Whistler’s mayor and council is stepping up advocacy to the province on what to do about illegal camping around—but not in—the community, and the wildfire risks it exposes Whistler to.
Riffing off of a letter to the municipality about the semi-permanent nature of a handful of encampments around Whistler’s fringes on forest service roads, after some discussion on risks of wildfire, sanitation and jurisdiction, council determined at its July 23 regular meeting to write its own letter to the province raising the issue.
“I just urge we keep working on this,” said Councillor Arthur De Jong, referencing the Cheakamus Lake Forest Service Road, which was identified by members of the community as of particular concern.
“When we’re in real extreme [weather] and a fire ignites, it will quickly go up the disease-ridden [forest] south aspect … it will hit second growth on the shoulder of Khyber, and you’ll have a rank 4 or a rank 5 which will take out half the valley—it is that volatile.
“So when we are in extreme, we have to find a way to get these illegal campers out of these interface areas. It is critical.”
All councillors who spoke to the issue leaned into the fire danger of campers setting up around the community—including in the WedgeWoods area to the north.
Coun. Ralph Forsyth asked Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) staff what the municipality could do to “raise the alarm bells to the ministry that we have a serious problem at both ends.
“We have it at Wedge where there’s basically near lawlessness, and at Cheakamus which is adjacent to one of our neighbourhoods,” he said. “What can we do to signal to the ministry as urgently as possible that something needs to be done?”
Staff’s response was the answer was partly political, and that there were ongoing conversations with the province at a staffing level.
“I can share that the fire chief has had regular conversations with the [Conservation Officer Service] since the letter was received … and before that,” said Ted Battiston, the RMOW’s general manager of corporate services and public safety.
“I also know that the deputy fire chief was in touch with the conservation officers on the same issues this week. Bylaw continues to be in touch… from staff to staff, we are in touch with them at least weekly,” he said, but added more needs to be done.
“I agree that the issues are still persistent and we haven’t gotten to the place that we need to get to. This conversation needs to continue on all sides of this.”
Forsyth pressed the urgency of the issue.
“I would urge the mayor to get on the horn with the ministry or whoever is responsible, because I would hate for us to be sitting here six months from now saying, ‘wow, we really should have done something about the illegal camping on either end as the village burnt to the ground,’” he said.
“Not to be too alarmist, but it does worry me. It’s pretty out of control.”
For his part, Mayor Jack Crompton said he was doing just that, but raised jurisdictional borders as an issue for the RMOW, given forest service roads leading in to Crown lands are the responsibility of the province, and beyond the reach of municipal bylaws.
“I think it’s really important that we acknowledge whose jurisdiction this is, and not give anybody in this community the sense that we have the tools to fix this,” Crompton said.
“We do not have the tools, we do not have the jurisdiction.”
That said, Crompton ran with a staff recommendation that the municipality formalize its advocacy by writing a letter, and the motion was unanimously supported.
The RMOW has received numerous letters over the past season from concerned residents, some of whom also reached out to Pique to voice concerns.
Cheakamus resident Trevor Mitzel said the lack of enforcement was signalling to others that camping for long periods of time is acceptable around Whistler.
“Whether it’s acceptance or a manpower issue, there’s no enforcement of anything and the encampments are getting large,” he told Pique.
“You’ve got a large number of people living without adequate facilities, so you have the issues that go along with that, and it’s getting to a point where it’s looking like it’s becoming permanent—people are now building relatively permanent structures around their recreational vehicles.”
Mitzel highlighted the recent Jasper wildfire and the impact on that town as more cause for concern in Whistler.
“We have that same risk,” he said.
“Just a couple of days ago I was riding a trail which leads from the Wedge parking lot, and where we parked our truck we could see the remnants of four or five recent bonfires, so it’s a matter of people are using charcoal and gas grills in an undeveloped campground setting, as well as there’s a lot of gas generators. They make noise, so people do what makes the most sense, they stick them in the woods 40 feet away from their RV, and those gas generators are a huge fire hazard as well.”
Mitzel also said the number of people living in encampments for long periods of time meant there was a lot of human waste and garbage accumulating in the woods—and driving away residents who typically used those outdoor spaces for recreation.
He backed calls for the municipality to step up advocacy and do whatever it can to discourage camping around Whistler, stressing it isn’t about moving along homeless people, but discouraging people taking advantage of a lack of enforcement to camp and recreate in the area for long periods of time for free.
“I don’t think these are people who have fallen through the cracks of our social safety net in Canada, these are people who have realized no one is going to stop them from squatting on public land,” he said. “So they’re making the choice to squat on public land, which I think is irresponsible if we don’t stop it—it creates such an exposure to the community.”
Mitzel added he believes not moving along campers is an invitation to more.
“There’s rules in place, there’s limitations on how long you can camp on public lands,” he said. “Those rules are there for a reason, and they need to enforce that.”
