Anyone who has ever wanted to put Squamish in the same category as Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, or Ottawa now has some more clout to their argument.
Google Street View, the latest from Google's Map service offers Squamish and Whistler as two of the first 10 Canadian cities featured, alongside eight other cities that all boast populations of near 100,000 people, or more.
The news met a mostly positive reception around Squamish.
Coun. Patricia Heintzman reacted with optimism.
"I think it's pretty wild. I checked out my old house in Montreal...they took down the tree fort!?"
Local realtor and businesswoman Gena Belanger was supportive as well.
"As a realtor, I think it's amazing," she said.
The owner of the clothing store Random, on Cleveland Avenue, Belanger, hadn't yet viewed the service's portrayal of Squamish.
"I hope they did it on a really nice day," she added.
The service features 360 degree views of Squamish from street level, created by high resolution photos stitched together. The photos were taken by vehicles that drove the streets of Squamish this summer. The weather appears to have been quite pleasant during the photo shoot.
Google has seemingly aimed to feature cities with connections to tourism, which, along with the winter Olympics seems to explain Squamish's inclusion. Recently, Banff, Lake Louise and their surrounding area were added as well.
"I was aware that a van drove through town around two months ago, but did not know what it was for until it went live last week and saw it Wednesday," said Heintzman.
Heintzman also added that she had not been contacted by Google, and she was unaware whether or not the company had contacted other councillors or district staff before deciding to feature Squamish.
Neither Heintzman nor Belanger was overly concerned with the privacy concerns that had been voiced in other cities, Vancouver among them.
"[As long as] the face and license plate software is working properly although I've heard that there have been problems with that element of the program," said Heintzman.
Because the program mainly photographs residents in public places, it does not necessarily fall out of line with any B.C. privacy laws.
However, concerns about photos that may show people inside their houses were raised upon its release. Google now aims to blur out all faces and license plates in order to avoid this legal gray area.
All downtown, Industrial park, Brackendale, Garibaldi Highlands, Mamquam, Valleycliffe commercial and residential streets are featured, as well as various other areas, and the Sea to Sky Highway.
The other Canadian cities included in the first group of cities Google has put online are Calgary, Halifax, Quebec City, Kitchener and Waterloo.
"The fact that Squamish is one of these communities is a huge potential boon. It literally and figuratively puts us on the map," Heintzman said.
