A reporter investigates a family story about his grandfather’s legacy as a BC Hydro engineer. - By Will Johnson
06
OPENING REMARKS Like a persistent infection or a viral strain of bacteria, the scammers keep evolving, writes editor Braden Dupuis—so prospective renters must remain vigilant.
08 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR In this week’s letters, readers share feedback on the municipal budgeting process, and thanks for a successful Christmas party.
11 PIQUE’N YER INTEREST Would charging people to use social media reduce the amount of toxicity in cyberspace?
50 MAXED OUT This Christmas, give ‘til it hurts, writes G.D. Maxwell—and ironically you’ll feel better for it.
12 SLOW START As Whistler waits for more snow, visitors to the resort are spending less, while businessowners are seeing costs climb.
14 TAX TALK
Whistler’s mayor and council deferred a decision on the 2025 budget last week while discussing the best approach for tax increases.
32 HUSTLE UP Local basketball academy Hoop Reel rebrands as Hustle Basketball.
36 CREATIVE
CONNECTIONS
Free speaker series Coffee + Creatives brings local creative types together to foster community connections.
COVER My grandpa was about my age when he was an artillery captain in the Second World War. Unfortunately, I think this is also why he remained very quiet throughout his life and I didn’t really have much of a chance to know him. Thankfully he found gardening and shared that with me. The family tree never leans too far through the stories we both hear and discover on our own. - By Jon Parris // @jon.parris.art
Publisher SARAH STROTHER - sstrother@piquenewsmagazine.com
Founding Publishers KATHY & BOB BARNETT www.piquenewsmagazine.com
Evolution of the Whistler housing scam
WHISTLER HAS always been a tough place to find housing.
But since the dawn of the internet, renters are contending with more than just scarcity or high prices—now they have to deal with the absolute scumbags who think it’s fine to scam their fellow humans, often the desperate and vulnerable type, out of their earnings.
BY BRADEN DUPUIS
It used to be you could follow a few general rules to avoid being scammed: make sure you can view the listing in-person, and preferably get the keys, before handing over any money. And if it looks too good to be true, it usually is.
But like a persistent infection or a viral strain of bacteria, the lowlifes and scammers keep evolving, and renters in Whistler now have to be even more careful when seeking out permanent shelter.
Take it from local chef Hegel James, who told Pique last week about a near-miss scam involving a rental property he viewed, in-person, in Bayshores.
James said the landlord was willing to turn over the key right then and there—just as soon as he paid up. But when he asked to try the key first, it didn’t work.
So now it is entirely possible to fall victim to a housing scam in Whistler, even if you’re viewing in-person first.
Pique’s archives are replete with stories about online housing scams, which tend to follow a similar pattern: a place is listed online as available, with a real address and photos attached, and often even a legitimate-looking rental application form.
But inevitably, the scammers have some excuse for why they can’t meet in person, and request money up front.
There’s the classic “I’m on a Christian
mission but you can wire the money to my wife,” which was common in the lead-up to the Olympics.
Once people started to get wise to that yarn, the scammers adopted a new tactic, targeting housing seekers directly via their personal Craigslist ads.
In some cases, the scammers weren’t even after money, but something more, er, disgusting? Perverted? Sexually abusive?
“So someone contacted me through Craigslist saying they had a room in Whis village and would I like to FaceTime to talk about it?” one woman posted to the Whistler Winter Facebook group in December 2016.
Of course she did—a good portion of the town’s workforce was in need of a bed for the winter.
But when the video call connected, the woman was met by a man vigorously masturbating on camera.
“Sick (f#*&),” she said. “I’ve been searching for housing for three months now to no avail.”
Another man, in 2018, also got a response to his Kijiji post looking for housing. After a
me that I was being a little bit rash and made a mistake,” he told Pique. “For every doubt I expressed, there was a somewhat reasonable explanation from their side.”
There are often common themes: a “landlord” who is out of country for some reason; requesting unusual forms of payment like gift cards or crypto; rates out of line with the current market; unusual sob stories; pressuring the prospective renter to do the deal.
Absolute scum of the Earth, every last one of them. Preying on desperate and vulnerable people, using what should be a human right for their own financial gain.
It hasn’t always been this way, of course. It was much harder to scam someone before the internet. But people (on both sides of the keys) have always had to watch their wallets in Whistler when it comes to housing.
Whistler Councillor Cathy Jewett recalled her first winter in the resort in 1976, when “we had to pay all our rent in advance—six months worth. Then the mountain closed in January,” she said (ouch).
According to the Whistler RCMP, there has been an increase in the number of reported scams this year compared to last.
“We see a variety of frauds/scams being reported in Whistler, including short-term and long-term rentals/housing, romance fraud, crypto investment scams, and Canada Revenue Agency fraud (to name a few),” Sea to Sky RCMP Cpl. Katrina Boehmer wrote in an email to Pique.
To avoid falling victim to rental scams, Boehmer recommended avoiding cash payments; asking the landlord for proper ID; ensuring a tenancy agreement is in place, signed by both parties, before paying up; verifying the listed address is accurate in-person; consulting a friend or family member for their thoughts on the ad in question; or, if you’re trying to secure housing from abroad, asking your employer what they know about the unit/address in question.
Some red flags to watch out for: being asked for payment without an agreement in place; lower-than-average rental rates; a landlord who won’t meet in person, or who
It used to be you could follow a few general rules to avoid being scammed: make sure you can view the listing in-person, and preferably get the keys, before handing over any money.
long conversation and even a (presumably non-sexual) video call, he ended up sending about $2,400 in Visa gift cards to a guy calling himself “Frank.”
Frank was manipulative, and had an answer for every misgiving the man conveyed.
“They played it out in a way that this was all a misunderstanding from my side, and after talking to this guy, about 50 times over the day, writing messages, he kind of convinced
Thisbrightupgradedone-bedroom townhome isaquintessential Whistlerproper ty! Withitsprimelocationin Creekside,skiersand bikerswilllove the two-minute walk to access thegondola,whileashortstrollwillput you infrontofthebustlingshopsand restaurants Creeksidehas to offer. Thenewwindows offer plenty ofnaturallightandsouthwestmountain viewsintheopen-conceptmainlivingareas. Unlimited ownerusewithnightly rentaloption Asking-$799,000 2-2150 Sarajevo Drive
“Getting soaked was up front—preinternet. No online ads, everything was in person. I don’t recall any scams.”
And of course, homeowners have to be wary, too—Jewett said as a landlord she “got hosed twice by people moving out while I was away.”
So it goes both ways, and finding, or providing, housing in Whistler clearly comes with risk attached.
does not require credit or reference checks; or landlord names that don’t match the documents you’re asked to sign.
You can learn more about common frauds at antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca, and fraud victims are encouraged to contact the Sea to Sky Whistler RCMP at 604-932-3044.
The scammers won’t quit, and will only keep evolving.
Stay vigilant. n
They are midway between the sun and the moon (detail), 2020, acrylic, cold wax, sand, cut canvas and pastel on wood panel, canvas, raw silk, and cotton Purchased with funds from the Audain Art Museum Acquisition Fund
Civics 101
A shame Pique wasn’t able to attend in person one of the best council meetings I’ve been to in 30-plus years on Tuesday night, Dec. 3... next time?
With three members of the public in the house, (yeah, good for me) staff gave a detailed and riveting info package—”2025 Budget Guidelines Report, 24-106”—to council and public. The catchphrase for the evening: “smoothing tax rises over time.” (see related story on page 14.)
Regardless of how you may have followed or participated in the 2025 and five-year budget process this fall, or where you stand on the proposed increases, the council meeting on Dec. 3 hit a home run! The presentation was informative, professional, comprehensive, digestible, timely and “must-hear” number crunching. Lots of numbers, many “what ifs” and too many uses of the worry over “unknownunknowns” to count. At the end of the day, the big numbers: 9.1 per cent for 2025 and 7.7 per cent-plus each year for the following four.
There were hard questions that followed from councillors, several statements of unease and discomfort for the increases with easy-tofollow rejoinders from finance and the entire table of senior staff lined up—the “A Team” was on deck and put to work all night.
Amendments were suggested followed by some amusing confusions on protocols
“I encourage Whistlerites who care to go online and watch the debate...”
- BRIAN BUCHHOLZ
which required a lengthy adjournment for procedural manners on the question of, I’ll say, “deferral”—which saw a wrap on the knuckles from the mayor to councillors who were seen
recklessly mingling...
While I disagree with lots of what was said and some of the comments and conclusions drawn, stances taken and
rationales proffered, at the end of the day it was a world-class exercise in the democratic process. The passion, concern and angst shared by councillors and staff alike in debating the increase and use of our tax dollars was inspiring and of some comfort. I encourage Whistlerites who care to go online and watch the debate and reach out to councillors with their thoughts (they definitely want to hear) and then drop by council on Dec. 17 when the matter is brought back.
Brian Buchholz // Whistler
Mature Action Community says thanks Whistler’s Mature Action Community (MAC) 55-plus group sold out its annual Christmas Dinner Dance on Dec. 5, and raised more than $750 along with two bins of non-perishable food items for the Whistler Food Bank. It may not have been a wintry night, but spirits were high and the Whistler Racket Club (WRC) staff made sure we had a wonderful evening with a lovely turkey buffet and dancing until the later hours of the evening.
Thanks to the WRC for hosting us, and to the other community partners who have supported this event, and our other events throughout the year: Creekside Market, Fresh St. Market, Sewak’s Independent Grocer, Profile Ski and Snowboard Services, Coastal Culture Sports, Lifemark Physiotherapy, Tim Hortons, Kathy White Realtor, Blenz Coffee, Nesters Market, the Alpine Café, Our Lady of the
1bdrmquartershareattheLegends,
Mountains Catholic Church and the Resort Municipality of Whistler.
MAC, a non-profit, volunteer-run organization, is committed to engaging and advocating for Whistler seniors, 55 and older, to ensure we can all age in the community we all love to call home. We welcome new members to register at whistlermac.org or email us at info@whistlermac.org to learn more about our fun social and educational events, community engagement and much more.
Iain Grunwell and Charalyn Kriz // MAC Social Committee n
“It may not have been a wintry night, but spirits were high...”
- IAIN GRUNWELL
AND
CHARALYN KRIZ
Backcountry Update
AS OF WEDNESDAY, DEC. 11
Earlier this week, people enjoyed 20 to 40 centimetres of dry snow that settled on a firm and supportive crust up to 1,800 metres, and a thin, supportive crust above 2,000m. However, unseasonably warm alpine temperatures arrived, bringing an above-freezing layer that brought 4 C temperatures to treeline and alpine elevations. This warm spell destabilized the recent snow and accelerated settlement in the snowpack. Small, wet loose avalanches were observed, particularly on steep, sun-exposed slopes. Additional signs of instability such as tree bombs, pinwheels, and moist, spring-like snow surfaces were prevalent.
As a strong, Pacific frontal system moves into the region, the weekend weather is set to change once again. Forecasters are expecting another storm as Ullr sends 20 to 50 cm of snow to the Sea to Sky corridor. Initially, the new snow is likely to bond poorly to the plethora
of underlying surfaces, including surface hoar in wind- and sun-sheltered terrain, and crusts on south-facing slopes. In the alpine, the combination of fresh snow and strong southwest winds is expected to form deeper slabs. Storm slab avalanches will be the primary problem, and you can anticipate an increase in avalanche danger as the storm progresses. The best way to stay in tune with the avalanche danger and conditions is to read the avalanche forecast. They are published every afternoon at avalanche.ca and updated in the morning when conditions warrant it.
Patience is key. The storm snow will need a few days to settle and stabilize. If the weather forecast holds and Ullr delivers the snow amounts suggested above, it’s advisable to avoid avalanche terrain and overhead slopes altogether. You can still find good riding in simple terrain or hit up the ski hill for some storm riding with your friends. n
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/mountain-info/ snow-report#backcountry or go to www.avalanche.ca.
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. Send them to edit@ piquenewsmagazine.com before 11 a.m. on Tuesday for consideration in that week’s paper.
•Short stroll to BlackcombGondolaandWhistlerVillage
We should have to pay to use social media
I KNOW what some of you might be thinking right now. “Seriously, dude? The last thing we need are more paid subscriptions!”
BY DAVID SONG
dsong@piquenewsmagazine.com
Others could have read my headline and said: “We don’t want to make the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk any richer.” Understandable.
Still others might be asserting: “I hate this idea. Freedom of expression is important!” Yes, however: freedom of expression does not and should not translate to freedom from consequences. Today’s social media platforms provide hordes of ignorant, nefarious and two-faced individuals with the latter.
Consider all the trolls hiding behind anonymous burner accounts as they sling vitriol at underperforming athletes, specific visible minorities and/or their own classmates. Now think about the duplicitous influencers who warp facts to drive their own agendas. Don’t forget criminals who scam innocent people or those who fill the internet with garbage-proliferating bots.
Should these bottom-feeders be allowed to commit their reprehensible deeds free of
charge? I, for one, don’t think so, and that’s why we ought to look at the potential upside of mandating user fees.
The idea of paying to use social media isn’t unheard of. Snapchat, X (formerly Twitter) and Meta (i.e. both Facebook and Instagram) have all rolled out some kind of fee-based tier within the last two years. Out of this group, Snapchat Plus is the cheapest option at US$3.99 per month, while Meta Verified costs $11.99 to $14.99 monthly depending on whether you subscribe from the web or the app.
In any case, Harvard Business Review ran a survey in 2023 to find that, on a scale from one to 10, average user expectations for the quality of these paid platforms land around 7.25 to 7.38. Perhaps the concept isn’t repulsive to all, though it definitely has detractors.
Regardless, the internet has been like the Wild West for decades. That’s bad.
The Pew Research Center reports that 46 per cent of American youth aged 13 to 17 have experienced cyberbullying in one or more of these forms: offensive name-calling, propagation of false rumours, receiving
adults who (contrary to popular belief) can also be deeply hurt by targeted online hostility. Social media is a key weapon used in these attacks because it is far too easily accessed.
Requiring all users to have credit cards on file would drastically lower the number of kids on these platforms without parental consent. It would also lower the financial incentive to run spam bots and introduce a much-needed hurdle to folks who may otherwise spew thoughtless and misleading rhetoric online.
Even if we table the most heinous uses of social media for now, we should realize they’re not consumer-friendly or healthy. Our feeds are full of intrusive ads and algorithmic drivel from pages we do not and would not follow. Subscription fees could (in theory) get companies to back off these trends and deliver a cleaner, more personalized experience.
These services have been marketed with the ostensible purpose of reducing misinformation and identity theft. Zuckerberg, for example, describes Meta Verified as “a subscription service that lets you verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support.” It’s a vital goal to strive for—though we’d be foolish to regard tech corporations as altruistic.
unsolicited explicit images, constantly being asked their whereabouts and behaviour by someone other than a parent/guardian, physical threats, and having explicit images of themselves non-consensually distributed.
Moreover, the RCMP discovered that 31 per cent of Canadian teens admitted to being cyberbullied and that most victims know their tormentors.
These are some of society’s more vulnerable members, to say nothing of the
Having said all that, I don’t intend to convey some form of moral panic when it comes to social media. It’s a tool, and like any tool it may be used productively or destructively.
I myself appreciate Facebook and Instagram because they let me talk to friends and keep up with my interests (like pro sports). Yet I would, to a reasonable extent, consider paying a fee to use these services if it meant mitigating the amount of toxicity in cyberspace. n
Visitors to Whistler spending less, as business owners see costs climb
‘PRETTY SOON THIS WHOLE TOWN WILL JUST BECOME ONE BIG CHAIN BECAUSE A GUY LIKE ME CAN BARELY HANG ON,’ SAYS BAR OWNER
BY BRANDON BARRETT
WHEN JEREMY “STINKY” Peterson opened his own sports bar, Stinky’s on the Stroll, in 2019, he saw it as a love letter to his hometown. Five years later, and the love affair may be coming to an untimely end.
“I don’t want to say that I’m leaving, but it is time to start realizing maybe it is time to go somewhere else,” Peterson said. “It just tells you that independent businessmen like myself can’t make it in Whistler.”
Facing sky-high rent in a prime piece of Whistler Village real estate, Peterson is considering selling the pub that was named locals’ favourite hangout four of the past five years in Pique’s Best of Whistler poll.
The primary factor, Peterson said, is the escalating rental rate squeezing his margins.
When he first opened, he said he was paying $65 a square foot to rent the space. Today, Peterson pays $110, amounting to roughly $15,000 a month in rent. Under a new deal proposed by his landlord, that rate would move to $125/sq. ft. in Year 1, $135 in Years 2 and 3, and $145 in Years 4 and 5.
“I’ve raised my prices, but I can’t justify it to myself that I’m going to have to start
charging you $10, $12 for a bottle of beer,” Peterson said.
Peterson’s decision on the future of the pub comes on the heels of what he called the worst shoulder season he has seen since the pandemic, a period that appears to have hit Whistler’s restaurant sector especially hard.
“The fall has been the worst for us, and everyone else is saying it might be the worst one yet [since COVID-19],” said Eric Griffith, co-owner of Alta Bistro and president of the Restaurant Association of Whistler. “You’re getting pushed into this situation where you’re just covering your business because it’s not profitable at all right now. We’re looking at Christmas to save us.”
Despite strong snowfall to start the season, “the current business environment is very challenging for entrepreneurs, especially small, locally owned businesses,” said Louise Walker, executive director of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce.
“We hear variable feedback on the outlook for this winter and there is some concern for local businesses successfully making it through a soft winter. The costs that businesses face are continuously escalating, with labour, supplies, rent, property tax and more. The costs have all built up, and at the same time, with the current cost-of-living challenges, we can’t keep raising prices for the consumer to absorb. We need to find ways to lower the cost of doing business, which is likely a combination of government policies and commitment to economic development
at all levels of government.”
In a recent chamber survey, fewer businesses in 2024 feel they are in a very good or good place compared to last year. More than 80 per cent of respondents expect the cost and ease of doing business in Whistler will get worse over the next four years, a significant increase since 2023. There is also increasing concern over local businesses closing due to rising costs.
Looking back to the summer, Tourism Whistler said room night bookings were down three per cent in May compared to the same month last year; June was down six per cent; July was flat; and August was up three per cent. September bookings were up nine per cent, bolstered by visiting conference groups, while October was flat with last year.
“All of that netted out to be approximately flat [over that six-month period],” said Tourism Whistler president and CEO Barrett Fisher. “We’re still by no means surpassing 2019 levels, but it’s overall a strong year.”
While the visitors are still coming, costconscious consumers aren’t opening their wallets the way they used to, said Fisher, which is impacting Whistler’s restaurant, retail and activity sectors particularly.
“Maybe three years ago or pre-pandemic, you might see visitors coming and they are purchasing an appetizer and a bottle of wine, and now maybe they’re passing on the appetizer and having a glass of wine,” Fisher added. “We are definitely seeing different expenditures in different sectors.”
Looking ahead to the winter, a time
resort business owners count on to cover the shoulder seasons, Fisher said room night bookings are pacing “a little on the softer side compared to last year.” Part of that is likely the lingering effect of last year’s poor snow season, particularly with Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass giving guests the option to book their ski vacation at one of its more than 40 resorts based on where the snow is.
“We need snow. We need big-time, headline-making snow and we need that shorter-haul U.S. domestic visitor— whoever—to come up and get skiing. We need this place to get filled up with the late decision-maker,” said Griffith. “I don’t know if that’s exactly what’s happening here but definitely people are making decisions later now than they were.”
While Fisher acknowledged Tourism Whistler has seen some softening in key overseas markets such as the U.K. and Australia, there is strong demand from American and Mexican visitors whose currency compares favourably to the Canadian dollar.
As for Peterson and the future of his beloved bar, he’s not quite ready to throw in the towel on a passion project he has poured considerable resources and sweat equity into.
“Part of me wants to try to keep Stinky’s alive and maybe move it somewhere else in town. But where? I’m tired. I bust my balls. I work my ass off,” he said. “Pretty soon this whole town will just become one big chain because a guy like me can barely hang on.”
After landmark year, Whistler Valley Housing Society looks to upgrade Creekside building
THE SOCIETY’S ORIGINAL, 40-YEAR-OLD COMPLEX ON SARAJEVO DRIVE IN NEED OF ROOF, WINDOW IMPROVEMENTS
BY BRANDON BARRETT
AFTER A LANDMARK YEAR that saw the Whistler Valley Housing Society (WVHS) open its first rental building since 1984, the rejuvenated non-profit is turning its sights to the complex that started it all.
The society held its annual general meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 10, offering a snapshot of a non-profit that, after opening The Nest this summer, a new rental building in Cheakamus Crossing, now looks to upgrade its 40-year-old complex at 2178 Sarajevo Drive.
Renamed Watson Court in honour of former WVHS executive director Garry Watson, who died last year, the aging, 20-unit complex is in need of costly repairs.
“Really, the focus is the bones of the building,” said WVHS board member John Elliott. “We’re really looking to, if possible, get to the roof, and as some tenants have mentioned, windows are also a big issue. If I can say there’s one area of focus, it would be those two items.”
The society estimated the cost of roof upgrades at approximately $700,000, while window upgrades would cost about $5,000 in each necessary unit, hefty price tags for a nonprofit with little financial wiggle room.
“We want to improve the building—and we don’t have a treasure chest for that,” said board chair and local Councillor Cathy Jewett. “We want to look at that building as a whole and make it a comfortable place for people to live.”
One Watson Court tenant who tuned into the AGM via Zoom expressed concern on behalf of several tenants who wanted more information on the process of selecting new occupants for the complex after a three-bedroom unit turned over earlier this year. Watson Court is managed by Mountain Country Property Management, which would typically handle tenancy, and the unit was also posted online. Watson Court tenants must meet the Whistler
Housing Authority’s eligibility as a local worker to be considered.
Jewett said part of the quick turnaround was because the society can’t afford a vacancy given its financial situation. “We’re trying to do something to keep our revenue flowing in because we’ve got some big payments to make,” she said.
Watson Court tenants currently pay about $1.70 a square foot in rent, compared to $3.50 for social service workers and $4 for essential workers at The Nest, said treasurer Greg Newton, who added rents are likely to go up at the Sarajevo Drive building when new tenants come in after the planned upgrades.
“I don’t think we expect to get up to the $3.50 that we’ve got at The Nest, but given the longevity and rent controls, it’s certainly lower than what we would like given the costs we’ve incurred as far as taxes and insurance,” Newton said.
For the fiscal period ending Sept. 30, the WVHS counted just over $19 million in assets and more than $16 million in long-term debt. It currently has $1.88 million in net assets. Tuesday’s AGM also offered insights into the makeup of The Nest, which opened in July as Whistler’s first-ever rental building allocating a portion of its 30 units based on social need. Ten units are allocated to local social service agency clients, two units to former Watson Court tenants that were overhoused, seven applicants from the WHA rental waitlist, and 11 units to essential service workers. Of those 11 units, the society said four are filled by daycare teachers, three by public safety workers and police, three by medical professionals, and two to workers from local social service providers.
“You can see there’s a really broad range of professions there and a diverse mix of tenants, which really does speak to our mission of providing housing for the diverse needs of the community to ensure that nobody’s left behind,” said board member Marco Zunino. n
IN REPAIR The renamed Watson Court at 2178 Sarajevo Drive is in need of costly repairs to its roof and windows, says the Whistler Valley Housing Society.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WVHS
Whistler council defers decision on property tax increase
COUNCIL ASKS STAFF TO REPORT BACK ON 8.1% HIKE, INSTEAD OF PROPOSED 9.1%
BY BRANDON BARRETT
A DECISION on Whistler’s 2025 budget and a proposed 9.1-per-cent tax hike was deferred this week, as elected officials wrestle with how to pay for several looming costs facing the municipality without creating undue sticker shock for the public.
At the regular meeting of council on Tuesday, Dec. 3, mayor and council heard a presentation from Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) staff on next year’s budget guidelines. Ultimately, staff landed on a proposed 9.1-per-cent increase to property taxes; an eight-per-cent increase to sewer parcel taxes and user fees; a five-percent increase to solid waste parcel taxes and user fees; and a four-per-cent increase to water parcel taxes and fees.
Following the presentation, officials debated the prospect of implementing a property tax hike nearly a full point higher than last year’s 8.18-per-cent increase, which itself followed an 8.4-per-cent hike the year prior, at a time when many Whistlerites are having to tighten the purse strings.
“I don’t want to see an increase [of] more than what we had last year,” said Councillor Jessie Morden. “This is a huge hit to homeowners who are seeing increases across the board with everything—homeowners and businessowners.”
Morden introduced an amendment asking staff to come back at the next council meeting with insights into how an 8.1-per-cent tax rate would impact next year’s budget, as well as the fiveyear financial plan stretching to 2029.
The RMOW, like municipalities across the province, is contending with its own rising costs. As Whistler’s population has grown and its demand for services along with it, there hasn’t been a corresponding growth in new properties to add to its tax base. Construction costs have skyrocketed. The resort’s aging infrastructure is in need of upgrade.
Compounding these financial pressures are declining non-tax revenues—namely from parking and the Municipal and Regional District Tax, which is based on hotel stays—as Whistler continues to see lagging tourism numbers. It’s also partly why RMOW staff have “focused internally on saving, shifting or redeploying, not expanding and, wherever possible, we kept non-payroll operating costs level with 2024,” explained CAO Ginny Cullen.
Given these economic realities, staff recommended taking a “smoothing approach” to its five-year budgetary outlook, with a view towards keeping property tax hikes relatively consistent over the next half decade, while also increasing contributions to reserves. In order to generate the $24 million in additional funds the municipality requires between 202529, staff proposed tax increases of 7.7 per cent
each year from 2026 to ’29, along with the 9.1 per cent floated for 2025. The rates floated for 2026 and beyond are not written in stone and are likely to be higher than 7.7 per cent when all is said and done, given they don’t account for any new additional municipal services.
“To imagine that no new services will be introduced over this period feels a bit unlikely, and so we’ve created space within this approach for those new services to come in and still achieve smooth increases across the planning horizon,” said municipal CFO Carlee Price. “Large increases in Year 1 allows room for additional increases in subsequent years.”
The other avenue staff laid out, but ultimately did not recommend, was a “payas-you-go” approach that would see tax rates fluctuate widely year over year, with proposed increases of 5.8 per cent in 2025 and 7.6 per cent in 2026, before spiking to 13 per cent in 2027, followed by 7.4 per cent in 2028, and 6.3 per cent in 2029.
“Part of the challenge here is we’re looking at economic realities that are real, so we are going to have to deal with them at some point, and whether we deal with them now or later, I think we will all have a tough time going to the community in 2027, saying, ‘We got a [smaller] increase in 2025, but we have a 16-per-cent tax increase for you in 2027,’” said Mayor Jack Crompton of the pay-as-you-go model. “That
could very well be a reality we end up with if we can’t do this now.”
Particularly given the state of the RMOW’s dwindling reserves, more than one official expressed support for the “smoothed” budget, even with its potential 9.1-per-cent tax hike.
“The five years that we’re phasing here, even at 7.7 per cent [proposed for 2026 to ’29] is not really addressing a shortcoming,” said Coun. Jeff Murl, referring to the need to increase reserve contributions. “I don’t think 9.1 is comfortable, but I also know that the variables coming our way, and the unknowns, will certainly make that higher. So, trying to be accurate in this first year is important, but looking across the whole spectrum [of the five-year financial plan] is important, too.”
In Whistler, one of the priciest communities in the country where the public enjoyed a three-year tax freeze between 2012 and 2014, sensitivity to any rate hike is especially high.
“Let’s understand the political realities of this. If you don’t care about winning another election—personally, I don’t, really, so I’ll defend the 9.1 if you want to go for that, but no one’s going to care when I’m out the door,” said Coun. Ralph Forsyth.
Whistler council’s next meeting is Tuesday, Dec. 17, the last meeting of the year. Find the full version of this story at piquenewsmagazine.com. n
Topless protesters disrupt Whistler Film Festival
AN ORGANIZER FOR WFF SAID SHE WISHED THE PROTESTERS WOULD HAVE USED THE FILM FESTIVAL AS AN AVENUE FOR DIALOGUE INSTEAD OF DISRUPTION
BY LIZ MCDONALD
ATTENDEES OF THE Whistler Film Festival’s (WFF) opening night were expecting to watch The Last Showgirl, but before the film started, they received a different kind of show.
During opening remarks Dec. 4 at the Rainbow Theatre, three protesters connected to Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Off Screen took the stage, two of them topless, holding a banner protesting RBC’s sponsorship of the festival. According to attendees and one of the protesters, they proceeded to talk about concerns around RBC’s involvement in fossil fuel expansion, violation of Indigenous land rights, funding of weapons manufacturing and co-opting filmmakers’ work.
Ever Andra Vuxtafarkash, (given name Casey Hatherly), was one of the three activists who often uses her body to draw attention to causes. She spoke with Pique after the protest, and said their goal wasn’t to disrupt the film.
“We got ourselves all dolled up for The Last Showgirl’s premiere. We covered our areolas, so we are not exposing anyone. We had slogans written on our bodies about what RBC has been getting away with and their atrocities against our planet,” she said. “We did not disrupt anybody’s film. We were not there to disrupt the arts. We were there to disrupt CEOs.”
They were onstage for about 15 minutes and called on WFF to stop receiving funding from RBC.
Organizers asked them to leave, and eventually they dispersed when the Whistler RCMP escorted them off-stage.
Cpl. Katrina Boehmer, Whistler RCMP media relations officer, said in an email no further action was required by police as the trio was cooperative.
Angela Heck, executive director for WFF, said she would have appreciated if demonstrators reached out about their concerns around RBC’s sponsorship before protesting on opening night.
“They have the right to protest, and a film festival is a place where you have those conversations,” Heck said. “We’re here to spark conversations, but it does need to be, from my perspective, a deliberate dialogue. So, the form that [the protest] took, they made an impact, but it’s also an impact that is really disproportionate on us as a non-profit charity.”
RBC did not respond to a request for comment, but in response to previous protests from RBC Off Screen, RBC spokesperson Stephanie Bannan said more action is needed on climate change and the company welcomes the chance to discuss the issues with Indigenous groups and the film community.
“When it comes to climate change, we strongly believe that more action and at a faster pace is needed to address it. We are
PHOTO BY ALISON TAYLOR
actively engaging with our clients and partners to identify opportunities to do more in delivering on shared objectives,” Bannan told the Canadian Press in 2023.
“We are also working to engage with Indigenous communities in collectively advancing reconciliation. We appreciate the concern for our climate expressed by members of the film community and would welcome the chance for dialogue.”
WFF’s 2024 roster included 118 films, which rangeed from comedies to social justice documentaries, offering diverse perspectives with intentional opportunities for dialogue. Despite creating forums for discourse, arts and culture events have been the focus of various protest actions in recent years, from the Giller Prize to Toronto International Film Festival and The Junos.
The Junos protest also included a topless revolt by Vuxtafarkash. She said she chooses to expose herself when protesting for clicks, de-escalation and empowerment.
“People are far more likely to click on something that says topless protester opposed to environmental activists,” Vuxtafarkash said. “Another reason is that in my experience in conflict issues, people are very disarmed by bare breasts… I really do think that we all have the power to stand up. You don’t have to bear your breasts to have that power. But I feel very empowered when I use my body.”
Alison Taylor attended the screening. Before the show started, someone handed her a card with details about RBC, which she didn’t think much of at the time.
“The essential message they were trying to get across was that they were not happy with RBC being a sponsor of the film fest … and then people in the audience started kind of shouting at them, ‘get off stage,’” Taylor said.
From Taylor’s perspective, the demonstration had no impact on her evening, but she thinks the stir certainly got people talking.
“Protests are part of democratic society. And in some ways, they got their message across, because people are talking about it now.” n
AIRING GRIEVANCES Protesters disrupted opening night at the Whistler Film Festival Dec. 4.
More illegal brush-cutting near Green Lake sign of ‘entitlement’
RMOW SAYS ITS BYLAW AND ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP TEAMS ‘REGROUPING’ AFTER LATEST DAMAGE TO SENSITIVE SHOREBIRD HABITAT
BY BRANDON BARRETT
THE RESORT MUNICIPALITY of Whistler (RMOW) is once again looking into unauthorized brush cutting in a sensitive riparian zone near Green Lake, the latest instance of citizens flouting local environmental protections in an area that provides vital habitat to wildlife.
Last month, resident and Whistler Naturalists member Maeve Jones was walking from the Nicklaus North Golf Course towards Alpine Meadows when she noticed a large swath of trees and brush cut by a home at the end of the Green Lake boardwalk.
“It looks as though a homeowner was trimming the tall growth to improve their view across the lake. You’ll see in photos where the trimming ends, in front of the next house’s view. They also trimmed the brush on the opposite side of the Valley Trail, right at the edge of the lake,” Jones wrote in an email to the RMOW’s stewardship team.
Green Lake is a hub of biodiversity. The lake and its surrounding wetland are, at various times of year, home to more than 200 bird species, not to mention the many other wildlife that frequent the glacial-fed waterway. Shorebirds such as the killdeer, the spotted sandpiper and the America pipit build nests in shoreline surrounding the
lake, while other birds use the same area for breeding or as a crucial stopover on their long migratory journeys.
Jones doesn’t believe the recent trimming was done without knowledge of the area’s ecological importance. Photos she took and shared with Pique appear to show a sign erected by the RMOW in the wake of the last reported instance of brush cutting uprooted and tossed to the ground.
“It was absolutely deliberate. It’s uniform. I want to say it’s someone’s entire yard,” Jones said. “It speaks to this paradox that we love the environment so much and have such a special view that we’re going to mow down a really important piece of that environment to preserve that view.”
In a statement, the RMOW said it was
aware of the recent cutting and has hung door hangers at properties nearby requesting any information the public may have.
The challenge, as it has been the past several years when similar incidents have been reported, comes down to enforcement.
“We do have a bylaw option to issue a fine, however enforcement is challenging without strong evidence,” the RMOW statement went on.
Green Lake’s shoreline-adjacent areas are divided into municipal parkland, where any vegetation cut without permission could result in a bylaw fine, while the area owned by the Nicklaus North Golf Course is subject to development-permit guidelines that, through provincial legislation and covenants, would add further protections. The RMOW said it has also reported the issue to B.C.’s Ministry
of Land, Water, and Resource Stewardship to assist with enforcement.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time vegetation has been cut in this area,” the municipality said. “Our bylaw and environmental stewardship teams are regrouping to come up with some options to avoid future issues in this area.”
Brush-cutting in shoreline areas, as well as members of the public failing to heed fencing and signage around the small, sandy delta known as the “Fitz fan” at the southeast end of Green Lake—one of only two remaining sandy deltas in Whistler, providing vital habitat to dozens of bird species—has been a persistent issue over the past several years.
Councillor Cathy Jewett, who has toured the site of previous unauthorized brush cutting, believes the issue can be boiled down to entitlement. “God, I hate to say it, but I think it’s entitlement by the people cutting it, that they feel they are able to alter that piece of habitat,” she said.
A contributing factor is the overlapping jurisdictional powers at play. Waterways are federal jurisdiction, while the province owns nearly all freshwater and saltwater foreshore. Land adjacent to foreshore can be privately owned.
“It’s like the barges thing; we can’t touch
CONTROVERSIAL CUT A view of the unauthorized brush cutting observed near Green Lake last month.
PHOTO BY MAEVE JONES
Unifor rally for fair wages homes in on Whistler hotel workers
UNION SAYS LOCAL WAGES LAG BEHIND MANY HOTEL STAFF IN VANCOUVER, VICTORIA
BY BRANDON BARRETT
CANADA’S LARGEST private sector union was in Whistler last week, rallying local workers as three resort hotels get set to enter collective bargaining.
Members from Unifor joined local workers on Saturday, Nov. 30 for the Whistler Rally for Fair Wages, which set off from the conference centre down the Village Stroll, stopping at several member hotels along the way.
Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s western regional director, said the rally was organized to support local hotel staff as they bargain for a new contract. Unifor Local 3000 members at Blackcomb Springs Suites, Tantalus Lodge,
and Mountainside Lodge are currently in the bargaining process or will be soon.
“We’re reaching out to all hotel workers,” McGarrigle said. “The purpose of the rally is to send a message that the entire union is behind them as they enter bargaining, and that more and more workers are joining unions, demanding fair pay.”
Unifor has pushed for higher wages at Whistler hotels, particularly given the escalating cost of living in the Sea to Sky.
“What we are seeing is hotel owners in Whistler not wanting to pay the appropriate wages we’ve seen hotel workers demand across B.C. and across the country. Hotel workers were some of the worst-treated workers in the pandemic, some of the first to be laid off, and some of the last to be
ILLEGAL BRUSH-CUTTING FROM PAGE 16
them unless they’re touching the shore,” said Jewett, referring to the illegal docks and barges on Whistler’s lakes the RMOW has been trying to bring into compliance in recent years. With gaps in enforcement and education proving ineffective, Jones suggested taking a page out of an Australian playbook. In September, Lane Cove council erected a large, red banner blocking homes’ prized views of Sydney Harbour after nearly 300 trees were
cut down last year on the foreshore. The double-sided sign, spanning seven metres, read in part: “Trees shouldn’t die for a view.”
“It could incentivize witnesses to selfmonitor, neighbours might be more likely to ask their neighbours not to do that … and it could spark a conversation in the neighbourhood or strata,” Jones said. “Having a culture of a neighbourhood deciding not to do this is really the ideal outcome.” n
recalled,” noted McGarrigle. “As we start another busy ski season, as prices go up and housing challenges get worse, it’s high time to pay these workers what they want.”
Wages at Whistler hotels have lagged behind their counterparts in Vancouver and Victoria, McGarrigle said. Since August 2023, Unifor has negotiated wage increases of 25 per cent over three years at Vancouver’s Residence Inn, 19.5 per cent at Hotel Grand Pacific, and 18 per cent at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.
Adding to the precarity for many Whistler hotel staff is how often employment is tied to housing in one of the tightest rental markets in the country.
“Unfortunately, we had some veiled threats from hotel employers that if these workers choose to take any job action, they will threaten their housing,” McGarrigle claimed. “We’ve seen this tactic before, and our national president Lana Payne was on the ground with the entire Unifor national leadership there and was very clear in her remarks that Unifor would not stand any threat to Whistler hotel workers over their housing situation.”
A recent report by the Whistler Multicultural Society found that temporary foreign workers are especially prone to housing insecurity. Compiled from 70 interviews with current and former temporary foreign workers in Whistler, 65 per cent said accommodations promised by their employer
were either not provided or below the expected standard. Forty per cent of respondents said their housing situation changed unexpectedly within the first few months of their contract.
A representative for the Hotel Association of Whistler declined comment.
Unifor’s push for parity with hotels in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island mirrors its efforts in 2022, when transit staff in Whistler and Squamish initiated a job action calling for wages in line with Vancouver transit workers. Ultimately, the collective agreement landed on after months of bitter negotiations included a 13.5-per-cent wage increase over five years, ending the longest public transit strike in B.C. history on its 137th day. That deal, which also included a two-per-cent signing bonus and extended full benefits to part-time staff, still did not bring Sea to Sky transit workers in line with their Vancouver counterparts but met or exceeded wages in many other B.C. communities, including Prince George, Kelowna, and Kamloops.
The Nov. 30 rally coincided with Unifor’s 2024 B.C. Regional Council held in Whistler. It featured talks from Premier David Eby, B.C. labour minister Jennifer Whiteside, and Payne, Unifor’s national president. Delegates at the rally also approved a $10,000 donation to the PearlSpace Support Services Society to support its work combating intimate partner violence in the Sea to Sky. n
Whistler Chamber’s Fireside Chat focuses in on winter season
COO s FOR WHISTLER BLACKCOMB AND THE INVICTUS GAMES HIGHLIGHTED WORK FROM EACH ORGANIZATION FOR THIS SKI SEASON
BY LIZ MCDONALD
LOCAL SHOPKEEPERS had a chance to network and hear updates for the upcoming season at a recent event hosted by the Whistler Chamber featuring reps from Whistler Blackcomb and the Invictus Games.
Held at the Four Seasons Resort Dec. 6, the sold-out networking event featured the Chamber’s annual general meeting before a festive lunch. Then, the main event got underway: a fireside chat between Belinda Trembath, chief operating officer (COO) for Whistler Blackcomb, and Robyn McVicker, Invictus Games COO, moderated by Whistler Chamber board chair, Chris Vick.
Discussion started with a look back on the challenging conditions of last year’s snowpack, and then shifted forward into this season.
“Robyn and I were really keen to share the stage today so that we could talk about Invictus Games and what that will mean for this community in February,” Trembath said.
Highlights from WB include opening Jersey Cream express (the fourth lift investment in three years for the resort), a carpooling program, and a pin program.
While opening and closing ceremonies for the games are in Vancouver at BC Place, activations in Whistler run from Feb. 9 to 13.
In terms of support for athletes, McVicker stressed cheering them on as the No. 1 priority and highlighted accessibility auditing of hotels done by Invictus athlete retired Cpl. Lealand Muller.
Improving accessibility is ongoing for Whistler Blackcomb.
“I think ski resorts, many of them were developed in the ’60s and ’70s, and these sorts of issues were, sadly, not a priority when they were developed,” Trembath said.
WB is also embarking on a parking study, a requirement that came from the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) as a condition for upgrading the Fitzsimmons chairlift.
And for skiers who pack in days on the mountain, the marketing team is developing a new pin program. Skiers that get in 25, 50, 75 or 100 days can pop into guest services and receive a pin to prove their devotion to sliding
“[Jersey Cream is] an area that I explored with my family on holiday here seven or eight years ago and fell in love with, so it’s been great just getting up there and watching what would have been a lot longer line cycle through that area much more efficiently,” Trembath said.
down mountains.
“I think they’ll become quite collector’s items. And we’re planning on having a little 100-day celebration,” Trembath said.
McVicker’s update reiterated the purpose of the Invictus Games, designed to support military service members who are ill or injured, and highlighted this year is the first time outdoor sports are included.
“It was time to include winter sports. And there’s no better place to do that, obviously, than the No. 1 resort in the world, which is, of course, Whistler Blackcomb,” she said.
Changes include renovating uneven flooring in the Roundhouse’s entry, adding a wheelchair ramp to Steeps Grill & Wine Bar and installing a mobi-mat between the Roundhouse and Peak 2 Peak gondola. Mobimats provide pathways so a wheelchair user can freely move over snow-covered surfaces.
AUDIENCE QUESTIONS
Questions from the audience included queries about staff housing, creating return customers out of the Invictus Games and adapting to climate change as a ski resort.
When asked whether there was a timeframe for the new Glacier 8 staff housing
TALK OF THE TOWN Chris Vick, board chair, Whistler Chamber, Belinda Trembath, chief operating officer (COO) for Whistler Blackcomb (centre), and Robyn McVicker, Invictus Games COO (right).
PHOTO BY LIZ MCDONALD
Vail Resorts reports Whistler lodging bookings down
COLORADO COMPANY POSTED LOSS OF US$172.8M IN FISCAL FIRST QUARTER
BY BRANDON BARRETT
VAIL RESORTS, Whistler Blackcomb’s parent company, posted its first-quarter financials on Monday, Dec. 9, which included a downturn in lodging bookings in Whistler.
“At Whistler Blackcomb, lodging bookings for the full season are lagging prior year levels, which may reflect delayed decision making following challenging conditions in the prior year,” said the Broomfield, Colo. company in its quarterly earnings call. That would track with the trends being observed locally. Staff at the Resort
CHAMBER CHAT FROM PAGE 18
building, Trembath reiterated what she recently told the RMOW in October.
“We will add 246 beds with Glacier 8 for our frontline employees, and it’s a complex development with a third party that we’re working with,” she said. “We’re continuing to work through those negotiations that remain a priority project for our company. I hope that we’ll have some tighter timeframes that we can talk to in the very near future.”
To draw in returning visitation after the Games, speakers stressed the media spotlight
Municipality of Whistler lowered its 2025 forecast of funds expected to flow in from the Municipal and Regional District Tax by two per cent, which is based on hotel stays.
Company-wide, net loss attributable to Vail Resorts for the quarter ending Oct. 31 was US$172.8 million, down from $175.5 million for the same period the year prior. Resort reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization loss was $139.7 million for the first fiscal quarter of 2025, which was in line with the $139.8 million from the same period of fiscal 2024.
“Our first fiscal quarter historically operates at a loss, given that our North American and European mountain resorts are
that will encompass Whistler for the Games.
“Where Prince Harry goes, media follows, and I think that that’s a real opportunity for us to help shine that spotlight on the incredible offering that happens at Whistler Blackcomb,” McVicker said.
When it comes to adapting to less snow with climate change, Trembath highlighted investment in snowmaking, diversifying product offering, getting to net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, diverting waste from landfills and electrifying vehicle fleets. n
generally not open for ski season. The quarter’s results were driven by winter operations in Australia and summer activities in North America, including sightseeing, dining, retail, lodging, and administrative expenses,” said Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch.
Total net revenue increased 0.7 per cent, or US$1.7 million, for the quarter.
Pass product sales through Dec. 3 for this North American ski season were down approximately two per cent in units but rose roughly four per cent in sales dollars compared to last year, thanks to an eight-percent increase in pass pricing and unit growth among lower-priced Epic Day Pass products, the company said.
More recently, between Sept. 21 and Dec. 3, pass sales improved somewhat, with unit growth of approximately one per cent and sales dollar growth of approximately seven per cent, compared to the same period last year, due to “expected renewal strength, which we believe reflects delayed decision making,” the company said.
While Vail Resorts acquired “a substantial” number of new pass holders, the total number of new guests this winter was lower than last year, “driven by fewer guests who purchased lift tickets in the past season and from guests who are completely new to our database, which we believe was impacted by last season’s challenging weather and industry
normalization,” Lynch said.
Over the past four years, pass product sales have grown at Vail Resorts by 59 per cent in units and 47 per cent in sales dollars. The company said 2.3 million guests have nonrefundable, advance commitment products this year, which it expects to generate more than US$975 million in revenue and account for roughly three-quarters of all skier visits across its 42 ski areas in North America, Australia, and Europe.
Net revenue for Vail Resorts’ mountain segment increased 0.5 per cent to US$173.3 million for the quarter, driven by an increase in summer visitation at its North American resorts due to improved weather.
Net revenue for the company’s lodging increased $5.4 million, or 6.9 per cent, to $83.8 million for the quarter. Vail Resorts said the increase could be primarily attributed to positive weather conditions in the Gran Teton region, as well as increases to both dining and golf revenues at its North American resorts. The Colorado ski giant is in the midst of its two-year resource efficiency transformation plan, announced in September, designed to “improve organizational effectiveness and scale for operating leverage” as the company grows globally. Vail Resorts expects $100 million in annual cost efficiencies by the end of the 2026 fiscal year. n
in single-family neighbourhoods. These infill housing units can now consist of “detached dwellings, duplexes, secondary suites, that higher-density development proposals are welcome on the latter.
The last amendment lessens off-street parking requirements to reduce the cost of development.
New minimum requirements for SSMUH require just one parking space per unit when there are three or four dwelling units on a property, or when a property is
requirements for accessible parking, Brown told council on Nov. 19.
Council had previously considered the amendments at the Nov. 19 meeting, where the idea of pre-zoning public lands for development met resistance. Councillors Jennie Helmer and Laura Ramsden pressed Brown about how council could respond to development proposals on existing green
“Zoning allows Pemberton to keep development within its current footprint,” he said. “We’re not expanding further.”
Council expects an upcoming update to the Official Community Plan will further refine zoning requirements to allow for housing development, including addressing the question of using public lands for higherdensity development. n
HAF MEASURES New zoning amendments in Pemberton are needed for housing projects created through the Housing Accelerator Fund.
SHOP IN-STORE
SHOP IN-STORE
Lil’wat Nation celebrates second-ever PhD
QÁTSYA7 MASON DUCHARME TALKS RESEARCH, RETENTION, AND RAISING THE NEXT GENERATION OF PHDS
BY LUKE FAULKS
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
THE LIL’WAT NATION is celebrating one of its own after Qátsya7 Mason Ducharme earned the Nation’s second-ever PhD last week.
After four years of study at the University of Victoria, Ducharme successfully defended his thesis, on the turnover and retention of Indigenous executives in Indigenous organizations, and earned his doctorate on Dec. 4.
When Ducharme started his PhD, he had an eight-month-old daughter, Riel. Midway through his studies, he and his wife had another daughter named Macy. During the long hours, stresses and curveballs a PhD program throws at you, he said his kids kept him going.
Fittingly, you can hear Ducharme’s children in the background of his thesis defence.
“I get my oldest daughter Riel saying that she wants to be a scientist, she wants to be a doctor, she wants to be a chemist,” said Ducharme. “To hear that at under five years old, that’s amazing. Because she knows dad’s a doctor, she knows dad’s a scientist, so she wants to do it, too.”
Ducharme was born in Vancouver and raised between the city and Lil’wat Nation by his dad and grandma—both of whom continue to inspire him.
“[My dad] is a drug and alcohol counsellor for Lil’wat, and he’s been one for a long time,” said Ducharme. “He used to abuse drugs and alcohol, but he chose to give it all up to be an actively involved dad and to help others through their healing journey.”
He said his grandma basically raised him until he was 10.
“I don’t even remember what her voice sounds like, but I just remember that I felt loved,” recalled Ducharme. “And I think that meant a world of a difference for me in my formative years.”
Ducharme has been an Indigenous executive since 2015, when he became a Band Administrator for Nuchatlaht First Nation. During his tenure, he noticed a high turnover rate among his peers.
“When you lose an executive, you have to start all over again,” said Ducharme. “And I think it becomes really challenging in an area where people want to move towards selfgovernment. That stuff takes time.”
So, Ducharme decided to look into the phenomenon. But he faced an early hurdle.
His thesis paper notes “there is virtually no literature on Indigenous executive turnover,” a research gap Ducharme attributes to “the unique challenges Indigenous organizations face, including cultural differences, historical context, and systemic barriers that have not been fully
explored or understood in existing studies.”
Through surveys and interviews with Indigenous executives across the country, he identified poor compensation, lack of governance capacity, conflict with Chief and Council, involuntary termination, burnout and lateral violence—oppression between members of an oppressed group—as key drivers of that high turnover rate.
He said part of the problem is competing visions of governance between traditional ideas of governance and the bureaucracy established by the Indian Act.
His thesis on turnover is just the beginning of his work on Indigenous workplace stability. He works with the Centre for First Nations Governance and Carleton University’s Rebuilding First Nations Governance Project to help decolonize Indigenous governance.
“Whenever I do research, I don’t want to be all doom and gloom,” said Ducharme. “I want to think about solutions and strategies, too. So what are some good cases out there that exist where communities are addressing lateral violence? What can we learn from them?”
Ducharme follows in the footsteps of Dr. Lorna Wanosts’a7 Williams, who became the first member of the Lil’wat Nation to earn a doctorate two decades ago. Ducharme hopes his example means the Nation won’t have to wait as long for a new PhD this time.
“I have always hoped that we’re not going to have to wait another 20 years before someone else in my community gets their PhD,” he said. “I’ve always been an academic underdog. I really want to let everyone know that if I can do it, so can you.”
You can listen to Ducharme’s thesis defence and follow his PhD journey on his podcast, The IndigeDoctor: From the Reservation to Dissertation. n
“The current band office is all individualistic. It’s very hierarchical,” he noted. “Whereas if you look at traditional governing structures, it’s very collectivistic, very empowering, very responsible to the people, it’s very different. Everyone had a role back then. Right now that doesn’t feel that way.”
Nation’s second-ever PhD.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MASON DUCHARME
SLRD approves project for Catiline Creek debris flow protection
SLRD BRIEFS: REGIONAL DISTRICT SEEKS GRANT FUNDING TO FILL GAP IN THE SEA TO SKY TRAIL
BY LUKE FAULKS Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
RESIDENTS OF LILLOOET Lake Estates are inching closer to protection from landslides after decades of work.
The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) has revealed an updated budget and final design for a debris flow mitigation project on Catiline Creek, alongside plans to offset habitat loss from construction.
The project will see approximately 900 metres of Catiline Creek widened and deepened to allow debris from Twin Goat Mountain to flow more precisely through the estates towards Lillooet Lake. It will also install 970 metres of training berms and a diversion channel near the top of the Creek.
The funding also covers the construction of a replacement FSR bridge.
Residents of Lillooet Lake Estates have been repeatedly threatened by major debris flow events originating from Twin Goat Mountain. Past flows have resulted in damage to the community, evacuation notices and ongoing stress to residents.
SLRD Area D Director Tony Rainbow recalled particularly devastating flows in the early 2010s during the Board’s Nov. 27 meeting.
“At that time, this community was in danger of just disappearing,” said Rainbow. “An awful lot of work has gone into this and a lot of consultation to get us to this point and I think we just absolutely have to continue with it.”
The SLRD has approved just under $11.7 million for the design and implementation of the project.
“An awful lot of work has gone into this and a lot of consultation to get us to this point...”
- TONY RAINBOW
Not covered in the new budget are the annual operations and maintenance costs, estimated at $30,000, or the yearly loan costs, estimated at $255,500.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada also requires the SLRD to prepare an offsite project to offset the loss of riparian habitat due to the widening of Catiline Creek. The SLRD is working with the Lil’wat Nation to identify an area.
The offset’s design will be covered by the board’s mitigation budget. Implementation, estimated at nearly $1.3 million, will be undertaken as a future separate project once schedule, cost, and funding sources are established.
“We haven’t identified the location for the project, or the requirements for it yet,” said project manager Mike Strain. “Part of those requirements will come after the Catiline Creek project works are done and it’s determined how much impact has happened in that project.”
Construction is expected to start on the project in fall 2025 and last until winter of 2026.
GRANT FUNDING FOR SEA TO SKY TRAIL
The Cheakamus Canyon Highway section of the Sea to Sky Trail may be in for an upgrade.
The SLRD is seeking $56,000 from the Trans Canada Trail Funding Program to pay for a design and engineering report for a new bridge structure as part of an effort to fill a 4.5-kilometre gap in the trail.
The Cheakamus Canyon section currently diverts trail-goers down to the Sea to Sky highway. The SLRD’s proposed reroute would create an off-highway gravel trail within the road allowance.
Earlier this year, the SLRD submitted a trail design plan to the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. In response, the Ministry called for the regional district to re-design the section to include a separated bridge.
“We had hoped to use a very handy concrete wall that we could cantilever an aluminum structure off for our trail,” said parks and trails coordinator Allison Macdonald at the board’s Nov. 27 meeting.
“But they have directed us that we need to do a standalone bridge at that section, which requires quite a bit more engineering and design, as well as more money to build when we get to that stage.”
The board voted to advance the grant at the Nov. 27 meeting. The SLRD will apply to the Trans Canada Trail’s Greenway Development Stream, which supports projects that aim to “increase and improve active transportation,” while working to “minimize the trail being closed or rerouted at any given time.”
The Greenway Development Stream will make its decision on the SLRD’s grant submission in spring 2025.
The Board subsequently voted to designate the use of operational reserve funding to pay for the research, should the grant be unsuccessful. There is currently $214,534 available in the reserve.
The motions passed without question.
Construction on the entire 4.5-kilometre section of the trail is estimated to cost $3,252,411.
The Sea to Sky Trail is open year-round for walking, hiking or biking in the summer, as well as cross-country skiing in the winter.
For more information, visit slrd.bc.ca/ services/recreation-culture/parks-trails/seasky-trail. n
C H R I S T M A S
W I T H
ChristmasdinneravailableDecember 24thand 25th
(see websitefordetails)
HappyHourisback!3pmuntil5pmdaily.
•50%offallpizzas
•$8wine by theglass
•$8Steamworks andStanley Park20ozpints
•$18cheesefondue
•Cocktailandnon-alcoholicspecials
GiftCertificatesavailableonlineorinstore
Plastics treaty failure shows need to curtail oil industry
DURING THE recent British Columbia election campaign, Conservative Party Leader John Rustad vowed to bring back plastic straws, cutlery and bags. It’s an all-toocommon political talking point.
of oil-producing nations including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia who attended, the talks failed. References to Indigenous and human rights were scrubbed from the final draft text and fossil fuel industry lobbyists blocked attempts to limit production.
Imagine knowing the world is choked with plastic pollution and getting overwrought because you can’t figure out how to drink liquid with a cardboard or reusable straw, or no straw at all!
Plastic is polluting land, water and air, killing birds and aquatic life and causing human health problems. We create about 52 million tonnes of plastic pollution every year (not including what’s recycled or sent to
Follow-up talks are scheduled for 2025, but industry and its government supporters aren’t budging. Producing plastic is another massive fossil fuel industry profit-generator as the world transitions away from polluting, climate-altering oil, gas and coal.
Oil companies have long lied about the impacts of burning their fuels. They also lie about the plastic they produce. The treaty talks were no exception. This fossil fuel byproduct creates greenhouse gas emissions and pollution throughout its long life cycle.
BY DAVID SUZUKI
California’s government has even launched a lawsuit against oil giant ExxonMobil for its “decades-long campaign of deception” that’s making the global plastic pollution crisis worse.
landfills and incinerators). Total production is about 460 million tonnes annually. If we continue at current rates, that will triple by 2050 and outweigh all the fish in the sea.
Because plastic is a fossil fuel byproduct, researchers also estimate that by 2050, the plastics industry will consume 20 per cent of total oil production and 15 per cent of the
It’s so ubiquitous that microplastics are now in breast milk and human tissues, including brains, hearts and testicles. Plastic particles have been found in the remotest parts of the planet, and from ocean depths to mountaintops. Massive plastic waste patches swirl in ocean gyres. We’re plasticizing the biosphere and ourselves.
About 40 per cent of all plastic produced is disposable, single-use. If you don’t think plastic straws, cutlery and bags are a problem (a small but easily resolvable one), remember these items are rarely recycled and end up in
“For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health.”
Plastic is convenient because it’s lightweight, durable, inexpensive, easily shaped and coloured and can be used to store many materials, from water to chemicals. But we’ve managed without it for most of human history. The most commonly used plastic products have only been around for about 75 years, and North American grocery stores didn’t start offering plastic bags until the late 1970s—and we now have better alternatives.
One study found circular economy principles could help resolve the issue by eliminating all problematic and unnecessary
It’s so ubiquitous that microplastics are now in breast milk and human tissues, including brains, hearts and testicles.
the environment—in waterways, the ocean, land and air. Plastic never biodegrades; it just keeps breaking down into smaller particles. It can then enter everything from marine life to people’s bodies. Recycling is only a small part of the solution; it’s also critical to drastically reduce plastic production and use.
It’s why, after two years of talks, the international community met last month in Busan, South Korea, for what were supposed to be the fifth and final negotiations on an “international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.”
Thanks to the 220 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists (outnumbering national and scientific delegations) and governments
plastic items, innovating to ensure plastics are reusable, recyclable or compostable and circulating all plastic items to keep them in the economy and out of the environment.
Letting the fossil fuel industry control all aspects of our economies and lives for the sake of its obscene profits is suicidal. Plastic pollution is unnecessary and must be halted now.
We can all cut down on plastic use in our own lives, but real change must come from the top.
David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington. Learn more at davidsuzuki.org. n
Icecapades
CALL IT a biologist’s dilemma: no sooner does winter ice form than I wonder what’s going on beneath it. As it turns out, plenty. To start, for many land organisms, winter means hibernation or brumation (a specialized metabolic slow-down in coldblooded critters), but in water things aren’t
BY LESLIE ANTHONY
as black and white: differing degrees of movement and activity make winter life in
As an example, a recent Ontario study found that interactions between lake trout and smallmouth bass change dramatically with seasonal shifts in conditions. Specifically, ice-covered periods—a stressor for all fishes—appear to play a unique role: though denizens of deep, cold, offshore waters during summer, lake trout are drawn by the changing temperature and oxygen gradients of winter into shallower, nearshore areas occupied by bass. Lest these top carnivores suddenly find themselves battling for resources, however, nature has worked it out. While the trout remain active throughout winter, the bass enter a state of semi-dormancy, slowing both swimming and eating to levels that obviate any competition between these typically spatially separated species; when the ice melts and surface waters warm, the trout head back to depth while the bass get back to business.
Appreciating such behaviour requires a nod to the chemistry and physics of seasonal
lake hydrology. While the water in shallow lakes mixes frequently and features more uniform temperatures top-to-bottom in all seasons, lakes deeper than six metres tend to stratify during both summer and winter in gradients that prevent mixing of top and bottom layers. That’s because unlike most liquids water is densest at 4 C—meaning it’s lighter at both warmer and cooler temperatures. Thus, in summer, warmer, less-dense water floats atop a cooler, denser layer—it might be 20 C at the surface but single digits only a few metres down (as you’ve doubtless noticed in Whistler’s lakes); in winter, less-dense, close-to-freezing water also floats atop a denser layer—which is why ice both forms on the surface and floats.
oxygen and causes more fatalities, a snowball effect that can lead to winterkill—the death of most or all lake organisms. But different lake fish have different tricks to avoid hypoxia: darters emigrate from the lake into flowing water before ice forms; sticklebacks remain in the lake, but move to inlets of freshwater streams where dissolved oxygen is higher; bottom-dwellers move to the lake’s edges where the water is oxygenated down to the substrate; mud minnows can breathe gaseous air, surviving on oxygen trapped in air bubbles beneath the ice.
Lakes lose oxygen from the bottom up, so fish that frequent deeper habitats—such as the aforementioned lake trout—move to shallows, where oxygen in the ice slowly
The biggest winter challenge for fish is the availability of oxygen, which becomes limited under a surface stilled by ice, where light is in short supply and plants consume oxygen instead of producing it.
In between these states, lakes undergo the phenomenon of “turnover.” In autumn, as air temperatures dive, stratification in the water column breaks down; once surface waters reach 4 C they sink toward the lower 4 C layer causing a lake-wide mixing of nutrients and oxygen; in spring, ice-off allows the colder upper layer to rapidly warm to 4 C, precipitating a similar flop.
The biggest winter challenge for fish is the availability of oxygen, which becomes limited under a surface stilled by ice, where light is in short supply and plants consume oxygen instead of producing it. Oxygen can fall so dramatically in small, shallow lakes that fish suffer hypoxia or even suffocate. Dead fish, of course, decompose, which consumes more
dissolves into the water. Northern pike, on the other hand, create their own areas of high oxygen: resting at an angle, noses almost touching the ice, they slowly fan pectoral fins and gill-covers to create a weak current of warm water that melts a dome of oxygen-rich water into the ice.
But hanging out close to ice has its own challenges, as this is now the coldest part of the lake, at or below 1 C with a risk of hypothermia. Different fish species counter this by: a) conserving energy by reducing metabolic, respiratory and feeding activity to rely more on fat reserves, or; b) actually increasing feeding, respiration and general activity during ice-over as the weed cover that once protected their small prey dies back;
this strategy of feeding actively throughout winter is why ice-fishermen exist.
River fish employ a mix of the two, drastically reducing body temperature and metabolic rates compared to summer, but continuing to hunt for food (low prey densities, however, mean some reliance on stored fat). Minimizing energy use, most species hole-up in slow, deep pools, while smaller fish and newly hatched fry find cover in coarse gravel and cobble. An unstable ice environment (ephemeral dams, frazil, anchor ice, etc.) caused by frequent freeze-thaw events (hello climate change!) can force fish from holding pools, rapidly stripping energy reserves. Some rivers, however, have builtin respite—because, beavers. Beaver ponds are vital overwintering habitat for many trout; dams halt the movement of frazil and anchor ice and form deep pools that maintain consistent water levels.
Areas with groundwater are another important overwintering habitat for fish and their eggs, as well as other water critters like turtles and amphibians. In lakes, both phytoplankton and zooplankton settle downward to overwinter in the relatively warmer sediments. Bottomdwelling invertebrates typically burrow into the substrate of the littoral zone where, in spring, light will reach the bottom in sufficient quantity to promote plant growth. But these behaviours are context-dependent, hinging on the type of waterbody, amount of oxygen, and weather—which is being altered by climate change. Indeed, under certain conditions that have become common—like, thin, clear ice—winter biological activity can be high, and even include algal blooms.
What does this all mean? Basically, that seasonal transformations are themselves transforming, and that understanding their impacts is going to get greyer than ever.
Leslie Anthony is a biologist, writer and author of several popular books on environmental science. n
SEASONAL TRANSFORMATIONS Duffey Lake, northeast of Whistler.
PHOTO BY LESLIE ANTHONY
By Will Johnson
“History is that certainty produced when imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.”
- Julian Barnes
would tell the story of his two birthdays.
his story begins with a framed photo. It features the sort of black-andwhite image that doesn’t make sense at first glance—a transmission tower wrenched into a spaghetti mess of tangled steel, the steepled tip dangling over a mountain cliff, surrounded by an immensity of piled snow. All the angles are wrong, the shapes violent and jagged, reminiscent of an M.C. Escher illusion.
photo of a transmission tower, but it was upright; searching through newspaper archives produced shots of damaged lines throughout B.C., but none of the particular one I was looking for. Family members weren’t sure whether he’d personally taken the shot, or if somebody else at BC Hydro was responsible.
When it comes to family storytelling, the record-keeping becomes elastic. Combative siblings will recount drastically opposite accounts of the same event. People exaggerate, and editorialize, and make up meaningless fibs. What’s important to most families isn’t so much the facts, but the feelings. The power dynamics. The family reputation.
There are so many reasons to lie, to massage the truth, to manipulate memories.
There was a good chance it was sitting in a folder or a box somewhere, in a relative’s archives, waiting to be rediscovered—or thrown away forever.
Myth and memory
If it were taken today, you would assume from the angle that it was a drone shot, but because it was taken more than 50 years ago, chances are it was taken from a higher elevation. It looks professionally composed, a tragic scene ready to paint, raw with wild energy.
For my entire childhood, this photo was mounted on the wall of my granddad’s living room in Tsawwassen, B.C.,
right next to the steps leading into the kitchen. Its placement meant anyone attending one of his bustling family dinners would have to pass by it multiple times, and it loomed over us grandkids during all the after-school afternoons we spent watching Saved by the Bell and the animated version of Batman back in the ’90s.
Memory is a tricky thing sometimes, so I can’t actually recall who told me the mythic narrative behind the photo on granddad’s living room wall—but I do remember the story.
It was an older relative who explained the transmission tower pictured had collapsed during a vicious blizzard in the Sea to Sky corridor decades previous and had caused a widespread power outage. It was my granddad, working for BC Hydro, who was called in mid-emergency to help with the repair efforts.
When I told my father I was looking into granddad’s past, dad was quick to insist that he wouldn’t be a reliable source of information—at 70, his memory is starting to go. He read through an early draft of the story and remarked that the granddad I described was different from the one who raised him, pointing out particular passages where our vision of him didn’t align.
It wasn’t that he was telling me I was wrong, just that we had different perspectives.
A reporter investigates a family story about
IA decade after granddad passed, I sat down with my gran to talk about his memory. Hers was being compromised by dementia, and throughout the conversation she repeated questions multiple times. I was surprised to see her choke up when I mentioned that he was now gone, her chin quivering with emotion.
There was an entire library of information in that expression, the type of grief you can’t fake. This was the man she’d spent more than half a century of her life married to. She took off her glasses and dabbed her eyes with a tissue.
My siblings and I weren’t especially curious about the photo, granting it no more significance than the antique cuckoo clock, the fine art prints and the multiple maps of British Columbia lining the walls. It wouldn’t be until my teenage years that I even thought to ask about it, and wonder why it was there.
The things we keep
This photo has proven to be elusive.
When my granddad passed away in 2006, it would’ve ended up amidst the belongings that were gifted to his six children. An idiosyncratic spread of unchosen objects were displayed in the living room for anyone to claim. There were items of real value, nostalgic and otherwise, but there were also the everyday possessions that simply needed a new home. Who wanted his spoon collection, for instance, acquired over years of travel? Or the sparkling geodes he kept on living room side tables? What about the animal-themed cork coasters? This was the detritus of his personality, each item a window into his psyche.
By the time I was given an opportunity to take something, there wasn’t much worth the effort of keeping. There was a crystal toucan, a few old issues of The New Yorker, and some antique cookie tins. It was slightly depressing. Earlier I had expressed interest in his giant maps of B.C., but those had already been spoken for.
The only thing that caught my eye was his framed engineering degree from UBC, partially because we shared a name. During my own university studies years later I would keep it on my bedroom wall, momentarily confusing everybody who stepped in.
By the time it occurred to me to inquire further about the photo, it was unclear who had ended up with it—if anyone had it at all. One uncle had a similar black-and-white
pictured him with a snow-blasted face, crimson under his parka hood, as he shouted into the screaming wind and oversaw the heavy machinery. The embellished way the story was told, it sounded like he was a one-man operation who had miraculously saved countless lives, introducing an innovative method of hoisting up the downed lines while the tower was being reconstructed.
It was this move that meant power was restored to the thousands of grateful customers who had been plunged into freezing blackness.
This wasn’t the only family story told about granddad’s tenure as an engineer, a career that financed his hilltop home on the Tsawwassen bluffs overlooking the ocean. It was impossible to tell which aspects were exaggerated, and which were simply fact.
When we drove down the highway or took road trips to the Interior, my parents would point out the wooden power-line structures my granddad had designed—apparently singlehandedly. We were told that at one point he had his own helicopter to fly all over the province, and some days he would visit hidden lakes in the Rocky Mountains nobody else ever got to see.
These anecdotes all seemed consistent with his booming braggadocio, his thunderously authoritative voice, his general air of intellectual supremacy.
My granddad wore an iron engineer’s ring to commemorate a tragic bridge collapse in Quebec caused by a flaw in the design, a reminder that the work he was doing could mean the difference between life and death.
Not gone yet
Record-keeping is always imperfect, as a rule.
The doctor who was supposed to deliver my granddad and take official note of his birth was not present when he came screaming into the world in 1928. This was in Agassiz, a town his mother had travelled to during her labour.
My granddad didn’t officially become a person until the physician arrived and wrote it down the next day—making his birth date incorrect for most of his life. Every Christmas we
“I don’t like to think of him as gone.”
Downed lines
When a high-voltage power line goes down in a storm, often you’ll see a blinding flash of light. Kind of like fireworks, or a movie explosion, the moment it reaches the ground a surge of lightning-like electricity will burst out with malevolent intensity.
That’s a sight granddad saw at least once, in the chaotic midst of the 1972 snowstorm that would later be deemed one of the worst in the province’s history, from the interior of his company car. He would later tell relatives he believed the flash was from a 500kv conductor striking either the ground or maybe its tower.
According to my uncle, another engineer with BC Hydro who was a teenager at the time, this flash happened near Agassiz, where multiple kilometres of line had fallen to the earth after being buffeted by intense winter wind. Granddad was the manager of the route engineering department, so he had a personal and work interest in regards to the environmental effects on power line route selection.
When the weather started to ravage the province, he took off with his camera to see the devastation first-hand.
Which of their structural designs had succeeded, he wondered, and which had been overcome by the almighty effects of Mother Nature? He was 43 years old at the time, just half a decade older than I am now, a father of six and a dutiful Christian. But the religion that truly ruled his life was electricity, a power he had learned to harness and respect.
“Later it became apparent that the failure of a tower near Whistler was leading to a critical shortage of transmission capacity. I believe the tower there failed due to snow slippage or movement. I don’t think it was an avalanche,” my uncle told me.
“As he had a responsibility to select safe routes, I believe he went to the site to learn more about the location of the tower relative to local terrain features so that such locations could be avoided in the future.”
While there, granddad took a picture of a crane holding an insulator string and a conductor bundle—possibly the photo immortalized in his living room. How involved in developing that method of safely energizing the line, my uncle couldn’t say. Likely it involved a discussion at the site, and it was a solution arrived at by multiple contributors.
Either way, he was not involved in or responsible for the operation and maintenance of the line, or directing the work— all which made for a slightly more muted and humble version of the childhood tale.
“When the tower fell over, one phase contacted the ground and caused the outage. The other two phases were still in the air and able to keep operating. During the temporary repair the phase on the ground was freed from the tower. An insulating string was installed to safely connect the crane to the soon-tobe live wires,” my uncle said.
“I think the crane was used for some period of time, days or possibly weeks, until other sources of electricity could be obtained. I recall him saying that there was a concern with the crane wire/ hook slipping
keep the electric flow of information from one generation to the next free-flowing. Like my namesake, I was looking to accomplish an emergency repair—otherwise the real story could be lost completely, rendered irrelevant and forgotten.
Once I had confirmed the picture was taken in the Sea to Sky corridor, I approached the Whistler Museum and Archives to see if they had stories from that storm. Unfortunately, the local paper didn’t start until 1975 and newsletters from earlier than that didn’t cover the news. After searching through the archives, though, staff produced an article from a Jan. 23, 1972 issue of the Vancouver Sun about the impacts felt across the province during the storm: blocked rail lines, phone lines down, cars trapped by slides.
BC Hydro funnelled power from U.S. utilities to keep the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island going.
“It was probably the greatest weather disaster BC Hydro ever faced,” another article reads, calling it “one of the worst winter storms in history.”
Both the 500,000-V transmission lines from the Peace River power station and the two 360,000-V lines from the Bridge River generating station were knocked out. Power was
of his. But I don’t know who would know this, and I would not like to speculate.”
Namesakes
Our legacies are told in story, whether we like it or not.
When I first contacted BC Hydro to retrieve research information about the collapsed power line tower and his career, they told me it would take at least a month—which was plenty of time to ruminate on what I hoped to find, and to accomplish. Did I really want to dismantle the mental image I had of him?
Since he was on my mind, granddad started coming up in conversation with my wife. She had never met him, but understood him to be a traditional patriarch, a product of a different culture. Hearing about the lavish family dinners he threw multiple times a year made her wonder if maybe a sense of familial duty had been lost over the course of the generations, if we’d ever really regained stability after losing him at the head of our family dinner table.
Then we visited Tsawwassen, the town where I grew up, and ended up spending time with a toddler nephew I hadn’t seen since he was a baby who is also named after my granddad. I was surprised to learn
his grandfather’s legacy as a BC Hydro engineer
under an extended and perhaps unattended situation. I don’t recall him saying how this was addressed.”
Later my granddad would drive my uncle and my father up the Sea to Sky highway to see the reconstructed tower in person—an event that my uncle remembers, but dad doesn’t. The fact that he returned to that particular tower seemed like a significant detail to me, signalling granddad’s desire to pass the story to the next generation, and validating my interest in the photo. Though I never heard him speak one word of this story before he passed away in 2006, I sensed it was one he would want to live on.
And who better to share it than the grandson who shares his name?
The storm of ’72
A broken story is like a downed power line.
When I began to seek out information about the photo in my granddad’s living room, I was looking to
lost in Chilliwack, Rosedale, Agassiz, Harrison, Cultus Lake and other communities. It took eight days before the broken links were partially restored.
According to my uncle, the storm of ’72 was more like an interesting event that happened to occur during granddad’s career than a meaningful personal achievement as I had first interpreted. This photo was one of many he took while studying how his power line structures had held up under pressure, driving across the province to document their failed cross arms.
Maybe it was a fluke that this was the one he framed.
As I continued to spelunk through the research, nobody seemed to have a definitive answer to granddad’s exact role in repairing the downed tower. Was he more of a researcher or observer? Was he having meetings with the head honchos, slamming his fist on the table?
“The decision to route one line past Whistler may have avoided a much longer and more dangerous outage. If both lines were working together past Agassiz and both went down in the same way this could have been a real disaster,” my uncle told me.
“If he was in part responsible for routing one line past Whistler this might be considered a meaningful achievement
he already knew about his namesake, and the fact his greatgrandfather was an engineer—same as his dad.
Our lives echo long after we’re gone.
A slow-moving avalanche
After waiting for a month to hear back about my media request from BC Hydro, I was starting to make peace with the idea that I would never really nail down the particulars I was seeking. I wondered what it could possibly change, and what I was even trying to accomplish in the first place. Was I trying to prove myself wrong?
Then I received an email from the chief librarian, confirming my uncle’s story and supplying additional information. The account was published in an internal magazine.
“Break in second 500 kv Peace line was caused by slowmoving avalanche that knocked down on tower eight miles southeast of Squamish. It took four bulldozers four days to cut path through 12 snow slides to reach the site where snow was 20 feet deep,” it reads.
“Joe Brand … transmission supervisor for Lower Mainland area, directed tricky operation which saw crane holding the undamaged powerline aloft until base of tower could be repaired.”
The power flowed for 11 days until it returned to regular operation on Feb. 6, 1972.
Reading over the short paragraph, I was thrilled to learn the more specific details and to get some clarity on the operation. It even came with a couple of photos, very similar to the one that had started this exploration.
It wasn’t until later I realized what was missing from the account: Granddad’s name.
His voice
That’s the thing about knowledge: it needs to be passed down to survive.
An electric current needs somewhere to go next. If I had taken more interest as a teenager, I could’ve heard this story first-hand. Granddad loved to opine, to monologue from the front seat while he was driving us to school or launch into a long-winded joke from the throne-like couch in the living room, one slipper-clad foot resting against the coffee table. In church, he loved to overpower everyone with his operatic vocalizations.
Electricity has a musical vibration, and so does the human voice. Now that he’s gone, I have to be content with echoes, the reverberations from his sonorous baritone voice, a fraction of his presence. It’s like being in the pew after a hymn ends, listening to the dying thrum, after all the singers have retaken their seat.
Eventually there will be silence. n
Hoop Reel rebrands as Hustle Basketball
THE LOCAL ACADEMY’S U15 BOYS TEAM WON A RECENT TOURNAMENT IN RICHMOND
BY DAVID SONG
SEA TO SKY YOUTH basketball academy Hoop Reel is officially rebranding as Hustle Basketball—and that’s not the only exciting news they have to share.
The organization’s U15 boys roster won a mid-November tournament in Richmond by way of a sparkling 4-0 record. The U17 squad also took part, bouncing back from two early losses to finish 2-2.
“Overall we are incredibly proud of both teams,” said Whistler Hustle head coach Bo Banner. “One key factor that sparked the U15 team’s journey to becoming champions and fuelled the U17 team’s remarkable comeback is something we emphasize at every practice: ‘all work, no luck.’ This motto is not just words: it’s a mindset and habit we instil daily.
“Watching the teams fall back on this foundation when it mattered most and seeing it lead to their success is truly rewarding.”
Craig and Natalie Tricco co-own Whistler Life Property Management, and both their kids have trained with Hustle Basketball since its inception as Hoop Reel. The family has only good things to say about their experience.
“Our sons Joshua and Lucas both love basketball, and the program really increased their passion for the game,” Craig said. “Bo Banner and Fabrice Muligo have been fantastic coaches and really engaging guys. They’ve gone above and beyond outside of the [Hustle Basketball] program just to mentor these kids.”
Seventeen-year-old Joshua Tricco has aspirations of hooping at the post-secondary level, causing Banner to give him and another club member private training sessions. Meanwhile, Muligo has been coaching the Whistler Secondary School (WSS) senior boys basketball team free of charge.
‘YOU CAN’T PLAY BETTER THAN YOU PRACTICE’
Results-wise, glory belongs to Lucas Tricco and his fellow U15s.
They might have entered the Richmond tournament, held Nov. 16 and 17 by third party Drive Basketball, with some trepidation in their hearts. Some Whistler kids perceive Vancouver as a big place full of intimidating athletes, but Banner and Muligo helped their pupils overcome such a view.
The U15 boys showed flashes of dominance, winning their first two games 47-23 and 59-17. They also proved capable of grinding out closer matches with 47-42 and 48-40 victories to wrap up their schedule.
With each breakthrough, the kids’ confidence swelled.
“As parents, [we would] go to these
tournaments in the city and see them lose the majority of their games at first, but now they’re winning,” said Natalie. “It feels really good.”
Banner added: “We believe the U15 team was able to rise to the occasion and perform so well because everyone on the unit contributed to scoring. Unlike the last tournament … this time the entire starting five demonstrated their ability to score in various ways while also playing strong defence. This teamwork not only made our gameplay more productive but also made us much harder for opponents to stop.
“The team looked like a well-coordinated unit on the court, complementing each other’s strengths and covering for each other’s weaknesses. In short, they played together and they did it exceptionally well. It’s clear their strong performance comes from falling back on their training, proving the saying true: ‘you can’t play better than you practice.’”
FLUSH YOUR MISTAKES
The Hustle Basketball U17s faced a tougher road, but they too have matured.
Half a dozen senior athletes, including Joshua, have now played their final tournament before graduation. All six have been on board since the beginning. Naturally they wanted to win and found early defeats tough to stomach.
But carry on they did.
“For the U17 team, this tournament was a powerful lesson in understanding that
the only things they can truly control are their attitude and effort. Coach Fabrice and I emphasized this after losing our first two games,” said Banner. “Too often, timeout advice fell on deaf ears, but these setbacks helped them realize the importance of being receptive to coaching.
“One of the biggest challenges in life is learning to ‘flush’ mistakes rather than dwelling on them. We teach our players that you can’t undo what’s already happened, but you can focus on the next play and bring your best effort and attitude. Watching [these U17s] grow over the years into young adults has been a true blessing for Fabrice and I.”
Hustle Basketball parents are grateful that the organization sets its athletes up for real life. Determination can help you win on court, but it can also help you power through in college, in the workforce and so on.
“[Sport] helps kids understand that you can rise above making a mistake,” remarked Craig. “If you learn to just charge forward and let the past be the past, you can rise up and win.”
These lessons have already started to pay dividends. Craig and Natalie have seen younger boys like Lucas gain social confidence in school, especially when interacting with upperclassmen. The team dynamic of basketball teaches them how to work in groups, how to celebrate their peers’ success and—most of all—have grace for their peers when things aren’t going well.
Learn more about Hustle Basketball at hustlebasketball.ca/hustlebasketball. n
HUSTLE AND FLOW The Hustle Basketball U15 boys’ team won a tournament in Richmond on Nov. 16 and 17, 2024.
Unanimous decision victory for Leo Laferriere at Griffins Boxing
FELLOW WHISTLER BOXING CLUB MEMBER JOSHUA MACNEIL LOST TO TRISTAN LOWE OF ROUNDHOUSE MARTIAL ARTS
BY DAVID SONG
LEO LAFERRIERE displayed poise, precision and smooth footwork in his fourth amateur bout en route to a unanimous decision win over Max Klobucar.
Laferriere weighed in at 140 pounds for the Nov. 29 match at North Vancouver gym Griffins Boxing (up from his previous weight class of 132 pounds). He felt fit and comfortable in his body as a result, but also had to deal with a larger opponent.
Regardless, Laferriere nullified Klobucar’s size and power advantage. He took command of the fight in the third round, stunning his foe with multiple combinations to elicit a pair of standing-eight counts from the referee. Klobucar made the bell, but the outcome was not in doubt.
“He was tough,” said Laferriere about his rival from Port Kells. “I hit him with all I got, but he wouldn’t stop coming at me. He was bleeding all over the face and started to bruise up a bit, but he wouldn’t stop coming.
“[Max] knew he was down on points in the last round, and I was just waiting him out. He got gassed, and once his guard [dropped] I was just going in there really well.”
Laferriere’s Whistler Boxing Club teammate Joshua MacNeil saw action the same night at 170 pounds. He didn’t fare as well, dropping a unanimous decision to Tristan Lowe of Roundhouse Martial Arts in Squamish.
‘NON-STOP PUNCHING’
Whistler Boxing Club head coach Sasha Gier teaches a Russian fighting style that prioritizes distance control, strategic movement and accurate combinations. It’s a good tactic for a young, developing athlete like Laferriere, who stuck to the script.
The Pembertonian showed flashes of technical skill very early in his career, with
the mental fortitude to match. Now he is beginning to grow into himself physically.
“We spent the last two months working on Leo’s conditioning and power, and that definitely paid off because he was nonstop punching right to the end of the third round,” Gier recalled. “Very happy with his performance. We are planning to take December off and come back after the holidays [to find] better competition.”
Gier and Laferriere both acknowledged MacNeil’s efforts, despite the result.
“Both [Joshua and Tristan] were heavyhanded, both powerful,” says Gier. “The decision went to Tristan, he was better that night. Josh has been training for under a year—he’s a novice fighter but he showed a lot of heart. Now he’s back to the drawing board.
“We’ve got a very good relationship with [Roundhouse Martial Arts], so kudos to them. We’re very happy that both athletes are safe and doing well, no injuries. The rest was just a learning experience.”
Added Laferriere: “Congrats to Tristan for winning a great fight. Josh was fighting hard, always coming [forward] and never backing off. He was ready to slug it out whenever he had the opportunity.”
Griffins Boxing is known for its chargedup environment on fight night, and Laferriere admitted to having some pre-bout nerves. Yet his confidence grew as he entered the ring, faithful in his coach’s mentorship.
“The crowds there are just unreal,” he remarked. “They have an upstairs and a downstairs … so people are all around you. Everyone’s just super high-tension. Everyone’s super energetic.”
The youngster still wants to improve his defence, but a precise and rhythmic offence is paying dividends so far.
“I’m astonished [at my own rate of progress],” says Laferriere. “In my first two fights, I had no style, then over the summer I built my style because of Sasha. I can move in and out with my punches, and I throw lots of volume with great accuracy.” n
TheLandsFileNumberforthisapplicationis 2412823 and 2412824 forquarryingandindustrialmiscellaneous, respectively.Comments concerningthisapplicationmaybesubmittedintwoways:
TOUGH CUSTOMER Leo Laferriere (in blue) defeated Max Klobucar by unanimous decision at Griffins Boxing on Nov. 29.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SASHA GIER
Splittin’ the ‘G’: Guinness beer is having a moment
BETWEEN A VIRAL DRINKING CHALLENGE, SAVVY MARKETING AND INTEREST IN IRISH CULTURE, THE BELOVED STOUT IS SEEING A SURGE IN POPULARITY
BY BRANDON BARRETT
ST. PATRICK’S DAY may be months away, but Ireland’s most iconic beer, Guinness, is having a moment.
If you frequent certain corners of the internet, the jet-black beer seems to be everywhere right now. That’s thanks to a viral trend, called “splittin’ the ‘G,’” that sees drinkers gulping a Guinness with the goal of landing the foam line in the middle of the “G” on a branded pint glass on the first try. Celebrities such as Ed Sheeran, John Cena and the Jonas Brothers have gotten in on the trend, with their chug videos amassing hundreds of thousands of views.
But it’s not just a brush with fame that has led to the beer’s recent resurgence. Synonymous with old Irish pubs and old Irish men, Guinness has grown in popularity with a younger, beer-drinking crowd tired of the craft brew trend of the
past several years. In the U.S., it has become the country’s fastest-growing imported beer, based on bar, restaurant and brewery sales over the past year. Globally, Guinness reported five per cent in net growth in sales volume for 2024, up from one per cent the year prior. Canadian statistics are harder to come by, but in a country where more than
not unusual for the Dubh to go through more than 20 kegs of the stuff in a single day.
Even the pub’s name owes itself to the iconic beer. “Dubh Linn” literally translates to “black pool,” referencing the dark pool of water that lies beneath the heart of Dublin. Located near St. James Gate Brewery, where the beer originates, these waters are said to
In the U.S., it has become the country’s fastest-growing imported beer, based on bar, restaurant and brewery sales over the past year.
15 per cent of the population claim Irish ancestry, it’s safe to say the Great White North is Guinness country.
Frequenters of Whistler’s Irish pub, the Dubh Linn Gate, certainly punch above their weight when it comes to consuming the beloved stout. The pub has been known to pour more Guinness than any other bar in Western Canada, and on St. Patrick’s Day, it’s
have inspired Arthur Guinness’ perfect pint since 1759.
Viral drinking challenges, savvy marketing, and an Irish pop culture renaissance have all conspired to introduce the dark stout to new drinkers. An ad campaign featuring NFL legend Joe Montana focused on ditching Guinness’ reputation as a “meal in a glass.” Irish celebrities like
Gladiator II star Paul Mescal and best-selling author Sally Rooney are adding to Ireland’s cool factor, which has in turn benefited Guinness and other cultural products from the Emerald Isle. This year’s Whistler Film Festival, which just wrapped this weekend, put its own spotlight on Irish cinema, naming Ireland as its country of focus for 2024 with a slate of programming and screenings.
Guinness acolytes are known for being particular in how they like their pint poured. True disciples know the only way to enjoy a Guinness is poured into a 20-ounce imperial pint glass, as is customary in Ireland, and increasingly pubs on this side of the pond are following suit. There are even Instagram accounts like New York State of Pint that rate each glass of Guinness they come across, based on a variety of criteria, from appearance and temperature to glassware.
You certainly can’t accuse the barkeeps at Whistler’s Irish pub of not knowing how to pour a proper pint. Just don’t go in expecting any green beer—even on St. Patrick’s Day.
“Green beer is [a] travesty,” declared Dubh Linn manager Diane Rothdram in a 2022 interview with Pique. “It’s not done in Ireland so it’s not done here: If you want to Irishify your beer, have a Guinness.”
Sage advice! n
NUTHIN’ BUT A G THANG The Guinness Brewery in Dublin, Ireland, pictured, brews 2.5 million pints of stout a day.
MEADOW PARK SPORTS CENTRE
Jen Girardi brings local creatives together with new initiative
COFFEE + CREATIVES IS AN ONGOING FREE SPEAKER SERIES IN WHISTLER
BY DAVID SONG
IN 2021, JEN GIRARDI founded Alto Marketing + Management (Alto MM). Her agency has opened up various career opportunities, but it also inadvertently led to a feeling of isolation from others in the industry.
After pondering what to do in response, Girardi kick-started a new local project known as Coffee + Creatives.
“This is a free, inclusive event series to foster connections and learning within the creative community,” she explains. “We wanted to create a welcoming space where creativity is inspired through shared experiences and discussions. After founding Alto MM, I felt a bit of a loss in the collaborative in-house environment from when I worked on brand teams.
“Being self-employed or working in a small agency, we often take meetings from behind computer screens or work solo at home. There’s a really big disconnect, but when we do shoots or creative projects, these people come out of the woodwork. I wanted to recreate that [energy] without needing to have a client on the line … and I thought that
if I had these feelings, others who work in the creative space might also.”
Coffee + Creatives began on Sept. 5 with a photography-oriented event featuring Blake Jorgenson and Guy Fattal as speakers. It followed up with a Nov. 27 session where media professionals Holly Fraser, Abby Cooper and Leanne Pelosi discussed the art of pitching ideas to clients. Both sessions took place at the Mountain Club Whistler, with
received, and the second one we oversold. We had 56 people out of 50 available spots, so I was pulling up coffee tables for people to sit on. There’s always space.”
‘WHEN WE SUPPORT EACH OTHER, EVERYBODY WINS’
If you’ve already been supporting or making it out to Coffee + Creatives, you’ll be happy
“We wanted to create a welcoming space where creativity is inspired through shared experiences and discussions.”
- JEN GIRARDI
Gradient Coffee providing refreshments.
All are welcome to drop by, from established pros and students to individuals exploring a new hobby or career path.
“Blake’s talk on what it takes to be professional and have longevity in your career resonated with everybody in the room … and Guy Fattal’s experience getting into photography was very different from Blake,” recalls Girardi. “The first event was really well
to learn it is being incorporated into the next World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF).
Between April 4 and 13, three more meetings will take place in the Whistler Conference Centre. Details are not finalized yet, but these activities are planned to be informative sessions highlighting a range of photography and videography topics.
Girardi believes her new speaker series will be a great match for the WSSF: itself a
popular celebration of mountain culture that highlights the ubiquitous marriage between action sports athletes and the shooters who document their jaw-dropping deeds.
Regardless of venue or who is presenting, each Coffee + Creatives outing strives to follow a similar format.
“Each event features a facilitated discussion led by industry professionals on a specific creative topic,” Girardi explains. “Attendees are encouraged to participate in a Q&A, fostering a two-way exchange of ideas and advice. The relaxed atmosphere encourages attendees to meet peers and build meaningful connections.”
The Sea to Sky corridor tends to draw in passionate people, whether they’re passionate about skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, photos or movies. Creativity overlaps with athleticism naturally in this part of the world, and that’s why Girardi feels good about the future of her new gig.
“A big thank you to everyone that’s been involved thus far in Coffee + Creatives. It’s a personal project for me, so everybody has volunteered their time and efforts,” she says. “There’s a really big desire for people to connect in person. If you create an opportunity … the community wants to show up, and I think in Whistler the majority of people understand that when we support each other, everybody wins.”
Find more information about Coffee + Creatives at altomm.com/coffeeandcreatives. n
CAFFEINE-FUELLED Jen Girardi (with microphone) introduces Coffee + Creatives at the Mountain Club Whistler.
PHOTO BY OISIN MCHUGH
The Nutcracker returns
PEMBERTON DANCE STUDIO PRESENTS FAMOUS BALLET ON DEC. 21
BY DAVID SONG
PEMBERTON DANCE Studio is once again spearheading a return of The Nutcracker to Whistler.
Composed in 1892 by Russian icon Pyotr Tchaikovsky as a two-act classical ballet, The Nutcracker portrays a whimsical holiday tale set at the base of a Christmas tree, with a child’s imagination as the framing narrative. The New York Times estimated in 2009 that major American ballet companies generate 40 per cent of their yearly ticket revenues from this one show alone—a show that remains equally popular around the world.
“This is an old-time classic and a mustsee in my opinion: a story of all time that stood the generations and years of running,” says Anna Kroupina, owner of the Pemberton Dance Studio. “It is the most attended ballet worldwide around Christmas, the story about dreams and adventures. Even if you are not a ballet fan, this performance is meant to engage with costumes, humour, acrobatics and a Christmas spirit.
“It is one of those ballets where you don’t need to read the libretto to know what the dancers are dancing about.”
In comparison with last year’s production, which featured involvement from Mountain Movement Dance Collective and Whistler’s Dance with Jane, Kroupina’s outfit has re-arranged several scenes like the famous Battle. An upgraded wardrobe of costumes is sure to help everybody look their best on stage.
Coastal City Ballet professionals are again on hand to mentor local youngsters and play the roles of the Prince and the Sugarplum Fairy. Kroupina encourages her pupils to view the whole undertaking as a pro production, not a recital. The Pemberton cast is all in.
“We have been practising five to seven hours every week since the first week of September,” Kroupina explains. “Taking on a full ballet production is no joke—very hard and it takes a lot of time to learn the
storyline and choreography. There has been a tremendous growth in our dancers. They have done our three-month crash course in ballet training, as we call it.”
Cast members vary in age from seven to 47. Coastal City talents aren’t the only adults involved, for there are several moms who feature in the show’s vibrant party scene performing alongside their daughters.
“At Pemberton Dance Studio, we truly believe there’s something magical about moms and daughters sharing the joy of dance,” says Kroupina. “Most of our moms are former dancers, and dancing along with their daughters means re-living their own dance days. So for them really it is a chance to connect, create more memories, and share the same passion for dance.
“We’ve seen first-hand how special it is when families come together in our programs, whether it’s through dancing side-by-side, attending performances, or simply cheering one another on. We love celebrating the bond that dance can foster and are proud to provide opportunities for families to connect, grow, and share in this journey.”
A studio alum is also part of the team. Sophie Booth grew up training under Kroupina and company before moving away from the Sea to Sky, but is returning to her old stomping grounds for one more memorable act before high school graduation.
The show would not be going on without help from key local sponsors. Kroupina wishes to thank Creekside Market and the Pemberton Lions for their support, as well as Pemberton Valley Nurseries for transporting the entire set into Whistler.
“This year we are excited to [offer] child and senior price tickets alongside adult tickets,” she elaborates. “Proceeds from performances will be given back to the local community groups like the Pemberton and District Healthcare Foundation and Pemberton Arts Council to make a positive impact. Tis’ the season!”
The Nutcracker will run on Dec. 21 at 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at the Maury Young Arts Centre. Visit pembertondance.ca/thenutcracker for tickets and more information. n
1087MadeleyPlace inCheakamusCrossing
Bu y Yo urDreamChaletinWhistler ! Th e casua l eleganceofthisspaciou s 4-bedroom , 2.5-bathhous e (recentl y upgraded)offersafantasticResortlifestyle on a private cornerlot in a popular local neighbourhood.
Step s fromwalkin g& bikingtrails , plus re laxingsound s of a nearbyrive r. Enjo y world-clas sre creatio n atWhistler Blackcom b an d Callagha n Olympi c Park Easyaccess toFunctionJunction, Creekside&WhistlerVillage.
GS T exempt , nostrata(HOA ) fees , re sidentia l zoning(notWHA) , currentl y exemptfromForeignBuye r Ba n& BC Speculation Tax.
Here’s a quick look at some events happening in Whistler this week and beyond. FIND MORE LOCAL EVENT LISTINGS (and submit your own for free!) at piquenewsmagazine.com/local-events
ART OF THE COCKTAIL
ART OF THE COCKTAIL: EMILY CARR & PARIS
Celebrate Emily Carr’s Birthday at the Audain Art Museum. Take part in the vibrant art talk and cocktailmaking event, blending creativity and craftsmanship in a refined-yet-lively setting.
> Dec. 13, 5 to 6 p.m.
> Audain Art Museum
> $30
THE PEOPLE’S FILM PRESENTS: ELF
Get ready for a magical evening as The People’s Film brings you the holiday favourite, Elf. Follow Buddy the Elf as he journeys from the North Pole to New York City in search of family, friendship, and the true meaning of Christmas. Filled with laughter, heartwarming moments, and plenty of holiday spirit, Elf is the perfect movie to enjoy with loved ones.
> Dec. 14, 7 p.m.
> Maury Young Arts Centre
> $11.30
CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT
Join the Whistler Naturalists for the annual Christmas Bird Count. Open to anyone interested in learning about birds and contributing as a citizen scientist, no experience necessary. Participants will join leaders and be spread out around Whistler. After, enjoy a wrap up party with food. If you are interested in being part of the count and/or helping to organize it please contact at shamas.mason5@gmail.com.
> Dec. 14
> Various locations
> Free
MONDAY NIGHT SPECIAL AT WHISTLER OLYMPIC PARK
Take advantage of discounted tickets and rentals on Monday nights. Spend time on the well-lit trails or light
up your journey with a headlamp. Explore under the beautiful starry skies of the Callaghan Valley and when you need a break, stop by the fully-licensed café in the Day Lodge and indulge in delicious specials.
> Dec. 16, 3 to 9 p.m.
> Whistler Olympic Park
> $10
APRÈS KARAOKE
Après Karaoke hosted by Monty Biggins happens every Wednesday in The Living Room at the Pangea Pod Hotel.
> Dec. 18, 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.
> Pangea Pod Hotel Living Room
KOKANEE VALLEY RACE SERIES
Come out and have some fun with your friends and coworkers. This race series is open to skiers, snowboarders, and telemarkers with different gender and age divisions. No racing experience is required to join in on the fun of recreational racing. Everyone is eligible to win great prizes each race. Series is held on select Thursdays including Dec.19, Feb. 13, March 6 and March 20.
> Dec. 19
> On-mountain
> Registration required
ELECTRIC KITCHEN
Electric Kitchen is about facilitating wider connections and musical development amongst Whistler’s growing scene of electronic producers. Open to all levels, the open workshop format means guests can explore multiple elements of music production with hands-on experience at their own pace.
> Dec. 19, 7 p.m.
> Whistler Public Library
> Free
PHOTO BY OLGA MAZYARKINA/ ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS
Your daily dose of trusted local news headlines, delivered straight to your inbox five days a week
Formoredetailedinformationvisit: www.sd48seatosky.org or contactyourEnglishcatchmentschoolprincipal.Weencourage parentsandguardianstoregisterassoonaspossibletohelp schoolsplanforSeptember2025.
Anenormousthank yougoesout to Shop Local Give Local’s participatingWhistlerbusinesseswho gave5%ofsalesonSaturday,December7 to WhistlerCommunity Foundation’sCommunity Fund.
The Great 2x4 Race
BY ALLYN PRINGLE
We’d alsolike to shareourappreciation for shopperswho tooktime to shoplocal to givelocal. Gifts to Whistler’s Community Fundsupportflexible grantingthat addresses evolving communityneeds by supportingcharitiesmakingapresent-day impact.
Add to ourfundraising totals at
whistlerfoundation. co m
ON NOV. 29, 1984 , the Whistler Question published the first “Inside Edge” column by Doug Sack, a new addition to the local paper. Sack came to Whistler from the Yukon where he had been working as a catskinner in the mines. His first job in Whistler was working as a catskinner for Art Den Duyf in gravel pits, which Sack once described as “gold mines without the pipelines and sluice boxes.”
Sack, who also had some experience in sportswriting, was taken on by Question editor Kevin Griffin and owner/publisher Glenda Bartosh to provide dedicated and comprehensive sports coverage for the paper for the winter of 1984-85. Perhaps
from ski racing. According to Sack, the planks “looked skiable.” On Dec. 6, 1984, Sack used his column to issue this challenge for a spring race: “I get to do whatever I want (or can) and you [Dave Murray] have to wear two-by-fours for skis, carry an anvil and drag an anchor down the course.”
The odds might have been stacked in Sack’s favour, but he wasn’t proposing to race against just any skier. Born in Abbotsford, Murray grew up skiing on Whistler Mountain and started racing as a teenager, even attending the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp. He joined the national ski team in 1971 and through the 1970s became known as one of the Crazy Canucks, alongside teammates Ken Read, Dave Irwin and Steve Podborski. Murray represented Canada at the 1976 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games and in 1979
The odds might have been stacked in Sack’s favour, but he wasn’t proposing to race against just any skier.
unexpectedly for a town that had by then successfully hosted two FIS World Cup downhill races, Sack was not a skier.
In his first column, Sack wrote that he intended to “open lines of communication that will facilitate the flow of sports news into the office.” According to Sack, this line of communication also brought him an offer of ski instruction from none other than Nancy Greene. Sack had declared his intent to take up skiing “in a personal quest to bring Skidder and Ego Bowl to their knees.” Greene’s offer was fortuitous as in his next column Sack issued a unique ski race challenge to Dave Murray, at the time the director of skiing for Whistler Mountain.
During a meeting in Murray’s office, Sack reportedly noticed a pair of two-byfour planks with bindings mounted and a hand-painted label that read “Crazy Canuck Demos,” given to Murray when he retired
was ranked third in downhill by the FIS and named British Columbia’s Athlete of the Year. Even though Murray retired from ski racing in 1982, he didn’t exactly stop skiing or racing.
When he was hired as Whistler Mountain’s director of skiing, Murray already had a vision of using race-training techniques to help improve the abilities of recreational skiers, in part through organized recreational races. Murray became the national chair of the Canadian Masters Alpine Series (an adult recreational racing series) and took over the summer ski camps on Whistler Mountain. Two years into retirement, even skiing on wooden planks (the anvil and anchor were dropped as race details were nailed down), Murray was a formidable opponent for a skier who had only just begun learning the sport.
Next week we’ll take a look at how Sack prepared for “The Great 2x4 Race” as he ventured into the world of skiing. n
ON EDGE Dave Murray racing.
MURRAY COLLECTION
1 MERRY AXE-MAS Pique’s annual Christmas bash at Forged Axe Throwing was a blast. Staff
OF FORGED AXE THROWING 2 A JOLLY GOOD TIME Whistler’s Mature Action Community’s annual Christmas Dinner and Dance raised more
$750 and collected two bins of non-perishables for the
Club Dec. 5, a few guests from the North Pole made a special appearance. Here’s Santa (Peter Shrimpton), Mrs. Claus (Rose Shrimpton) and elves Kathy White and John Thornhill. PHOTO
of Snowboard Instructors inducted Greg Daniells into the organization’s Hall of Fame at Whistler Brewing Dec. 4. Daniells was one of the first snowboard instructors hired at Whistler and has been with
4 SEASON OF GIVING 100 Men Who Care Whistler donated $15,400 to Lil’wat Nation’s
at the
ASTROLOGY
Free Will Astrology
WEEK OF DECEMBER 13 BY ROB
ARIES (March 21-April 19): If you were walking down the street and spied a coin lying on the sidewalk, would you bend down to pick it up? If you’re like most people, you wouldn’t. It’s too much trouble to exert yourself for an object of such little value. But I advise you to adopt a different attitude during the coming weeks. Just for now, that stray coin might be something like an Umayyad gold dinar minted in the year 723 and worth more than $7 million. Please also apply this counsel metaphorically, Aries. In other words, be alert for things of unexpected worth that would require you to expand your expectations or stretch your capacities.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The Taurus writer Randall Jarrell compared poets to people who regularly stand in a meadow during a thunderstorm. If they are struck by the lightning of inspiration five or six times in the course of their careers, they are good poets. If they are hit a dozen times, they are great poets. A similar principle applies in many fields of endeavour. To be excellent at what you do, you must regularly go to where the energy is most electric. You’ve also got to keep working diligently on your skills so that when inspiration comes calling, you have a highly developed ability to capture it in a useful form. I’m bringing this up now, Taurus, because I suspect the coming weeks will bring you a slew of lightning bolts.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): My upcoming novels epitomize the literary genre known as magical realism. In many ways, the stories exhibit reverence for the details of our gritty destinies in the material world. But they are also replete with wondrous events like talking animals, helpful spirits, and nightly dreams that provide radical healing. The characters are both practical and dreamy, earthy and wildly imaginative, well-grounded and alert for miracles. In accordance with your astrological potentials, I invite you to be like those characters in the coming months. You are primed to be both robustly pragmatic and primed for fairy-tale-style adventures.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): In December 1903, the Wright Brothers flew a motorized vehicle through the sky for the first time in human history. It was a very modest achievement, really. On the first try, Orville Wright was in the air for just 12 seconds and travelled 120 feet. On the fourth attempt that day, Wilbur was aloft for 59 seconds and 852 feet. I believe you’re at a comparable stage in the evolution of your own innovation. Don’t minimize your incipient accomplishment. Keep the faith. It may take a while, but your efforts will ultimately lead to a meaningful advancement. (PS: Nine months later, the Wrights flew their vehicle for more than five minutes and travelled 2.75 miles.)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): During the rest of 2024, life’s generosity will stream your way more than usual. You will be on the receiving end of extra magnanimity from people, too. Even the spiritual realms might have extra goodies to bestow on you. How should you respond? My suggestion is to share the inflowing wealth with cheerful creativity. Boost your own generosity and magnanimity. Just assume that the more you give, the more you will get and the more you will have. (PS: Do you know that Emily Dickinson poem with the line “Why Floods be served to us—in Bowls”? I suggest you obtain some big bowls.)
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The term “cognitive dissonance” refers to the agitation we feel while trying to hold conflicting ideas or values in our minds. For example, let’s say you love the music of a particular singersongwriter, but they have opinions that offend you or they engage in behaviour that repels you. Or maybe you share many positions with a certain political candidate, but they also have a few policies you dislike. Cognitive dissonance doesn’t have to be a bad or debilitating thing. In fact, the ability to harbour conflicting ideas with poise and equanimity is a sign of high intelligence. I suspect this will be one of your superpowers in the coming weeks.
BREZSNY
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Amazing Grace” is a popular hymn recorded by many pop stars, including Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, and Willie Nelson. Created in 1773, it tells the story of a person who concludes that he has lived an awful life and now wants to repent for his sins and be a better human. The composer, John Newton, was a slave trader who had a religious epiphany during a storm that threatened to sink his ship in the Atlantic Ocean. God told him to reform his evil ways, and he did. I presume that none of you reading this horoscope has ever been as horrible a person as Newton. And yet you and I, like most people, are in regular need of conversion experiences that awaken us to higher truths and more expansive perspectives. I predict you will have at least three of those transformative illuminations in the coming months. One is available now, if you want it.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Thinking outside the box” is an American idiom. It means escaping habitual parameters and traditional formulas so as to imagine fresh perspectives and novel approaches. While it’s an excellent practice, there is also a good alternative. We can sometimes accomplish marvels by staying inside the box and reshaping it from the inside. Another way to imagine this is to work within the system to transform the system—to accept some of the standard perspectives but play and experiment with others. For example, in my horoscope column, I partially adhere to the customs of the well-established genre, but also take radical liberties with it. I recommend this approach for you in 2025.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I don’t recommend burning wood to heat your home. Such fires generate noxious emissions harmful to human health. But hypothetically speaking, if you had no other way to get warm, I prefer burning ash and beech wood rather than, say, pine and cedar. The former two trees yield far more heat than the latter two, so you need less of them. Let’s apply this principle as we meditate on your quest for new metaphorical fuel, Sagittarius. In the coming months, you will be wise to search for resources that provide you with the most efficient and potent energy.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The world’s longest tunnel is more than 56 kilometres long. It’s the Gotthard Base Tunnel in the Swiss Alps. I’m guessing the metaphorical tunnel you’ve been crawling your way through lately, Capricorn, may feel that extensive. But it’s really not. And here’s even better news: Your plodding travels will be finished sooner than you imagine. I expect that the light at the end of the tunnel will be visible any day now. Now here’s the best news: Your slow journey through the semi-darkness will ultimately yield rich benefits no later than your birthday.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Would you like to avoid wilting and fading away in January, Aquarius? If so, I recommend that during the coming weeks, you give your best and brightest gifts and express your wildest and most beautiful truths. In the new year, you will need some downtime to recharge and revitalize. But it will be a pleasantly relaxing interlude—not a wan, withered detour—if in the immediate future you unleash your unique genius in its full splendour.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): My treasured Piscean advisor, Letisha, believes it’s a shame so many of us try to motivate ourselves through abusive self-criticism. Are you guilty of that sin? I have done it myself on many occasions. Sadly, it rarely works as a motivational ploy. More often, it demoralizes and deflates. The good news, Pisces, is that you now have extra power and savvy to diminish your reliance on this ineffectual tactic. To launch the transformation, I hope you will engage in a focused campaign of inspiring yourself through self-praise and self-love.
Homework: What will you revive, rejuvenate, and renovate in 2025? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
In addition to this column, Rob Brezsny creates EXPANDED
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
RENT SELL HIRE
Classifieds Where locals look
CALL OR PLACE YOUR CLASSIFIED WITH OUR ONLINE SERVICE FOR EITHER PRINT OR ONLINE...OR BOTH! Get the added punch to make your business ad standout with a classified display ad.
The Museum is currently seeking:
Marketing Coordinator
Support with advertising, social media, content creation, media relations, sales, and digital engagement.
• Full-Time
• $55,000 - $57,500 per year
• Health Benefits
• Transit Allowance
• Wellness Benefit
Apply and learn more:
DEADLINE FOR PRINT ADS Tuesday 12pm
Î Secure & scamless
Î Fully searchable
Î Targeted online community
Î Categorised listings
Î No reposting
Î Trusted by locals
Î Make your listing stand out with featured locations
Advertising Options
Î Packages start with 4 lines of text. Additional text ...................................$1/line
Î Add one image in print and up to three online as per package level.
Î Bolding ...........................................50¢/word
Î Border ..........................................................$2
* Rates are based on using Pique’s selfserve online application at classifieds. piquenewsmagazine.com
Free ad design, colour options, incentives for ad frequency. Contact a sales rep today.
Our team of people is what sets us apart from other builders. As we continue to grow as the leader in luxury projects in Whistler, our team needs to expand with us.
We are currently hiring:
Labourers ($20 - $30 hourly)
Carpenters Helpers /Apprentices 1st to 4th year ($25 - $35 hourly)
Experienced Carpenters ($30 - $45 hourly)
Carpenter Foremen ($40 - $50 hourly)
Rates vary based on experience and qualifications. Red seal a bonus but not mandatory.
EVR is committed to the long-term retention and skills development of our team. We are passionate about investing in our team’s future.
We offer:
• Top Wages
• Training & Tuition Reimbursement (Need help getting your Red Seal?)
• $500 Annual Tool Allowance
• Extended Health and Dental Benefits for you and your family
• Flexible Schedule - Work Life Balance. (We get it. We love to ski and bike too.)
• Assistance with Work Visa and Permanent Residency (We can help!)
• Positive Work Environment
We promote from within and are looking to strengthen our amazing team. Opportunities for advancement into management positions always exist for the right candidates. Don’t miss out on being able to build with the team that builds the most significant projects in Whistler. Send your resume to info@evrfinehomes.com We look forward to hearing from you!
Position Overview: The Clinical Services Manager provides leadership of a comprehensive range of nursing programs within community and public health, home care and patient travel in four First Nations communities of N’quatqua, Samahquam, and Skatin
Primary Responsibilities:
• Develop policies and guidelines for treatment services.
• Manage community, public health, primary care, and home care programs.
• Ensure nursing care standards and best practices.
• Provide leadership, mentoring, and guidance to staff.
Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from a recognized university
• 5+ years nursing experience, including:
• Public health (maternal, infant, child, youth, mental wellness, addictions)
• Home care (elder health, chronic disease management, injury prevention)
• 1+ year management experience
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to enhance community health.
• Supervise nurses and administrative staff.
• Manage health facility operations, including scheduling, prioritizing, and evaluating performance.
• Current RN registration with BCCNM
• Current CPR (HCP) certification
Special:
• This position is requires travel to indigenous communities served by SSHS, accessed by Forest Service Road
• SSHS offers a competitive benefits and employment package to full time employees
See full job posting on the careers page/website: sshs.ca/careers/
Apply now by sending your resume and cover letter via email: julia.schneider@sshs.ca
• 3+ years practical general accounting • Accounts receivable invoicing and collections
• Accounts receivable invoicing and collections
• Month end reconciliations including all bank and balance
• Month end reconciliations including all bank and balance
Financial analysis and POS system reporting What we offer:
Job Opportunity: Crusher Operator
Whistler Aggregates is seeking a skilled Crusher Operator with a strong background in maintenance and safety to join our team. This is a year-round position offering competitive wages, excellent benefits, and the opportunity to work in a safe, supportive environment.
Position Highlights:
5. Location: Whistler, BC
6. Role: Operate the crusher from the control tower, ensuring optimal performance and safety
7. Requirements:
1. Strong understanding of crushers and operational procedures
2. Proficiency in lock-out/tag-out protocols for safe maintenance and repairs
3. Preferred background in equipment maintenance and troubleshooting
4. Ability to work effectively under the guidelines of the Mine Act
8. Expectations: Safety-focused, reliable, and diligent in daily tasks
Join a trusted team at Whistler Aggregates! If you’re a dedicated crusher operator with the skills and commitment to safety we’re looking for, we’d love to hear from you.
Apply Now and become part of a team that values safety, skill, and teamwork in every task.
Lotus Spa & Lounge
We are looking for friendly & professional candidates to join us! Junior & Senior Masseuse (Full time/Part time) - Schedule Flexible
We are looking for friendly & professional candidates to join us! Masseuse, RMTs, Front Desk Agent (FT or PT)
Duties
Child & Family Services
Child & Family Services
Child & Family Services
Duties
• Offer a warm welcome to guests
• Social Worker ($80,371.20 - $91,673.40 per year)
• Social Worker ($80,371.20 to $91,673.40 per year)
• Social Worker ($80,371.20 - $91,673.40 per year)
• Offer a warm welcome to guests
• Provide Thorough, timely service
• Transition House Support Worker ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• Transition House Support Worker ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• Transition House Support Worker ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• Provide Thorough, timely service
• Maintain high levels of cleanliness
• Maintain high levels of cleanliness
Lil’wat Health & Healing + Pqusnalhcw Health Centre
• Transition House Outreach Worker ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
Lil’wat Health & Healing + Pqusnalhcw Health Centre
• Be on time for your shift, prompt with each appointment and perform services within the appropriate time allotted for the task
• Custodian ($17.40 to $20.90 per hour)
Lil’wat Health & Healing + Pqusnalhcw Health Centre
• Custodian ($17.40 to $20.90 per hour)
• Program Manager ($57,330 to $64,610.00 per year)
• Be on time for your shift, prompt with each appointment and perform services within the appropriate time allotted for the task
• Custodian ($17.40 to $20.90 per hour)
• Program Manager ($57,330 to $64,610.00 per year)
• Program Manager ($57,330 to $64,610.00 per year)
• Operations Manager ($59,878.00 to $73,564.40 per year)Would you please highlight/emphasize this position?
• Operations Manager ($59,878.00 to $73,564.40 per year)Would you please highlight/emphasize this position?
• Operations Manager ($59,878.00 to $73,564.40 per year)
• Family Mentor ($38,038 to $53,599 per year)
We are looking for organized, experienced individuals to join our fantastic team!
• Family Mentor ($38,038 to $53,599 per year) - Would you please highlight/emphasize this position?
• Family Mentor ($38,038 to $53,599 per year) - Would you please highlight/emphasize this position?
• Early Childhood Educator ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
We are looking for organized, experienced individuals to join our fantastic team! Located in the Summit Lodge Boutique Hotel, 4356 Main Street, Whistler Contact us on the info below or apply in person
Located in the Summit Lodge Boutique Hotel 4356 Main Street, Whistler Contact us on the info below or apply in person
• Early Childhood Educator ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• Early Childhood Educator ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
Ts’zil Learning Centre
Xet’òlacw Community School
Xet’òlacw Community School
• Program Mentor – ECE ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
Xet’òlacw Community School
• Elementary School Teacher - Grade 3 ($60,015 to $109,520 per year)
• Elementary School Teacher - Grade 3 ($60,015 to $109,520 per year)
• Camp Counsellor ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• Camp Counsellor ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• High School English and Humanities Teacher ($60,015 to $109,520 per year)
Community Development
• High School English and Humanities Teacher ($60,015 to $109,520 per year)
• High School English and Humanities Teacher ($60,015 to $109,520 per year)
Community Development
• Cultural Camp Supervisor ($46,683.00 to $63,973.00 per year)
Community Development
• Cultural Camp Supervisor ($46,683.00 to $63,973.00 per year)
• Band Social Development Worker Assistant ($17.40 to $20.90 per hour)
• Cultural Camp Supervisor ($46,683.00 to $63,973.00 per year)
Please visit our
for
Please visit our career page for more information: https://lilwat.ca/careers/
Please visit our career page for more information: https://lilwat.ca/careers/
Give ‘til it hurts
APROPOS OF NOTHING at all, I always thought Scrooge was a grossly misunderstood character. I also thought he was a skinflint and suffered from a condition that, today, would anchor a whole chapter in the DSM-5, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Given that every other tic and quirk
BY G.D. MAXWELL
imaginable has been distilled to and labelled a psychiatric malady, I’m sure Scrooge’s parsimony would qualify. He clearly had an unhealthy relationship with money, being unable to even spend it on himself.
Conveniently, Scrooge and Christmas are forever linked. I’m certain I’m not the only person who feels the unsettling rumblings of latent Scroogeish tendencies this time of year. We’re endlessly bombarded with pitches to buy, to give, to indulge, to make merry.
I mildly envy those people who take a pass on the whole Christmas gift-giving thing. I don’t mean the people who are too poor to participate in the annual consumer extravaganza or those non-Christians who still view it as a religious holiday incompatible with their own creationist myths. I mean the people who have decided it’s a decadent excess fest and they won’t have anything to do with it on Higher Moral Principles. The Buy-Nothings. The Voluntary Simplists. The Anti-Consumers who believe all this unnecessary seasonal buying frenzy is a big business conspiracy that will eventually destroy the planet.
Of course, I think they’re nuts, too. Likely deeply psychologically scarred from the time many years ago when the bicycle they wanted to find on Christmas morning more than anything else in the whole wide world turned out to be an encyclopedia or pair of new pajamas under the tree. I imagine they’re insufferable hypocrites who browbeat their friends with a multiplicity of causes du jour and exhibit a judgmental disdain for any new purchase those friends have been gauche enough to acquire.
But right about now, I secretly envy them. Somehow they’ve overcome that mutant twist of human DNA that makes us want to express feelings we may not be willing to admit we have by giving someone something we’d really rather keep for ourselves or not buy in the first place. They skate through this seasonal disorder without a care in the world except the nagging doubt that all of their friends think they’re crazy old Scrooges.
Like most people I know, I was an irredeemable greedhead as a kid. I still read magazines from back to front instead of front to back. I imagine it’s because all the really cool catalogues that came to our house in the run-up to Christmas had the toys in the back and I never saw the point of those other, wasted pages. Women’s clothing; don’t care. Men’s clothing; don’t care. Household goods; don’t care. Might as well start at the back, that’s where the good stuff is.
During the months of November and December I would memorize the page numbers, descriptions, price and stock ID numbers of the toys I wanted, and we’re talking about a feat here that would put Mr. Memory to shame. I didn’t write Santa letters; I wrote epistles. I think I might have even threatened to forget leaving milk and cookies out if the old boy didn’t come through.
I marvel at what was surely a tsunami of nonsense my parents put up with in trying to juggle and balance the screaming demands of four self-centred children with the reality of a one-income household. For this was truly
But the main reasons I envy the bah humbug crowd is because a) I’m a terrible shopper, b) most of the people I’d feel compelled to buy a present for already have whatever they need and in some cases want, exotic cars notwithstanding, c) I’m a terrible shopper—I know, I’m repeating myself; but I’m bad enough at it to mention it twice— and, d) I’m conflicted because there are now grandchildren in my life who I would happily indulge in the most fatuous whimsy that sparked their little imaginations.
Fortunately, age has whittled down the list of people for whom I might feel compelled
I mildly envy those people who take a pass on the whole Christmas gift-giving thing.
a golden era of childcentric holidays. Sure, in some ways things were simpler. I mean, bikes were bikes, two tires, one speed. Electronic toys didn’t exist. The only things that needed power were trains and those nerdy chemistry sets guys like Theodore Kaczynski got.
But there were more kinds of dolls and toy pistols and board games than there are Pokeman characters and woe was seriously visited on the parent who screwed up and couldn’t find the right one, at least after their kid was old enough to stop believing that “Santa must have run out, honey,” crap.
to buy a Christmas present. My siblings and I have agreed it’s silly to buy each other anything at this point in life although, come to think of it, they agreed on that when I moved to Canada 45 years ago.
My Wonderful Wife and I have reached a detente about presents, for the most part. We buy what we need when we need it and pretend it’s a Christmas/birthday/anniversary present. Currently we’ve identified purchases that’ll account for those holidays well into the next decade. But neither of us are keeping score.
Online shopping has alleviated much of the paralysis I experience in retail settings. Too many people, too many choices, not enough differentiation, rarely exactly what I’m looking for. I feel less guilt about it because of the postal strike, which is absurd since I wouldn’t be mailing any of those gifts anyway. I rationalize, therefore I am.
A strong desire to support local businesses has helped as well, since the choices locally aren’t as daunting as they were when I lived in a big city. I tithe my thanks to Armchair Books, the gift shops at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre and Audain, all the clothing and gear stores around town and, of course, various liquor outlets.
And with so much need, the easiest gift of all is charitable contributions. So much help needed and so few resources. Give ‘til it hurts and ironically you’ll feel better for it.
But as a free gift for anyone who still likes to have stories told to them—and who doesn’t—there will, once again, be a free holiday reading of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the cosy fireplace room at the library on Friday, Dec. 20 at 7 p.m.
I won’t reveal who’s reading Scrooge except to say it isn’t the mayor... again. Bad optics this year. But the usual suspects and a new face will be there, and Alison Hunter will fill the room with suitably festive, soothing harp music before and after. All you have to do is show up.
If you want to come, register with the library so they can plan a seat for you: publicservices@whistlerlibrary.ca, and if you have something to donate to the food bank, there is always a need. n
