In a hit for Pemberton's tourism infrastructure, the community's visitor centre will be closing permanently at the beginning of September to make way for a project that will also take the town's only public sani-dump with it.
The news was shared by the Pemberton Chamber of Commerce on August 26—less than a week before the building's final day in operation. The centre has operated on lands owned by the Lil'wat Nation for about 15 years, and according to the Lil'wat nation it will be building a commercial and residential project in its place, which is ideally located right on Hwy. 99. That project is still in the planning phase, and will also require the removal of the sani-dump located on the same plot of land.
According to Adam Adams of the Pemberton and District Chamber of Commerce, they did not have the staff to keep the centre beyond August this year anyway.
“The visitors centre was normally closed in September anyway,” said Adams in an interview with Pique. “We are closing early in the season simply because of staffing. We don’t have staff that will work past this week. They are all students. They have to go back to school. Normally, we would have other staff that would fill in. That staff member actually retired earlier in the summer. We don’t have that person to manage it for the last couple of weeks.”
Adams said they had known the tourism hubs days were numbered, with the Lil'wat Nation moving forward with its development plans.
“We will be closing that specific centre at that location because the land owners have decided that they are moving forward with development on that land,” he said.
“This was the last season that the visitors centre will be located there. The land is owned by Lil’wat Nation. They let us know that they are going to be moving forward with decommissioning the Sani-dump on that piece of land. That is also a reason why that centre has to close. When the septic system is removed, we are not able to run a facility there.”
According to Adams, locals have raised concerns that the closure of both facilities will affect tourism in the area. They are also worried that visitors in RVs may resort to illegal dumping around the idyllic mountain village.
“We were aware that there was going to be an issue with this. As soon as we were made of aware that these decisions were happening, we let the Village of Pemberton (VOP) know,” he said. “They were aware this was occurring. We did tell them that people would need other solutions. Local government has been aware of this for months.”
Vehicles will have to travel back to Whistler, or on to Lillooet to dispose of human waste after September 1.
“Whistler is the closest Sani-dump if you are going south,” said Adams. “If you’re going north, it’s Lillooet. We made it clear to local government that people will find other areas to illegally dump their grey water. They are going to look at creeks on the forest service roads. They are going to find other methods to do that.”
CEO of the Lil'wat Business Group, Rosemary Stager said that it is working with BC Builds on the project that would go on the plot of land.
"Lil’wat Business Group is in the concept phase of a commercial and residential project on the current Pemberton Visitor’s Centre site,” she said. “BC Builds is a housing program, delivered by BC Housing, to speed up the development of new homes for middle-income working people throughout British Columbia.”
Stager said that a start date on site has not been finalized as the project is still in the concept phase of development.
An advocacy group for vehicle residents in the Sea to Sky area has shared concerns for potential repercussions of the sani-dumps removal.
Thomasina Pidgeon of the Vehicle Residents of Squamish Advocacy Group stressed that a large number of people live in their vans and RVs year round.
“This seems like a really bad idea given the number of RVS that drive through in the summer,” she said. “There should be a Sani-dump in every town. It’s pretty crucial.”
Pidgeon said that every town must have somewhere where waste can be disposed of legally and in a sanitary way.
“Next thing is there will be complaints of RVs illegally dumping,” she said. “It’s like complaining about garbage and human waste in areas when in fact the state does nor provide enough public toilets, garbage cans and education signs on ‘Leave no Trace.’”
According to the Pemberton Chamber, there are no plans for the organization to re-open a visitor centre in Pemberton. That task, should it be taken up, has been handed over to Tourism Pemberton, which is an independent not-for-profit organization that according to its business plan, receives funding from local government and hotel tax revenues.
Mayor of Pemberton, Mike Richman said that this week’s announcement came as a surprise to council. “The village was aware that the info booth would be shutting down at the end of September as usual,” he said. “We were not aware that it would be closing over a month early. We recognize that this leaves a big gap in tourism service and is detrimental to local businesses. This was a surprise to us, and we are working closely with tourism Pemberton for possible relocations, and solutions.”
Richman said that he was not informed of the early closure prior to the announcement.
“The chamber did not communicate that there would be an early closure this year of either the info booth or the sani-dump,” he said. This is funded through Destination, BC and local government. We were under the impression that it would be open to at least the end of September or even until after Thanksgiving.”
