Whistler's new Strategic Planning Committee (SPC)—launched in the direct aftermath of the 2018 municipal election—is looking ahead to a big 2020.
The 11-person committee now has two meetings under its belt, most recently convening on Dec. 10.
"We're taking preliminary steps. We're setting the course for the work of the SPC," said Mayor Jack Crompton.
"Staff is working on data analytics and metrics that will be returned to the committee in Q2, Q3 (of 2020)."
A report to council on the SPC's work will follow around that time as well, Crompton said.
Whistler's 2020 budget includes $100,000 for the SPC's work, and another $75,000 in 2021.
"It will be used to commission data analytics to model how Whistler has evolved as a community over recent years, and use it as a base to predict future growth scenarios," Crompton said, adding that the budget also covers stakeholder engagement.
An open house will be held sometime in the new year to gather feedback from the community.
While it's still early in the process, the SPC is probing topics like resort and community capacity, land use, guiding metrics and housing, Crompton said.
"The SPC very much takes the Official Community Plan (OCP) and puts it to work," Crompton said.
"There aren't any aspects of the way our community operates that are outside the OCP, so it's intentionally broad."
The OCP, which received third reading on July 23, will be up for adoption sometime in the new year.
"We're closer than we've ever been," Crompton said.
Whistler's SPC consists of Crompton, chief administrator Mike Furey, general manager of resort experience Jan Jansen, director of planning Mike Kirkegaard, members-at-large Emily Amirault, Dave Brownlie, David Dale-Johnson, Robyn Spencer and Dave Williamson, as well as councillors Duane Jackson and Arthur De Jong.
"It's a real privilege to be on that committee. We're very much still at the initiation phase, really trying to determine what our overall objectives or outcomes are that we want from it," De Jong said, adding that the issues at the forefront, in his opinion, are climate change and the impact of changing technology.
"We've been on ... the most significant growth curve ever in the last four years. In reality, in the next 20, we're going to see periods of decline, and I'm just saying it with respect to the cyclical nature of weather and economy and geopolitics," De Jong said.
"So it's twofold for me: How do we ensure that we manage growth well when we have it, but also, how do we build deep resilience for downturns?"
Furey, who will step into a new role as chief of strategic policy and partnerships when a new CAO is hired in 2020, said the key is in understanding the resort's "balanced carrying capacity."
"[It's] a challenging question ... If you hypothetically look at different scenarios, what are the impacts, and the economic model will hopefully understand what those impacts are," he said.
Significant growth—or decline—will have an impact on everything from sewer basics to business to housing demand, Furey said.
With proper data analytics and modelling, the SPC can determine what those impacts are before decisions are made at the council table.
"Once we get through that it will be something like informed thinking and informed consideration," he said.
The $100,000 budgeted for the SPC in 2020, which will cover the cost of consultants, surveys and the like, will be money well spent, the mayor believes.
"It's an investment that really sets the course for the next 10, 20, 30 years as we approach decision-making. It's one of the most critical investments I think we'll make," Crompton said.
"We want to understand what's happening economically, environmentally and socially. So it's a spend that lays the foundation for a lot of work that comes after it."
