Photo: Tourism Whistler/Mike Crane

It’s budget season at the Resort Municipality of Whistler. What do you need to know about the 2025 budget? 

Our budget is built through a rigorous process where we balance fiscal responsibility with the needs of the community. Balancing the needs of today with saving for the future is core to our budget process. You can find out more about the basics of the municipal budgeting process, by checking out our explanation on whistler.ca. 

We have difficult spending decisions to make as our infrastructure ages and external costs continue to rise. Last year, the focus was COVID recovery. This year, the priority is investment in core municipal service delivery. Looking ahead, we are facing pressures from population growth and cost inflation, including costs associated with climate change.  

There are three “big rocks” that will have an outsized impact on our budget over the next five years. These three items will make up approximately 50 per cent of the total increase in budget from 2024-2025. We call them “big rocks” because they need to fit into the budget jar first as they take up the most space. Everything else needs to fit around these three items for the right fit. Each helps us catch up to the size of our community and puts public safety and transit expansion at the top of the priority list. They include: 

• RCMP costs, as our community is likely to exceed 15,000 people when BC Statistics are reported next year, we will fall under a new RCMP payment tier 

• The Spring Creek Fire Hall, which is now staffed full-time to support our community’s needs and safety 

• Our municipal transit system, which we are proposing to significantly expand as we continue our work to reduce harmful Greenhouse Gas emissions in the face of a changing climate  

Considering the needs of RCMP, the fire hall, and transit, spending constraint will be applied to all other year-over-year expenses. This means we will:  

• limit new assets;  

• invest in reserves to maintain our infrastructure, now and for the future; and 

• keep service levels the same.  

Want to learn more? Tuesday, October 22 at Committee of the Whole, staff presented what they have budgeted to deliver core services in 2025—and beyond. If you missed the presentation, you can re-watch it on whistler.ca. This is your first chance to view the municipal operations budget and to hear Council provide feedback to municipal staff on the proposal. Pressed for time? You can also check out our 90-second summary of the presentation.   

Next up, there will be a presentation of the projects staff are proposing to execute in 2025. This will be held at Committee of the Whole, on Tuesday, November 19.   

We also have many upcoming opportunities to connect with Council through a series of budget-focused events. We want your insight and input.  

• Thursday, November 21: Virtual Council Drop-In Hour: Budget Edition. Drop-in online to connect with Council and the community for a casual chat about the municipal operations budget as it is being proposed.

• Monday, November 25: Budget Quiz Night: The Whistler Edition. Hosted by Whistler’s own Laugh Out Live, this fun and interactive quiz night will entertain and inform you about Whistler’s municipal budget. 

Details for all upcoming budget events and engagement opportunities are available on engage.whistler.ca.