Anecdotal suspicion of a slower-than-normal summer aside, Whistler’s Chamber of Commerce has reported a mixed bag of economic conditions as we head towards fall.
“The context is that last summer (2023) wasn’t great - not for everyone—but it wasn’t a great summer,” said executive director of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce, Louise Walker, who explained that consecutive ‘not great’ seasons was applying increased pressure on local businesses in summer 2024.
“Then fall was challenging, then winter was challenging, then spring was challenging —All those moments where small locally-owned businesses get the opportunity to boost themselves haven’t really materialized, so we are seeing that some businesses are seeing lower expenditures from visitors than anticipated,” she said.
That take appears to confirm suspicions aired by the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) back in July, in reporting on Q1 numbers for the year when the municipality’s chief financial officer, Carlee Price, told the Whistler council that the first three months of the year showed “very early signs of slowing”, though the local economy was strong as reflected by local activity. Local activity being parking passes, use of Meadow Park, and transit use.
But how did the RMOW hypothesize that the economy was slowing back then? The RMOW receives MRDT funding from overnight stays, which funnels money into municipal coffers, giving them insight into visitation, while transit, parking and public facilities are directly monitored by the municipality.
Closer to the end of summer rather than the start, Walker said that as of August 2024 the economy appeared to be on that same track, with visitors coming to Whistler — but not really spending as much.
“Whistler’s not unique with affordability issues, that impacts our guests as well. Inflation and interest rates and uncertainty—it makes people watch their wallet a little bit more, so they might still be coming, but they’re not spending as much in retail or going out for dinner, or going to bars the same way.”
As shown by the RMOW numbers from Q1 (a Q2 report should be forthcoming in coming weeks), the biggest impact was on retail and restaurants, where visitors would spend the more money the longer they stayed.
“I think it is really just people feeling the pinch on their wallets right now,” said Walker.
With pressure on businesses, she said she believed the retail sector was going in the wrong direction in regards to conditions, but it wasn’t at breaking point.
“What I do know if the cost of doing business is so high right now: You have rent, property taxes have increased because the value of the properties have increased, and then you have things like employer health tax, and then some business helping out with housing that at the same time are trying to support their team with wages so they can address the affordability issues, but it's just this vicious cycle that’s not helping.
“The cost of doing business and the ease of doing business right now are the two biggest things. If you’d asked me this two years ago I’d have talked about affordable housing which is definitely still up there, but it's a long-term issue. Affordability of doing business is having a really big impact now,” she said.
“All these expenses are adding up … It’s a combination of them all - a combination of these costs while consumers are watching what they’re spending and it's not a good mix.”
Numbers from Whistler Blackcomb from earlier in the season told a similar story of the tail end of winter and into summer 2024, with their quarterly fiscal result from June 6 showing that visitation had been down all the way through the previous winter season and then flowed into spring—and intuitively, into summer.
According to Vail’s projections at the time, the sale of season passes for 2024-25 was down due to a lack of visitation in the previous winter season, with Whistler Blackcomb singled out as a bad performer due to the lackluster winter conditions in 2023-24.
The resort company expressed optimism that things would pick up, but the somewhat depressed market conditions are not welcome news for local commerce — and there’s no quick fix.
“What can we do?” asked Walker. “Obviously we do a lot of advocacy at the chamber and we make sure all of our elected officials at all levels of government know about the challenges - this isn’t unique to Whistler. Affordability is across the province and across the country. We work with the BC Chamber to make sure we advocate for changes to EHT (Employer Health Tax) or changes to other taxes, changes to make sure the municipality knows about the impact of (slow building) permits.”
The quickest fix—or the quickest way to get business concerns known is just around the corner, in October. It’s election season in BC, and West Vancouver-Sea to Sky is competitive.
“There’s a short-term fix, making sure we get our issues in front of the candidates for the election,” said Walker.
“That is the biggest opportunity we have right now - to elevate those issues.”
Other issues besides the impact of taxes and ways to soften cost of living and doing business pressures are items such as regional transit, daycare and temporary foreign workers — items which Walker said were always top priority for advocacy.
The Whistler Chamber of Commerce, Pique Newsmagazine and Arts Whistler will be co-hosting an all-candidates forum in Whistler on October 1 in the Maury Young Art Centre in Whistler. More details will be released closer to the event, but all candidates officially declared in the race to represent West Vancouver-Sea to Sky are invited to attend.
For local conditions, Walker said that there was no crystal ball, but fingers crossed for coming seasons turning things around.
“I know businesses will be anticipating a good winter — it’s an important season for them, and we’re getting ready for it.”
