Blog

Whistler Blackcomb hopes to open June 29

Opening must align with Phase 3 of B.C.’s Restart Plan

Whistler Blackcomb plans to open on June 29 subject to provincial alignment and progress toward the BC Restart Plan, Phase 3. The Whistler Village Gondola, PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola and Blackcomb Gondola will bring hikers and sightseeing guests up the mountains, and the Whistler Mountain Bike Park will open with the Fitz and Garbanzo zones.…

Whistler’s hair salons adapting to new reality

With fewer clients for the foreseeable future, hair studios reckon with their bottom lines

When COVID-19 forced Sarah Williamson to temporarily close the hair salon she has run out of her Bayshores home since 2012, the news felt like a punch to the teeth.
“I found myself on the floor and I didn’t quite know what happened, because never in the history of hair in my lifetime has there been anything that prevented me from creating income from my career choice,” said Williamson, the owner-operator of Love is in the Hair.…

Whistler businesses want more certainty on financial aid this fall

with no wage-subsidy timeline, resort entrepreneurs don’t know how they’ll weather dead season

whistler business owners are well attuned to the fluctuations in sales that come with navigating the seasonal cycle of any tourist town. But never have resort entrepreneurs had to face the level of uncertainty that the COVID-19 global pandemic has created.…

Mayor’s Task Force members revealed

Council briefs: Library, community centre soft reopening planned for July 2

Village of Pemberton (VOP) Mayor Mike Richman is excited to see what the members of his Mayor’s Task Force on COVID-19 Response and Recovery bring to the table over the next several months. Richman revealed the members of the council committee at the VOP’s regular council meeting, held via Zoom, on June 16.…

Free will astrology for the week of June 18th

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
My Aries friend Lavinia told me, “The fight I’m enjoying most lately is my fight to resist the compulsion to fight.” I invite you to consider adopting that attitude for the foreseeable future.…

Finding our bearings

I really enjoy walking around the Whistler Golf Club course, and if I am honest, I especially love it in spring when bears crop the grass and literally loll around in the patches of dandelions with the type of splendour reserved for Rubenesque paintings. And this spring, with many fewer people around, there were quite a few bears—this has changed now with the course open, of course.…

Letters to the Editor for the week of June 18th

A rational discussion on grizzly bears and habitat Since 1978, I have been watching and awaiting this moment when we as the Sea to Sky community come to face the challenge of living in unison with grizzly bears.…

Travels over water—Part III

In the Age of COVID, all travel is local. New rules being promulgated for air travel seem destined to render it about as appealing as fourth-day turkey dinner leftovers.…

New COVID-19 outbreak at Mission hospital ‘very concerning’

Services at Mission hospital reduced to urgent care only, after outbreak connected to care homes

There has been an outbreak of COVID-19 at a small hospital in Mission that is connected to another outbreak at a care home, says provincial health officer Bonnie Henry. “There have been two new health-care facility outbreaks, at the Mission Memorial Hospital and Tabor Home in Abbotsford,” Henry said in a news release Wednesday.…

B.C. government seeks input on how to spend $1.5 billion for ‘stimulus and recovery’

COVID-19 financially hits young people, women hardest, Horgan said

The B.C. government plans to spend an additional six weeks consulting the public on how to spend $1.5 billion that it has set aside to help with “stimulus and recovery” from the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier John Horgan announced June 17. His government in March announced a $5 billion commitment to meet needs arising from the pandemic, including $3.5 billion that is already being provided to B.C. residents, and businesses.…

Canada buying 140,000 blood tests to begin immunity testing of COVID-19

OTTAWA — Blood samples collected from tens of thousands of Canadians will soon be tested for signs of COVID-19 antibodies as the federal government seeks to learn how many people have already contracted the novel coronavirus. Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said she is excited about the partnership between the national immunity task force and Canada’s blood agencies, Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec.…

Temporary layoffs to become permanent by law

Employers could be forced to pay severance they can’t afford, employment lawyer warns

Any day now, workers who were temporarily laid off due to a state of emergency that shut businesses down will be deemed, by law, to be permanently laid off, whether they or their employers like it or not. The B.C. government needs to amend the Employment Standards Act, and quickly, or it could put both employers and employees in an untenable position, says Ryan Anderson, a lawyer specializing in employment law at Matthews, Dinsdale and Clark LLP.…

Aunt Jemima to be rebranded due to ‘racial stereotype’

“We acknowledge the brand has not progressed enough to appropriately reflect the confidence, warmth and dignity that we would like it to stand for today”

Aunt Jemima, one of the long-time brands of The Quaker Oats Company, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, Inc., has announced it will remove the image of Aunt Jemima from its packaging and change the name of the brand. The company notes that products without the Aunt Jemima image will begin to appear throughout Q4 of 2020.…

Canada loses bid for seat on the United Nations Security Council on first vote

OTTAWA — Canada has lost its bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, losing to Norway and Ireland on the first ballot. Canada’s loss came in the first round of voting Wednesday in a secret ballot of 192 member states of the United Nations General Assembly for two available seats on the council for a two-year term starting next year.…

National parks to open campgrounds for existing reservations next week

OTTAWA — The federal environment minister says Canadians who have campground reservations in some national parks will be allowed to pitch their tents and pull in their trailers starting next week. Jonathan Wilkinson says camping will be allowed as early as Monday at 31 national parks — including Gros Morne in Newfoundland, Banff in Alberta and Kluane in Yukon.…