Council Roundup from Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Looking to get caught up on the Tuesday, July 9, 2024 Council Meetings? We’ve pulled together some key stories from Committee of the Whole and the Regular Council Meeting, including:
- Whistler Waldorf School lease public comments
- Quarterly 2024 budget update
- Building the 2025 budget
- An update on community engagement
For all the details, you can watch recordings from Committee of the Whole and the Regular Council Meeting on whistler.ca.
A packed house attended council to speak to the decision affecting the Whistler Waldorf School. Photo: RMOW
Lively public comment period for Whistler Waldorf School lease
Community turns out for Whistler Waldorf School
A recent decision to only renew the Whistler Waldorf School lease at Spruce Grove Park until June 30, 2025 drew a packed house to the regular Council meeting held Tuesday, July 9.
Acting Mayor Cathy Jewett, stepping in for Mayor Jack Crompton who declared a conflict-of-interest on the issue, extended the question period from 30 minutes to an hour to accommodate more speakers. Council received 187 letters from the community since the decision was made in a closed meeting on Tuesday, June 25, per Community Charter regulations.
Acting Mayor Jewett noted that Council members could not answer questions regarding decisions made in the Closed Council meeting and were there to listen to the community. The Community Charter deems certain items pertaining to land, legal, and labour be discussed in a closed meeting. She also emphasized that no decisions on this topic would be made during the July 9 meeting.
Speakers included school administrators, board trustees, parents, former students, and others, all of which asked Council to reconsider the decision and extend the lease for more than just one year. Other options for the school were also suggested, including moving it to another site on the property.
The Spruce Grove school site was always intended to be temporary within portable classrooms, but the school’s proponents say they have struggled to raise funds and find land to build a permanent facility within Whistler. Leases for this space have been signed with the Whistler Waldorf School Society for 23 years.
Jewett worked to ensure all those registered to speak had their opportunity.
“We thank everyone for their comments, for their letters. As I mentioned before, we have all of our phone numbers on Whistler.ca, and all of us received phone calls this week. We received all your emails and read them all,” she said.
“We really appreciated hearing from you and all the viewpoints you’ve given tonight. We will take them into consideration.”
Revenues at MPSC were on the rise during the first months of 2024, according to the quarterly budget report. Photo: RMOW/Mirae Campbell
Whistler on budget for 2024
Signs tourism economy is slowing but local economy going strong
Whistler’s Chief Financial Officer, Carlee Price, brought primarily good news forward as she presented the first quarter report for the 2024 fiscal year at the regular Council meeting on July 9.
Revenues for Meadow Park and transit were up, while building permit revenues were down, despite an increase from 94 to 133 permits processed. The lower revenue was attributed to a cost differential between permit types as there were more renovation permits in this quarter and more new builds the year before.
Price noted the growth of parking revenues has slowed as revenues were only up slightly over 2023. Also, the Municipal and Regional District Tax, better known locally as the hotel tax on visitors, was also topping out, with a decline of around three per cent. The poor start to the snow year may have been part of the issue.
“The day skier parking is important to the overall budget because we do use that money to fund transit,” said Price. “When parking rates increase and when parking revenues increase, those rates indirectly benefit our transit system.”
Other factors impacting the budget included slowing inflation, and interest on invested funds that is higher than this time last year, but likely to be lower going forward.
Despite mixed results, Price reported that overall numbers were tracking to the approved 2024 budget. The fiscal year runs from January 1 to December 31, and the financials presented were for the first quarter, which ended March 31, 2024.
As the population of Whistler grows, municipal staff say the cost for the RCMP will as well. Photo: RMOW/Mike Crane
Setting priorities for 2025
Committee of the Whole discusses budget priorities for next year
There is a lot to consider for the 2025 municipal budget, including increasing operational costs, the potential for lower revenues, construction cost inflation, and other budget pressures born from Council’s focus on housing, climate action, community engagement and smart tourism—their strategic priorities for the Council term.
Total revenue is projected to be $89M in the 2024 budget, primarily drawn from property tax, at a projected $52.7 million. Other funding will come in from permits and fees ($9.9M); the provincial tourism programs known as Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT) and the Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) ($8.4M supporting operations); combined transit fares; leases and rent ($3.5M); programs and admissions ($2.7M); investment revenues; grants; water and sewer taxes—and a variety of other smaller sources.
Among the potential changes in expenditures coming in the next five years is a predicted adjustment to the price paid for the municipal RCMP. In the last census, Whistler’s population was measured at just under 14,000, leaving the municipality in a lower payment bracket in the federal funding formula used to assign payment for an RMCP-staffed municipal police force. There is a population threshold set at 15,000. Once over the threshold, Whistler will move from paying 70 per cent of the cost for its force to 90 per cent—or roughly an additional million dollars annually.
One other important consideration which will be a focus for this budget is the need to build reserves and plan for the needs of tomorrow. The budget process will look specifically at future costs for funding Whistler Fire Services, transit (including regional transit to Pemberton), the seasonality of various expenses like parks and trails, the need to reduce permit wait times, ongoing upgrades to the municipal fleet (including investing in electric vehicles), in addition to building the General Fund reserve.
To make the right choices, public feedback on how the municipality should shape the 2025 budget is needed. A survey is online now at Budget 2025 | Engage Whistler. Other opportunities to connect on this work include the Coffee with Council event this fall, as well as additional in-person opportunities to learn about and comment on the budget. Dates will be announced in the coming weeks and months.
“We have to put things on the table for discussion around, ‘well this is something we could cut, or this is something we could bring in to raise revenue,’” said Councillor Jeff Murl. “I think that’s a challenge we have. I guess we have the summer in which to think about it, but that’s something I think we really need to focus on in the engagement.”
Different engagement opportunities are meant to give the community choice in how they engage with the RMOW and council. Photo: RMOW/Oisin McHugh
Building better understanding of local government
Municipality focused on increasing local government literacy, and helping citizens to connect and participate
“At every turn we’ve been trying to give the community choice about how they engage with us,” said Karen Elliott, the General Manager of Community Engagement and Cultural Services in her presentation to Committee of the Whole.
Focusing on community engagement has added a few new initiatives to the calendar this year, including early budget engagement, this Council blog, more robust social media and online engagement, more video, and targeted campaigns for things like the emergency Whistler Alert system. There were several in-person council engagement opportunities too, including a Community Ski Day with Council, Coffee with Council, and the recent Community Conversations check in on the Council Priorities.
While these initiatives were generally well received, there is still more work to do according to Elliott. “We know that people are enjoying a more personal, community-centered approach to our engagement, but we’re probably still missing some demographics. So that will be a combination of more outreach to meet them where they are, but also working with the Engagement Working Group… to understand how we create stronger invitations for more diverse communities to participate.”
Some of the voices Council members said they would like to hear more from include teens and youth in the community. Another group that has been challenging to engage is second homeowners and regulars that have been coming to Whistler for decades.
“I’d really like to see more engagement with the High School, but maybe we need to go to them – and bring pizza,” joked Councillor Jewett.
Mayor Jack Crompton also pointed out that Whistler’s approaching 50th anniversary creates a significant opportunity to engage with the community. “Maybe that’s a Committee of the Whole or two where people can really dig in and share their visions.”
To attend an upcoming meeting, check out the Council Meeting Schedule. Agendas and Minutes are available online. To connect with Council, consider Presenting to Council, or get in touch with them individually by phone or email.
