Huge turnout at candidates meeting

Now more than ever, it appears Whistler voters are taking an interest in what’s going on in their community and how they can affect the future come election day.

In addition to some 31 candidates for mayor and council all promising some sort of change, hundreds of voters packed Millennium Place for Monday’s (Nov. 7) all-candidates meeting hosted by the Whistler Chamber of Commerce.

It was a full house top to bottom, with crowds first filling the theatre, then spilling out into the foyer and down into the lobby.

Among the hot topics of the evening was pay parking, with one young man asking the mayoral hopefuls where they stand.

“I’m not big on taxes, but I do focus on the walk from the parking lot to work,” said the audience member, identified only as Blaine. “Every time I walk past municipal hall and see your cars outside of municipal hall (motioning to Mayor Ken Melamed) it’s kind of a kick in the teeth. So where do you stand on pay parking?”

Melamed, who is running for re-election, responded, saying, “(Pay parking) has been hugely difficult. Nobody likes to pay for parking — not even me,” said Melamed. “When I go to the Village, I park in Lot 4 — I’m not stupid. But at a dollar a day for locals, the decision was clear. We needed to do this to protect the taxpayers. We made these investments, our guests have preferred parking, we have affordable rates.”

Fellow mayoral candidate Ralph Forsyth weighed in, saying, “Am I frustrated? You bet. I rejected this deal because we knew that it was going to create pay parking; I did not want to create pay parking. What we have now is an $11 million bill. There are two ways we (can) address it — raise your taxes or have a user-pay system, and now we’re stuck with a situation I didn’t vote for.”

Another frontrunner for the mayor’s chair, Nancy Wilhelm-Morden, wasn’t having any of it.

“Let’s be clear — Ralph and Ken supported the motion to extend pay parking to Lots 4 and 5,” she said. “Should I be elected, I would make Lot 1 pay and Lots 2 to 5 free. I changed my mind about pay parking when it was decided pay parking revenues were going to get dumped in the revenue fund as another way to grab more cash.”

Other issues raised by voters during the all-candidates session included the municipal budget and the allocation of Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) funds, formerly known as hotel tax money.

“The first thing would be to go through the budget page by page,” said council candidate Jess LaFramboise. “The thing I would do is start to reduce salaries — there are too many people at the hall with six figure salaries.”

Fellow council hopeful Corinne Allison also weighed in. “The expenditure of RMI funds was a good investment but can we do better? I think so,” she said, referring to the free concert series hosted by the municipality this summer. “We need to be conscious that one event might focus on one area in town. I would rather see us working with events, bringing business into Whistler, identifying competitive advantages.”

The issue of transparency in local government was also raised, with local resident Tim Koshul directing a question solely at Melamed about why it seems that the only way to get information from municipal hall is by filing freedom of information (FOI) requests.

“Since I’ve been mayor, the world has changed,” said Melamed. “Access to information has changed in a way that we’re struggling to adapt. Our staff is overwhelmed with FOI requests and it’s a struggle to deal with in a timely manner. There are very strict rules to FOI.

“The fundamental objective is that there’s information that can be used against the municipality. If there is a legal challenge it has to be defended and information has to be controlled. I want to get the information out and find a way to address the needs of our community.”

Later, as the evening wound down, voters mingled with candidates and more than a few left the venue with still more questions to be answered before voting on Nov. 19.

Whistler voters can further engage with the mayoral hopefuls at two upcoming debates. The first, hosted by Whistler is Awesome, is set for Wednesday (Nov. 16) at Maxx Fish from 7 to 9 p.m. Anyone 19 or older is invited to attend and admission is free. Visit www.whistlerisawesome.com for more info.

Then on Nov. 18, on the eve of general voting day, the Rotary Club of Whistler Millennium is hosting a mayor’s debate at Rainbow Theatre. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the debate runs from 7 to 9:15 p.m. Designed to be both informative and entertaining, the session will be moderated by Dave Davenport and DJ Mixmaster Fab will provide some tunes.

The Whistler Forum is also hosting an election-related event on Monday (Nov. 14) at Summit Lodge from 7 to 9 p.m. The session is designed as a collaborative discussion on “multiculturalism, pluralism and diversity in Whistler,” and election candidates are invited to join in the dialogue. All are welcome.