When the Squamish Adventure Centre is ready for occupancy, the existing Squamish Chamber of Commerce office will be taken over by Canada World Youth (CWY).
Between June 25 and Sept. 12 young people from across Canada and Uruguay will live and work in Squamish under the CWY program.
What happens once the youth exchange organization moves out of the Chamber building remains uncertain as local leaders come up with a plan.
Mayor Ian Sutherland confirmed the future of the building was discussed this week.
Patty Heintzman, the Chamber of Commerce president, said the result of the discussions this week was the decision to allow CWY to use the building as its headquarters for the summer.
"We have staff looking into the possibilities of that building," Sutherland said. "We want to take good advantage of that building."
The Chamber of Commerce owns the building and the DOS owns the land it sits on. Sutherland calls the arrangement unique.
The building located in Squamish Junction Park became a tourist information centre mainly helping Royal Hudson riders when they disembarked from the tourist train.
The current location is no longer serving the community well because the tourist information centre is too far off Hwy. 99. Tourists are used to finding information centres close to main highways and visitor statistics dating back to the last year the Royal Hudson operated show clearly that most of the visitors to the centre were Royal Hudson riders.
The building has significant value as it is one of the only places in the downtown area with public washrooms and there are three rooms inside the building.
"Our intention is to give it back to the community for some community purpose," Heintzman told The Chief. "We don't really know the details of that."
Sutherland also wants the building to be put to a use benefiting the community and he gave a possible example of how it could be used. The mayor said it might make an ideal place for the arts council to make its home.
