On the eve of its demolition, take a look back at Hillman House, one of Whistler’s oldest—and most historically significant—buildings. - By Brandon Barrett
06 OPENING REMARKS In a ski town that thrives on youth, acting editor Brandon Barrett asks how Whistler can close its widening demographic disconnect.
08 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letter writers this week debate in favour of their preferred candidates for the Sea to Sky’s member of Parliament.
19 RANGE ROVER Sure, every ski area, whether Whistler, Vail or Deer Valley, has its quirks to make fun of, but the real fun is that it’s all skiing, writes Leslie Anthony.
38 PIQUE’N YER INTEREST Those of us who’ve managed to stay in Whistler have an obligation to set the cloak of cynicism aside, and perpetuate possibility, writes Lisa Richardson.
12 OUT OF RANGE A proposed summer hiking trail through the Spearhead would impact sensitive mountain goat habitat, according to documents obtained through an FOI request.
15 HOMECOMING The return of 16 artworks to the Squamish Nation from the Canadian Museum of History, spearheaded by Chief Janice George, was years in the making.
22 BIG MACK Pemberton teen Mack Manietta is about to live a dream come true: being mentored by local legend Finn Isles.
26 CHAIR UP THERE Almost 600 monologues in, John McGie brings his unique, blackbox theatre show, The Chair Series, back to The Point.
COVER One of the things that could be associated with the “downfall of Whistler” is how uncommon and unacceptable couch surfing is no w. - By Jon
Publisher SARAH STROTHER - sstrother@piquenewsmagazine.com
Founding Publishers KATHY & BOB BARNETT www.piquenewsmagazine.com
// @jon.parris.art
Bridging Whistler’s demographic disconnect
AS A REPORTER and a creative in this town, I have spent a not-insignificant amount of time thinking about how to best connect with the young 20-somethings who call Whistler home—if only for a season.
It’s the kind of demographic disconnect that is especially pronounced in a place like Whistler, where the vast majority of young adults in town are here for a good time, not a long time, and therefore less incentivized to venture too far out of their own social circles to connect with the community in a meaningful way.
BY BRANDON BARRETT
I was reminded of this last Friday, Jan. 17 at the Whistler Museum’s Icon Gone event, which made its return after a 12-year hiatus. Inviting local personalities to debate in favour of their chosen icon from Whistler’s past, it was the kind of irreverent, occasionally R-rated fun we locals excel at. (Here’s where I confess I was responsible for most of the R-rated content: defending Whistler’s long affinity for nudity, I only had to threaten to expose myself to the crowd a couple times.)
And yet, for all the fun that was had, the Maury Young Arts Centre theatre was mostly filled with shocks of silver hair. Now, you might expect the audience to lean older at this kind of historical event—I mean, who better to appreciate Whistler’s past than the people who were actually there for it—but it’s a trend you see in various arenas across Whistler. Municipal council meetings, sparsely attended affairs as is, tend to only attract
younger residents when there is a particularly contentious decision being made that directly impacts them.
It’s a challenge Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) staff and officials acknowledged in October as part of a presentation unveiling the results of the 2024 Community Life Survey, a poll of residents and second homeowners on everything from municipal services and decision-making to housing and community well-being. Typically involving a phone and online poll that reaches hundreds of people every year, the RMOW struggles with getting young, temporary residents to participate.
“We know how many are responding to the online survey and it’s minuscule,” said municipal economic development officer Richard Kemble at the Oct. 8 committee of the
municipal election. “My problem will be health-care as I get older. I’m not going to have a housing issue. I’m not going to have an employee issue. I don’t want to own a business because I’m retired. So we brought up problems tonight and discussed things that affect almost nobody in this room.”
I want to be clear here: this isn’t meant to chastise Whistler’s young population (not that they’re likely to read this, anyway). I fully understand there are many other more fun and interesting ways to fill one’s time in Whistler than attending hours-long council meetings or learning about the history of a community you only plan to stay in for a winter or two. And, let’s face it, it’s not easy to make ends meet as a young frontline worker living in one of the costliest communities in the country. Perhaps if young Whistlerites
community to preserve and share our history. Acknowledging that Whistler’s older generations are “leading the charge” on this front by donating artifacts and sharing stories, he reminded me we all have a role to play in shaping what will become this town’s history.
“We often forget that history is being made every day,” he said. It’s this point that often gets lost when considering Whistler’s younger demographics, who I think can feel as though they are not a significant part of this community. Nothing could be further from the truth. For decades, dating back to before Whistler was even Whistler, young adults have formed the lifeblood of our culture, moulding it in their image.
We would be remiss if we didn’t remember that fact.
[F]or those who are young at heart, if not actually young, maybe there’s a youngin’ or two in your life you can bring into the fold. So many young Whistlerites are half a world away from their usual support networks...
whole meeting.
That lack of youth engagement means advocacy on issues that impact Whistler’s young adults the most often falls on those in other age and socioeconomic brackets.
“I actually didn’t talk about a single problem that I’m going to face in this community,” a retired homeowner told Pique at an all-candidates meeting ahead of 2022’s
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were better taken care of, they’d feel a deeper sense of belonging and would be motivated to contribute to their home away from home in new ways.
In this week’s cover feature about Hillman House, one of Whistler’s oldest and most historically significant buildings, I asked Whistler Museum executive director Brad Nichols about how we’re doing as a
And for those who are young at heart, if not actually young, maybe there’s a youngin’ or two in your life you can bring into the fold. So many young Whistlerites are half a world away from their usual support networks and they could benefit from the kind of wisdom and generosity I know many locals have in spades. Because sometimes the best families are the ones we build ourselves. n
After 29 years, a well-earned retirement for WB snowmaker
Putting the Rocky Mountains as a barrier between your parents in Calgary and you, to become an adult in a ski town named Whistler, is as good as any divide or border to escape many of life’s big decisions. Many of us have made this choice.
Arriving in Whistler in 1996, fresh as we all are as we enter the arena of good times, you stood out with a clean mind and clean body; not a drop of alcohol or drugs in your temple, which is the complete opposite mantra of Tiny Town and its associated good times at every corner of our village.
You came to Whistler as a young snowmaker who knew the mountains were a great place to escape. You learned how to drive a snowmobile, check guns, thaw frozen jets, and report on equipment and most importantly, how to cover the runs that slide our guests down ski-outs to the valley below. Seriously, no one wants to download.
You worked your way up as an apprentice to a journeyperson millwright, a trade that would become your pedestal to leap into management. As an early adopter of GIS, I
watched you walk to every location on both of our mountains, mosquitos getting their drink on as you located and logged our snowmaking infrastructure.
You took on the new role without hesitation, anchoring your education, your experience and
coached your team to cover our runs with snow to extend our winter season well into spring. You managed many kilometres of pipe, hundreds of hydrants, pumping millions of gallons of water from our valley uphill to the reservoirs in the alpine to be ready for each
winter season, and did so easily, with grace, precision and teamwork.
Finding family was a turning point; you built your backyard into a daycare providing a safe space for other children in the neighbourhood and then became a
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Backcountry Update
AS OF WEDNESDAY, JAN. 22
For more than a week now, we have been experiencing cold, dry weather. This stable weather pattern has created a prolonged period of low avalanche hazard. For adventurers looking to explore new areas or venture into complex terrain, this has likely been a fantastic stretch of opportunity. However, for those chasing deep powder days, it probably feels like a never-ending waiting game.
The weather forecast suggests this cool, dry pattern will persist through the weekend. This means the avalanche hazard is expected to remain relatively low, but riding conditions are unlikely to improve significantly.
But don’t let the lack of fresh snow discourage you! This is the perfect time to brush up on essential skills. Companion rescue techniques are critical for backcountry safety, and they require regular practice to stay sharp. Even the most seasoned backcountry travellers know the importance of keeping their rescue skills finely tuned—because when the need arises, precision and confidence can make all the difference. Consider setting up practice avalanche rescue scenarios with your riding
partners to simulate real-life situations, improve communication, and ensure everyone is confident in their skills. You’ll be happy you did.
You might also want to think about taking an Avalanche Canada Training course. Visit avalanche.ca/training/courses to see what’s available. You’ve got lots of options in Whistler, including a bunch more this season.
The most notable hazard for those heading into the backcountry this week is likely the challenging travel conditions created by hard, smooth snow surfaces. Planning ahead is key. Make sure you’re equipped with the right tools to arrest a fall. Before committing to steep terrain, take a moment to think about your strategy for self-arrest in the event of a slip. Preparation is the foundation of safe and enjoyable backcountry adventures.
Remember, this dry spell won’t last forever. Sooner or later, the storms will return, and with them, the incredible powder days we all love. In the meantime, take advantage of the stable conditions to explore, practice, and prepare for when the coast delivers its next round of unforgettable riding. 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.
great parent for your own children. It is your family that will now gain your time and big heart, while it is our loss here. We greatly appreciate your 29 years of service to your pals and gals on Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. You are a mentor, an implementer, a mediator and an industry leader. We thank you, NaTai.
Gary Yoshida // Whistler
Hey Keith Roy, Canada is not ‘an abject failure’
First of all, I would like to push back against Keith Roy’s statement that “Every metric by which you can measure our country is an abject failure.” [“Federal Conservative candidate Keith Roy ready for the writ,” Pique, Jan. 18.] This is simply not true. If you do a quick Google search, you will find that Canada is consistently rated in the top five countries in the world for quality of life. The statement reminds me of the hyperbole coming from south of the border these days.
Repeating Pierre Poilievre’s battle cries: axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, stop the crime may not resonate so well in our riding. I think we have a more sophisticated electorate that can see beyond slogans, as our provincial election results have shown just last fall.
A quick look at “axe the tax”: Presumably he means the carbon tax—well, here in B.C., the decision about the carbon tax is actually
up to David Eby and not Poilievre.
“Build the homes”: The federal involvement in building affordable housing has been neglected by successive governments (both Liberal and Conservative) since the ’70s—that is how we ended up in this predicament 50 years later. No government is going to be able to fix that overnight.
“[I]t is not going to cut it to just try and ride in on Poilievre’s coattails.”
- ERICH BAUMANN
“Fix the budget”: Judging from the performance of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, that wasn’t such a rosy picture either.
And finally “stop the crime”: We are hearing this from Conservative politicians because it sounds good. To actually tackle crime rates takes hard work by police, courts and investing
in social programs that are proactive rather than reactive.
And back to a couple of the top issues in the last provincial election: 1) Improved regional transit between our Sea to Sky communities: Roy doesn’t seem to have an opinion except for his hands-off approach to “local matters.”
Well, if he is hoping to represent this riding, he better pay more attention to what is important to the local electorate.
2) The same goes for the matters of forest fires, flooding and melting glaciers, which are all tied to climate change and green energy policies. When I read the federal parties’ election platforms, it is clear to me that the Conservative platform addressing these issues is the weakest of all six federal parties (except for the People’s Party).
In the Sea to Sky corridor, it is not going to cut it to just try and ride in on Poilievre’s coattails. Especially since we have enjoyed the federal support by an energetic and hardworking MP in Patrick Weiler.
Erich Baumann // Whistler
MP Patrick Weiler does not deserve to be re-elected this year
The Sea to Sky corridor and Sunshine Coast
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.
electorate, like many Canadians, are feeling justified frustration and dissatisfaction about the state of our economy and the cost of living.
The cost of living and inflation are critical issues impacting everyone. Yet, while these concerns dominate conversations, our current federal representative, Patrick Weiler, has failed to adequately address them. The need for effective action on housing, small business support, and other pressing issues remains unmet. His efforts, while perhaps well-intentioned, have not delivered tangible improvements for our communities.
As we look ahead to the upcoming federal election, I urge voters in the Sea to Sky corridor to reflect on the leadership we need to represent our region. Our MP must go beyond toeing the party line and bring forward real solutions to combat inflation, improve affordability, and address the unique needs of our local community.
At a time when Canada is grappling with significant challenges, including inflation, the housing crisis, and a new regime in Washington, we need leaders with clear, actionable policies who can advocate effectively for the people they represent. Weiler’s track record does not inspire confidence that he is the person for the job.
It’s time for change. Let’s elect a representative who can deliver real results for the Sea to Sky corridor, Sunshine Coast, and all Canadians.
Patrick Smyth // Whistler n
Proposed Spearhead trail in question
THE ROUTE WOULD IMPACT MOUNTAIN GOAT HABITAT, ACCORDING TO DOCUMENTS OBTAINED THROUGH A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST
BY LIZ MCDONALD
DOCUMENTS RECEIVED as part of a Freedom of Information request show a proposed summer hiking trail in the Spearhead would traverse through sensitive mountain goat habitat.
The 2023 document, titled “Proposed Spearhead Summer Trail Summary of Potential Impacts to Mountain Goat (Oreamnus americanus) and Other Values, BC Parks,” highlights the Spearhead summer hiking trail that was announced by BC Parks in 2021, starting at Decker Tarn on Blackcomb Mountain and ending at BC Parks’ Russet Lake campground, near Kees and Claire Hut. The 11.6-kilometre alpine trail proposal includes two campsites, the Trorey campsite and the Fitzsimmons campsite, each with 15 tent pads. The BC Parks document estimates 135 overnight visitors per day, plus additional use from day hikers.
While the concept of a summer hiking trail in the Spearhead has been bandied about for 30 years, with Garibaldi Provincial Park’s 1990 Master Plan calling for an alpine hiking trail connecting Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, knowledge of sensitive mountain goat habitat has also been evolving. A 2014 amendment to Garibaldi’s master plan called for future hiking trails to “follow the Management Plan for Mountain Goat in British Columbia recommendations and may require detailed assessments to ensure impacts to Mountain Goat habitat are avoided.”
The BC Parks document notes about half of the proposed trail crosses through winter and summer range for mountain goats and “it is expected that goats will be using the area around the proposed Spearhead Trail year round.”
The trail would also be important
for backcountry recreators trying to access the future huts proposed by the Spearhead Huts Society.
The document was obtained by the BC Mountaineering Club and published on its website.
The proposed route was conceived by current Whistler Councillor Arthur De Jong in his former role as Whistler Blackcomb’s mountain planning and environmental resource manager. De Jong has dreamed of a summer hiking route in the Spearhead for 20 years, initially pitching it to BC Parks as part of Whistler Blackcomb’s master plan. He spoke to Pique in his role planning the technical route.
“[Mountain] goats were always discussed when I initially went to [BC] Parks with this layout, integrating Whistler Blackcomb with the BC Parks system,” he said. “That was an environmental consideration that was always on the table and I fully respect their position on it.”
THE MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN GOAT
B.C. is home to half of the world’s mountain goat population, according to the Ministry of Environment’s Management Plan for the Mountain Goat (Oreamnos americanus) in British Columbia from 2010. They live in areas with steep terrain and stealthily climb scree to escape predators like wolves, cougars and bears.
Mountain goats are of “special concern” and are assigned blue status in B.C.’s conservation framework because they are sensitive to human activities.
In the Spearhead, pre-existing cumulative impacts from human activities include “impacts from ski touring and heli-skiing; hiking; the Russet Lake campsite and the Kees and Claire Hut; impacts from planning and construction from the two additional Spearhead huts; and ongoing maintenance and helicopter supported surveys for the Kees and Claire Hut. If the Spearhead Trail was constructed, additional predictable and currently unforeseen impacts would follow.”
While work on the trail would likely “cause mountain goats to temporarily move out of the area … long-term impacts are impossible
to predict. In the absence of ongoing activity, mountain goats may move back into the area once activity ceases; however, when considered in combination with increased human activity from the ongoing use and operation, the likelihood of this scenario decreases.”
Another potential outcome from the trail is human-wildlife conflict, with mountain goats attracted to improperly stored food and human waste from hikers and campground users.
Kim Poole, a wildlife research biologist who worked on the province’s 2010 mountain goat management plan, said it will be up to BC Parks to decide whether the trail is worth the risk.
“The critical window is from mid-May to mid-July for birthing and kidding; outside that window there’s less sensitivity. But the impacts are not easily predicted,” he said.
The province’s study on goats in the Spearhead suggested closing access to the trail during birthing windows to mitigate impacts, and alternative route proposals were also rejected for feasibility and goat-related rationale.
IMPACT ON SPEARHEAD HUTS
Jayson Faulker, a serving director and the founding chair of the Spearhead Huts Society (SHS), which is responsible for fundraising and building huts in the Spearhead, said if a summer trail doesn’t come to pass, that would pose a problem for summer access to Pattison Hut.
“The trail in question is on the south side of the range from Blackcomb. Obviously, if that trail in the summer wasn’t there and usable, that’s going to make it difficult for summer use at the Pattison Hut, and it would make the travel time from Blackcomb to Macbeth Hut in the summer long. That trail is important for the Pattison Hut if it’s going to be a summer-use facility,” he said.
Not only is it important for summer-use from the SHS’ view, but summer access was also a requirement from BC Parks.
“When we originally did the huts, one of the foundational requirements asked by BC Parks is that the huts be accessible year-round. That makes a lot of sense from a public-use point
of view. I think everyone is committed to the concept of year-round use,” he said.
The report from BC Parks also noted that, without a designated summer trail, people are more likely to traverse through sensitive habitat and trample alpine vegetation, which is already happening near Russet Lake and Kees and Claire Hut.
Faulkner said, from his perspective, BC Parks is committed to understanding the cumulative impacts and “digesting and working through” how to navigate the competing user group impact on mountain goats, with helicopters and aircraft being of specific concern.
BC Parks’ study on mountain goats in the Spearhead highlighted short-term and longterm stress on mountain goats from aircrafts.
Whistler Heli Skiing Ltd. has a park use permit for heliskiing in the Spearhead. The permit is set to expire in 2026, and BC Parks is currently making recommendations on whether heliskiing will continue.
MINISTRY RESPONDS
The Ministry of Environment said in a statement the proposed trail is only preliminary and BC Parks hasn’t decided where the final route will go.
“The preliminary route was used to conduct an initial assessment of environmental, recreational, archaeological and cultural values in the area, and assess potential impacts of the trail and identify data gaps,” the ministry said, adding the route was also used to determine if the trail would match strategies in the 2014 Garibaldi Park Management Plan Amendment.
“BC Parks is currently collecting additional data on mountain goat distribution and habitat use in the Spearhead Range and has hired a contractor to conduct a cumulative effects assessment for the area, focusing on mountain goats. The decision about whether or not the Spearhead Trail moves ahead will be made after the cumulative effects assessment is complete.”
The assessment would cover Garibaldi Park to the Mamquam River and Boise Creek and inform future decisions in Garibaldi.
Find the full story online, and check back with Pique in the coming weeks for more. n
TAKE A HIKE BC Parks estimates the proposed trail would have 135 overnight visitors per day, plus additional use from day hikers.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ARTHUR DE JONG
Sea to Sky MP Weiler endorses Carney for Liberal leadership
THE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT SAYS HE IS ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT MARK CARNEY MOVING THE LIBERAL PARTY BACK TOWARDS ITS CENTRIST ROOTS
BY LUKE FAULKS
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
SEA TO SKY MP Patrick Weiler has formally endorsed former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney for Liberal Party leader and 24th prime minister of Canada.
Carney announced his official bid for the Liberal Party leadership Jan. 16, a few days after soft-launching his campaign on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. His bid for prime minister is his first run for public office.
Carney is credited with overseeing Canada’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and helping ease the economic stress of Brexit on the U.K. in his role as governor of the Bank of England. It’s that economic background that makes Carney an attractive candidate, said Weiler.
“Mark is going to focus on what can make Canada as resilient as possible, which is having a strong economy,” Weiler told Pique. “So I have faith with him leading the party and leading the country, that he’ll be laser-focused on economic growth, and making sure that the markets work for Canadians.”
After the economy, Weiler listed affordability, lower taxes and the green and digital transformations as potential priorities for Carney and areas where he was excited to collaborate with the former central banker.
He added that Carney’s past work pushing for banks to decarbonize their investments will come in handy when lobbying the private sector to invest in the green economy.
“I’m very confident that we will actually go significantly further in reducing emissions, but do it in a way that’s going to create a lot of jobs and economic benefit in Canada.”
A CHANGE CANDIDATE
Weiler endorsed Carney in a statement on Jan. 15—a day before Carney officially announced. In his endorsement, Weiler said Carney represents a shift back towards the party’s centrist roots—a space the MP argues the Liberals have shifted away from, partly as indicated by the now-finished supply and confidence agreement with the NDP.
“I think the key thing is there hasn’t been a sufficient focus on economic growth, and that’s going to be the area that he’s going to be focusing on going forward that is particularly important right now,” said Weiler.
That shift is part of a wider vision Carney and his supporters are working to project. The candidate has been billed—whether by himself, Weiler or other MPs—as a change candidate and political outsider.
“He’s not part of the government right now, not part of the cabinet, and he can introduce some changes to key policies that
need to be done, and bring a fresh voice to this,” said Weiler.
The Conservative Party pushed back on that characterization of Carney, writing in a press release he is the “furthest thing possible from an outsider” after being a longtime party “insider, advisor” and the chair of the party’s economic growth task force. Conservative Party leader Pierre Pollievre has also called Carney an “economic radical,” describing him as a Justin Trudeau-like Liberal who supports a carbon tax and will pursue job-killing policies.
THE RACE SO FAR
On Jan. 6, Trudeau announced his resignation as prime minister, in the wake of plunging support and calls from within his own party to step down in the face of the Conservatives’ significant lead in the polls. With Parliament now prorogued, all parliamentary activity, including legislation, studies and committee work, has been halted until Parliament returns with a new session. This prorogation is set to last until March 24, by which point the Liberal Party expects to have elected a new leader.
So far, MP Frank Baylis, MP Chandra Arya, Carney, and former finance minister Chrystia Freeland have announced their candidacies.
Weiler said his decision to endorse Carney was partly driven by Carney’s engagement with him and the MP’s conversations with Sea to Sky residents.
“I’ve received nothing but positive feedback for making that decision,” he told Pique. “But with that said, Mark still needs to prove it to the rest of residents, to Liberals and Canadians, that he’s the right person to do the job.”
Leader candidates had until Jan. 23 to declare they will run. The party will vote to choose a new leader on March 9.
Members of the Liberal Party can vote in the leadership race, so long as they’re registered at least 41 days before the election.
An election is expected by Oct. 20, though with Conservatives planning a motion of no-confidence against the ruling party, an earlier election is possible.
LIBERALS AND THE 2025 ELECTION
Weiler first called for Trudeau to resign during an Oct. 23 party meeting. He reiterated those calls after Freeland resigned in December.
In the nearly two weeks since Trudeau announced his resignation, polling has improved for the Liberals. A Jan. 17 poll by EKOS Politics found the Conservatives’ lead had shrunk to 11 points, a sign of the wider wave of optimism that Weiler and his party
SEE PAGE 14 >>
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Renowned slam poet Shane Koyczan digs into mental health at Whistler events
THE SPOKEN-WORD ARTIST IS COMING AS PART OF WHISTLER WALDORF SCHOOL’S COMMUNITY YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH SERIES
BY LIZ MCDONALD
SHANE KOYCZAN’S ability to distil complex emotions into succinct and poignant vignettes of humanity is what rocketed him to spoken word fame in 2000, when he became the first Canadian to win the U.S. Poetry Slam Championship. Decades later, his work is still reverberating.
Whistler Waldorf School (WWS) has invited Koyczan to Whistler as part of the school’s Community Youth Mental Health Speaker Series events. In a twopart instalment spanning January and February, his work will be on display through film with a screening of a documentary starring Koyczan Jan. 28 at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre (SLCC), followed by a spoken word performance Feb. 24 at the Maury Young Arts Centre.
The documentary, Shut up and Say Something, follows Koyczan as he reconnects with his father. The poet said it speaks to the intrinsic need in people to understand their own origin stories.
“It’s very trying to traverse the silence that existed between us for over two decades. There’s a lot of territory to cover and try and squeeze into six minutes,” he said. “You don’t necessarily see everything that happened
behind the scenes, because that project took about three years.”
Despite, in his words, “opening a vein in front of people” for his poetry, Koyczan said starring in the film was a different scope of personal exposure.
“That was scary, watching it all get squeezed down or compressed into something that was, I guess, digestible for an audience. It was an interesting process for me, to say the least,” he said. “You know, some of it sort of makes you squirm.”
Despite the challenging emotions, the poet said the documentary helped him reconcile with his father and process growing up without him.
Ali Blancher, program coordinator for WWS, said bringing in Koyczan aligns with the Waldorf curricula. Students have a poetry block where they learn about other poets and create their own work.
“He was tapped because, for our institution and for Whistler, he is a wellrenowned spoken-word poet. We at Waldorf work quite strongly with poetry, spoken work and artistry,” Blancher said. “Poetry is a wonderful way to express feelings, thoughts and ideas. It’s a great way to deal with difficult subject matter.”
Speaking at school events is something Koyczan said he’s happy to do, because he lacked those same supports as a youth.
“Schools don’t usually have big budgets to bring in all the people they want. So, when they decide to address mental health, that’s something I take seriously,” he said. “When I was growing up there was no support for bullying, there was no crisis line. I think it’s great that schools are actively seeking to engage students about their own mental health and help them understand that what
they’re going through isn’t their fault or something they should feel ashamed of.”
The events are free, but registration to both the film screening and poetry reading is required. Donations are welcome and funds will go towards the Whistler Community Services Society and the SLCC’s Youth Ambassador Program.
Find more info at whistlerwaldorf.com. n
MARK CARNEY NOMINATION FROM PAGE 13
are feeling about their chances, the MP said.
“Certainly this is going to be a challenging election,” admitted Weiler. “But particularly since the prime minister announced his intention to resign, there was an optimismintensive opportunity that hadn’t been there for some time.
“We had a deeply unpopular leader and that was a huge, huge obstacle for us to get over. And I think now with fresh faces, with some fresh ideas, there’s a sense of opportunity.”
He also argued Canadians are less enamoured with Poilievre than they are tired of the Liberals’ direction under Trudeau.
“I never hear a clamouring for Pierre Poilievre,” said Weiler. “So that says to me that there were a lot of people that were parking their votes with the Conservatives that are more centrist. And if we can present a
centrist vision focused on the issues that they care about with a compelling leader, I feel very strongly about our chances nationally.”
OFFICE HOURS DURING PROROGATION
Weiler also reminded residents his office is open while Parliament is prorogued.
“The positive part of that is it allows me to be much more in the community—to be at community events, to meet people in my office, and so I’m really looking forward to being there and connecting with constituents in that way,” he said.
The MP’s main office, located at 6367 Bruce Street in West Vancouver, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Constituents can also reach Weiler’s staff at 604-913-2660. n
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Squamish Nation artwork slated for return was decades in the making
‘ANYTHING WE CAN REACH BACK AND PULL FORWARD FROM OUR ANCESTORS IS IMPORTANT TO OUR PEOPLE,’ SAYS SQUAMISH NATION HEREDITARY CHIEF JANICE GEORGE
BY LIZ MCDONALD
FOR 20 YEARS, Squamish Nation’s hereditary Chief Janice George has been patiently waiting for the return of ancestors’ belongings from the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.
This spring, she will no longer need to wait. A total of 16 artworks, or as George said, “our belongings,” will be on display at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre (SLCC) and welcomed home through a ceremony led by the Squamish Nation. This important work is woven into George’s own journey: she discovered the items while interning with the CMH in 2005 and ’06.
“A lot of people made it happen, and it’s a thrill to know it’s finally happening. I did an internship with the CMH, and I noticed what was there from the Squamish Nation,” she said.
George went to work digging into CMH’s catalogue and, over nine months, compiled a binder full of the Nation’s belongings. She was the co-curator and co-designer of the SLCC and is educated in museum studies.
“I wanted to be grounded in museum knowledge for my work at the SLCC, but it’s also helped with our weaving. We have connections with museums to unveil apprentices work [there]. All of it together has helped,” she said.
Stéphanie Verner, senior media relations and communications officer for CMH, explained in an email the items are on longterm loan to the Nation because the items didn’t meet the museum’s current repatriation policy.
“While the cultural material did not meet the criteria of the Museum’s 2001 Repatriation Policy, the importance of having the belongings closer to Squamish Nation was understood by all involved,” she said. “A longterm loan was considered the most expedient way to do so. The Museum’s Repatriation Policy is currently being revised, and the current loan arrangements do not preclude future repatriation.”
George and her husband, Willard “Buddy” Joseph, co-founded L’hen Awtxw Weaving House to teach Salish wool weaving after learning it themselves. Their journey to learn how to weave in the Salish tradition was spurred from a desire to represent their culture on a global stage and reclaim skills taken from Indigenous people through colonization.
“My husband and I worked really hard at bringing weaving back to our people,” she said. “We learned about being hosts for the [2010] Olympic Games and it was important we wear our traditional garments. It was a spiritual experience for the community to go back to what our ancestors did, bringing pride in technical aspects and embracing the spiritual and energetic component of making
PULLING FROM THE PAST Skwetsiya (Harriet Johnnie) was a weaver from the Squamish Nation. She is pictured here in a screenshot from a 1928 film.
SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF THE CANADIAN MUSEUM OF HISTORY
Tourism researcher seeking survey respondents from Whistler
A STUDY OUT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND UNIVERSITY IS EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF TOURISM ON RESORT MUNICIPALITIES IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
BY LIZ MCDONALD
FLYNN SAUNDERSON is a second-year master’s student of community planning at Vancouver Island University (VIU), and his thesis explores the impact of tourism on resort municipalities throughout B.C.
By sharing their lived experience, Whistler residents can provide their thoughts on the positive and challenging parts of living in a resort town, with the survey asking respondents questions about housing, economic benefits or drawbacks, cultural impacts and the natural environment.
2025 planning@slrd.bc.ca Squamish-LillooetRegionalDistrict Planning Department POBox219,Pemberton, BCV0N2L0
He’s currently seeking survey respondents from Whistler. With 14 resort municipalities under his microscope, so far, he’s had 1,100 respondents. However, response numbers from Whistler are currently low, despite the ski town having the highest population of all towns surveyed. As of Jan. 15, he’s only had 20 responses from Whistler. “It’s the largest of all resort municipalities, I was hoping it would be a bit more robust,” he said.
Saunderson’s path to studying resort municipalities is informed by his lived experience. He grew up in Tofino and Ucluelet and went on to study tourism management before pursuing his masters. Between educational stints, he interned and then worked as a marketing specialist for Destination Canada, looking at domestic tourism post-COVID-19.
“That led to a personal reflection period coming out of the pandemic,” he said. “How could communities manage tourism? We’re seeing resident-tourist conflict in certain parts of the world. With growth in tourism the last decade, how are destinations approaching this from a management perspective? What are the perspective and experiences of individuals who live there currently? It’s different from community to community.”
The anonymous survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Respondents will be entered to win one of three $50 giftcards to a local grocery store as an incentive.
While individual resort towns like Whistler have done studies on the impacts of tourism, Saunderson said his literature review didn’t reveal any province-wide trends on the topic. By taking a view from 3,000 feet up, he’s hoping to inform local governments and the province on B.C.-wide trends.
The researcher is also interviewing municipal staff. Responses are confidential and analyzed in the aggregate to see trends across the province.
“I’m hoping to provide an understanding of what people are experiencing with tourism and the tourism economy, but also what resort municipalities are dealing with from their perspectives. This would provide information to potentially form knowledge that could be acted upon for community-level supports, and potentially at provincial levels. It’s too early to say what those would specifically be,” Saunderson said.
He’s hoping to have enough survey responses by Jan. 26. The other communities surveyed include Tofino, Ucluelet, Rossland, Revelstoke, Golden, Harrison Hot Springs, Osoyoos, Valemount, Sun Peaks, Kimberley, Fernie, Invermere and Radium Hot Springs. n
SQUAMISH NATION ARTWORK
garments for our people.”
One of the items housed at the CMH is a silent film featuring Squamish master weaver Skwetsiya (Harriet Johnnie). The film was made in 1928 by archeologist Harlan Ingersoll Smith. Skwetsiya is Willard Joseph’s grandmother, and George said a baby seen in the film is his mother.
“My great, great grandfather was also in the film, seeing the things [Smith] purchased that belonged to our ancestors, I don’t know if these items would have been on display for the public. Rather than being there, it would mean so much to our people to have the video and the items,” she said.
Verner said Smith purchased items in 1928 for the National Museum (the predecessor of the CMH) from the Johnnie family. Some were displayed in galleries, including Coast Salish baskets. Three baskets, two spears, a hat and an elderberry beater belonged to George Johnnie, and food samples, cooking tools and a weaving piece belonged to his wife, Harriet.
“Bringing these items back brings knowledge. [Our ancestors] were just so
FROM PAGE 15
brilliant. They are engineers and architects, scientists, doctors. It’s so prideful to bring back these things so our children can learn about it,” George said. “I think about my husband and I who do public art; our grandchildren and great grandchildren will see the work that we’ve done.”
It’s a full-circle moment, with intergenerational knowledge preserved for generations to come.
The items will be studied by Squamish Nation members to learn how they were made and available for public viewing at the SLCC.
The SLCC will house the items because community members will have access, according to George.
“Anything we can reach back and pull forward from our ancestors is important to our people,” she said. “It was not allowed because of residential school era, or our people went underground. To have something that was created, and our ancestors had the freedom to create and use materials and to understand the spirituality attached is so important for the foundation of our culture.” n
Lil’wat seeking building for new health-care staff and services
THE
ES ZÚMIN’ PRIMARY CARE CENTRE AIMS TO PROVIDE CULTURALLY SAFE, TRAUMA-INFORMED HEALTH-CARE TO LIL’WAT AND SURROUNDING NATIONS
BY LUKE FAULKS
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
IN UCWALMÍCWTS, “es zúmin’” means “to care for.” It’s a name befitting Lil’wat Nation’s new and expanding primary care centre (PCC).
But after only a few months of operation, Lil’wat Nation officials are seeking a new building to merge its two existing es zúmin’ locations to accommodate new staff and account for future upgrades in service.
“Our communities are growing in this area and our current system isn’t able to provide services to all our First Nations communities,” said Lil’wat Health & Healing director Jessica Frank. “We also want to have these new services closer to home, and [offer] outreach services to the community and other places.”
DISCRIMINATION IN HEALTHCARE
The es zúmin’ PCC is one of 13 new primary care facilities across B.C. funded by the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA).
“The importance of the es zúmin’ primary care centre is to ensure that we have culturally safe services for Indigenous communities, like traditional healers,” Frank told Pique
A 2020 report from Dr. Mary Ellen TurpelLafond found widespread racism towards
Indigenous people in British Columbia exists, that it limits access to medical treatment, negatively affects the health and wellness of Indigenous peoples, and disproportionately affects Indigenous women and girls.
The report found more than one in five Indigenous respondents reported feeling “not at all safe” when interacting with hospital social workers and security staff.
Indigenous women were 83 per cent less likely to feel “completely safe” when visiting the emergency department.
That discrimination extends to Indigenous health-care workers, who “face racism and discrimination in their work environments,” leading to job dissatisfaction and poor retention, the report said.
Not having adequate local primary care makes emergency department visits more likely. Primary care consists of comprehensive health-care for non-lifethreatening medical issues. The Canadian Health Institute found that 15 per cent of visits to emergency between April 2023 and March 2024 could have been managed through a primary care provider.
But the combination of a province-wide shortage of family doctors, remoteness and discrimination in health-care conspire to drive up emergency visits.
According to the FNHA and the B.C. government, the PCCs are an effort to combat structural inequities in care by creating more locally accessible health-care centres that cater to Indigenous patients.
“Dismantling and eradicating Indigenousspecific racism from B.C.’s health-care system continues to be a key priority for our
government,” said former B.C. minister of health Adrian Dix in a release. “Part of this work is expanding access to First Nations-led, culturally safe health-care and work in partnership with the local First Nations and FNHA.
“The new [PCCs] will help deliver highquality, patient-centered primary care for communities around B.C., bringing the care and services people need closer to their homes, and are another important step forward in our journey toward Reconciliation.”
IN SEARCH OF A NEW FACILITY
Since its opening in fall 2024, es zúmin’ has operated out of interim facilities in the Pq’usnalcw Health Centre, located at 11090 Black Bear Road, and the Southern Stl’atl’imx Health Society, located at 321 Ir 10 Road.
The PCC currently delivers services to local First Nations through a “hub-and-spoke model”—an approach consisting of a main health-care campus and one or more satellite campuses. The es zúmin’ hub is at Pq’usnalcw, while the spoke is at the Southern St’atl’imx Health Society. Virtual and mobile clinics for N’Quatqua, Samahquam, Skatin, and Xa’xtsa (Douglas) are also available.
The centre serves the FNHA Southern Stl’atl’imx sub-region—an area that extends 150 kilometres from N’Quatqua in the north to Tipella (Xa’xtsa/Douglas Nation) in the south. This sub-region includes five First Nations communities: the Líl’wat, N’Quatqua, Samahquam, Skatin and Xa’xtsa (or Douglas) Nations.
A map of First Nations Primary Care
Centre jurisdictions is available through the FNHA.
But Lil’wat Health & Healing is looking to consolidate the es zúmin’ hub-and-spoke model into a new facility in Mount Currie.
“We need a permanent location for es zúmin’, because right now they’re temporarily housed,” said Frank. “And so we want to look at a new facility to house our current 19 staff members.”
Frank estimates a facility with roughly 5,000 square feet would best serve the PCC’s staff and programs, while leaving the door open for future upgrades to service.
“There’s other dreams that we have for the facility,” said Frank. “Because our X-ray, our lab and our pharmacies are getting overloaded as well, and so ... we hope to be able to enhance those services as well.”
Frank says Lil’wat Health & Healing is looking to BC Housing for a new facility.
JOB OPENINGS
The First Nations health authority is looking to fill seven full-time positions for the es zúmin’ primary care centre—nurse practitioner, family physician, a clinical manager, community dietitian, physiotherapist, social worker and transportation coordinator/ driver.
The PCC is also looking for housing for those new health-care workers.
A post made on the Pemberton B.C. Canada Housing Rentals Facebook group on Dec. 9 asked for “rental properties, temporary accommodations, and creative ideas” to help support that new staff. n
TAKE CARE The Lil’wat Health & Healing building in Mount Currie.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CASCADIA WINDOWS
Pemberton’s lone beaver caretaker stepping down
RYSZARD BRJALKO LOOKS BACK ON SIX YEARS AS ONE MILE LAKE’S ‘BEAVER MAN’
BY LUKE FAULKS
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
devoid of beaver dams. Brykajlo recognizes the critical role beavers play in keeping ecosystems healthy, and allowed dams that didn’t impede salmon to remain.
RYSZARD BRYKAJLO has been engaged in a stalemate with Pemberton’s beaver population for the last six years.
The trails around One Mile Lake are filled with evidence of his efforts to thwart the animals—stacks of sticks pulled from dams, cages around half-eaten trees and a massive rubber pipe that used to run beneath a dam.
Brykajlo does it all out of a love for the beavers.
“I keep the beavers alive and they keep me in shape,” he joked.
Now, closing in on his 75th birthday, he’s retiring as One Mile Lake’s “Beaver Man” and looking back on his battle with the toothy locals.
“Especially when we have this uncertain weather, and we have these droughts,” said Brykajlo. “Beavers create these dams [which then] collect water.”
The inverse is true as well: beaver dams not only help prevent droughts, but they can also help minimize the impacts of floods. Dams help slow down the flow of water, which delays and reduces flood peaks further downstream.
Wetland habitats are bolstered by beaver dams retaining water, which in turn create spaces for other species, including fish, mammals, waterfowl, songbirds, amphibians and insects—strengthening an area’s biodiversity.
Agricultu C
DISCOVERING PEMBERTON’S BEAVER POPULATION
“Because of how important the species are in the environment, there are all kinds of movements of people who call themselves ‘beaver believers,’” Brykajlo said.
When he moved to Pemberton eight years ago, Brykajlo signed on with the Stewardship Pemberton Society (SPS) to help manage the salmon population—a volunteer role that involved counting fish and learning how to measure the health of critical creeks. During a count six years ago, he came across a strange feature: a dam on the outflow creek used by salmon during the annual migration to the ocean.
“I’m a beaver believer.”
THE FUTURE OF BEAVERS ON ONE MILE LAKE
Brykajlo announced his retirement in a Jan. 5 Facebook post. He said he’s received nothing but positive comments from locals during his time as the One Mile Lake Beaver Man.
Formoreinformationcontact: Alix MacKay,SLRDPlanner : 604-894-6371,ext.224|| E-mail:amackay@ Tel slrd.bc.ca
“So I contacted [SPS] and asked, ‘Why would someone build a dam here?’” recalled Brykajlo. “And a few days later, I got a reply: ‘That is definitely a beaver dam.’”
In addition to blocking salmon, damming the outflow creek could lead to stillwater on One Mile, creating the perfect breeding ground for bacteria that could render the popular swimming area unusable.
Still, Brykajlo was initially worried removing the dams would destroy where beavers live, but a subsequent review of the literature confirmed the animals don’t actually reside in dams.
Beavers build dams in an effort to raise water levels, expanding their territory and offering protection from predators. They live in lodges, mounds of branches and other vegetation that sit on water at least five feet deep.
The lodge at One Mile is visible and located near a dog-friendly beach at the northeastern end of the lake.
So, with the endorsement of the Village of Pemberton (VOP) and SPS, Brykajlo set about removing the dams, spending four hours every couple weekends tossing sticks aside, usually in the main outflow creek that beavers would block to raise water levels.
BEAVERS AND A HEALTHY ECOSYSTEM
That’s not to say that One Mile Lake is now
“Everyone was very supportive to my work,” he recalled. “They would always give me a smile, and they always thanked me for my work. And there was even this one lady who brought homemade cookies.”
SPS’ executive director Crystal Conroy said, although the society is working with the VOP on a beaver management plan, it isn’t actively looking for a replacement for Brykajlo right now.
“At Stewardship Pemberton, we will continue to advocate for ongoing maintenance of the dams in the channels to allow beavers to thrive in the area while helping to prevent vegetation overgrowth, keep the lake healthy for swimmers, and prioritize providing salmon access to return to their spawning location,” she said. “Working with the Village of Pemberton, we will continue to explore solutions that prioritize the well-being of the beavers and support sustainable management practices.
Brykajlo is optimistic about the beavers’ future. He hopes someone steps in to manage the animals to avoid a tough choice between having a growing beaver population or having healthy salmon runs and a swimmable lake.
“Maybe it is not very important, but this lake has a beaver,” he said. “Maybe there are some more important places for beavers. But I thought, ‘Where it is possible, every piece of work you do helps.’”
Read this story in full at piquenewsmagazine.com. n
It’s all skiing
IN THE HALCYON DAYS of the mid-’90s, when I was managing editor at Powder magazine, still de facto voice of the “core” ski community (both Freeskier and Freeze would appear in 1997), a main task was coming up with ways to lampoon the industry’s sacred cows, from ski tests to nacho plates to fashion to, naturally, resorts—something readers expected and we did with élan. The two places most in our crosshairs at the time were perceived as
BY LESLIE ANTHONY
dull bastions of corporatized mainstream skiing and corduroy-based deliverance: Vail, Colo., and Deer Valley, Utah.
No thought was given to whether this assessment was fair; after all, “Vail Sucks” bumper stickers, then ubiquitous in ski country and manufactured and distributed by rival Coloradan skiers in Aspen, long preceded my tenure at the magazine. We were merely leveraging a long-running trope—that skiing was all about unbridled adventure, and places known mostly for groomed runs and strict boundary policies were anathema to this idea.
But after a few years of travel for stories and industry events that saw me visit dozens of ski areas, including Vail, I had a chance to re-evaluate. At least one thing was clear: Vail didn’t really suck.
As the continent’s fourth-largest resort, Vail was fine. Good even. If you avoided weekends, it was big, spacious, and you could have a ton of fun. There was plenty of variety save for the expert kind, but that wasn’t its market. It hosted foreign visitors, local aficionados and events like the World Ski Championships and U.S. Open of Freeskiing with distinction. It wasn’t the best (Whistler!) but definitely nowhere near the worst. Sure, its famed Back Bowls didn’t live up to their legendary status (a sentiment from a more innocent time in skiing), but it was hard to say whether it
Anyone who has skied Deer Valley knows it’s different. A unique, ski-only experience (one of only two places in the U.S. where snowboards aren’t allowed) where a customer cap and pod-style lift plan efficiently spread skiers out to obviate the massive liftline chokepoints seen at most other large ski areas. A place where grooming takes on the mien of sculptural perfection and an unparalleled customer-service vibe spills over to fellow skiers, who smile a lot and hold doors for you—completely counter the dog-eat-dog feel of most large ski areas, where folks hustle to pass you at every (literal) turn.
Though perhaps overhyped for the time, it was most certainly overvilified. I had some memorable times—and skiing—in Vail.
was the fault of the resort’s PR team or overeager media (Powder exempted). Though perhaps overhyped for the time, it was most certainly over-vilified. I had some memorable times—and skiing—in Vail.
Deer Valley, on the other hand, remained an amusing other, a boutique beast to be poked for editorial laughs. I’d never been, never had reason to, and, in those pre-internet days, knew only what I’d heard about—a warren of elitism, ski valets and gently sculpted groomers for rich folks. Whenever I was in Utah on Powder business, I’d find myself in Little or Big Cottonwood Canyon broing down with athletes and photographers. I wasn’t even sure where Deer Valley was. So, better late than never, last year I found out.
For Deer Valley’s visionaries—Edgar Stern and the great Norwegian ski-god Stein Eriksen—this was the plan from its 1981 outset: skiing as it should be; skiing as you wish it was. It seems I was finally old enough—and had skied enough post-pandemic shouldn’tbe-and-wish-it-wasn’t—to appreciate that. I immediately loved it. Having zero previous knowledge of this long-inculcated legacy, it was also interesting to discover it was about to triple its terrain from 2,026 acres to 5,726; from 103 runs to 238; from 21 lifts to 37; and an entirely new base access and accommodation to be called East Village. It will be the largest increase of skiable acreage in recent North American history, vaulting the resort into the company of the continent’s largest and
elevating it for future generations.
But hey, this place has already been around a couple of generations and inculcated itself into North American ski life. Like Vail, it’s part of a much bigger picture we’re all connected to, something I realized as I sat in an on-hill bar called The Sticky Wicket.
As expected in such places, the walls were covered in ski memorabilia such as posters, photos, skis, license plates, trail signs and even covers of Powder—the very magazine that once made fun of it. History advises us to keep the past in the present, but where does the past begin and the present end? I crossed that threshold by knowing all the skis on the wall because I’d either owned them or someone I knew did; by knowing not only where all the photos were taken by location, but also the photographer and athletes because many of both counted among my friends. Classic shots of JP Auclair and Henrik Windstedt in Åre, Sweden, by Mattias Fredriksson, with whom I’ve travelled the world. A shot of another frequent travel companion, Mike Douglas, on the Blackcomb Glacier by my late disc-golf buddy Bruce Rowles. Tanner Hall, who I’d first met as a teenager at the erstwhile Extremely Canadian Lodge in Whistler, soaring over the infamous Chad’s Gap in Alta, Utah, by Brent Benson. And a scheisse-ton of skiers in Verbier, Switzerland, by Marko Shapiro.
These photos, these skis, these people all meant something from the past that was relevant to today—and as relevant to the place where I saw them as to where they were taken. We were, I realized, always living history, and needed to respect it. Sure, every ski area has its quirks to make fun of, but the real fun is that it’s all skiing.
Leslie Anthony is a Whistler-based author, editor, biologist and bon vivant who has never met a mountain he didn’t like. n
POWDER PR In his days at Powder magazine, Leslie Anthony says the two ski areas most in its crosshairs were dull bastions of corporatized skiing and corduroy-based deliverance: Vail, Colo. and Deer Valley, Utah.
Remembering the hippie haunt, Hillman House
On the eve of its demolition, Pique looks back at one of Whistler’s oldest—and most historically significant—buildings
By Brandon Barrett
illman House, the historic home on the shores of Nita Lake, is significant due to sheer age alone. Built in the mid-1940s by lumberman Alf Gebhart, the Bavarian-style home ranks among Whistler’s oldest standing buildings. But numbers alone don’t do it justice.
“That particular structure is unique in that it has connections to the logging industry, skiing, second homeowners and employee housing, as well as Whistler’s counterculture of the ’60s and ’70s,” said Brad Nichols, executive director of the Whistler Museum. “There’s not a single story that goes with that building, there are many stories.”
If its wood walls could talk, Hillman House would surely have no shortage of stories to tell. Over the course of eight decades, it has witnessed the community’s transformation from a cluster of summer homes and forestry operations to the modern mecca of ski tourism it is today, with threads connecting to each era of Whistler’s unlikely evolution.
On the eve of its demolition, Pique looks back at one of the community’s most historically significant buildings, as well as the challenge of preserving the past in a young and transient ski town addicted to constant progress.
The Gebhart Years
n 1936, Gebhart and his wife Bessie purchased a sawmill and lumber camp from a retired Indian army officer. Almost a decade later, after Gebhart had relocated the mill from 32 Mile Creek to the southeast end of Alta Lake, he eyed a patch of land near Nita Lake for his retirement home. Enlisting a Scottish mason who built the thick stone basement “substantial enough to hold a castle,” remembered former tenant John Hetherington, Gebhart used lumber from his mill for the walls and siding, and leftover sawdust for insulation.
Fine in the summer months when Alta Lake’s tiny population reached its zenith, the cabin proved difficult to warm up in the winter.
“To heat the place, it’d have needed to hold the sun,” Hetherington joked in a 2015 Pique interview.
Although Bessie was certainly not enamoured with the cold, dark cabin, the Gebharts stayed there until the sawmill’s closure, before leaving it to their son, railway worker Howard and his wife Betty. In the early ’60s, the house was sold to Vancouver schoolteacher Charles Hillman, precipitating its most infamous era as a popular flophouse for the town’s ski bums, hippies and burners; also when it earned its moniker as the original Toad Hall.
No, not that Toad Hall
illman was a man who defied easy categorization. Growing up in the woods of Ontario, he was a skilled outdoorsman, learning how to fish, hunt and skin rabbits, and helping his father build cabins in Muskoka cottage country. An accomplished educator, he oversaw a one-room schoolhouse in Glen Orchard packed with 48 students from Grades 1 to 12. Described by friends as a debonair, James Bondlike socialite, Hillman was the understated gentleman who
Vancouver schoolteacher Charles Hillman in the 1980s.
Courtesy of the Whistler Museum
could win over a crowd (especially the ladies) with his musical abilities and array of smooth-as-butter dance moves, which would serve him well on the ski slopes, too.
“He walked with [Fred] Astaire’s style—one foot directly in front of the other—and he skied like Stein Eriksen, the world’s most graceful skier, with Charles a close second,” wrote longtime friend, Dr. Ted Hunt, in honour of what would have been Hillman’s 100th birthday in 2017. “It was spellbinding to watch him on a wide track—such as Olympic Run—cutting long, sweeping turns in perfect form, with a vapour trail of powder snow blowing behind him.”
They were skills that would lend well to Hillman’s moonlighting as one of Whistler Mountain’s original ski instructors when it first opened for business in 1966. It was around that time that Bill Rendell and a couple friends discovered the seemingly abandoned cabin, kicking out the packrats and moving in. (They couldn’t keep the packrats away for long: Hetherington remembers having to regularly hide his socks, which the rodents loved to shred and use for their nests.) A draughtsman by trade, Rendell was responsible for crafting the instantly recognizable Toad Hall sign—named after Mr. Toad from the classic children’s novel, The Wind in the Willows— that hung over the cabin’s
entrance until Hillman reclaimed the home for himself and (amicably) kicked out the ski bums, who took the sign with them to another popular squat.
Speaking to the home’s various iterations over the years, it goes by at least three different names: the Gebhart Cabin, Hillman House, and Toad Hall, the latter causing confusion to this day, with some people mixing it up with the Soo Valley squat made famous by the iconic 1973 poster depicting 14 men and women in nothing but smiles and their ski boots, an image that has come to define Whistler’s heady hippie days, hanging on walls from Creekside to Kitzbühel.
Hetherington moved into Hillman House in late 1967 with three fellow 20-somethings: Jim Burgess, Drew Tait and Mike Wozniacki. Though they were the cabin’s official rent-paying tenants, they had a hard time convincing the steady stream of ski bums squatting there of that salient point. With a shortage of housing around town— plus ça change —it wasn’t unusual for Hetherington to wake up in the mornings, only to find a bunch of strangers crashing anywhere there was space, chicken coop included.
“Because I was the smallest guy, I was appointed the person to kick them out,” Hetherington recalled.
Long before online housing forums, word travelled far and wide about Whistler’s original Toad Hall, with random guests showing up unannounced under the belief they would be welcomed with open arms—which they were, at least for the night.
“One night and you’re out, that was our policy,” Hetherington said.
The rare times the drafty cabin would warm up was when the boys hosted one of their legendary house parties, which Hetherington said could attract up to 150 people, making up the lion’s share of the town’s population at the time. (Population figures from Whistler’s pre-incorporation days are estimates. The community’s first official census, in 1976, counted 531 residents.)
“Drew had bought a stereo system about the size of a small suitcase, and we’d get that going. We’d have music and invite whoever wanted to come along,” Hetherington said. “Lots of people would show up in various ways. The house would get warm from all the people and the activities and the fires. It was the only time the place would ever get warm.”
Eventually, Hillman wanted to reclaim possession of his cabin, and with police from Squamish in tow, he entered with a court order for the squatters to leave. (None of the prior tenants still lived there.) But not before granting them an extension so they could throw one last party.
Hillman used the property as his secondary residence in the ’70s, restoring some of its original design.
After its time as what the Whistler Museum called “a focal point of the growing counterculture in Whistler,” the home was eventually returned to the rental pool. Hetherington, who lived at Hillman House off and on over the course of three years, got to visit the home with his daughter in 2019, when it was still being rented.
“The building has been pretty much continuously used for a long time,” he said. “It’s really quite changed since I lived there. It had an electric stove, and a lot of other changes had happened.”
Ironically enough, the building’s tenants were unaware of the cabin’s long and storied history.
‘There needs to be a bigger conversation about heritage preservation’
n September, Whistler’s mayor and council got a look at a staff report assessing the current state of the Hillman House, as developers continued work on a mixed-use housing project on the site at 5298 Alta Lake Road.
In short, the building was in rough shape. Parts of the siding had rotted, ankle-deep water had flooded the basement, and the interior—save for a lonely dryer machine—had been completely gutted after asbestos was found. It was, quite literally, a shell of its former self.
Owned by the developer, the Michael Hutchison-led Empire Development Co., the building was supposed to be transferred to the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) and placed in a public park nearby on the same lot as part of the project’s approval conditions, with a deadline of January 2025 for its relocation.
But with an estimated price tag of $415,000—costs that would at least partially be covered by the developer—to relocate the cabin, restore it and bring the interior up to code for, at minimum, seasonal use, officials decided against its preservation.
“Is there anything in this building that is unique and salvageable?” asked Councillor Jeff Murl at the Sept. 24 committee of the whole meeting. “I think the best part we’ve been able to preserve is the location … Having a building that’s not functional, that was pieced together quite quickly at the time is not something I’m as interested in.”
The decision came after much consternation from officials, who debated a variety of options to at least partially maintain the cabin, including moving the exterior shell to Rainbow Park, where several small, historic cabins dating back to the 1920s now sit.
Coun. Jessie Morden seemed to wrestle the most with the decision, mentioning her mother, former Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden, and her past as a squatter in 1970s Whistler. Initially voting against the building’s demolition at the September committee of the whole meeting, Morden reluctantly flipped her vote when it came back to council the following month, citing the high cost.
“When I walked through it, it was a nightmare,” she said of the state of the cabin. “If you saw it, you wouldn’t want to put money into it either, because it’s just not feasible financially.”
Although the building will be demolished, council ultimately voted in favour of staff’s recommendation to provide a replacement amenity at the park onsite—officials discussed a picnic shelter using some of the wood from the original building—that would offer information and recognition of the cabin’s history and cultural significance. The developer will also provide a cash contribution, equal to the total estimated remaining cost of moving and repairing Hillman House, to the Recreation Works and
or avenue for heritage designation has ever been formalized. In 1993, Hillman House was included in a draft inventory of significant heritage sites in the resort that was developed by the municipality and community volunteers. The RMOW has no record of the report ever being received by council.
More recently, a summary of local heritage sites was in the works, a joint effort by the Whistler Museum and the RMOW, that was put on pause in the pandemic.
Nichols, the museum’s executive director, said he understands the “tough decision” officials had to make on Hillman House given the price tag to preserve it, “but it doesn’t make the sting any less.” He’s hopeful it will spark dialogue in the community.
“I was going to speak against this … but given everything that you have presented tonight, I will support this recommendation, but very apprehensively,” she said to municipal staff at the Oct. 8 council meeting. “We’ve talked about a mock design of a potential new Creekside Village, and we talked about how we’d like to keep that old-school Whistler vibe there. And so that’s why I’m apprehensive to knock this building down, because I want to hang onto our heritage.”
Maureen Rickli, who lived next door to Hillman House for five years in the ’80s while working at the Tyrol Lodge, was initially dead-set against council’s decision to demolish the cabin. That is, until she ventured to the site in December hoping to get a last look at it and preserve some artifacts for posterity. (She took a brick, a window, and a horseshoe hanging on the wall, items she has donated to the Whistler Museum.)
Services Reserve that will be used for heritage preservation and improvement, including several historical buildings located at the current site of The Point Artist-Run Centre near Alta Lake.
While that contribution will surely go a long way towards protecting Whistler’s remaining historic sites—there are 14 other buildings in the Whistler Valley older than Hillman House that the municipality recently identified as worthy of further investment—it does beg the question: why wasn’t more done to preserve the original Toad Hall before it fell into disrepair?
There have been efforts over the years to catalogue Whistler’s heritage buildings, but no official heritage plan
“There needs to be a bigger conversation on heritage preservation, and a heritage plan related to that,” he said.
“Throughout the past 30 years, there have been starts and stops of this almost coming about, but nothing has been formally drafted at this point. Hopefully that will push this forward and we’ll see some progress in that regard.”
History, and its preservation, is often an uphill battle, especially in a young, transient tourism community that, by its very design, is constantly looking ahead, to the next big amenity, the next shiny housing project, the next new lift upgrade.
“It’s fair to say our focus has been on housing and climate action. Any discretionary funds we’ve had have really been focused on growing our stock of employee housing,” said Mayor Jack Crompton. “This discussion of the Hillman cabin has raised heritage investments to a greater consciousness for council. Certainly, this is not something that can or should be ignored. The inventory staff has provided gives us a lot of insights moving forward.”
Admittedly, there are inherent barriers to this important work in Whistler, which makes it all the more essential to carve out the resources and political will to actually see it through. Asked how we do as a community when it comes to nurturing and sharing our history, Nichols took a day to mull over the question, one he has spent a long time thinking about in his career.
“A simple answer is that we’re doing quite well as a community when you think about how many visitors we get per year, how many folks follow and interact with us on social media, and how many people attend museum events,” he wrote in an email. “However, there’s also lots of room for Whistler folks to become more active participants in the process of preserving our history. The older generations are leading the charge on this by actively donating artifacts and offering to share stories of their experiences. We want the community to know that they can have a say in what becomes Whistler’s history by sharing their own stories, even of the very recent past, and even if (or especially if) their stories don’t fall into what we’d traditionally think of as ‘mountain culture.’ The Museum is actively working to collect stories about underrepresented experiences. We often forget that history is being made every day! We’re also exceptionally lucky as a community of our size to have an organization like the [Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre] that is doing the work of preserving their much longer history and ongoing culture.” n
Revelers celebrate Christmas at the Hillman House, circa 1969.
George Benjamin Collection / Whistler Museum
The Hillman House exterior, pictured sometime in the late ’60s.
George Benjamin Collection / Whistler Museum
Pemberton’s Mack Manietta joins Generation Specialized Development Team
THE LOCAL TEEN WILL BE MENTORED BY WORLD CUP ICON FINN ILES
BY DAVID SONG
THE INCUMBENT U15 national downhill champion has just made another big splash in his very young career.
Mack Manietta is officially part of the Generation Specialized (Gen-S) Development Team. Since its inception in 2022, Gen-S is a branch of Specialized Gravity that has fostered the rise of new mountain biking talent by pairing them up with established professionals.
The Pembertonian is about to live what for many Sea to Sky riders is a dream come true, for his mentor is none other than Finn Iles. With a local legend in his corner, Manietta’s sights are locked on a number of UCI Continental Series races this year beginning with the Cannonball Festival in Thredbo, Australia.
After lighting up Kidsworx in his own backyard for years, Manietta won all three Crankworx DH races as a 13-year-old last summer to earn the Stevie Smith Memorial
Award. He proceeded to earn a BC Cup season title and triumph at the latest US Open as well.
Manietta, who doesn’t turn 14 until the end of February, is “super stoked” about joining Gen-S. “It’s going to be a sick opportunity to be racing for them,” he said.
“[Mack’s mom] Charlotte and I are super proud,” added Kristian Manietta, who can be
STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS
Iles might be the perfect man to help Manietta reach his lofty ceiling.
As many Whistlerites know, Iles set a new precedent by entering and winning the 2014 Crankworx Whip-off at just 14 years old. Since then he’s become one of
“I just want to keep winning.”
- MACK MANIETTA
a lot more talkative than his boy. “There’s no doubt he does have talent, but he works hard to extract as much talent out of himself. We are proud, but we’re also excited—and I think excited is a better word to see the fruit so far of [his] labour.”
Despite his youth, Manietta is known for displaying a tireless work ethic. This year he decided to forego any freeride skiing programs to focus on offseason bike training.
“I just want to keep winning,” said the teen. “I don’t know, I just find [motivation] somehow.”
Earth’s fastest mountain bikers, winning his first World Cup in 2022 and netting World Championship bronze in August.
Iles entered the Specialized fold when he himself was a teenager. He’s poised to help Manietta follow a similar career pathway by sharing his wealth of experience. In a previous interview with Pique Newsmagazine, Iles expressed his desire to be a role model for younger athletes.
“[Learning from Finn] is going to be real cool,” Manietta said. “He’s Canadian, he’s fast on the bike, he’s solid and he [rides
with] good body position, which I really look at and like.”
Let’s not forget those who have helped Manietta reach this point. He’s already a member of Instinct Development, a local program that was named Best Team at Nationals.
“Ash Jones, Steve Shore, Andrew Brooks, Mike Caron, Rory Hackett … all those coaches with the Instinct Development squad have been huge,” remarked Kristian. “Mack has been with them since they started, and he was coached by Ash prior to that in DFX. A lot of people have helped, without a doubt. Being in the Disneyland of biking doesn’t hurt.
“Kids have seen Finn and Jackson [Goldstone] and they go: ‘OK, the pathway exists.’ That’s been a driver for Mack, and some in Phat Kids look up to him already. They have his shoulders to stand on, while Mack’s got Finn’s shoulders and Jackson’s and everyone else’s to stand on. That trickledown effect, I think, is quite huge.”
Finally, when asked to describe his son’s best quality, Kristian mentioned humility. Manietta does not often let accolades and achievements go to his head, and in many ways is just another youngster looking for laps in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. His future is bright. n
MACK ATTACK Mack Manietta (foreground) will be mentored by Finn Iles as part of the Gen-S Development Team in 2025.
PHOTO BY MASON MASHON
PHOTO BY CIAN STAROGARDZKI
U18 Axemen complete undefeated inaugural season
COACH STEPHEN LIST REFLECTS ON THE PROGRAM BREAKING NEW GROUND
BY DAVID SONG
WHEN ASKED TO DESCRIBE the perfect season his club’s U18 roster put together in its very first year, Axemen rugby coach Stephen List called it “an incredible achievement, really.”
More than 25 teenage athletes from Whistler, Squamish, Pemberton and the Sunshine Coast defeated all comers during their maiden outing last fall, which included six divisional games and two playoff matchups within BC Rugby’s U18 Gold division.
The Axemen downed the Brit Lions 33-12 in their league semifinal at Squamish’s Brennan Park. Then they put a bow on their gem of a campaign with a 31-15 championship victory over Bayside Sharks RFC, also on home turf.
They were led by head coach Cathal Donnelly, with List providing additional support on the training side.
“There’s a huge amount of commitment and dedication needed for that [kind of season], with away games on Sunday down in Langley,” said List. “Just to compete and get all league fixtures completed is, I think, an achievement in itself. To then go above and beyond and win the final … I’m extremely proud of everyone involved.”
Despite its name, Gold is actually the second-highest tier of U18 play offered by BC Rugby. Blue represents the top level, and it’s a place the Axemen could possibly reach with a few more years of development and experience.
Speaking of development, that’s something Donnelly has proven to be adept at. He’s a man of few words, but an excellent organizer.
“Cathal provided a lot of clarity to the guys,” said List. “Some hadn’t played much rugby before, so he provided a really clear [map] of how to be successful in the game and I think that was key. He let guys have a little bit of freedom in how they played so they enjoyed it as best as possible … and he’s done all the work no one sees.”
‘THEY JUST KEPT ON GETTING BETTER’
Since their beginning, the Axemen have prioritized fostering the growth of Sea to Sky rugby above every other goal. Their women’s branch re-launched in September 2023, and the club dropped from Division 1 back down to Division 2 last year to better accommodate its members.
One of the most important aims is to construct a healthy pipeline of young talent.
List and his associates are frequently found at local schools like Whistler Secondary School (WSS), Myrtle Philip, Spring Creek, Signal Hill Elementary, Brackendale and Howe Sound Secondary. The Axemen Connect to Club program has reached more than 1,000 students to date.
“[WSS] has had competitive sevens and 15-a-side teams, and the Axemen U18s essentially came from enough of those guys wanting to play more rugby,” List explained. “We went: ‘Let’s make it happen and get them into a league.’ Ended up working quite well.”
The young men quickly began to learn one another’s strengths and personalities despite the fact they hail from all across the Sea to Sky corridor. Undefeated seasons do not come easy, and they faced tough tests during certain away games in Langley and Surrey.
However, once the Axemen grew in maturity and discipline, the rest of the Gold league began to take notice.
“They really stepped up to the occasion,” remarked List. “No one expected much from the Axemen because they were the new team in the league. By the time we got to the playoffs, everyone had played each other. They knew the Axemen would be strong [and there was] a little more pressure.
“If you win the league, you get your playoff games at home. Our U18s were cheered on by quite a big crowd … and the guys seemed to thrive on that. They just kept on getting better as the season went on.”
Going forward the Axemen will continue to build their developmental pathway, ensuring an unbroken flow from the U10 level up to senior men’s rugby. Programs for teenage girls are also on the to-do list. n
PERFECT SEASON An Axemen ball carrier attempts to break a tackle during U18 Gold League action against Bayside Sharks RFC.
Bread Warehouse carves out third place in
Pemberton’s growing Industrial Park
FORMER WHISTLER RESTAURATEUR
BY LUKE FAULKS Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
JEN PARK is no stranger to the bread game.
She’s the baker and brains behind Whistler’s now-shuttered 200 Degrees Café— once conveniently situated two blocks away from Pique Newsmagazine’s undercaffeinated staff in Function Junction—and The Bread Bunker on Nesters Road.
But after COVID shutdowns and a newborn forced the closure of the former and the sale of the latter, she thought she might be done with the bread game for good.
“A lot of journeys, especially being an entrepreneur in the restaurant business, they have a lot of ups and downs,” she told me over a morning cortado. “There are so many reasons to just quit.
“But I didn’t quit. I picked up, and I’m seeing a bit different future from here.”
Nestled in the Pemberton Industrial Park, a 10-minute drive up Highway 99 from the Village proper, sits Park’s latest and largest venture: the Bread Warehouse.
As you walk into the bakery, the modern, minimalist exterior fades to a warm, brickaccented lobby with a tightly packed array of pastries meeting your eye to the left of the main entrance.
JEN PARK WANTS HER LATEST VENTURE TO BE MORE THAN JUST A BAKERY, BUT A VITAL COMMUNITY SERVICE
The Bread Warehouse offers more than just its namesake. As Park talks me through her business, she’s fielding orders for breakfast sandwiches and sausage rolls. Her goal is to offer enough variety that people treat the Warehouse as a grocery store.
“I always focus on what people need every day—something that I could feed my kids, something that you want to bring home and share with your family,” she said.
That’s not to say the product isn’t complex, high-quality and tasty as all get out. Park places
is Park and her team’s commitment to providing customers with as long of a sensation as possible.
She likens it to a mountain.
The climb starts when you smell a fresh piece of bread or one of the warehouse’s coffees, hits its zenith when you take a bite or sip and your taste buds react, then descends after the flavour fades. She and her team are focused on every part of the journey, but are always trying to increase that lingering sensation—flattening and lengthening the
“I always focus on what people need every day—something that I could feed my kids, something that you want to bring home...”
- JEN PARK
a lot of emphasis on minute details that most people would not think twice about.
“Nobody else really focuses on the grain itself,” she remarked.
“Take, for example, baguettes. There’s nothing much in it other than flour, water, salt, but we work with quite a bit of ancient grain, and so [our bakers] have different understandings about how different grains act in different ways to provide nutrients and protein.”
What might be more obvious to customers
downhill trek.
The Bread Warehouse is entering its second full year of operation after it opened in November 2023. Park’s goal for the place is to build it into a “third place”—a social environment removed from home and the workplace.
Granted, the space isn’t massive. More than half of the Bread Warehouse is taken up by its kitchen area, with massive machines that wouldn’t have been possible in her previous venues given the space constraints.
“[Bread baking] actually requires quite a lot of space, because we need a large radius to deal with quite a large amount of dough,” she pointed out.
But what space there is, is plenty welcoming.
If you, like me, spend a good deal of time working and studying in coffee shops, one thing that’ll strike you is the lack of tip option at the cashier. That tip-less system is part of Park’s effort to fight what she sees as a backwards process at other coffee shops and bakeries.
“I started working in restaurants and hotels, so I understood that it is actually after the service that you like to leave a gratuity,” she said. “But paying at a coffee shop, I don’t know if the coffee tastes good or whether the service is good, but then if the payment transaction is already done ... it is a bit strange to me to have that as a request, like, prior to the service.”
So, instead of asking for a tip upfront, she offers a tip jar and a box at the door if customers feel inclined to offer a gratuity.
“You have to bring the ownership to the customer,” Park said. “A tip before the service really breaks the connection.”
Between building a menu that’s meant to rival a small grocery store and foregoing a more forcible tip option, Park’s not just building a bakery, but an institution, one that fits into a diversifying industrial park, located between the Village of Pemberton and Mount Currie.
“I don’t really see this as a food business all the way,” she reflected. “I feel like it’s more of a service.” n
MEADOW PARKSPORTS CENTRE
FITNESSCLASSSCHEDULE
F FLEXIBLEREGISTRATION
separate feeand allowyou to register for classesonthedays that fit your schedule
R REGISTEREDFITNESS Registeredfitness classes have aseparatefeeanda definedstartandenddate. Pre-registrationis required fortheentire setofclasses.
I INCLUDEDFITNESS Theseclassesareincluded with yourpriceofadmission fornoextra charge
Nearly 600 monologues later, the Chair Series returns to Whistler
ON FEB. 1, NORTH VANCOUVER PLAYWRIGHT JOHN MCGIE’S UNIQUE, BLACK-BOX THEATRE SHOW WILL FEATURE EIGHT ACTORS FROM ACROSS THE SEA TO SKY
BY DAVID SONG
JOHN MCGIE notes that he’s penned 575 iterations of his distinctive Chair Series monologues since 2016. He remarks, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that he still hasn’t discovered anything profound about himself or the format.
“I like monologues,” quips the North Vancouver-based playwright. “If I don’t know an actor, all I do is go out and have coffee with them and talk about anything but theatre— because theatre is boring to talk about. It’s kind of like being a tailor: writing the monologue to what you believe their strength to be,” he says.
“I don’t know if I’ve really learned anything. I’m just doing it because I like it, and luckily everybody else seems to come along and play too.”
For readers previously unaware of the Chair Series: it is a show bereft of costumes, props and elaborate sets. The only onstage item is a chair, and sounds may be played at various moments, but actors rely upon
their own raw talent and the fundamentals of performance to deliver each scene effectively. Each actor gives McGie a word, which he uses as inspiration to pen each monologue.
On Feb. 1 at 7 p.m., the Point ArtistRun Centre (PARC) will host the next running of the Chair Series. Eight Sea to Sky actors form the cast: Kathryn
‘KIND OF LIKE LEGO’
No two Chair Series events are alike.
McGie figures more than 100 different actors have participated in the performance series over the last eight years. Certain venues may reoccur (White Rock, Port Moody, Squamish and Whistler, for instance), but content stays fresh. Each show is
“It really gets down to the craft of performing and writing, so if I suck or they suck, there’s no hiding.”
- JOHN MCGIE
Daniels, Carla Fuhre, Janice Hayden, Sara Marrocco, Emma Strong, and David Francis join Susan Hutchinson and Brandon Barrett from Pique Newsmagazine . Each actor will deliver two five-odd-minute monologues.
“[The Chair] makes everything simpler,” McGie remarks. “It really gets down to the craft of performance and writing, so if I suck or they suck, there’s no hiding. It’s theatre for the short attention span. I’m writing it for myself, because I get bored really fast … and for some odd reason, when actors memorize monologues, they want to perform in front of an audience.”
presented only once: miss it and it’s gone.
“The great thing about the Chair Series is that it’s kind of like Lego,” says McGie. “People’s lives get in the way sometimes, so if I have to lose an actor at the last minute, I can sometimes slot another one in quite quickly, but ... I never choose the running order until I’ve done the rehearsals with everybody so I can see where people are at.
“It’s kind of like putting an album together, right? You’re not going to put three ballads at the front of the album. You’re going to go fast, fast, slow and in that you’re usually looking
at an arcing of energy. That’s what we’re always aspiring for. Sometimes, thematically, it happens too: I have certain thoughts and they’ll bleed into each other. Even though [the Chair Series] is not traditionally one long, flowing story, it does have an arc that people usually attach to and follow.”
Some of the actors like Marrocco, Daniels, Hutchinson and Vogler, artistic director of the PARC, are known to McGie. Others, such as Francis and Strong, are Chair Series firsttimers. He enjoys having a few old hands on deck to ground the rehearsal process, although he’s not one to mind a little chaos either.
Chair performances are often held in non-traditional venues. Since the format does not require typical theatre equipment like lighting, McGie prefers to bring it to cafés, breweries and other low-key social settings.
The PARC, with its hardwood floors and salt-of-the-earth aesthetic, is an ideal option.
“The Chair is hopefully not pretentious at all,” McGie says. “It’s just a bunch of people coming up in their blacks and doing the craft they like—and usually it turns out pretty good. The show that people will see on Feb. 1 will have never been seen before. Brand new writing, brand new everything. The audiences who come to the Point are fabulous. They’ve been really good people, and that’s the fun of it too because the audience is the additional actor.”
Tickets are $20, available at The Point’s website. n
SEAT FILLERS The cast of John McGie’s Chair Series at a show in Port Moody on Dec. 5, 2024.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN MCGIE
Three local musicians unite at Unconventional Practitioner Festival
ROBYN FORSYTH, ADAM LUCAS AND MIKE REED WILL HELM A CEREMONY OF SOUND AND MUSIC ON FEB. 22 IN WHISTLER
BY DAVID SONG
THE UNCONVENTIONAL Practitioner Festival is headed to Whistler, and at least three local names are involved.
Robyn Forsyth, known to many of her arts peers as Feral Nifty, teams up with fellow Sea to Sky musicians Adam Lucas and Mike Reed on Feb. 22 to facilitate what’s being billed as a Ceremony of Sound and Music.
Specifics regarding the Feb. 23 event have yet to be announced, but Forsyth (who is going by her legal name in this particular context) can shed some light on what the festival is really about.
“It is a gathering of a community of people who are interested in deepening their practice within self-exploration,” she remarks. “It is a number of different practitioners coming to share their modalities and use it as a way of uniting people and connecting people with themselves.”
The term “modality” can refer to various different practices. Some ground themselves by doing yoga, while others meditate via breathing exercises. Forsyth, Lucas and Reed plan to present a soundscape created for Dolby Atmos, a proprietary surroundsound technology capable of producing an immersive, three-dimensional listening experience. Forsyth describes it as “a magic carpet of sound” for people to enjoy and respond to as they like, perhaps wandering off into the recesses of their own imaginations.
Afterwards, the trio will play a live show.
“I’ve known Adam since he was about 14. He’s my brother’s best friend, and I borrow him,” says Forsyth. “During COVID, he approached me about doing some mixing and stuff. We discovered that we have the same ear and we really enjoy the same things.
“And I’ve known Mike for over a year. He’s an incredibly talented sound healer who really knows how to bring regulation to a person’s body and space, and he knows how to manage a space to give people what they need for recovery. Mike and I have almost more of a spontaneous response where we can improvise in ceremonial experiences together. [The festival] is actually the first time the three of us are really coming together and pulling out all our creativity.”
QUIETNESS AND REFLECTION
Those of us in Western society tend to live busy lives. There’s always more work to do, more family commitments that arise, more social engagements to give us FOMO, and so forth. When others ask us how we’re doing, frequently our response sounds like: “I’m good, just busy” without a second thought.
SOUND CEREMONY The Unconventional Practitioner Festival comes to Whistler on Feb. 22 and 23.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JONATHAN COOK
Forsyth has a lot on her plate too: singing, painting, sculpting, making wigs— you name it—plus responsibilities as a wife and mother. She’s naturally interested in pursuing different creative realms, but for that reason it’s good she met festival organizer Judy Brooks.
“I think it’s a really important practice to bring yourself some quietness and reflection in order to be able to handle all this busyness and actually know why you’re even doing it,” Forsyth comments. “Sometimes you’re just busy for the sake of being busy, but really being more conscious in our choices [is healthy]. I also feel like it’s really nice to be conscious in choosing a community.
“I have been asked before if I meditate, and for a long time I said I did not—but the act of playing music or creating artwork is my meditation, my flow state. It’s what recharges me so I can be the better version of myself for others. For some people, their meditation is the mountain.”
There’s a smorgasbord of different modalities out there, and each can be valuable in its own way. Forsyth likes to think of music as universally appealing, however: there’s no barrier to entry for listening and enjoyment. It’s a powerful form of expression that transcends the spoken word to bring people together, and it can be a touching, intimate way to connect.
The Unconventional Practitioner Festival will be held on Feb. 22 and 23 at the Brew Creek Centre. Details and tickets at eventbrite. ca/e/unconventional-practitioner-festivalfeb-22-23-tickets-1087090600249. n
ARTS SCENE
PIQUE’S GUIDE TO LOCAL EVENTS & NIGHTLIFE
Here’s
WHISTLER PRIDE PARADE
SKATEBOARD DECK DESIGN
In this exciting hands-on workshop, kids (8-13 years) will unleash their creativity by designing and painting their own skateboard decks. Working with vibrant materials, including paint markers and acrylic paints, they’ll create unique art pieces that reflect their individual style. Participants can choose from two types of skateboard decks: a highquality, rideable deck or a display deck, ideal for wall art.
Jan. 24, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Art Pop Whistler Prices start at $95
APRÈS KARAOKE
Après Karaoke hosted by Monty Biggins happens every Friday in The Living Room!
Jan. 24, 6 to 9 p.m.
Pangea Pod Hotel Living Room
WHISTLER PRIDE SKIOUT AND PARADE
The afternoon begins with Whistler Pride Parade Ski-Out: Drag On Snow and pre-parade entertainment at Olympic Station, featuring music from DJ Cat, drag performances from Hazel, Madam Lola Colby, Addi Pose and more. At 3:30 p.m., the vibrant colours of pride pop brilliantly against the snow as skiers fly rainbows down the mountain and conclude in a celebration of diversity and inclusivity in the village. Non-skiers can gather at Skier’s Plaza and join the parade through Whistler Village.
Jan. 24, 1:30 to 4 p.m.
Various locations
WHISTLER RACKET CLUB WINTER MARKET
Join the Whistler Racket Club at their Winter Market where you will find handmade crafts, food, drinks, clothing and more. Also featuring a happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m.
Jan. 25, 2 to 6 p.m.
Whistler Racket Club
PAINT & SIP
Includes all supplies and a glass of wine. This wine and paint night is catered to people of all artistic abilities—beginners included and encouraged! Taught by local artist Cass Dickinson.
Jan. 26, 9 p.m.
Point Artist-Run Centre
$40
FIRE AND ICE SHOW
Where else but Whistler would performers entertain you with an electric mix of music, dance and spinning fire? Watch world-class athletes flip and twist through a burning ring of fire, then finish the night off with a first-class fireworks display.
Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m.
Skiers Plaza
MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT SPECIALS AT WHISTLER OLYMPIC PARK
Take advantage of discounted tickets and rentals on Monday nights, and Wednesday nights until March 5. 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.
Jan. 27 and 29, 3 to 9 p.m.
Whistler Olympic Park
$10
FOUNDATIONS OF RESTORATIVE YOGA
This workshop series runs every Tuesday in January and offers you the tools to be confident in a restorative yoga class; a practice founded on healing, accessibility, mindfulness and uncovering the power in softness and stillness. Each week starts with a short lecture followed by a 1.5-hour restorative practice and finishing with questions and reflections. Students joining all four weeks will receive a copy of Emily Kane’s book, The Energy and Art of Restorative Yoga, which contains the guiding principles of this workshop series.
Jan. 28, 7 p.m.
Yogacara Whistler
$40 per session, $108 for all sessions
THE STAND-UP STANDOFF
Welcome to the ultimate Whistler stand-up comedy competition and show, produced by Laugh Out LIVE! The evening begins with stand-up comedians all vying for a chance to win some cold hard cash and perform on the mainstage. Following the competition, the headlining act will take the stage in this bare-knuckle comedy brawl where the only knockout blows are delivered by punchlines.
Jan. 29, 8 p.m.
Dusty’s Bar & Grill
Tickets start at $28
PHOTO BY BRADEN DUPUIS
Acomprehensive guide to health wellness andmedical services in the SeatoSky Corridor.
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ADSPACEBOOKINGS Friday,February14th,2025
Publication
IN STANDS March2025
HEALTH WELLNESS
When Whistler’s pipes burst…
BY ALLYN PRINGLE
LIVING IN WHISTLER , we all know it’s not uncommon for a cold snap to freeze and burst pipes. In November 1985, a sudden temperature drop led to record lows of between -22 and -24 C (reportedly -50 C with wind chill), causing pipes to freeze and burst in the Whistler Professional Building, the Blackcomb Lodge, and the Keg Restaurant, as well as various houses and condos. This cold snap also froze a pipe on the other side of the valley, specifically the two-inch pipe that serviced the Scotia Creek Water System.
Youth Hostel (formerly Cypress Lodge) had installed a pump in Alta Lake and was using it for drinking water. Roger Stacey, Alta Lake Road resident and president of the Scotia Creek Water Improvements Society, told the paper this freeze “could be the end of the whole system.”
This prediction led to increased talk of the municipality assuming responsibility for providing water to the area. After the RMOW was created in 1975, the municipality had assumed responsibility for water systems in other pre-existing neighbourhoods, such as Alpine Meadows, and a water study released in the early 1980s suggested building a municipal water system that would service the Alta Lake Road area and beyond, but the timing suggested to start that project was 1992.
Until the late 1960s, most residents of Alta Lake Road had running water only in the summer, when they put in a temporary aboveground line from Scotia Creek. Residents would remove the line in the winter as fewer people visited once the snow fell. As skiing began to develop on Whistler Mountain, Dick Fairhurst and Andy Petersen began work on an underground line to service houses along Alta Lake. With the help of other members of Scotia Creek Water Improvements (mostly when they were up on the weekends) and a digger from the Valleau, they dug a trench, blasted through rocks, laid a two-inch pipe (residents decided the standard four-inch pipe would be too expensive), and filled it all back in. Looking back on the water system, Petersen recalled, “It was a big achievement, especially on next to no money.” For the next 18 years, as Whistler Mountain grew, the Resort Municipality of Whistler was founded, and Blackcomb Mountain opened, this pipe supplied water to houses along the lake.
On Nov. 27, 1985, the waterline froze, leaving 40 houses without water. At first it was unclear whether the problem was that the water source, a reservoir upstream of the intake on Scotia Creek, was frozen solid or if it was the main pipe running underneath Alta Lake Road. By mid-December, it was determined parts of the line were frozen. Alta Lake Road residents were bringing water over from the town centre and relying on friends and the recently-opened KOA campground for showers and laundry, with Jacquie Pope sending “a bathtub full” of roses to those helping out through the Whistler Question’s weekly “Bricks & Roses” feature. The Whistler
By the end of January 1986, houses between the youth hostel and Chaplainville were expected to be without water for the foreseeable future, as the reservoir had thawed, but there was still no water flowing through the pipe. Finally, in April 1986, five months after the pipe froze, the Scotia Creek Water System had water running through it again. However, the line was badly damaged, working at only half pressure and needing almost constant repairs as cracks caused water to bubble up out of the ground.
In May, Stacey appealed for municipal support to pay for the new water line, and when the 1986 budget was approved it included $1,985,000 for “water system extension.” On June 2, council voted in favour of paying half of the $200,000 cost of a new water line for Alta Lake Road. Property owners were given the option to finance the cost of their portion over a 25-year period and were notified that a “water improvement district” was going to be created in order to levy the taxes to pay for the system.
Construction of the water supply at 21 Mile Creek, which replaced the Whistler Creek water system as the municipality’s primary water system, began over the summer and was completed by the end of the year. Houses along Alta Lake Road were once again connected to an operational water system, though it would be a few more years before other neighbourhoods such as Emerald Estates were brought onto a municipal system. n
PIPE GRIPES Andy Petersen probes the ground for the source of water bubbling up from the damaged line, circa 1986.
WHISTLER QUESTION COLLECTION / COURTESY OF WHISTLER MUSEUM
ASTROLOGY
Free Will Astrology
WEEK
OF JANUARY
24 BY ROB BREZSNY
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Author Anais Nin wrote, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” I bring this to your attention because you Aries folks now have a mandate to expand your life through courageous acts, thoughts, and feelings. I suggest we make the Arctic fox your power symbol. This intrepid creature undertakes epic migrations, journeying more than 3,200 kilometres across sea ice, using starlight and magnetic fields to navigate. Let’s dare to speculate that you have something in common with it; let’s propose that you are equipped with an inner guidance system that gives you a keen intuitive sense of how to manoeuvre in unfamiliar territory. PS: Anais Nin has another tip: “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus archeologist Howard Carter made a spectacular discovery in 1922: the intact tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, more than 3,300 years after his death. It was filled with more than 5,000 artifacts, became a global sensation, and to this day remains the most famous find from ancient Egypt. A short time before he succeeded at his five-year quest, Howard Carter nearly gave up. But then his sponsor agreed to provide funds for a few more months, and he continued. In this spirit, Taurus, I urge you to keep pushing to fulfil your own dream. Renew your faith. Boost your devotion. Remember why you feel so strongly.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest telescope in space. Recently, it discovered hundreds of galaxies that no humans had ever before beheld. They are very old, too—far more ancient than our own Milky Way Galaxy. I propose we make this marvellous perception-enhancing tool a symbol of power for you. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you now have a robust potential to see things that have always been invisible, secret, or off-limits to you. Some of these wonders could motivate you to reinterpret your life story and reshape your future plans.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): One theory says that humans evolved to be afraid of reptiles because our early ancestors were frequently threatened by them. Among the most commonly feared creatures in modern culture are snakes. And yet, as anyone knows if they’ve studied mythology, snakes have also been symbols of fertility and healing in many cultures. Because they periodically shed their skin, they also represent regeneration and rebirth. I’m hoping you don’t harbour an instinctual aversion to snakes, Cancerian. The coming weeks will be a favourable time for you to call on and benefit from their iconic powers.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the coming months, be extra creative as you enhance your network of connections and support. Encourage your allies to provide you with tips about opportunities and possibilities that you would not otherwise know about. Ask them to serve as links to novel resources that will nurture your long-term dreams. Here’s an idea to energize your efforts: Get a vivid sense of how trees use vast underground fungal webs to communicate with each other. (Learn more here: bit.ly/TheWoodWideWeb.) Knowing about this natural magic may impregnate your subconscious mind with evocative suggestions about how to be ingenious in weaving the kind of community you want.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I love my job as a horoscope writer. What could be more fun than analyzing cosmic signs to generate inspirational counsel for my readers? It’s a big responsibility, though. I am intensely aware of how crucial it is that I craft my messages with utmost care and compassion. Having been scarred as a young adult by reckless, fear-mongering fortune-tellers, I’m rigorous about nurturing your free will, not undermining it. I want you to be uplifted, not confused or demoralized as I was. With these thoughts in mind, I invite you to take a vigorous inventory of the effects that your work and play have on the world. Are they aligned with your intentions? Are your ambitions moored in impeccable integrity?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Why are diamonds considered so valuable? I’m skeptical. High-grade diamonds are not as rare as public perception would lead us to believe. Yes, they are extraordinarily hard and scratch-resistant, but is that a reason to regard them as a sublime treasure? I acknowledge they are pretty in a bland way. But other gems are more intriguingly beautiful. Maybe the most important reason they are so prized is that diamond sellers have done effective marketing campaigns to promote them as symbols of love and luxury. All this is a prelude to my main message: Now is an excellent time to think and feel deeply about what is truly beautiful to you—and take steps to bring more of it into your life. For you Libras, beauty is an essential ingredient in your life’s purpose.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The way that ancient Romans made concrete was more ingenious than modern methods. Their manufacturing materials included “lime clasts,” which gave the concrete self-healing qualities. When cracks arose, they fixed themselves. That’s why Roman aqueducts built 2,000 years ago can still convey water today. Metaphorically speaking, I hope you will work on building similar structures in the coming weeks. It’s time to create strong foundations that will last for a very long time.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Do you harbour a yearning to learn a new language, new skill, or new trick? The coming weeks will be a favourable phase to get serious about doing it. Have you fantasized about embarking on an adventure that would expand your understanding of how the world works? The time is right. Have you wished you could attract an inspirational prod to unleash more creativity and experiment freely? The astrological omens suggest that inspirational prod is imminent. Have you wondered whether you could enhance and fine-tune your receptivity—and thereby open up surprising sources of fresh teaching? Do it now!
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Bristlecone pine trees grow very slowly, but they are hardy and long-lived. Their wood is so dense and strong that it’s virtually immune to disease, insects, and erosion. They grow in places that are inhospitable for many other trees, flourishing in cold, windy environments where the soil is not particularly rich in nutrients. For the bristlecone pine, apparent obstacles stimulate their resilience. I don’t want to exaggerate the ways they remind me of you Capricorns, but you and they certainly have affinities. I believe these shared qualities will be especially useful for you in the coming weeks.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In old Hawaii, it was forbidden for ordinary people to touch objects that belonged to the chiefs or to anyone with spiritual powers. Other taboos: Never walk across the shadow of an important person and never wear red and yellow feathers. Our modern taboos are different, but often equally rigid. For example, you are probably hesitant to ask people how much money they make or what their relationship status is. What are other taboos you observe? I won’t outrightly advise you to brazenly break them, but now is a good time to re-evaluate them—and consider changing your relationship with them.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): As winter progresses, each day is longer and each night shorter. Most humans feel an undercurrent of joy that the amount of light in the world is growing. But as an astrologer who appreciates cycles, I like to honour the beauty and powers of darkness. That’s where everything new gets born! It’s where the future comes from! In ancient Hawaiian religion, the word kumulipo meant “beginning-in-deep-darkness.” It was also the name of a prayer describing the creation of the world. In the coming weeks, I believe you will be wise to tap into the rich offerings of darkness.
Homework: Is your ego more advanced than your soul? If so, help your soul catch up. Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com.
In addition to this column, Rob Brezsny creates
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
NOTICE
2025COMMUNITYENRICHMENTPROGRAM
TheResort municipality ofWhistler(RMOW)will be accepting Community EnrichmentProgram(CEP)applicationsfrom community groups looking for financial assistance for2025.TheapplicationperiodrunsfromJanuary 24 to February14,2025,
TheCEPprovidesfunding to not-for-profitorganizationsor societiesbased withinWhistlerthat are considered by Council to be contributing to the generalinterestand advantageofthemunicipality.The categoriesinclude ‘Environment’, ‘SocialServices’, ‘Community Services’, ‘RecreationandSport’ or ‘ArtsandCulture’
Eachinterested community groupis required to complete aGrantApplication Formandpresent to Council at a CommitteeoftheWholeMeetingon February25,2025.Allapprovedfundingwillbeissuedno laterthanApril30,2025. GrantApplication Formsare available at www.whistler.ca/cep or at the receptiondeskoftheWhistlerMunicipalHall,Monday to Friday,from8a.m. to4:30p.m.
Pleasesubmitapplicationto: LegislativeServicesDepartment,RMOW 4325Blackcomb Way Whistler,BCV8E0X5
Phone: 604-935-8114
Email: corporate@whistler.ca
Completedapplicationsmustbe received by 4p.m. February14,2025.No late applicationswill be accepted.
To learnmore,visitwhistler.ca/cep
Resort MunicipalityofWhistler whistler.ca/cep
RENT SELL HIRE Classifieds
NOW HIRING
HEAVY DUTY MECHANIC
Permanent, Full-Time
Cardinal Concrete, A Division of Lafarge Canada Inc is the leading supplier of ready-mix concrete in the Sea to Sky Corridor. We are currently seeking a career oriented individual to fill the role of Commercial Transport/Heavy Duty Mechanic at our Head Office Location in Squamish, BC.
This is a skilled position which primarily involves preventative maintenance and repair of a large fleet of commercial transport vehicles including concrete mixer trucks, dump trucks, trailers, forklifts and light-duty trucks.
Minimum Qualifications:
• B.C. Certificate of Qualification, and/or Interprovincial Ticket as a Commercial Transport Mechanic, and/or Heavy Duty Mechanic Ticket
• 3-5 years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience
Compensation $46.71 to $50.21
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Apply to: info@cardinalconcrete.ca
For more information visit www.cardinalconcrete.ca/about/careers
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WISHES
US Community Centre
Child & Family Services
• Social Worker ($80,371.20 - $91,673.40 per year)
• Social Worker ($80,371.20 - $91,673.40 per year)
• Program Accountant ($46,683 to $63,973 per year)
Child & Family Services
• Transition House Support Worker ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• Transition House Support Worker ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
Lil’wat Health & Healing + Pqusnalhcw Health Centre
• Social Worker ($80,371.20 to $91,673.40 per year)
Lil’wat Health & Healing + Pqusnalhcw Health Centre
• Custodian ($17.40 to $20.90 per hour)
• Custodian ($17.40 to $20.90 per hour)
• Program Manager ($57,330 to $64,610.00 per year)
• Transition House Outreach Worker ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
Lil’wat Health & Healing + Pqusnalhcw Health Centre
• 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?
• Health Care Assistant ($38,038 to $53,599 per year)
• Operations Manager ($59,878.00 to $73,564.40 per year)Would you please highlight/emphasize this position?
• Early Childhood Educator ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
Ts’zil Learning Centre
• 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)
• Family Mentor ($38,038 to $53,599 per year) - Would you please highlight/emphasize this position?
Xet’òlacw Community School
• Program Mentor – Early Childhood Educator ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• Early Childhood Educator ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
Xet’òlacw Community School
Xet’òlacw Community School
• Elementary School Teacher - Grade 3 ($60,015 to $109,520 per year)
• Custodian ($17.40 to $20.90 per hour)
• Camp Counsellor ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• Elementary School Teacher - Grade 3 ($60,015 to $109,520 per year)
• Camp Counsellor ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• Elementary School Teacher - Grade 3 ($60,015 to $109,520 per year)
• High School English and Humanities Teacher ($60,015 to $109,520 per year)
• High School English and Humanities
Community Development
• High School English and Humanities Teacher ($60,015 to $109,520 per year)
Teacher ($60,015 to $109,520 per year)
Community Development
• Cultural Camp Supervisor ($46,683.00 to $63,973.00 per year)
• Language Resource Worker or Language Teacher ($46,683 to $109,520 per year)
• Cultural Camp Supervisor ($46,683.00 to $63,973.00 per year)
Please visit our career page for more information: https://lilwat.ca/careers/
604.935.2432
Come build and grow with the best team.
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)
Carpentry Foremen ($40 - $50 hourly)
Rates vary based on experience and qualifications. Red Seal is a bonus but not required. Crane Operator experience considered an asset.
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:
am w Lou Saturday – Weekend Wake up 6:30-7:15 am w Jess Mondays – Zumba
6:15-7:15 pm w Carmen Tuesdays - Spin
6:00-7:00 pm w Courtney Wednesdays – Step 9:00-10:00 am w Liz
Thursdays - Prenatal
5:50-6:30 pm w Sara
• Top Wages and a Positive Work Environment
• Flexible Schedule - Work Life Balance (We get it, we love to ski and bike too.)
• Training & Tuition Reimbursement (Need help getting your Red Seal?)
• Assistance with work visa and Permanent Residency (We can help!)
BENEFITS & PERKS:
• Annual Leisure & Tool Benefit – Use toward ski/bike pass, tool purchase, etc. – you choose!
• Extended Health and Dental Benefits for you and your family
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!
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JOB POSTING
Clinical Services Nurse
Salary: $100 000 - $125 000
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.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to enhance community health.
• Supervise nurses and administrative staff.
• Manage health facility operations, including scheduling, prioritizing, and evaluating performance.
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
• 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
Warehouse Lien Act Whereas the following registered owners are indebted to Cooper’s Towing Ltd. for unpaid towing and storage fees plus any related charges that may accrue.
Notice is hereby given that on February 1, 2025, at noon or thereafter the goods will be seized and sold.
1. Camilleri Braden 1994 Ford E150 VIN: 1FMEE11HXRHB16155 $2299.50
2. Flores Grandez Charles 2001 Volkswagen Golf Vin: WVWBS21JX1W116522 $1995.00
3. Ravina Jeb, National Bank of Canada, ESC Corporate Services Ltd. 2019 Honda Civic
5. Kelly Wil 1992 Volkswagen Eurovan VIN: WV2LC0702NH078123 $1743.00
6. Weaver Lane 2007 Audi A4 VIN: WAUDF78E97A093918 $1680.00
7. Riddle Frederick 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee VIN: 1J4GW48S34C187453 $3181.50
The vehicles are currently being stored at Cooper’s Towing Ltd 8065 Nesters Road Whistler, BC, V8E 0G4
For more information, please call Cooper’s Towing Ltd. @ 604-902-1930
“STORE MANAGER”
Whistler Home Hardware has an upcoming opening to fill the senior role at its busy retail store located in Function Junction, Whistler. Previous high-level experience at a retail store along with excellent communication and organization skills is an asset. With the support of our amazing customers, our legacy store has been serving the community for 30 years. The successful candidate will be a high-energy, inspirational leader with a wide range of skills. Actual hardware related experience is a positive, but not a requirement. Strong leadership ability and a drive to improve and grow the operations is a requirement. This top position is challenging and rewarding and comes with an appealing remuneration package. Please email your resume to recruiting@whistlerhomehardware.com
Whistler, the Place of Possibility
TWENTY-NINE years ago, in a borrowed condo in Whistler (thanks Peter and Teddi), I married a guy I’d known for about two weeks. It wasn’t for the visa, although my visa was about to run out, so I can see how it looked.
People had opinions. Some were bold enough to out-loud them: “Are you pregnant?” “I would have married you if it was for the visa.” “I thought you were smarter than that.”
BY LISA RICHARDSON
We were both in casual relationships with other people. Mea culpa. It was scandalous for about five minutes until everyone moved on. (Admittedly, it might have taken those two other people a little bit longer to move on. Sorry about that.)
I remember thinking: this story will be better when we’ve been together a while. At the time, explaining that “I just knew he was the one” was an invitation for a storm of doubt to move across their faces. It was hard to fill in my permanent residency paperwork imagining how it would read to a government bureaucrat who wore cynicism like synthetic socks, as sweat-inducing as they are, because they never shrink in the wash. It’s easier to be cynical, than hopeful, about everything. Especially about love. There’s science now that says people generally presume that cynics are smarter. It’s safer to bet against unicorns—bet on the magical and you do risk looking like a fool. Hedge, mock, poke holes from the sidelines, and you’re insulating yourself from seeming gullible,
naive, wrong. Unfortunately, as researcher Jamil Zaki has found, your cynicism also perpetuates the worst outcomes. “We perceive our species to be crueller, more callous and less caring than it really is” and experience a sense of grim satisfaction when proved right, he writes in his book, Hope for Cynics. But we might have enabled it. “When we expect little of others, they notice and we get their worst.”
Tellingly for 2025, he also writes: “Autocrats love a cynical population, because a group of people that don’t trust each other are easier to control.”
I’m not writing this to crow. Relationships are mysterious continents—you can make assumptions about the terrain and weather from off-shore, but no one knows what it’s like to move one foot in front of the other within those unchartered landscapes. More than anything, I am aware of my own luck.
To be honest, I think I arrived in Whistler as someone cynical about romantic love. This place awakened in me the person who believed in audacious possibilities. I share
connection to Myrtle Philip, and Whistler’s settler lineage. I ended up volunteering for the museum, pulled into engagement by Florence’s neighbours, old family friends of my new husband. My first writing project was for the museum, a column in Whistler This Week, that was part of the Whistler Question, where I later wrote another column, until Glacier Media, the Question’s parent company, acquired Pique, where I wrote another column. Thus our lives unfold, a series of unexpected pocket-shots after one ball was hit into a different direction… And a 20-year-old Australian law student became three things that were not on the Life Plan script she’d been handed: a wife, a Whistlerite*, a writer. (*Technically, I became a Pembertonian, but that doesn’t start with W, so I pulled creative licence for the trifecta.)
I just found a letter my dad wrote me one week after the shock wedding/elopement. “Didn’t think there was anything that could surprise Grandpa and I anymore, but wow
Whistler was the environment in which I could slip off the straitjacket and suit I’d been expected to wear, and try on some different costumes...
this, because I don’t think it’s just me. I think that is a Whistler story. Even though it sometimes feels like everything has changed since my version of Peak Whistler (1996 to 2009), I hope this persists.
The ceremony was officiated by Florence Petersen, a little gnome of a woman with curly hair and wide eyes, who’d started the Whistler Museum as a promise to honour the stories her neighbour had told her about the early days of Alta Lake. Through Florence, I had a little
you just did.”
Dad was a bit of a cynic. “It sounds negative, but I like to look at things from all angles,” he wrote, and then reamed off a list of catastrophic possibilities, wondering how we might have factored them into the plan. Which maybe all boiled down to his final question: “If you found your destiny, why didn’t I? Did I just not try hard enough?”
I still don’t know the answer to that. In hindsight, I can see how generous and
gracious and genuinely curious his questions were. All I do know is that I lucked upon the right conditions.
There are some places that disrupt the trajectory of peoples’ lives—give them the space and time to think about things differently, to discover themselves outside the packaged-up life imagined and laid out for them.
Whistler was the environment in which I could slip off the straitjacket and suit I’d been expected to wear, and try on some different costumes: nanny, ski instructor, volunteer, writer, wild and spontaneous romantic, climber. I was inspired by all the different ways people were approaching aging, work, art, meaning-making. I still am.
I think that’s why I feel feisty and protective towards this place and crusty when it changes in ways I don’t recognize… because I don’t want it to lose that essential quality, of being an environment that lets people become what didn’t seem possible in the places they came from.
Does that still exist?
Do you recognize it? Are you cultivating it? Those of us who have managed to stay here, who experienced the life-changing unicorn-like magic of that, have some obligation to set the protective cloak of cynicism aside, and perpetuate possibility, or conditions conducive to it. That is how you keep a place alive and thriving and generative. Who did you wonder you might be, given the right space and circumstance and influence? What is the most audacious version of yourself? What unexpected thing might you fall in love with? Chase that. Court that. And cultivate the conditions for that, for everyone.
Lisa Richardson is a longtime contributor to Pique whose writing, journalling workshops, yoga classes and other random contributions are fuelled by her deep gratitude for place and desire to contribute to greater community resilience. n
