Council Roundup from Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Looking to get caught up on the Tuesday, November 19 Council Meetings? We’ve pulled together some key stories from the Committee of the Whole and the Regular Council Meeting, including:
- Mapping nature through the Priority Habitat Framework
- Council considers 2025 capital project list
- Making progress on water conservation
- Landfill tipping fee increases encourage waste diversion
Mapping nature through the Priority Habitat Framework
West Jane Lake. Photo: Bob Brett
Whistler’s unique biodiversity has become a lot more unique in recent years with grizzly bears returning to the region and environmental events like drought and budworms infecting local trees. But before Whistler can take concrete steps to protect its fragile habitats and ecosystems, the first step is to figure out what lives where.
Grizzly bear in the Callaghan Valley. Photo: Bob Brett
At the November 19 regular council meeting, Whistler Environmental Coordinator Tina Symko and consultant Bob Brett of Snowline Ecological Research presented an update on the Priority Habitat Framework which includes detailed mapping. The mapping identifies the highest priority areas and species, providing a useful tool for planners, developers, and municipal efforts to protect and enhance biodiversity.
Watch the presentation and see the reports on whistler.ca.
Some of the highest value areas of Whistler, representing around 30 per cent of the land base, include the Emerald Forest, the River of Golden Dreams wetland complex, the Rainbow Trail on Rainbow/Sproatt mountains, the area between Blackcomb Mountain and Wedge Mountain, old growth forests, the Callaghan Valley, the Jane Lakes area and the Black Tusk area.
Photo: Bob Brett
Every area is scored using a species-based approach. It recognizes:
- key species like beavers that create vibrant ecosystems that support other species through dam building;
- umbrella species like grizzlies that indicate whether an ecosystem is healthy enough to support other important species;
- indicator species like tailed frogs that are particularly sensitive to ecosystem disturbances; and
- recognized “species at risk” like the goshawk that depend on rare or endangered ecosystems like old growth forests.
The maps are currently in use internally but will be rolled out to the wider community.
Councillor Ralph Forsyth was particularly enthusiastic about the work to date.
“When I see a lengthy report like this on environmental issues I’m usually like ‘oh boy,” and then I went and looked at it and I was like ‘wow, this is tremendous value.’ We got a lot of bang for our buck here,” he said. “It’s the kind of thing that even someone like me who tends to be skeptical about stuff like this at times, can say this is easily and always justifiable – retaining habitat, retaining species. This is tax money well spent on real, tangible things we can see in our community.”
Council considers long 2025 project list
Whistler’s Mayor and Council reviewed a long list of proposed 2025 capital projects at the November 19 Committee of the Whole meeting, ranging from Valley Trail improvements to flood protection measures, and critical upgrades to water and sewer infrastructure. The total ask for the proposed project list is just north of $38.6 million dollars.
Chief Administrative Officer Virginia Cullen noted that most of the work falls under the category of “need” rather than “want.”
“I just wanted to note that the majority of projects we’re looking at today are what we would put into the category of core municipal work,” she said. “This is reflective of the age and stage of the community. In Whistler, we enjoy a wide range of community assets, in part because we are a resort municipality and part of our responsibility is to support the tourism economy. With that, the care of these facilities falls under municipal responsibility.”
An overview summary of projects and 2025 budget information is available on engage.whistler.ca.
Most of the funds for projects, if approved through the budget process, would come from the Utility Reserves and the General Capital Reserve, with some additional funds for tourism-related projects and infrastructure coming from the provincial Resort Municipality Initiative and Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT, also known as the “hotel tax”).
The overall 2025 budget will be brought back to Council on December 3 at the Budget Guidelines meeting.
Whistler making progress on water conservation
Updates irrigation guidelines contributed to a decline in water use in 2024. RMOW/Mike Crane
As well as an update on biodiversity, Whistler Council also got an update on water conservation efforts over this past summer.
With below average snowpacks and rainfall in 2022 and 2023, followed by a dry start to the summer in 2024, the municipality took a variety of actions to reduce water use, including updated irrigation guidelines, bylaw permits for new landscaping that required regular water use, use of non-potable water for irrigating parks, and more. In the future, the municipality will be looking to ban “once through” cooling systems that continually flush water through buildings to remove excess heat, as well as phasing in a commercial/industrial water metering program.
Water use in June through September declined by 13.5 per cent when compared to 2023, with water use dropping by 11 per cent in July. Municipal utilities manager Chris Wike noted that increased rain likely played a role in the overall reduction in water use over the season but also noted July 2023 and 2024 were similar for temperatures and precipitation and water use still decreased.
Wike said that greater compliance with the bylaw permit requirement resulted in a lot of new permit applications over the summer. There were 143 water use permit applications processed in 2024, 71 of which were for properties applying for the first time, and 43 of which were applying for the second time. Wike said more applications are expected in 2025 with more public messaging. Whistler Bylaw Services will also begin to enforce the bylaw.
Council approves waste tipping fee increase
Council gave its first three readings on November 19 to a bylaw to increase tipping fees at the waste transfer station, with the goal of encouraging more recycling and diversion.
The minimum charge to use the waste transfer station will increase from $5 to $6. A new fee was also introduced for construction and demolition waste of $232 per tonne.
- Landfill waste, which is disposed of at Cache Creek, will increase from $221 to $232 per tonne.
- Biosolids will increase from $240 to $252 per tonne.
- Unchipped land clearing wood waste will increase from $120 to $122 per tonne, while yard waste, also unchipped, will increase from $30 to $35 per tonne.
- Bulky items, such as couches, will increase from $221 to $232, in line with other landfill waste.
In keeping with zero waste efforts to encourage composting, recycling, and overall diverting waste from the landfill, there will be no change in cost for recycling (free), or composting ($80/tonne).
The bylaw will come back to Council for final reading at a future Council meeting, at which point the new schedule of rates will be posted online.
To attend an upcoming meeting, check out the Council Meeting Schedule. Agendas and Minutes are available online. To connect with Council, consider ’Borrowing a Councillor’ from the Library’s Unusual Items Collection, or get in touch with them individually by phone or email.
