Sitting down this week to take part in one of my favourite annual traditions, I quickly came to a pair of startling conclusions.
Firstly, that I am very good at note taking, documentation and archiving (to a borderline obsessive extent). And secondly, that I am terrible at keeping new year’s resolutions.
The proof on both accounts was impossible to deny as it stared me in the face: a stack of one-sheet resolution lists piled nine high—one for every year I’ve been in Whistler.
Each one listing the year at the top, and a smattering of goals and targets for the year ahead.
Year after year, always some variation on the same resolutions.
Eat healthier. Exercise more. Lose weight. Save money.
In short, be better, in all areas of your life. Easy.
Or easier said than done, in my case, judging from the lapsed resolutions repeated year after year, forever.
That’s not to say I have done no self improvement in the past nine years. Quite the opposite. Taken as a whole, I have actually accomplished much of what I hoped to all the way back in 2015, even if my method wasn’t exactly direct (or contained within a calendar year).
So it’s just not as cut-and-dry as a simple little annual list would have you believe, and progress is never a straight path from Point A to Point B.
Better isn’t something you become. It’s something you do, day in and day out, one decision at a time.
Maybe the turning of the calendar provides us the mental crutch we need to make the push, but in the end, new year’s resolutions aren’t worth much—so I’m not bothering to make any this year.
Instead, I’m reflecting on the year that was, and what might lie ahead—both for myself and the wider world around me.
On that note, here’s just a few of the files worth watching in Whistler as 2023 gets underway.
THE HOUSING FILE
It was another productive year for housing construction in Whistler in 2022, with two new Whistler Housing Authority buildings completed in Cheakamus Crossing and a small handful of other projects getting approved at municipal hall.
What’s on tap for housing in 2023?
More of the same, if we’re lucky, as the Resort Municipality of Whistler plots the next stage of Cheakamus Phase 2 and some long-awaited projects from private developers break ground.
Whistler can’t stop building more housing, but it will be interesting to see if council and the RMOW make any bold changes on the policy side of things as well.
We know Canada’s ban on foreign real estate buyers went into effect Jan. 1, with both Whistler and Pemberton exempt—but is there more that can be done locally to ensure the best use of our housing inventory?
Word on the street is that the most acute housing crunch is no longer among Whistler’s front-line workers, but those middle-management types looking for a private one- or two-bedroom to start laying down roots.
Good luck.
If Whistler is serious about fixing its broken “housing continuum,” it will make addressing suite loss a priority in 2023—or watch all that managerial talent find somewhere better to live.
And no, more minor tweaks to Whistler Housing Authority eligibility criteria are not the policy changes we need.
BALANCING ACT
Local modelling predicts big things for Whistler, we learned last year: More visitors, more residents, increased workforce shortages and 50 per cent more traffic congestion by 2040, if nothing is done to mitigate current trends.
So at the outset of 2022, the future of Whistler hinged on one very big question: what to do about potential unconstrained growth?
The last official update on the so-called Balance Model Initiative—which seeks to answer that very big question—came before council in July, after which most attentions were understandably consumed by the October municipal election.
According to that July update, we can expect a “comprehensive set of recommendations” to come from the work, for council’s approval, sometime in 2023.
So at the outset of 2023, we are much where we were last year, wondering what can be done about these tremendous pressures we’re facing—in our parks, on our rivers, on our roads, and even in our local health-care system.
CIRCLE THE WAGONS
And on the topic of health-care in Whistler, if there is one point of interest worth watching above all else in 2023, it’s the work of the Whistler 360 Health Care Collaborative.
As reported in the Dec. 29 issue of Pique, the non-profit launched its new clinic model on New Year’s Day, and plans to open two new exam rooms at the Whistler Health Care Centre and a satellite clinic on Main Street in the coming months.
It is encouraging to see such progress (not to mention the inspiring generosity and acts of charity that have made it possible)—but the work is far from finished.
The non-profit is currently looking to hire new care providers, while also looking at ways to procure new space to handle Whistler’s growing health-care demands.
It is proposing an innovative approach to a monumental problem, but the early returns are promising. I’ll be curious to see where the initiative stands at the end of 2023.
MAKING A RACKET
One of the biggest files at municipal hall in 2022 will once again take precedence in 2023.
The enhanced rezoning application for Whistler’s Northlands development north of Whistler Village stirred up all manners of debate in 2022, and the discussion is ongoing.
At the core of it all lies the future of the Whistler Racket Club, which, as it currently stands, could very likely find itself without a home before the end of the year, as it is not being contemplated in any of the designs floated by proponent Beedie Living.
Will it live on in a new location? Or will 2023 spell the end of the Whistler Racket Club?
Time will tell.
In the meantime, we wait for the next update to mayor and council, expected sometime this winter.
