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Letters To The Editor

Canada must reduce fossil fuels

Since I immigrated to Canada in 1988, I have lived in three different towns. All have experienced the effects of climate change first-hand: 1) Abbotsford—Devastating floods in 2021. 2) Whistler—had to remove Horstman T-Bar due to glacier melt in 2020. 3) Pemberton—suffered in 43 C temperatures in the heat dome of 2021.

The oil and gas sector is the largest and fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, so we can’t meet our critical climate targets without reducing these emissions.

We must begin to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels to meet the 2030 and 2050 climate targets necessary for a livable planet.

Canada continues to use taxpayers’ dollars to subsidize and finance the oil and gas sector despite its obscene profits—which have increased by 1,000 per cent in Canada since 2019. It’s up to all sectors of society to lower their emissions, especially the sectors that have the wealth to do their fair share.

Putting a cap on emissions from oil and gas will be a critical test for the federal government— and a defining moment for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s legacy on climate change.

Erich Baumann // Whistler

Second annual January for Jesse surpasses $10K for WSAR

The team at the Beacon Pub & Eatery would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended the second annual January for Jesse fundraiser on Jan. 9.

We are so grateful for all the generous donations to the silent auction from local businesses, and the turnout at the event was incredible! We surpassed last year’s fundraising effort by raising more than $10,000 for Whistler Search and Rescue. Throughout the month of January, Beacon patrons also contributed to a hefty bar tab for Whistler Blackcomb Ski Patrol as a way to say thanks for all the hard work they do on our mountains.

Jesse Van Roon was much loved by the Beacon staff, its regulars and many Whistler locals. He was a passionate snowboarder, and we felt that giving back to WSAR would honour his legacy.

January for Jesse brought out the best of our community, yet again. Thank you to everyone who supported the event, and we will see you again next year!

Frances de Montigny // Whistler

A simple solution to Highway 99 traffic congestion, revisited

Last month I suggested to our municipal council that they take action to provide two lanes for traffic coming to Whistler, and two lanes for departures, and this on weekends and perhaps holidays (“Letter: A simple solution for Highway 99 congestion in Whistler,” Pique, Jan. 3). I saw this as a temporary measure, and one to mitigate the increase in carbon output that results from traffic jams. While I have received many positive comments from other Whistlerites, I have had only one comment from a councillor, and that was in the vein of long-term rather than short-term solutions. I received no comments from any other councillors, nor have I heard of any action in the pipeline.

In the meantime, the last weekend saw the same traffic problem reoccurring. Most of the people caught in traffic are not voters in Whistler elections, but the greenhouse gases are being produced here. Council has to provide a response in order to keep their actions consistent with their words, and this suggestion, at least, is low cost, and should be somewhat effective. What is to lose? Vancouverites do it daily on the Lions Gate Bridge.

The long-term solution is probably two years off. In the meantime, if council wants Whistler voters to take climate action seriously then they must take a shot at reducing the carbon problem brought about by ignoring an unnecessary traffic jam, or take another approach.

Al Whitney // Whistler

[Editor’s note: Responsibility for maintenance and infrastructure improvements on Highway 99 ultimately lies with the provincial Ministry of Transportation.] n

Are Whistlerites angry for the wrong reasons?

I’M NOT NORMALLY one to rush to the defence of the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW). Call it a natural byproduct of the job: it’s a reporter’s role to speak truth to power, and in community news, that usually means pointing a critical eye at the local government. But even I had to scratch my head at the recent backlash against the RMOW’s draft plans to upgrade Rainbow Park.

BY BRANDON BARRETT

Let me start by saying, I am by no means a planner, so if you’re looking for an extensive breakdown of the design principles behind the muni’s proposed upgrades, you won’t find it here. That is not the argument I’m striving to make. I will acknowledge, however, that yes, it will suck to see more of Whistler’s coveted greenspace turned into pavement (and, as Pique columnist G.D. Maxwell detailed in his column on page 70, there is probably a better place to locate the paved path slated for the shoreline), and, of course, a months-long closure of the resort’s busiest park and main access point to Alta Lake is an inconvenience. But I would hazard a guess that any significant upgrade and associated park closure would have largely been met with opposition no matter what it was, because, well, that’s how not just Whistlerites tend to operate, but humanity at large.

We are creatures of habit, and, as a species, don’t have a great track record of responding well to major change. I happened across a news clip from the ’80s the other day that showed Americans reacting to the lowering of the legal blood-alcohol limit to drive. “They’re making laws where you can’t drink where you want to, you have to wear have become on the one hand, then criticize efforts meant to address it on the other. Residents will repeatedly beat the drum for more employee housing, until it’s slated to land in their backyard. The community calls for improved transit service coming out of the longest transit strike in B.C. history and then grab their torches the second the RMOW proposes to up parking rates to pay for it. Homeowners decry an 8.4-per-cent tax hike after years of minimal increases matter, Vail Resorts, another favourite local scapegoat), but treating our local government like some sort of shadowy cabal hell-bent on making your life harder because parking rates went up 50 cents is both patently absurd and completely misses the point. a seatbelt when you’re driving. Pretty soon we’re gonna be a communist country,” one woman interviewed said.

Affordability, housing, labour shortages, traffic, overtourism—you name it—are issues being contended with in resort communities across the globe. That’s not an excuse to ignore those challenges or give your local government a pass, but it is indicative of the wider systemic forces at play—complex, multilayered issues that often get lost in the instant reactionism that has come to infect our body politic.

Nowadays, this opinion would get you laughed out of the room, because that woman’s hot take, centred entirely around her experience, is divorced from the obvious intention behind the change: saving lives.

It’s a trend you can find numerous examples of in Whistler. Locals will complain about how overcrowded our parks and the municipality dipping into reserves. Whistlerites lament the direction their local government is taking and then stay home when the time comes to vote.

I’m all for holding the powers that be accountable—it is my job, after all—and if I’m being honest, Whistler would most definitely benefit from more civic engagement, not less. But sometimes it feels like we’re spinning our tires for the wrong reasons. There is a lot you can criticize the RMOW for (and, for that

And yet, for all my finger wagging, I get the impulse. We have just emerged from the depths of a pandemic without fully understanding the effects this trauma has and will continue to have into the future. We are getting pressed on all sides financially, with a recession looming, in one of the most expensive communities in the country. We process more information than any other generation in human history, bewildering our senses with endless stimuli and targeted ads, and then wonder why we feel the way we do at the end of the day. Amidst all that chaos, we yearn for someone or something to blame, and it’s easy to pin that on the usual scapegoats. But don’t let it distract you from the power structures undergirding our current reality.

To quote a famous New York Times headline: “It’s capitalism, stupid.” ■