The Whistler Podcast

Episode 6: Mayors of the Sea to Sky (with Karen Elliott and Mike Richman)

January 08, 2020 Mayor Jack Crompton with special guests Mayor Karen Elliott and Mayor Mike Richman Season 1 Episode 6
The Whistler Podcast
Episode 6: Mayors of the Sea to Sky (with Karen Elliott and Mike Richman)
Show Notes Transcript

Episode 6 is a meeting of the minds of the Mayors of the Sea to Sky Corridor. Squamish Mayor Karen Elliott and Pemberton Mayor Mike Richmond join Mayor Crompton to discuss regional transportation, the Sea to Sky evacuation plan and affordable housing initiatives. During the podcast, listeners will get to know the leaders, learn more about each community’s priorities and gain insight into the collaborative nature of their working relationship.

Narrarator:   0:02
The Whistler podcast. Candid conversations about everything Whistler. With host, Mayor Jack Crompton.

Mayor Crompton:   0:09
Hello everyone. Welcome to episode six of The Whistler Podcast. Thanks for joining us. I'm Jack Crompton. As always, we want acknowledged that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Lil'wat Nation and the Squamish Nation. I also want to think Mountain FM for hosting us here in their Whistler Studio. Today, I am extremely pleased to welcome two people who I have a tremendous amount of respect–I would even see love for–Squamish Mayor Karen Elliott and Pemberton Mayor Mike Richmond. Thank you guys for making the drive all the way to Whistler. Welcome.

Mayor Elliot:   0:46
Thanks for having us.

Mayor Richmond:   0:00
Thank you.  

Mayor Elliot:   0:46
Nice to see you,Jack.

Mayor Crompton:   0:48
So I wanted to start just by saying how...tell us about your town in 30 seconds or less. Give me a minute, Mike, you looked at me like, "there's not there's not enough time in 30 seconds to tell me about Pemberton. So what do you love about Pemberton?

Mayor Richmond:   1:04
Well, honestly, it's the jewel of the Sea to Sky, we all know that.   

Mayor Elliot:   1:08
Hold on a second. 

Mayor Crompton:   1:10
Sorry, his minute is not done.

Mayor Elliot:   1:12
Sorry, I'll wait.

Mayor Crompton:   1:12
Alright, go ahead.  

Mayor Richmond:   1:14
Uh, what can I tell you? It's a great little mountain town that's got the combination of small town values, but it's actually a fair level of–I'll even say sophistication–for a small town. Because proximity to Whistler, Squamish, Vancouver brings real diversity to our community. So we're we're a young dynamic, uh, happening community.

Mayor Crompton:   1:33
And how long have you guys been there?

Mayor Richmond:   1:35
I've been there since '90.  

Mayor Crompton:   1:37
Wow, 30 years. And I'm only 33...

Mayor Crompton:   1:40
Yeah, that's true. I can tell your skin is so nice... OK onto you. Tell me about Squamish. What you love about it?

Mayor Elliot:   1:48
Uh well, I moved to Squamish in 2012 and, um, we moved there from Australia. And what we were looking for was a place that we could raise our kids. Ah, that was close to the mountains and had a real community feel and Squamish ticks all the boxes. So, um, as most people know, we're growing really quickly, and so that brings with it the desire to really protect what we love about small town living, and recognizing that we have some big city problems that we're grappling with, so that's always a challenge. How do you, how do you maintain that connectivity um, that is the reason we moved to small towns?

Mayor Crompton:   2:25
Yeah, when I got involved in local government, that's one of the things that grew very fast for me was a real love for the, for the region. And the connections between Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton were very connected in so many ways, which has been something that's been important to me. When I first looked at local government from the outside, I always perceived that communities and those local government people that were in them were very independent and unconnected to each other. And almost in competition, like Squamish does their thing, Whistler does their thing, Pemberton does their thing. And that couldn't be further from the truth. I think our connections to each other are really significant and important, and we work so closely together. So, um, I thought that we could start today by talking about some of those Cooridor-wide things that were, um, um, dealing with as a group. So why don't we start with regional transit? There is a story that will be coming out in the Vancouver Sun very shortly about our work towards regional transit. What are your thoughts? Tell me about where you think we are? Where we're going, where we'd like to be?

Mayor Elliot:   3:29
I would sum it up by–we're a little bit stuck, and we are all working towards getting unstuck. Um, I think that Minister Trevena really understands the need for regional transit, not just here, but across the province after the departure of Greyhound. Um, but the funding model piece is, uh, is really tricky. And I'm not sure that I think we've all talked about whether we should be responsible for coming up with a funding model, ah, that is dissimilar from what our colleagues have available to them in the Lower Mainland.

Mayor Crompton:   4:03
Yeah, that's the big one for me is, and speaking to you about it the other day, I think that really clicked for me that if the Sea to Sky Corridor is asked to come up with some brand new funding model that the province hasn't seen before, likely we'll need some more resources from the Provincial Government as far as human resources and people with experience in transit to to deliver that kind of thing. And the model is there. I don't think that's sustainable over the long term, but it's certainly a transitional funding model that hopefully we can, um, convince them to to grab hold of. You were talking about. We're not going anywhere. I think that that's a...

Mayor Richmond:   4:40
Well, I mean, for me, it's been one of more satisfying experiences in the way the seven communities have come together. The fact that we're three municipalities–two areas of the Regional District and two First Nations working together as closely as we do– the fact that we came up with a structure for our committee that's one vote per community. Um, there's real respect and a real desire for collaboration. So that's been really satisfying, as then Karen is saying then to get to the other side and be stuck, get blocked and to present a funding model that not only allows, um, all seven members to contribute the same–knowing the First Nations don't have the same ability for taxation–to present that funding model and to be just outright rejected and pushed back, has been one of more frustrating processes. But, um, as we've all said, it feels like an unlevel playing field. Lower Mainland, Victoria area, they're able to apply their funding model of a fuel tax. We've been shut down on that. So I, the message I keep saying is "we're not going anywhere", you know, unless the Provincial Government can come up with some other solutions with us, what–be it repurposing carbon tax or perhaps a portion of cannabis tax–I don't know what, but if they could help come up with some solutions, then let's talk about it. In the meantime, I feel like we just keep pushing our direction in that way. 

Mayor Richmond:   6:01
I get asked a lot about why we don't end up using property tax to fund a regional transit system , and my response has always been "we have investments in transit that we're going to be making now on growing our local services, and that's where the local tax dollar needs to be spent is on growing those local services." We're really interested in having regional connectivity between Chilliwack and Pemberton, and we think that that's crucial for the provincial economy. But our focus with property tax dollars, the 8 per cent of the total tax bill that comes to local government needs to focus on local transit.

Mayor Elliot:   6:41
I think, and you know, while we're a bit stuck and that part is frustrating–and I agree with Mike, the collaboration has been amazing in the corridor–um, I think we all recognize that regional transit ticks a lot of boxes for the provincial government, whether it's making life more affordable for British Columbians, addressing some key elements of the Clean BC plan, um, health and safety. So you know, we still have people that are hitchhiking to medical appointments or to see family in this corridor, and we know that's dangerous and so that needs to be addressed. And then, in terms of, you know, the local economy, we know we all share workers in the corridor and Squamish certainly recognizes that that our workers, 26 per cent of our population is is moving into the city every day. And so speaking with the mayors on the North Shore there, they would like to see regional transit come to this area because it helps with their congestion problems down there. Um and I think you know, for me, this solution about why we've proposed a motor fuel tax, is that if you look at the philosophy they've been following in Translink, is that there's three people that pay for transit. There's homeowners, which we would do through our model. We would provide 53 per cent of the funds through property taxes. Um, there are the people who ride the bus, so they pay through fares. And then there's people in their automobiles and and in the Lower Mainland they do that through a motor fuel tax. And I'm not quite sure why we can't get to the same philosophy here that the same sort of three groups of people should be paying for transit: homeowners, riders and people who drive cars. And and we know over time that that the motor fuel tax will decline as people move to alternate fuels and electric vehicles. And we still need to capture single vehicle drivers paying for transit. And so, I'm not sure why the Lower Mainland gets a longer time, or the Capital Regional District, to come up with that funding model, and we can't even launch a bus service until we come up with that model. And I think that's the tension for me is that we're trying to follow the same philosophy that our colleagues are using elsewhere, um and and we've hit a wall there. So I think, you know, it's up to the three of us and our area directors and the and the Nations were working with to keep the pressure on, keep those lobbying efforts up and really make the case for how they've created an uneven playing field for rural communities here trying to address regional transit gaps.

Mayor Crompton:   9:11
That's great. We're not going anywhere. All right, let's move on to the Sea to Sky Evacuation Plan. Um, that's something that has been a real close collaboration between Squamish and Whistler, which is exciting, and then that's expanding throughout the region and the Regional District. Um, thoughts. What are your thoughts on coordination, collaboration on evacuation?

Mayor Richmond:   9:33
Well, from our side, we're working closely with Lil'wat Nation to to come up with our joint evacuation plan and the other nations all in our area, N'Quatqua, Samahquam, all the way down the Lake Road, um, and then that, as we all know, is to coordinate that plan with Squamish and Whistler's Sea to Sky. Honestly, I mean, there's one road in one road out. We know that if there's an emergency anywhere a.) we want to be there to assist our neighbors and b.) there's a good chance that they'll be coming all the way through our town. We don't know if, in the event of an emergency, are we going north or are we going south? We don't know. So coordination of evacuation plans is an absolute no brainer. Um, emergency planning and evacuation planning is, a top strategic priority for Pemberton in this term. We really want up our game when it comes to emergency planning. We're also working with our local partners in the in the Pemberton Valley on flood mitigation projects and all that sort of thing. So I think it's key, and I think it's an absolute no brainer that all the communities work together.

Mayor Crompton:   12:23
The one road in one road out thing is so key. And if, from the beginning of this process, when was brought to the table in Whistler, I was so adamant that if we don't do this is as a region, we're going to be bumping into each other on the roads because we have to go through each other's communities to get where we need to go. And and looking at places like for Fort McMurray and and Australia when it's done well, it works. And there is a reason to do these evacuation plans, because it saves lives, and it it allows for communities to evacuate when they need to do so. So any thoughts, Karen?

Mayor Elliot:   12:23
I certainly slept better last summer knowing that we had an evacuation plan. Um, I think the real push for all of our communities, once we have those plans is is education, right? So I need my community understand where those muster areas are, which zone they're in, um and we need them to know that ahead of time, you don't need to be teaching them. And so I think I'm making sure that we don't lose sight of education on that evacuation plan. Coordination is gonna be key. And then listening to the mayors up north when we were at Mayor's Caucus last spring was really understanding the next question that comes after the evacuation and recovery, but where is the resilience? So they're seeing mental health impacts across all age groups. um, and and after two summers in a row, people were just sort of dreading summer and the exhaustion up there. And so I think you know, as community leaders, we have to start turning to our minds to, okay, well, if it happens–when it happens–then what's next? How do we help each other with the recovery and the resilience, piece and getting life back up and running. And so I think that's the next phase of where we need to go with these plans.

Mayor Richmond:   12:24
I think looking at recovery is the same aslooking at evacuation. We won't accomplish it are to the same level of success if we're doing it as individual communities, right? Recovery will take the whole region to make it happen.  

Mayor Elliot:   12:35
Absolutely.

Mayor Crompton:   12:37
Agreed. Okay, mving on to affordable housing. This is a big key for all of our communities. It's something we talk about often around the Regional District table. Um, it's something that Whistler talked about last night at our council meeting, we had one of our private development projects come through and get final readings on a new apartment building in Function Junction, sorry,  in Cheakamuss Crossing with Whistler Sport Legacies. And we have, um 1330 is in the ground, which is another 50 unit apartment building. And then next summer, we hope to start, um, Parcel A, which will be another 100 units of affordable housing.

Mayor Richmond:   13:20
All dedicated rental? 

Mayor Crompton:   13:22
All of those are, yeah. There's a, there's a significant number that may come through as WHA ownership as well. But those are being done through the private development projects and those are things that will come to the table. So there's still some questions to be answered and still some public process around exactly what those become. It's funny, we were having conversation last night with, um Braden Dupuis from the Pique about how he's getting all these people telling him what all these projects are and how outraged they are about it. And he says that I feel like I'm often saying to people, "oh, don't worry, there's an opportunity as part of the public process, you'll be able to comment on them." And I think that that's an important message that I'm trying to get out to our community is that, you know, before public hearing, no decisions have been made permanent. You have an opportunity to, um, have your say and participate in public process, and you should. I'm really hoping that we can continue to draw people out to those meetings so that they can share their ideas about the kind of community that they want to live in. Um, housing, housing is our number one priority as a council this year, and and we're pushing very hard on it. Um, so, yeah. Your thoughts? What's going on in your towns? I know in Pemberton, I just see so much new apartments going up. And then when I drive through Squamish, it's the same. You guys seem to just be going fast.

Mayor Richmond:   14:52
Well, there's a lot of development for sure, and it's always, I mean, we feel all the same pressures that Squamish and Whistler do, different. We're also at the end of the line, Sea to Sky Cooridor, so depending on the absorption rate in your communities, effects are market. So we're really anxious to see what they're all the development going on right now. How does that get absorbed? What does that look like? Um, the market itself, even with more inventory, is not cooled down. So prices are still really high, and affordability is still front and center. Biggest problem for Village of Pemberton is we're land poor as a municipality. So when it comes to looking at...

Mayor Crompton:   15:26
Which is so counter intuitive. When people drive through there,  all they see is land.

Mayor Richmond:   15:30
I know And you look at some small towns, you know, with longer histories. We're young, we're a young town, right? And so some of these towns that were established 100 years ago,  plus they they've got chunks of land all through the municipality. We have very little. And most of the affordable housing options out there through the provincial and federal government require you to come to the table with some land. So we've just done an affordable housing study. We got a bunch of recommendations that have come out of it, and we've sent that back to staff to come up with other tools that we can apply outside of trying to build it on our own. But it's it's definitely a real struggle. And again, we're a small rural community and the prices are exceptionally high. So affordability is front and center for us.

Mayor Crompton:   16:15
Yeah, why not just build it on all that egg land? People often say that, and you can't.  

Mayor Richmond:   16:22
Let me know how that goes.

Mayor Crompton:   16:25
Karen?

Mayor Elliot:   16:25
Yeah, affordable housing is one of the pillars in our council's strategic plan. Um, it is an ongoing effort, and I think one of things that we're working on for 2020 is our governance model. So, uh, I think you'd both agree, it's not really the responsibility of local government to build affordable housing. That's a senior level responsibility. And I think they are coming to the table now. Ah, in a big way in Squamish they have, um but we're trying to figure out a way to be a partner at the table rather than necessarily leading all the time. And so we're looking for a new governance model to, um allow that arm's length relationship. And and I think one of the things that people forget is that affordability,  I think necessarily–and we've started in Squamish addressing it for our most vulnerable folks–that's where we started first. But we need housing for new teachers, new nurses, uh, new firefighters, new police officers. And so, you know, we were getting some criticism because through the housing hub with BC Housing, we had a building that's dedicated to people making between $50 and $90,000 a year. People feel like that's that's not affordable. But it is for those people that are employed in professions where that's a starting salary. Or maybe that's a two income family, and we need to build housing for them, too. That's how our communities work, because we–mechanics can afford to live there and people working in the tourism sector and and those service industries that we depend on to be a real community. Um, so I think the challenge is how do we build across the whole spectrum at the same time, um, and address those needs. So it's definitely, um it never leaves our minds in Squamish.

Mayor Crompton:   18:07
We had a presentation last night from the Whistler Housing Authority and a number that has blown my mind is that 50 per cent of Whistler employees live in resident restricted housing. Fifty per cent of the of the residents who work in this town live in resident restricted housing, which is a legacy of people that started thinking about this 30 years ago. Um, and like you say, we have some advantages around having land to actually put housing on. But I think some of the the really important decisions were made around covenants related to the housing that is been put in place. So we're I said last night, we have so much more to do on this. But to stop and celebrate what has happened, I think is important and driving through your communities and seeing those buildings come out of the ground is exciting. So...

Mayor Richmond:   18:58
Crazy thing for me is I don't know, I don't see any end in sight. I mean, all of BC, let alone the Lower Mainland is just growing at such a rate. And the Lower Mainland is flooded, so to speak. And it's all pushing the pressures north, slightly east, but mostly north. Now, um, you know, our communities in our different ways are growing rapidly. I don't see an end in it. So no, just building and building is certainly not the option either. So I don't know how this is gonna work.

Mayor Elliot:   19:28
Yeah, I agree with you, Mike. It'll be a priority for thi, these councils, the next councils and ones after that.

Mayor Crompton:   19:34
Yeah, let people ask me, are you, how are you gonna fix housing? And I just I think it's something we are going to stay engaged on for as long as I'm involved in local government. I don't want to take my eye off the ball. It's the most important thing.

Narrarator:   19:50
You were listening to The Whistler Podcast. Candid conversations on current events, local government and everything. Whistler.

Mayor Crompton:   19:56
Let's talk about the big...we've decided we want to talk about one big issue in each community. And so let's start with Squamish. Um, your economy is growing. You're focused on a clean energy sector. Tell us about that.

Mayor Elliot:   20:10
I think it's pretty exciting. So one of the pillars in our strategic plan is around, um, improving local employment. And so our economic development team actually has been doing a lot of research. And that's what they spent a lot of 2019 doing. Um, so we have a sector strategy and we're really building off some core sectors that are already present in Squamish: education, tourism, forestry. We have, ah, a small rec tech sector and high tech sector, and what we see going forward is the opportunity to really focus on the clean energy and clean tech sector and really boost that recreation technology sector to include digital media of aspects. We know that Squamish has got one of the highest rates of entrepreneurs in the country. Um last year were designated as one of the top places for entrepreneurs across country, which was a fantastic tip of the hat to the folks that are living there. So what we're trying to do is match our economic development strategy with the folks that are living there. So it's not about choosing an industry or making one more important than the other. What we're trying to do is lift all boats and create a really diverse economy there. But that's focused on the 21st century, and working towards our climate emergency goals, which is to be carbon neutral by 2050. And so that really is informing a lot of our work. Yesterday we got a report from staff on our per capita GHG emissions as a community. They're not the highest, but like we have a steep curve to bring those down.

Mayor Crompton:   21:52
Is that commuting, mainly?

Mayor Elliot:   21:54
Ah, yes. So over 50 per centcomes from transportation, mostly from vehicles, but there's 11 per cent from diesel. Uh, then 20 per cent from waste. And, uh, the rest is from how we heat homes and businesses. So our climate leadership team will be reporting out later this month on our bold policy moves and uh, will be working with the community on that. But our economic development strategy has to be tied to that. So there is, ah, an opportunity here to really focus on the kinds of jobs that are going to address the economy of the future. And we want to be part of that. We think it works with our brand. It works with the values of the people that are in our community, um, and why people are moving there and what they want to protect. So we're really trying to to bring all those things together and create more local jobs, and, um, make sure that we don't become a bedroom community. So that's the other big piece of work we're doing in partnership with SFU, is  a big data project on matching are expected population growth with the amount of employment space we'll need in each category, whether that's commercial retail, industrial medium industrial ah, to to ensure that we protect that in our zoning bylaw, and in decisions that future councils make. That we're always protecting the land base for employment, so that people can work and live and play in Squamish in perpetuity and sort of bring those commuters and keep them home. Because we know that has an impact on volunteerism, on mental health, on physical health. The fact that a quarter of our population is spending upwards of, you know, two hours in their car every day getting to work, and we'd rather have them local.

Mayor Richmond:   23:42
Is there a threshold that determines whether a community or your community is a bedroom community?

Mayor Elliot:   23:50
I think right now I think Squamish is a destination. And I think the second I feel like people don't treat it as a destination, I think we'll have lost. And I think part of that is a strong regional growth strategy, right? Which is saying we don't want housing all the way along the Sea to Sky Corridor. So I think we have to protect our sense of place as a region. Um, but for me, a community is able to provide education, health services and jobs for its local population. And and those are fundamental to to who we are. And then protecting all of the natural assets. You know, we say our brand promise that you can do all these world class activities within ten minutes of each other. And that's the other piece we have to protect, as we grow the economy.

Mayor Crompton:   24:37
You certainly have some advantage in that. It hasn't happened yet, as it has in some areas in Metro Vancouver, where the the the tipping point is kind of happened in those communities are now connected in very real ways to jobs in Metro Vancouver, and it's trying to stem the tide of something that's maybe gone further than you'd hoped. Squamish still does have that very, you know, I live in Squamish and its separate and apart, and it's beyond the the Metro Vancouver sort of bubble in a lot of ways. So it's an interesting piece of work.

Mayor Elliot:   25:14
We definitely see that we are connected to the Lower Mainland. But we are fiercely protective about being different and not included in the Lower Mainland. And I've said this before to both of you, is that we see ourselves as a key services hub for the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District. So we looked north. But we recognize that some of our challenges are because of who isto the south of us. 

Mayor Richmond:   25:40
I've got an idea for your GHG per capita. We should put a transit system together. That's up and down the corridor.   

Mayor Elliot:   25:47
Gee, that's a great idea. 

Mayor Crompton:   0:00
I love that idea!  

Mayor Elliot:   25:48
We'll talk about that after.

Mayor Crompton:   25:49
That's a good idea. Let's do that idea.    

Mayor Elliot:   0:00
Very positive.  

Mayor Crompton:   25:52
All right. So we'll talk to, I'll talk to the Provincial Government. You talk to the Provincial Government? Okay? How are we gonna fund it? Okay, we'll figure that out later. Um, I had another question that now has just totally... what is rec tech?

Mayor Elliot:   26:08
Apparel, design, and where components for mountain bikes, mountain bike, manufacturing. And then there's a whole artistic side of this that is, um, growing in Squamish around people in photography, documentaries, video, um, and so we want to take advantage of that.

Mayor Crompton:   26:27
Okay. And then, um, you say education, and then I and you say clean energy are those two things inextricably combined? Like, if we're going to be having a clean tech sector, I would imagine it's supported by an educational institution generally or no?

Mayor Elliot:   26:53
Um, I think my hope, so we have it down on the ocean front, uh, carbon engineering, and they have an innovation center. We have zoning set aside there for education institutions. Um, we are building relationships with not only with Quest and Cap U, which our local providers, but UBC, SFU, BCIT. So there's a number of education providers, and I think what's missing is some more experiential education right from high school all the way up to, um, post undergraduate degree. And so we believe, building this hub of companies that are working clean tech, that we could actually work together with these education providers and provide a hub of experiential education, whether that's through co-op education or coming up and doing project based learning at the university level. But I think where education is going is trying to give people real world experience and starting in in the high school programs all the way up to university. And I think that's my vision of where we need to go here is, uh, is just creating that that collaborative, um, and very hands on education system with our local companies.

Mayor Crompton:   28:09
Thank you for looking north. That's that's helpful for us. It is. It's, um, we're talking about in our town about how our hospital is, Whistler's hospital is the Squamish Hospital. And that was a real turn in my mind about, you mean it's connected to the transit thing, that if you want to get to a hospital appointment and you're pregnant and you live in Whistler and you don't have a vehicle, getting to the Squamish Hospital is a real challenge. So thank you for continuing to look north. Let's move north to Whistler. Um, the topic we want to talk about for Whistler is that 2020 is a massive year in sort of the psyche of our town. We've been looking forward to Whistler 2020 since 2004 when we came up with this project called Whistler 2020, which looked at the social, environmental and, um, economic sustainability of our community and really focused on how we can as a community, be a part of that. It wasn't a government program, it was something that included businesses and individuals and families. I got involved because I was running a taxi company at the time, and I sat on the Transportation Task Force and we took on action items that in our local business, we go, and we'd report back. And it really drove a lot of what Whistler has become. The natural step was sort of the framework for it. The idea that we wouldn't extract or take away from the Earth as we try to fit down this funnel that allowed a sustainable community in the long run. And I it has formed the foundation for what our OCP and community Vision now say, which is "Whistler: a place where community thrives, nature is protected and guests are inspired." Um, and and that sort of natural step framework has really pushed us to where we are today. So in a lot of ways for me this year it's a celebration of that work, and an acknowledgment of that work. The Whistler Center for Sustainability grew out of that and then also celebrating 10 years since the Olympic Games is a big deal for our town. And so through February, we will be getting together and and sort of celebrating all that happened in our town. 1961, people start to dream about the Olympics happening here. Uh, the 1968 Olympics we did not end up doing, but 2010 happened and sort of celebrating the fact that it happened that we were a part of it is something that I'm pretty excited about. A story that I love is that there was this vision to have the Olympics in 1968. But it took seven hours to drive from Vancouver to Whistler, and it was a Whistler-only Olympics. So they would have built a hockey rink, speed skating, oval, ski jumps, all of that stuff in seven years, or maybe less, probably more like five years. And it took seven hours drive from Vancouver. So that's 2020 for us. It's a big year for us. Big year for a town. Any questions for me? 

Mayor Elliot:   31:24
I think it's exciting. We are always looking forward, and I think it's important to look back sometimes that what we've learned, uh, and don't repeat the mistakes of the past and use them to form where we're going. But I, I think, Whistler was known because of that plan in a lot of ways and inspired a lot of other communities to look in that direction. So I think it's important to celebrate some of what you guys achieved.

Mayor Crompton:   31:47
Yeah, I'm excited to that. Integrated community sustainability plans. And we will now move further north to talk about Pemberton and we if you have been through Pemberton this summer, you saw roads being torn up, and I know that that was a big, long process to kind of advocate to government to get that sort of investment in Pemberton. Tell us about it. Tell, tell us about how it's changed your town and what's going on in Pemberton?

Mayor Richmond:   32:13
Well, that was certainly the story of 2019 for us. We tore up every street in our downtown, but to back up a little bit, it started with a vision for the downtown that was created–started to be created–about 12 to 15 years ago. Bringing business owners and residents into play to discuss water downtown could be, as we grew. Our downtown barn, which we built a number of years ago was part of that vision, um, and when that vision was complete, we started to apply for funds. We applied for grants for six or seven years straight. And finally were successful, successful because we took a very green approach to, uh the work we're doing and most of the work a lot of the work that people don't see is underground. So we put in a whole new storm water management system, fairly cutting edge like to say. It includes detention ponds, permeable surfaces and cisterns underground that then recycle the water into our irrigation system. Um, and so that all happened underneath underground. And to do that, we had to, like I say, tear up every single street in town. Then came the put back. So new pavement, new sidewalks, sidewalks where there weren't sidewalks, streetlights, landscaping, all that sort of thing, all that sort of thing. So it was a massive project, most of it, most of the funds for that came through grants. Very little came through our taxpayers. So we're pretty proud of that. And we're pretty proud of the end result. We think the town has gotten more of a sense of presence now. It's way more walkable, um, it's more connected, and I think as we continue to grow as a community is gonna serve us really well. So it was a tough year. The project took 6–7 months. Um, and it was pretty disruptive. So it was a lot of time spent managing the project, managing residents expectations and how we can reduce the impact of the project on businesses and on residents at the same time. So it was, it was a lot to juggle for our little town. We have a small staff. We see it, we're seeing a lot of growth. So managing all the growth, managing this project with the same level of staffing that we've always had was definitely a challenge. So I'm very pleased with the way they perform.

Mayor Elliot:   0:00
It looks great. 

Mayor Crompton:   0:00
It totally does. And I love the...whoever does the signage in your community, the signage is so engaging and simple. And, you know, um, I forget it...

Mayor Elliot:   34:36
Can you get lost in Pemberton? Or do you just get lost?

Mayor Crompton:   34:38
No, I've never been lost in Pemberton, but it wasn't the signs that kept me lost, but I was so informed by what's actually happening here. This road will be torn up. You know, we're not some white and black sign with 1000 words on it that I'm never going to read. But this location here, there will be no road, you know, simple, very engaging Great communications work.

Mayor Richmond:   35:00
I think our communications did a fantastic job throughout the project. Honestly, um, it's also I mean, it's interesting again, there was only so much we could do in the sense that it's a small town. And when every street is torn up, you direct people as best you can. Some people were very patient, others less so. Um, it was pretty funny, I had this this fella come into the office, he had just moved to town from North Van, and, uh, we met in the office. He didn't know I was. We bumped into each other in the lobby sort of thing, we started talking, he says, "you guys are so cute." What does that mean? "I just pulled into town. There's a big sign at the entrance to your town that says Expect delays, construction downtown enhancement project, because I was stuck in traffic in North Van at 11:38 p.m. last night. Those aren't delays, it took me minutes to get through your town." So it was really disruptive. It was really dusty. There's all those sorts of things, but we got the job done and the end product is awesome. Pretty pleased. 

Mayor Crompton:   35:54
That's the first time you've ever been called cute, I'm sure of that.

Mayor Richmond:   35:56
You didn't know me when I was young.

Mayor Crompton:   35:56
I'm sure. Okay. All right. You were cute when you were young, all right. Sounds good. Um, anything else about Pemberton? And I mean, I think we already talked about all over the building that's happening. So it was a good match. I think, like last summer was busy everywhere, and you've got a lot of the big work done at the same time.

Mayor Richmond:   36:17
Look, it had to be done eventually. And we were successful in the grant application. So that was obviously the time to do it. The funds were in place, but our streets were in fairly major disrepair before that as well. There was some big potholes. You have to have the 200 death grip on your coffee as you drove through town, Um, so it needed to be done. And there's no way you can do that without impact. So it's done. We're good to go. And we have some exciting projects coming up this summer that will be less disruptive, but equally exciting. So looking forward to sharing those.

Mayor Elliot:   36:47
You know, I know we teased you a lot when we came out to SLRD meetings about the state of your roads. But I do want to say that, um, watching you sort of hold the vision while you were getting complaints from business owners and residents and and and you showed a lot of leadership. And so I just want to pat you on the back for that because you kept showing your community what the vision was and why this project was important. And it was a good lesson for the rest of us on on how you get to that short term pain for the long term gain. And I think that's part of our job. And it's often one, it's a tough one to hold. To hold that vision when people are like, "oh, this is horrible." 

Mayor Crompton:   37:25
Yeah, you're right.

Mayor Crompton:   37:26
Yeah,  it is for a little while. Yeah. Kudos to you for that.

Mayor Richmond:   0:00
Thank you.  

Mayor Crompton:   37:30
Kudos. So I I wanted to finish with, um a question to each of you. Which is what are you think about now? It doesn't have to relate to local government. It can be related to local government. What is interesting? And what is filling your thoughts at times in your life right now?

Mayor Richmond:   37:52
Um, I looked at that question differently. For me it was what's your diversion outside of our local politics.  

Mayor Crompton:   37:59
Right, Let's all rephrase. What's your diversion outside politics?

Mayor Richmond:   38:03
For me this time of year it's basketball. I coach at the high school–I have for 12-14 years, something like that. And, uh, we're mid season, and that's the thing that takes my mind off of absolutely everything else. Yeah, it's a big passion.

Mayor Crompton:   38:17
And you've coached girls for a very long time, and now you're coaching boys. Any differences?

Mayor Richmond:   38:23
Oh, there's a lot of differences. We don't have enough time to go into that. I coach girls for about 12 years, and now I'm on my third year of coaching boys as well.

Mayor Crompton:   38:32
Uh, yeah, I I love coaching soccer. It's coaching kids in this cooridor is fun, too, because it's challenging because they want to do a 1,000,000 things all at the same time. But, uh,

Mayor Richmond:   38:45
Teenagers get a bad rap. I like teenagers. They're good, they're good energy, good fun to be around and again, it's a passion. Traveling with the kids around the province and playing ball and watching them compete and win and lose. It's the best thing.  

Mayor Crompton:   38:59
And you don't have a league right? Or do you actually participate in the North Shore league?

Mayor Richmond:   39:04
We have a district. So we have games with Howe Sound, Squamish and Whistler. And that's our little district. And then we play outside of the district. So this weekend we're off to Merritt to play in the tournament there.Then as you grow older, ultimately your goal is to qualify for the provincials. And yeah, go on to play the rest of the province. So we play locally and then we travel to Vancouver and the interior for games.

Mayor Crompton:   39:28
But I say you travel more for tournaments generally, because you don't have as many league games in a year.

Mayor Richmond:   39:33
We have to travel for almost everything, outside of playing your communities, which right now we're one and zero against Squamish. We'll see against Whistler tomorrow, I'll let you know.

Mayor Richmond:   39:41
I should come out, I want to come out to that game. What time is it? Where is it?  

Mayor Richmond:   39:45
3:30 p.m. at the high school.  

Mayor Crompton:   39:46
Ladies and gentlemen, 3:30 p.m.  at the high school. Whistler versus Pemberton. Mike Richmond will be on the bench.  

Mayor Richmond:   39:52
Hopefully.

Mayor Crompton:   39:53
Hopefully, hopefully. Um what about you? What's filling your thoughts outside of local government?

Mayor Elliot:   39:59
I don't think about this, because I'm a bit of a geek. I think about local government all the time.  But actually I've been listening to the Happiness Lab, which is a podcast and it's about what truly makes people happy. Um, I've been linking that into, uh, thoughts about local government, how you build a connected community and how you, um, link people to those things that fundamentally make a difference in our happiness. It's not money. I mean, money helps, but ah, really interesting podcast, so I've been listening to that. And the other thing that is on my mind a lot right now is, um is our youth and giving youth a voice? How do they have a voice? How do they have time to have a voice in what's going on around them? And there's certainly, we did a youth strategy and we had a committee of of, ah, young people from 12 to 22 years and it was amazing. I'm trying to figure out how to keep that energy going. Um, So there's a couple things that I'm starting the year off with.

Mayor Crompton:   41:03
Thank you guys. Thank you for making the drive up here and thank you for the work you do for your communities and for our region. It is a real pleasure and privilege for me to work alongside you. Um, I want to thank Mountain FM again for hosting us here and tune in again soon for The Whistler Podcast. Thanks for joining us.

Narrarator:   41:26
You've been listening to The Whistler Podcast. Candid conversations about everything Whistler. To find out more about The Whistler Podcast, visit whistler.ca/TheWhistlerPodcast.