This may be hard to believe but now that Garibaldi at Squamish appears to be a done deal, after nearly two decades of setbacks, Whistler Mayor, Ken Melamed, and a number of officials from the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, claim the proposal is well beyond the scope of what was originally planned and requires considerable more study.
Their main concern is about "the magnitude of the impact a project this size will have in the corridor," and more specifically, transportation, air quality and absorption issues. His Worship claims what was conceived as a ski area is now "a real estate development with a little ski area attached."
Behind all the smoke and mirrors the hidden agenda here is that Garibaldi at Squamish, with its 12,000 acres and 22,000 bed units, will rival Whistler for so called "guest visits." Melamed and his fellow travelers at the SLRD appear to have no serious apprehensions about transforming the Sea to Sky Highway into a four lane, high speed thoroughfare, where pollution spewing traffic will increase tenfold leading up the big show in 2010.
Nor were grave concerns voiced about the massive clear-cut and road-building project in the Callaghan Valley for the Olympic Nordic Centre. And there certainly appears to be no environmental unease about the additional traffic lured up to Whistler by the soon-to-be opened 1,000-acre Symphony Amphitheatre ski area, or the proposed gondola linking the top of Whistler Mountain with its counterpart on Blackcomb.
It may not be a stretch to imagine that up in Brio and Alpine Meadows, and in the Village, the good citizens of Planet Whistler will happily down a double mocha latte in tribute to each upgraded section of highway.
Let's not forget, this is the same municipality that played fast and loose with the Olympic Sledge Hockey Arena. They dawdled, thumb twiddled and basically frittered away the opportunity to have that facility built in the corridor. In the process, they somehow duped the District of Squamish into throwing 50 grand at a futile arena feasibility study.
At the end of the day we need to call a spade a spade. More to the point, let's just call it Melamed's Law: If it's good for Whistler's bottom line just go for it, if it's not, put the kibosh on it. If Planet Whistler has its way, Garibaldi at Squamish is destined to slip into a vastly longer period of hibernation than experienced by the population of black bears hunkered down somewhere in the deep woods up behind Alice Lake.
