Episode 15: Building back better (with Mayor Elliott and Mayor Richman)

On Episode 15 of the Whistler Podcast, the Sea to Sky Corridor Mayors connect to discuss the constant state of change impacting the Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton communities during the pandemic. 

Mayor Crompton, Mayor Elliott and Mayor Richman discuss the phased approach to reopening, the role of Mayor during COVID-19 and opportunities to ‘build back better’ following the pandemic. The similarities and differences between communities are highlighted and everyone is challenged to take responsibility for their own two metres of space, while showing affection from a distance.  

Transcript

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Narrator 0:02

The Whistler Podcast. Candid conversations about everything Whistler with host, Mayor Jack Crompton.

Mayor Crompton 0:09

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Whistler Podcast. Thanks for joining us. I am with Whistler Mayor Jack Crompton. I would like to acknowledge as we always do, that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Lilloeet Nation and the Squamish Nation. We're grateful for the opportunity to do the work we do in this place. I want to thank Mountain FM for their support, producing the Whistler Podcast remotely during our COVID- 19 isolation, but maybe soon back in a studio. Today, I am so pleased to be speaking with the Mayor of Squamish, Karen Elliot and the Mayor of Pemberton, Mike Richman. We've done this once before and it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. And so it's good to have you both back. Welcome .

Mayor Elliot 0:53

Thank you, Jack.

Mayor Crompton 0:55

So to start with, we usually do a Whistler news portion where I kind of give a quick update and I thought today we could do a Whistler news, Squamish news, Pemberton news. I'll start just by saying that the RMOW is continuing our fuel thinning this spring and summer to reduce the risk of wildfire i n our community. I think we saw with what happened in the Squamish Valley that just because we are dealing with one emergency doesn't mean that others d ecide that they will take a break. We need to be prepared. That has meant for us that some of the Spruce Grove and White Gold neighborhoods will experience some cutting in their backyards. A lot of the trails along the Western boundary of Lost Lake park will be closed. It's te ntatively s cheduled to be cutting until August, 2020 but it 'll s top once the fire rating reaches extreme. Spruce Grove and White Gold residents can expect minor noise disruptions during construction hours, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM seven days a week. I was up there a couple days ago and it means that you have to kind of ride the East side of the mountains rather than along the West side. But it's really going to open up that area and protect our community. We've been reached out by the Whistler he althcare c enter doctors to remind everyone that they are still open and th ere t o help. There's additional sanitary and physical distancing measures that have been put in place for the safety of everyone visiting the cl inics. So if you do require emergency assistance for whatever issue, b roken ankles, w h atever it is, please do go into the Whistler hea lthcare ce nter. If you think you might have COVID-19, stay home and dial 811. But please do take the services that are provided by the Whistler healthcare center and contact your family physician for primary hea lthcare ne eds. The same is tr ue for the RCMP in all of our communities. The y ar e th ere to help. And as we've sort of been at home in isolation, there's been access of those services suc h as en couraging people to use the services that are there. And finally, I just want to really encourage all of our communities to support yourself and the people that you live with. If you' re str uggling with mental health, reach out for help. This is a really strange, unsettling time and it means that things are new to us and oftentimes that will spark things that might be a surprise. If you feel that you're personally in crisis, you can call the BC crisis line at 1-866-661-3311. Other than that, I would say that the final piece of update for Whistler is that we've been doing tons of work as I'm sure everyone else has, around what it means to start reopening things. It's been an interesting process because I think for a lot of people, I would say for our community, there's people that are feeling really nervous about opening and people that are really enthusiastic about opening. And so it's a bit of a fine line that we walk to try to understand how we can meet the needs of a group of people that have very diverse needs, which I'm sure is very similar to your community. So that's Whistler. I'll go to Karen. Karen, tell us about Squamish. What's happening in Squamish?

Mayor Elliot 4:36

Well, I mean despite the pandemic, we actually tried to keep things as normal as possible. So while our facilities closed , staff were still working and responding by email and phone. We are certainly working on our reopening plans and , we'll be ready to go next week with some of our outdoor facilities like tennis courts, skate parks, bike hubs , and then working towards opening , people visiting city hall again. So that's exciting. I think our staff do miss the public and engaging with the public and it'll certainly look different. Our rec services staff are already working on outdoor programming so that we can have people taking classes at Brennan park , outside rather than inside to begin with. And then we're expecting guidance, all of us from the province on May 20th about how to reopen a lot of our facilities. So we'll be building from that in order to get back to more regular programming. I think in the background, we also finalized our community climate action plan, which is being action now by staff. What's great is that we're going to start with a lecture series. I'm excited about this because this provides another opportunity for us to t rial some new online engagement tools, which we haven't used before. The first one is on May 20th and I 'm also on the development front. We are trialing new engagement tools around public information meetings for new developments. And so that has started which requires developers to shoot a video and explain their development. It's posted on our website and people can really submit feedback over a 30 day period. I've done a virtual ma yor's d rop in online. It's exciting to see that people are willing to engage with us using these different tools. Although we still get feedback that people are looking forward to a f a ce to face engagement over time. And I'll just reiterate what Jack said about the importance of people seeking and taking care of their health. We know that visits to emergency rooms are down and so our doctors too ar e encouraging people to seek out the help that they need, a n d not be afraid to visit the hospital if the requirements are urgent. But also our primary care doctors are there and available and very happy to support our community. So yeah, looking forward to re eng aging wi th our community again.

Mayor Crompton 7:27

You just finished the climate action plan. Has it been sort of looked at through the lens of COVID-19 or was the work sort of finished before we went into isolation.

Mayor Elliot 7:42

The work was finished, we were just finalizing some of the technical points on the report and the order of things that we would start to work on. But I think like a lot of local government leaders , we can start to look at how we implement these plans now that we have the experience of a pandemic and are there opportunities to further some of our climate action goals coming out of this. And I think, you know, we'll talk about this I think a little bit later, but how do we build back better so that we get to choose the status quo we go back to, and do we want to go back to exactly the same way we were doing things before the pandemic. And I think that's an important question for people to start to think about .

Mayor Crompton 8:30

It sure be interesting time in the person's career who's taken on that task in your organization to find themselves having become the climate coordinator, and then all of a sudden everything changes. And there's so much that's back on the table for consideration. It's an interesting time. So let's hear about Pemberton, Mike .

Mayor Richman 8:56

Thanks. Operationally there's still lots going on behind the scenes, so to speak. We're doing some critical work or actually have completed some critical work around our wastewater treatment plants. Well testing, testing for new wells , so there's lots of work being done behind the scenes. Like everybody else trying to figure out what you know, we have a pretty small municipal hall, so how does it look with all our staff a re trying to get as much staff back in as possible and being able to come in contact with the public again. You know, working on a lot of policy stuff as well in the background a nd things like o ur cycling network plan, a hillside development plan, which are some guidance or guideline policy for a development on some of our hillsides, and in the village itself, there's still a lot o f, you know, a fair bit of activity. There's a lot of construction. There's some business going on, lots of other business, small businesses, anxious to get going. So like everyone mentioned, we're all looking towards the reopen. We'll talk about it some more, but I think there's a bit of a sense of confusion around i t o r what it means. , and u h, you know, we're trying to help people sort it out as best we can as the information comes in. So that's sort of our goal right now is to help bring in the information we're getting from the provincial government. We're putting together a task force to look at reopening, which will consider every aspect of the community and hopefully from everything from mental health, right through to business and tourism and how do we recover, how do we rebuild, , and how do we maybe even identify some opportunities that we have in that rebuilding process. So everybody's anxious to get going and everybody's anxious to kick the doors open. It's beautiful. You know, summers at the doorstep. So there's lots to sort through and lots to talk about here. But, things haven't slowed down in many other aspects. So yeah, I'd say that's the quick and dirty for Pemberton.

Mayor Crompton 10:59

Great. Thank you. I think it came up for both of you is this idea of what is after this COVID-19 situation for the Sea to Sky and for each of our communities, and this idea of a just recovery and a build back better. I've reread the Sendai framework, which is a n international document that i s adopted by the UN, t hat sort of identifies a standardized approach to strengthen disaster recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction for communities. And the framework sets out f or priorities for action. The first is understanding disaster risk, strengthening, disaster risk governance, investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and a commitment to building back better. I t seems to me that as we've worked at the regional district board and in our own communities, there's been a lot of work to understand risk and to prepare for risk. Because I've only been involved in local government now for seven years. There hasn't been a ton in my experience of sort of building back after disaster. Certainly this will be that opportunity. And so I just wonder, when you hear t hat, the phrase 'build back better,' what jumps into your mind? On a high level, but then also specifically for your community. What does build back better mean in the Sea to Sky?

Mayor Richman 12:48

Well, I feel like , I mean first of all, I feel like we've , we have had a lot of focus on risk and risk management, recovery from emergencies. Our focus has definitely been mostly around things like wildfires, floods, geo hazards.I certainly don't remember spending a lot of times talking about pandemics in my years in local government. And so I think it's interesting. I think, you know, we're, we're , we're all going through a learning process right now. It starts with assessing what have t hey, what are the hits, where, where have we, y ou k now, where are we going to be challenged in the next six months? That's where I 'm going to be challenged in the next two years, so there's a lot to assess, I think to answer those questions because this is as far as I'm concerned, pretty new ground, but I think, you know, just to give an example and a nswer your question, I think tourism is an easy one to look at. We've gone through this period where we've asked people to stay out of our communities. All of our communities rely on visitors for our business communities. We've asked people to stay out for a w hile. So now as things turn and we look at a new face to tourism, you know, where, where are the people coming from? What are they looking for? I feel like this is an opportunity for us to approach that with a message of sustainable tourism and how do we continue to promote our area because it is a big part of our economy and we like to show off, but how do we do that and maybe take a new direction a nd, a little more of a sustainable and ecological approach to tourism. So I think that's just one example. I mean there's a number of other examples just in terms of the way we all operate together now. Like there's been such a great level of coordination between us, you know, the Sea to Sky, Lower Mainland, the province, the feds, coastal health authority and onwards and onwards, our own doctors within our own communities working with other organizations to provide support through the pandemic. I think another part of the rebuild that we is that we can look as an opportunity to seize upon is a new level of coordination, a new level of communication. I feel like we've broken down some barriers between or o pened some doors wider between relationships, so I think that's important.

Mayor Crompton 15:12

Yeah, I agree. A lot of the build back better is actually taking advantage of some of the things that we have done. in the midst of the disaster, you know, you've been forced to work from home. People have been forced to lean on virtual tools in ways that we haven't in the past. So, certainly some of the build back better is actually tools that are, I mean, it's funny, we've talked a lot around tables that I've been a part of of, you know, we should really consider having conference calls and the ability to work from home and all that kind of stuff. And it the response is always all that's very complicated. It'd be very difficult to accomplish and yet in a week, everybody's local government is working from home and having online meetings and , when forced to respond, we're definitely able to,

Mayor Elliot 16:09

I think one of the things I think about when we talk about build back better is that when there's a flood or a fire, there's a real physical reminder of what you've been through and it's tangible and people generally have a sense of how to react. So, you know, build a bigger dike , move this , building , plant trees here, right? Shore up the slope there . They are very visual and tangible things that it looks like local government is doing to build back better. I think with the pandemic, and no , this was not covered in our council orientation , is that this has been an invisible emergency. Unless you're on the front lines of h ealthcare in which i t's been very visible. But for, for most of us here in small communities where we haven't had a large community outbreaks, you know, we've followed all the guidelines. People are changing their habits and the way that they work and they play but build back better. It won't look, aside from the things that have already been put in place like p lexiglass and dots on the floor and fewer people in a store, and more meetings online. But I think it speaks to, you know, what are the conversations we have with our community about resiliency. What does build back stronger mean when this will be primarily a health impact, physical, mental health. I don't think we should underestimate the mental health impact that this has had and will continue to have on families and businesses are struggling. The economic impact for local government. And how do those conversations take place? C ause they're harder to have rather than, Hey, where should we move our emergency o peration center. It's in the f loodplain. We should probably move it somewhere else. That's a build back better. And that's an easy conversation to have. But what's been the impact for you personally? How do we build community resilience? And that's a conversation that I think we should be having in our communities. It's not clear to me yet, , when and how we do that. But I think it's important to recognize that some of the build back better is w ill be in the intangible space.

Mayor Crompton 18:29

Like local economies, which is such a strange thing to consider. But I was on a phone call earlier today that was talking about the impact this is having on commercial retail space and how you may see over the next few years a real shock to how that economic system operates. And then what is the conversation around how do we ensure that I'm on the other side of that? We've had the conversation and really helped build a local economy that feeds people in our community in ways that maybe the existing one doesn't. But it's definitely like you say, not a physical thing that you can touch and see. It's economic and it's sort of connected to the way society works.

Mayor Elliot 19:24

Taking Mike's point about , you know, can we do tourism differently to make it more sustainable? I think this pandemic has exposed a lot of weaknesses in our social system, which is we depend on a lot of frontline workers who are undervalued and underpaid. This fundamentally kind of has to change the conversation about, I think across Canada, not just in our local communities, but , there's deeper questions and deeper things that have been exposed in our society that I think we also need to look at at the local level.

Mayor Richman 19:58

You know , I think it's also like Karen said, it's not, there are less tangible impacts , than in watching a fire rip through and lay down the damage it does. You know, we talk a lot about mental health, which is so important because we're going to feel the impact from this for years. I get that , I guess it's related to mental health, but just the social fabric of our communities too , right? How do we interact. I mean, I've watched people in my community throughout, you know, when we first started going into more of a lockdown and an isolation period and people would pass each other in the grocery store when they did have to go out or in the street when they did have to go out, there was a look of suspicion and, and a bit of fear. And it really bothered me , to see that among residents. And then I felt like I watched that go away and we kind of kind of adapted and we recognize that we could still interact well with each other and show affection and, catch up and BS with each other. And you know , over the top of the box of a pickup truck because we haven't seen each other for a month. So I feel like I got better. But nonetheless, there's going to be lasting like as we reopened . I think this is , that's a big part of the conversation is that , you know, some people are ready to kick the doors open and get back as close to you know, run out, hug each other, party, whatever it is , where others are still quite anxious. And I think the reopening is sort of , also reopened the spectr of where people are at from anxiety to complacency on this pent up energy to go out. And so how again, how do we , uh, how do we interact with each other now? I want to make sure that we keep our nice on and that, that, that we're still, you know. I felt genuine affection in the streets between people watching them interact. And I don't want to see hostility or suspicion when people come into our communities cause it's starting to happen again. Right. And I think that's the other thing is that we, that's important to realize is that this whole experience has been so different for everybody. I mean I not a day that goes by that I'm not super grateful for, for having been isolated in my yard. I c an't imagine being in an 800 square foot apartment for two months in Vancouver without a deck, you know, on the eighth floor. I just couldn't imagine it. I would have a ton of pent up energy as well. So as people start to trickle into our communities and the activity level grows, I 'm just hopeful that we all stay affectionate and supportive and kind and nice and all that.

Mayor Crompton 22:40

Mike, that is such a good word. You used affection. I think it's, you know, the words that's been out there stay safe, stay kind. But , I think affection from a distance is a strange thing that we've learned how to do. It's a strange benefit to all of this. You are affectionate from two meters from another person, which is you do that with body language. You do that with the words you use. You do that differently than you used to do when you would, you know, be closer to each other. And it's one of the things I've been talking to a lot of my community about is , is hospitality from a distance. And I think that word affection is sort of loaded into hospitality and , and how do you do both from a distance? How do you welcome people to your restaurant in a really sort of hospitable, affectionate way that is two meters . It's a different skillset that we're all being forced to learn, which is fascinating.

Mayor Richman 23:41

I do really miss your hugs, Jack.

Mayor Crompton 23:45

I know, right? So , okay. Well, I guess that's a question I had for you is how's COVID-19 impacted your work as mayor and as a member of your local community? So you've learned affection from a distance, but how has it changed the day to day for your work as mayor and as a human in your community?

Mayor Elliot 24:10

Well, I think the whole pandemic has certainly made me think really hard about what is the role of mayor in a crisis and an ongoing crisis. And , we set up our emergency operations center and politicians aren't involved in those, right? Like that's a hands off. Those are the rules. Our staff get a lot of freedom to make decisions, to respond to the emergency. I think that all of us in staying connected through this on a regular basis , have realized the importance of communicating , with our citizens on an ongoing basis, using whatever tool we have. And you know, I used to do a lot of that just out on the street, right? Going to get coffee, doing my errands. You'd run into a lot of people and people could ask you questions and all of a sudden that sort of went away. You know, people aren't really supposed to talk anymore when you're grocery shopping. It's sorta like, just keep going. You know , I feel bad if I have to stop and respond to a text that I got from work and sort of sorry sorry, I'm try to shop, but I'm also trying to work. And like the first time I went and didn't realize that they had put arrows on the floor. So then there was directionality to some of the aisles and all of a sudden I found myself at the end of an aisle going the wrong way. And I thought, Oh, who's seen me do that? But the other thing too is it's forced me to change. I'm not, I'm someone who loves social media. One of my favorite things that I did during this was hosting Instagram live for young people , with two of our mental health liaises from Vancouver Coastal Health to really just talk with young people about their thoughts on the pandemic. And I had never done that before and it was great to try a new tool. You know, we've had our first virtual Mayors drop in and the attendance was larger because people could tune in from home. They didn't have to come down to city hall. We are now looking at virtual lecture series and doing polling with our communities live, you know, asking them a question and getting a response right away on their feelings on an issue. So I think, you know, it's forced me to learn some new skills, a nd learn new ways to engage when I can't do it face to face, which I think has been a huge positive. So I would say that's sort of my biggest learning from this. And I think also recognizing as Mike said earlier, there's such a different experience across the community and really trying to walk that line between addressing people's fears and also, addressing the recovery at the same time when we're not really in charge, The province is setting the pace, the province is setting the guidelines and we have to try and interpret them for our communities, and that's not always easy. So it's definitely been a juggling act, but I've appreciated the opportunity to try and connect differently with my citizens.

Mayor Crompton 27:26

That's another good word to use is interpreting. I felt the same, that we're spending a lot of time interpreting a direction provided to us by other levels of government that is often challenging for us to understand before we then communicate it to our communities. Mike, how's it changed your experience of being a Mayor?

Mayor Richman 27:47

I was thinking sort of an extension of what Karen was saying. You know, for me, my community is the smallest of the three obviously. And I know a good deal of our population. There's a lot of people, I don't know obviously, but I've always felt that I was very accessible. I'm part owner of a business downtown. I'm in town all the time. I put my phone number, my email address everywhere I go. I try to stay connected, but I didn't realize it, like Karen said, I 've h ad to change how that works a little bit, and really tried to stay accessible. I mean I've spent a lot of time responding to emails and, like you said, interpreting the information. It's been interesting to see, to me how much people have turned to local government for answers and for clarity, and for whatever. I mean, some of them are obviously local government concerns from people on our trails a nd in our parks or whatever it is, to some of the bigger issues and the direction we're getting from the province. And you know, we all work with different relationships, different partners, to dig deeper when we get information to get clarity and then, like you say, interpret i t and then message it out. So the importance of messaging has been so huge. You know, you're not comfortable with social media. Karen, I'm a lot further down the road than you a re with that stuff. Y ou d on't l ike i t. You guys know that. It took me about three weeks. As soon as before I finally turned my video on.

Mayor Crompton 29:24

It's still dark. You look like Darth Vader.

Mayor Richman 29:28

You're calling me deep throat for awhile , so I'm not really comfortable with either. I did a Facebook live thing on Friday, and it felt really good to , to be able to connect with people and people seem to be responding really well. I've always obviously seen or felt the importance of local government, but lately it's, it's really made me feel , it's been a heck of a learning experience and it makes me feel part of something very important that we're doing. We're doing important work for our residents and when they need something, they're coming to us and hopefully we're responding well. But , it's been a challenge. And just so you know, I think I told you guys this, I got kicked out of the liquor store a couple weeks ago because people kept stopping and talking to me and the guy came over, he said, you gotta go, you got to get out of here. You're slowing the traffic down.

Narrator 30:20

You are listening to the Whistler Podcast. Candid conversations on current events, local government, and everything Whistler.

Mayor Crompton 30:28

The communities that we're a part of, obviously face unique, I mean there's a lot of similarities, but we face unique challenges. I'm just wondering, are there things, conversations, that you're hearing from community members that you think are sort of unique to your community? I think about agriculture in Mike's situation. I think about that, you know, link to Vancouver in Squamish's situation. Give us context for the experience of the pandemic in your communities.

Mayor Richman 31:02

What's unique? I mean I think obviously there's a lot that ties our three communities together. That's why we're the Sea to Sky. You know, obviously your resort experience, Jack is very different from our markdown , which is completely different makeup. However, a good chunk of our residents work in businesses or for Vail or whatever in Whistler. We're so tightly linked to the other side of it, that's been interesting to watch in the last little bit. I think I mentioned this too , is that with Whistler the resort, so to speak, shut down or mostly shut down, and your village being quite quiet, those that have left the lower mainland recently are leapfrogging Whister and coming to Pemberton. So we're seeing a higher level of activity than we expected off the hop. So there's all these different trickle down effects that we have, you know, up and down the corridor. I'm trying to think what else would be unique to Pemberton. I mean, again, I feel in all of our communities, we're so lucky to have been here in Pemberton throughout this. We all had the ability to get out to a certain degree or most of us have h ad the ability to get out. Obviously, some haven't. I don't know what else would be unique to us.

Mayor Crompton 32:17

Does farming just carry on unaffected?

Mayor Richman 32:19

There's aspects to it like foreign farm workers coming in and , and temporary workers coming in that support farms. And there's a lot of farms that use that kind of labor around here and some of it's very skilled labor. So how does that look? You know, some of those workers come from Mexico, some come from all over the country. So that's definitely impacting agriculture around here. You know, you go to the nursery and you try to find a pack of seeds right now, is pretty tough in Pemberton, but you can go to the plant sale, you better get there early , so everybody's planting their gardens. You know, I've got my pigs and chickens in the yard, you know, so people in our area are looking to their own properties and resources and going , okay, well what can I do? So I think there's more food production going to happen in Pemberton this summer than ever and more small time food production than ever.

Mayor Crompton 33:13

So maybe more small time food production, but the larger stuff is challenged by labor.

Mayor Richman 33:19

You know, I haven't heard of any market concerns for agriculture. You know, the farmer's market is definitely going to look a lot different. Not only is that key for our farmers and other vendors, but it's also a big social event, so to speak. Every Friday for us , you know, farmer's markets this year being, we'll stick to just food and how you gather divide, is going to look very different. So I think the marketplace is changing a little bit. I haven't heard a lot of concern from the farmers at this point in terms of the marketplace, but labor is certainly top of mind.

Mayor Crompton 33:53

Certainly Whistler. I think the rules are broad as far as farmer's markets are concerned. Right? You can't sell crafts. They have to be food. And so yeah, the size of markets is going to be way smaller and focused on, I guess what they originally were focused on, which is selling local produce.

Mayor Richman 34:14

But they support it , you know, the produce and the crafts and all the others . So they support each other. So, you know , you might come in and come to look at some pottery and end up buying whatever produce or vice versa. Right. And it's just, you know, again, we're a smaller community that with those vendors it's what draws people. That in the social aspect is what draw draws people to our farmer's market and then selling our local produce.

Mayor Crompton 34:39

Yeah. Squamish?

Mayor Elliot 34:41

I think , as you said earlier, Jack, I mean it was just unprecedented to hear the three of us telling the Lower Mainline not to come when our small businesses rely so much on that traffic. I suppose, you know, we're trying to find the balance now between a provincial recommendation, which is to recreate close to home, but I think a lot of people feel like the Sea to Sky corridor is still close to home if you live in the Lower Mainland. It's hard to know what to expect even this coming long weekend, you know, our parks remain cl osed e xcept for Alice Lake, which is open for day us e a s o f tomorrow. I think the conversation for us is how quickly will the demand show up? How will the community react to that? And do we have an opportunity in this very small window to perhaps reeducate visitors a little more on how to visit and engage in the Sea to Sky corridor and in Squamish with a little bit of a lighter touch? I think there was as generally been a real sense of entitlement and by a lot of visitors that they could go anywhere and do anything and leave behind anything they wanted. And I think this is an opportunity to speak to the type of visitor, or the behavior of the visitors, I think that we need in the Sea to Sky, which is people are interested in our history and the history of the land and the first nations and the ecosystems that are here and their importance and why our communities wo rk s o hard to preserve the natural environment that's around us. And I think some of that's been missing in t he sort of promotion of the Sea to Sky corridor. So the conversation is, you know, do we have a small window here to sort of help people see us a little bit differently in Squamish? And it's not just come for the day and you know, have your adventure and leave. It's more about you're arriving at a place with a history and a meaning, e ngage with it, have fun, b ut you know, tread on it a little more lightly and with a little bit more respect. And you know, I don't know how far we'll get. It is a very small window. I mean, I suspect that the parks will be open by so metime i n beginning of June and then what? An d w e've seen all over the world that the demand is there for people to just get out and go. I don't want to go backwards. I don't want to see this, you know, people over love the corridor and then all of a sudden we have to shut it down again. So I'm nervous. I think our community is nervous. We both want visitors and yet we're nervous about how many an d, and what will they respect kind of the new rules when they're here.

Mayor Crompton 37:44

I really like that link that you, I mean I think it's an important link to acknowledge a softer footprint and I think you connected it to the Squamish Nation and the Lillooet Nation, which I think is interesting. Acknowledging that history of a lighter footprint and how that benefits the region in really important ways is something I hope is sort of accrued. It's a little bit like that build back better. If we can On the other side of this, have an acknowledgement of where we are and the importance of a lighter footprint. I think that that would be a real win for the region. So specific to tourism, do you see changing anything about the way your community receives food and beverage and tourism, visitation moving forward?

Mayor Richman 38:36

I think we got to split it up a little bit. I think we have a short term challenge that Karen referred to, which is that pent up demand that we've seen on the beaches of Australia and we've seen all over the world and we're seeing it already here. You know, Dr. Henry cracked the door open last week and people, a lot of people squeezed through , uh, you know, when their act , when everybody feels comfortable that they can go out, there's going to be an inevitable short term wave , and I'm hoping that all levels of government and partners are ready to manage that because it will come. There's been an interesting conversation throughout the pandemic, I mean , as far as I'm concerned, which is where does my backyard stop and where does your start? An incremental approach to welcoming guests back into our communities. Again, we all d epend on it and t hen welcome tourists, you know, it's sort of a phased approach is what we're being told. Stay in your own community for now. Recreate in your own community. O kay. What is your community? What is your backyard? So I had a great conversation with a couple in their business. T hey're i n the restaurant the other day. They came in on Saturday a nd I haven't been here since the change. It's very nice. Oh, where a re you guys from? From Whistler. O h yeah, let me chat for a little while. Five minutes later, a couple of minutes later, the guy turns around a nd says, what's w ith a ll the t ourists? I thought they were told to stay home. I had a chuckle. T hey said where does home stop. I don't know. O r you know, we h ad a good laugh about it. I'm just saying that's been a bit of a bit of a gray area, right? You know, where does my backyard end and where does yours start as we have a phased approach to welcoming people. I d on't k now how that's g oing t o work. Bottom line is with that pent up energy, there will be a wave and we need to manage it not only with just, you know, boots on the ground, but just in terms of how our communities react to that first wave. And then while that's happening, we need to put our minds to t he sustained or the longterm message that we as communities we as a corridor want to put out to welcoming people here just to show off our beautiful area. So I think i t's kind of a two prong thing going on.

Mayor Crompton 41:00

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think that we'll have a real role right now as communities to prepare ourselves to see more people in our backyard in ways that we're probably uncomfortable with some of us. And then a second phase is understanding how in the longer term we do a good job of welcoming people in a way that is safe , but hospitable which goes back to your whole affection thing.

Mayor Elliot 41:31

I think the other danger to Jack is that , our communities all got used to having more of their space back to themselves. We haven't really had to share all that much in the last two months. Some people thought that felt really good. And so to your point Mike is managing that reaction to this isn't more, this is a regular May long weekend or it's a sunny weekend in June. But the thing is we all got a taste of two months of , hey there was no one on that trail. I had it all to myself. So I think that in order to, you know, I always say to people, you get to decide what to do with your two meters and that's the most control that you can get in this is just to make really good decisions about where you take your two meter bubble. But I think, given that we know visitation is going to happen is that locals might have to change their habits, right? And get out early and get out on the trails a nd, do their shopping, not on the weekends ever, because t here'll be people here, if you want to keep that sense of distance. And so I think, again, we're not really in a steady state yet. I think we will be evolving constantly until there is a vaccine or a treatment that is effective. And then we're g oing t o move into the fall and the winter season and, we'll have to evolve again, a nd I think that's the part that's hard and that I really want to be focused on, is never forgetting that we're still in a constant state of change here with every week that passes. I think that's important to remind people of is we can iterate, we can make things better. And you know, that first wave might come through Mike and we might all go, Whoa, we weren't prepared for what that looked like. But we'll learn from each other and, a nd work with our community partners and figure it out.

Mayor Richman 43:35

I think that's a huge point. I mean, the fact that this is going to evolve again in June and next week and then in July and then in the fall, and it's the change those shifts I think that are one of the anxiety causing parts. Right . And so we have to all together manage the shifts. But it's interesting, you know, we've been given guidelines now as opposed to have hard, fast rules in terms of some of what we can do and can't do and where we can do it. So a little more is being left up to the individual. And I think that's the way you put it. You know, we manage our own two meters. You know, there's a, there's a level of personal responsibility as we're sorting through this, we will continue to sort through it. All of us together. We'll continue getting the information we need and putting it together and working and evolving as we need to. But there's a level of personal responsibility in there. So, you know, there's a pent up energy to get out. That's great. You know, your line Jack, recreate, don't congregate, get out, get on your bike, go for a swim. Cause they're already swimming in the lakes here. Go do those things. But there's a level of personal responsibility. We have to make decisions because this is an ongoing thing. We have to make decisions that are safe and responsible and w e'll continue to sort through it together. I know people a re asking the question, well, what is my bubble? Y ou k now, i f my bubble attaches to your bubble now, how does that actually work? Cause you have another bubble attached to you and can the three of us go out for dinner? Can our families go out for dinner? When can we, what does that look like? So, there's a l ot to sort out, but we'll sort it out together. And I think if we all just take that personal responsibility and try to maintain some p atience with the whole ongoing thing, then we'll continue to get through it together. You know, it's interesting too, like we talk about, you know, the tourism coming and stuff. This weekend we just made the decision to close the One Mile Lake parking lot. Now we've left that open because it's really a local asset an d e verybody goes in an d a lot of young families go there, t his past weekend as the door cracked open and we saw a bunch more visitors come into town, we saw people coming back from Joffre who didn't know Joffre was closed. And then going, well, let's have our picnic at this Lake. And so we had a lot of out of towners at our little municipal park. So we had a tug of war. Staff and I have this week about, do w e shut the parking lot, not the park, just the parking lot. And is that protecting our park for our locals this long weekend so that they can get to use it safely or is it punishing them and making it harder for them to use it. And we felt finally after much discussion that, you know, there's other ways we could all walk and ride and hopefully get to the Lake. But it would, it would actually protect the asset and protect the park for the locals. So these ongoing conversations where you're trying to sort out what's best this weekend and is that just this weekend ca use n ext week and other parks an d s o constantly evolving, constantly assessing and constantly trying to make the right decisions for our community.

Mayor Crompton 46:43

I think one thing that you said that I think is going to mark how this all proceeds, and I think it's marked the way Dr. Henry has spoken about this as personal responsibility is that lot of the responsibility to be safe will be on us as human beings. And a lot of that I think is do we feel safe and not putting ourselves in places that we feel uncomfortable with and especially if we have people that we live with who are immunocompromised, we'll be even more careful in those circumstances. But a lot of the direction that I think I'm hearing from the province is about this idea of personal responsibility. And then certainly, you know, some things will change about patios in restaurants and how much public space is accessed by private companies. And there's all kinds of stuff that would have been nice to be able to dig into in, in this conversation, but it feels like there will be the safety measures that are dug into sector by sector , to protect staff and customers. And then there'll be that personal responsibility that goes along with it. And the two then are meant to sort of work in unison. But that is all the time that we have to chat today. That felt like it went like so fast. I've got seven more things that I'd like to chat to you guys about. Again, I'm so grateful for your friendship and I'm so grateful for your leadership in our corridor. It's so nice to be able to know that getting on this call, I'm going to be chatting to people that I care deeply about and who care deeply about me, and it's going to be able to be a conversation about what's important to our region. I'm grateful for the work you do for your communities and grateful for the work you do for the Sea to Sky. So thank you for joining me. I also want to thank Mountain FM for their continued support of the Whister Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Jack Crompton . See you next time.

Narrator 48:59

You've been listening to the Whistler Podcast, candid conversations about everything Whistler. To find out more about the Whistler Podcast, visit whistler.ca/whistlerpodcasts.