomb gondolas you can’t get any closer to ski-in/ski-out. Unit 301 is an end unit, 2 bed/2 bath facing the slope. This unit is in the absolute centre of it all.

Laura Barkman

604.905.8777

2

PEMBERTON OFFICE 1411 Portage Road, Pemberton, BC V0N 2L1 604.894.6616 or Toll Free 1.888.689.0070