The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) is dipping into MRDT reserves to bankroll a late request from the Invictus Games to support village animation around the sporting event which will come to Whistler in early 2025.
In a report to council on July 23, the RMOW’s general manager of community engagement and cultural services, Karen Elliott, explained the organizers of the Games put in a late request to the municipality to support village animation to the tune of $240,000.
The Invictus Games is an international multi-sport event for wounded servicemen and women, and was founded and launched by royalty in 2014. The games coming to Whistler has long been anticipated, with Prince Harry visiting Whistler in 2023 and 2024 as part of preparations.
The request—supported by council with no dissent—will be funded through the RMOW’s festivals, events and animations program, which is an annual initiative designed to attract visitors to Whistler by enhancing events around town through municipal funding that comes from the hotel tax—or MRDT.
As explained by Elliott, the request from the Invictus Games came late for the 2024 allocation of funding for the programs, which was decided in November of 2023.
The 2024 program that was already allocated to third-party festivals and events tallies $841,000 across 19 different events. The Invictus funding allocation is larger than any of the 19 events, with the next-largest allocation going to the World Ski and Snowboard Festival (held in April), which received $170,000. MRDT funding comes from taxes levied on overnight stays at Whistler’s various hotels, guesthouses and short-term rentals.
“Invictus came to us in about May,” said Elliott. “This is not unusual for one-off events; they don’t follow our regular event calendar, so it wasn’t surprising to us.”
The late ask also came with a request the RMOW funds be made available to Invictus in 2024, as the Invictus Games themselves will be held early in 2025, from Feb. 8 to 16.
Elliott said timing of the games meant the RMOW funds would be best put to use in 2024 so preparations could be completed in time.
Elliott said the RMOW was offering $240,000 towards village animation, and that amount met the ask from the Invictus Games organizers. That funding would also be backed up by "value in-kind" support from the RMOW through operational and logistical help before and during the event. "Value in-kind" support is staff time and resources.
“The festivals, events and animation funds will be used to support unique, fun, accessible and interactive village animation, featuring relaxing viewing zones, music and dance, sport-themed activities, and local arts and heritage themed activities,” said Elliott.
But further details on how the $240,000 will be spent were scarce.
“We don’t want to provide too many details tonight as we don’t want to steal their thunder in anticipation of the games,” Elliott said.
Elliott stressed the importance of supporting the Invictus Games before councillors were asked to decide on the request.
“It’s not only a chance for us to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with visitors and cheer on an amazing group of athletes, but it's also a chance for us to learn … from the stories of resilience, to see the impact of creating belonging and connection and acceptance by understanding the journey that these service personnel have taken to get to Vancouver and Whistler, and also to test the accessibility of the resort and to understand how accessible it is to those both with visible and invisible injuries,” she said.
“We have many athletes who will be coming that have post traumatic stress disorder and so while we can’t see their injury, there will be accommodations made to make sure they’re comfortable while they’re here.”
Questions from council were minimal, with only Councillor Jessie Morden taking the opportunity to query whether directing $240,000 would impact any other third-party event-funding from the RMOW—to which Elliott noted the third-party events and animations budget has already been allocated, and is in the process of being spent.
She added no funding will be diverted, and the $240,000 would instead come from the RMOW’s MRDT reserve fund.
A communications official for the RMOW later told Pique the amount remaining in the reserve would depend on funding raised by the tax through the end of 2024. At the end of 2023, the MRDT reserve sat at $4.2 million.
“Our current forecast, after the funding of the Invictus contribution, is that the balance at year-end will be slightly lower than $4.2 million,” they said.
When it came time to vote on the funding allocation and the required changes to the 2024 budget, all councillors who offered comment expressed support for the Invictus Games, and voted unanimously in favour.
The games come to Whistler and Vancouver Feb. 8 to 16, 2025, with 500 athletes from around the world expected to attend.
The event will be funded primarily through the federal and provincial governments, which have each committed $15 million.
The Whistler games will be the first time Invictus will feature adaptive winter sports, such as wheelchair curling, skeleton, alpine skiing and snowboarding, biathlon and nordic skiing.
